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Study Guides index of guidesAmerican
spelling
exercises

My spelling Wobbly.
It's good spelling but it Wobbles,
and the letters get in the wrong places.
 Winnie-the-Pooh A. A. Milne
British, 1926
American spelling rules and exercises:

If a word ends with a silent "e,"
drop the "e" before adding a suffix which begins with a vowel (-ing, -able, -:
Examples:  make--making, makable; time--timing, oblige--obliging.

Do not drop the "e"
when the suffix begins with a consonant:
Examples:  state--statement; like--likeness; use--useful; definite--definitely
Try spelling these:

Practice: 

When "y" is the last letter in a word and the "y" is preceded by a consonant,
change the "y" to "i" before adding any suffix except those beginning with "i"
Examples: beauty--beautiful; fry--fries; hurry--hurried; lady--ladies

When a word ends with a "y" and is preceded by a vowel,
to form the plural of its noun,
or to form the third person singular (he, she, it) of its verb,
add "s"
Examples:  toy--toys; play--plays; monkey--monkeys

Practice
When a one-syllable word ends in a consonant preceded by one vowel,
double the final consonant before adding a suffix which begins with a vowel. 
This is also called the 1-1-1 rule: one syllable, one consonant, one vowel!
Examples: bat--batted, --batting, --batter;  prod--prodded, --prodding
Try spelling these:
13.  bid + ing =
14.  stop + ed =
15.  knit + er =
When a multi-syllable word ends in a consonant preceded by one vowel,
and the final syllable is accented,
the same rule holds true: double the final consonant. 
This is a variation of the preceding rule
Examples:  control--controlled; prefer--preferred; begin--beginning; commit--committed
Try spelling these:
16. patrol + ing =
17. omit + ed =
18. forget + able =
When the final syllable does not have the end-accent,
it is preferred, and in some cases required, that you NOT double the consonant. 
(The preference characterizes American English; British English seems to prefer doubling, though it often allows its omission.  But a number of words disallow doubling in both American and British English.)
Examples:  focus--focused; pardon--pardoned; worship--worshiped; trumpet--trumpeted
Try spelling these:
19. garden + er =
20. limit + ed =
21. market + ing =
Adding suffixes to words ending -ce and -ge
Keep the silent e before -able and -ous
Examples;  enforceable,  serviceable, courageous, outrageous
22. notice + able =
23. courage + ous =
24. change + able =

Write "i" before "e" except after "c," or when sounding like "a" as in "neighbor" and "weigh." When the "ie/ei" combination is not pronounced "ee," it is usually spelled "ei."

Examples: ie

 fiery, friend, mischief, view, believe

Examples: ei

 reign, foreign, weigh, neighbor, weird, receive

Choosing between <-el> <-le> <-ile> <-al> <-il>
Options must be memorized, and no rules apply:

<-le> is more frequent than <-el>:
axle, battle, bottle, tackle, tickle, single, double, triple...
angel, bushel, parcel...

<-al> is common for adjectives and nouns
biblical, burial, genial, habitual...

<-il> is rare
civil

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