GENERAL RULES FOR SPELLING

1. Words of one syllable ending in f, l, or 8, preceded by a single vowel have the final consonant doubled; as, mill, pass.

EXCEPTIONS. - Clef, if, of, sol, as, gas, has, was, yes, is, his, this, us, thus, pus, plus.

2. Words ending in any other consonant than f, l, or 8, do not double the final letter except in the following: abb, add, ebb, odd, egg, inn, err, burr, purr, butt, buzz, fuzz, and some proper nouns.

3. Monosyllables, and words accented on the last syllable, double the final consonant when preceded by a single vowel, or by a vowel after qu, before a suffix beginning with a vowel.

EXCEPTIONS. X, k, and v are never doubled.

EXCEPTIONS. -- Land & are sometimes doubled when the last syllable is not accented.

4. Words ending in any double letter retain it doubled before a suffix not beginning with the same letter,

EXCEPTIONS. — Fled, sold, told, dwelt, spelt, split, shalt, wilt, blest, and past.

5. Primitive words ending in silent e

(a) Generally drop the e when adding a suffix beginning with a vowel.

(6) Retain the e when preceded by c or g before the suffixes able and ous to preserve the soft sounds of c and g.

е

(c) Retain the e in the derivatives of certain words to preserve the identity of the primitive word; as, hoeing, dyeing

(d) Generally retain the e when adding a suffix beginning with a consonant.

(e) Preceded by dg drop the e in their derivatives, the d preserving the soft sound of g.

(f) Preceded by a vowel, in certain words, drop e before a suffix beginning with a consonant; as, true, truly.

6. Primitive words ending in y, preceded by a consonant, change y into ¿ when adding a suffix beginning with any other letter than i.

EXCEPTIONS. — Pity, piteous; beauty, beauteous; plenty, plenteous; duty, duteous; gassy, gaseous.

EXCEPTIONS. — Most words derived from dry, shy, sly, spry, and wry, retain y. Exception, drier, driest.

EXCEPTIONS. — Before ing, the y is retained to prevent doubling i. Words ending in ie, drop e (Rule 6), change y to i for the same reason.

7. Primitive words ending in y, preceded by a vowel, retain y in their derivatives.

EXCEPTIONS. — Pay, paid ; say, said, saith; gay, gaily; day, daily; lay, laid; slay, slain; stay, staid.

8. Compounds generally retain the spelling of the simple words composing them; as, horseman.

EXCEPTIONS. – In most permanent compounds,

the words full and all drop one l; as, handful; while in others they retain both; as, all-wise.

9. Words compounded but not permanent are connected by a hyphen; as, golden-haired.

Of each of the following derivatives, give the primitive word and the rule for the derivative: chased

gayety praying fleeing hereof all-wise

prettier boiling robber

dryness sealing joyless kissed mileage delaying noiseless eyelet denied

nodded

noticeable shoeing illness lying

skillful woeful dying therefore traveled skating toiling pitiful

traceable slyly shying beginner agreeable lovely freely judgment courageous duly pitying blessing argument seeing supplied wherein chargeable tuneful singeing dropping excellent studied paleness rebelled outrageous awful tying lodgment first-born careful gayest denying changeable erasing joyful biased

headdress wearing freeing changing referring wholly charging tingeing merriment willful admitted stabbing skull-cap quitting nursling useless completing

SIXTH YEAR GRADE