The Complete Guide to English Spelling Rules (12 page)

Words ending in
ing
use
more
and
the most:

The English language contains thousands of adjectives of an extremely wide variety and many of them are regionalisms. When in doubt, it is best to use
more
and
the most
.

Note that aweful (“full of awe”) and awful may now be considered two separate words with quite different meanings.

Note that one word that cannot be modified is
unique
. If something is unique, then it is the only one. There are no others. It cannot be
more unique
or
less unique
or even
most unique
. Either it is unique, or it is not.

C
HAPTER 9

Plurals

F
orming the plural in English is usually just a matter of adding an
s
. The interesting part of this rule is the number of exceptions to it.

English has always taken words and changed them, and the changes have almost always been toward a simpler spelling that fits the spelling rules.

Spelling rule #1: To form the plural of most nouns, simply add an
s:

Spelling rule #2: For words ending in
y,
if there is a vowel immediately before the
y,
then simply add the
s:

Spelling rule #3: If there is a consonant immediately before the
y,
change the
y
to
i
and add
es:

Spelling rule #4: If the word ends in one of the sibilants, such as
s, x, z, ch, tch, sh
, and
ss,
we usually add
es:

Spelling rule #5: If the word ends in
f
or
fe
, we usually change the ending to
ves:

Note that a number of words that end in
f
simply add an
s:

Note that the plural of
staff
is
staffs
or
staves,
depending on the meaning.

Note that a few words may be spelled either way. These illustrate regional differences in pronunciation.