The Complete Guide to English Spelling Rules (17 page)

In multi-syllable words, the accent must be on the last syllable:

Occasionally there will be an accent shift when a suffix is added to a word. In these cases, the spelling rule must be followed. The words that fit the rule will double the consonant, but those that do not fit the rule will not:

When adding
in
or
un
as prefixes, use only one
n
unless the word starts with an
n:

When adding
mis
or
dis
as a prefix, use only one
s
unless the word starts with an
s:

When adding
ly
to a word that ends in
ic,
use
ally
(two
l
’s):

As a rule of thumb, when in doubt or when the dictionary offers a choice, do not double the consonant.

C
HAPTER 14

Soft and Hard
c

T
here are times when the
c
is soft, as in
city,
and other times when it is hard. as in
cat
. Understanding the rules that govern when the
c
is hard or soft will not only help alleviate some spelling difficulties, but it will also help in pronouncing words correctly. Understanding the rule is absolutely essential when changing the root word in any way, as when we are adding suffixes.

Spelling rule #1: The
c
is soft when it immediately precedes the letters
e, i,
and
y
:

When adding a suffix that starts with
a, o, u,
or a consonant to a word that ends in
ce
, we must retain the silent
e
so that the
c
does not become hard.

When adding a suffix that begins with
e, i,
or
y
to a word that ends in
ce,
we drop the silent
e
because it is not needed to keep the
c
soft:

Note that there are about half a dozen scientific words that begin with the Greek syllable
coe
that do not follow the rule. In these words, the
coe
is pronounced
see:

Spelling rule #2: The
c
is hard when it immediately precedes the letters
a, o,
and
u:

The
c
is hard if it is the final letter of a word or is followed by a consonant.

Spelling rule #3: When adding a suffix that begins with
e, i,
or
y
to a word that ends in hard
c,
we must add
k
to keep the
c
hard: