The Complete Guide to English Spelling Rules (21 page)

When adding
ous,
most words change the
y
to
i
, but there is a large group that changes
y
to
e
. There appears to be no discernible reason for this anomaly.

But

Note that if the
y
has the long
i
sound, then it must be retained when adding
ly
or
ness
in order to keep the long
i
sound, even if it is preceded by a consonant:

Words ending in
ay
usually obey the
ay-ai
spelling rule:

Note that, apparently just to be contrary, the English language contains some words that sometimes reverse the process and change the
ie
to
y
. This apparent anomaly is necessary to avoid the occurrence of three vowels in a row, which is extremely rare in English.

In the case of the word
money
, some dictionaries offer the choice of
moneys
or
monies
and
moneyed
or
monied
. Since the
y
is preceded by a vowel, there is no reason to change the
y
to
i
and thus no logical reason to break the rule.

C
HAPTER 18

Using
qu
Plus a Vowel

I
t is quite common to hear English spelling rules dismissed as either nonexistent or so riddled with exceptions that they are useless. This is not true. There is a large number of rules, but most of them are clear and logical, and most of them are valid rules. That is, they apply to such a high percentage of words in their particular category that there are few, if any, exceptions or anomalies. The
q
rule is valid one hundred percent of the time.

Note that mathematicians and computer experts sometimes argue among themselves regarding the word gigabyte. Since it does not come from the English word gigantic but from the Greek word gigas (“giant”), it is properly pronounced with two hard g’s.

Spelling rule: In English spelling, the
q
may not stand alone. Excluding names, the
q
must always be followed by
u
and a vowel. There are no exceptions.

Note that our names are excluded because we may spell our names any way we wish. The names of foreign countries and cities, especially those that use a different alphabet, are often spelled with just a
q
:

A thousand years ago, the Anglo Saxons did not use the
q
. They used
cw
. Since there was no
k
, the
c
had a hard sound.
Cwen
is now
queen. Cwic
is now
quick.
The change in spelling occurred during the Norman French period, and today no commonly used English word begins with
cw.
The only such word in most dictionaries is a Welsh word,
cwm
, which is pronounced
kum.

Note that although the
qu
produces the
kw
sound, there are only two words in most dictionaries that begin with
kw
, both recently borrowed words: