The Complete Guide to English Spelling Rules (36 page)

But some commonly used words drop the silent
e
:

Words ending in
le
simply change the
e
to a
y
:

Spelling rule #5: Change the
y
to
i
before adding the suffix:

But there is a small group of single-syllable words that do not change the
y
to
i
:

C
HAPTER
37

Using
able
and
ible

T
he spelling rules governing the suffixes
abl
e and
ible
are quite simple if we bear in mind that
ible
is a variant of
able
and is used in only a few cases. These suffixes are mainly used to create adjectives, and there are hundreds of them. When new words are coined, they usually use
able
. When one of these words is changed into another form, the pattern does not change, so we may treat them as a single group.

Spelling rule #1: Add
able
to the whole root word:

Spelling rule #2: If the root does not appear to be a complete word, it will probably take ible:

Spelling rule #3: A large number of root words that end in
s
or
t
use the
ible
ending. Also, words ending in a soft
c
or a soft
g
will also usually use the
ible
ending.

Spelling rule #4: Words ending in a silent
e
usually drop the silent
e
when adding
able
or
ible
, especially when it follows a soft
c
or soft
g
:

Note that there is no commonly used English word that ends in
eible
.

Spelling rule #5: If the root ends in a soft
c
or a soft
g
, it must retain the silent
e
if the suffix is
able
:

But in order to retain the correct sound, a small group of words do not lose the silent
e
: