The Complete Guide to English Spelling Rules (40 page)

Nor are there many words that end in
il.
If we exclude words that contain the diphthongs
oi
and
ai (oil, soil, ail, tail,
etc.), we are left with about three dozen words:

Note that all the words in this group have a single
l
. When a suffix that begins with an
l
is added, it only appears that the
l
has been doubled.

Many dictionaries offer
duffel bag
and
duffle coat
on the same page. Since there are no
fel
words in English, both words should follow the spelling rule—
duffle bag
and
duffle coat.

C
HAPTER
41

Using
ize, ise, yze, yse

T
here are a great number of words that end in these spellings. The spelling rules that govern them are quite clear and there are few anomalies. The
ize
suffix has been in use for about four hundred years. It means
“to become like or resemble”
and is most commonly added to adjectives and nouns to create verbs. Lately, this suffix has become so popular that some experts believe that it is overused. Many writers refuse to use such words as
finalize
or
prioritize
, but these words are now common usage and are in the dictionaries. If they follow the spelling rules and their meaning is clear. they should be accepted.

In American spelling the suffix is almost always
ize
, whereas in British spelling it is often
ise
. However, this is rapidly changing, and the
ize
spelling is now all but universally accepted.

Spelling rule #1: If the ending is an unaccented final syllable, it will probably be a suffix and will be spelled
ize:

Spelling rule #2: If the final syllable is accented, it is probably part of the root and will be spelled
ise
—
surprise
and
revise.
There are, however, a few words in this group that do not accent the final syllable—
chastise
and
clockwise.

Note that
yze
is mainly restricted to scientific terms. Very few commonly used words have this ending:

Curiously enough, the British spell some of these words with
yse
, thereby adding yet another ending for them to worry about, but one less for us in America. There are no commonly used words that end in
yse
.

Only about ten percent of the words in this general category are spelled with
ise,
and these can be divided into a few small groups.

(1) Words based upon the old English word
wise,
meaning either
“intelligence”
or
“direction.”
These words are usually compounds:

(2) Words ending in
vise
or
cise,
which are Latin roots and not suffixes:

(3) A small group of words ending in
rise:

(4) Four words that end in
mise:

(5) Two words that end in
uise
—
guise
and
disguise.

And of course there are always a few words that refuse to fit themselves into any group:

Three of these words are in the process of change. The word
advertise
is now quite often spelled
advertize
. If we are prepared to accept
advert
as a noun, then the verbs
advertize
and
advertizing
are logically correct. The words
franchise
and
merchandise
are nouns. When they are used as verbs, the spelling ought to be
franchize
and
merchandize
.

Note that some words that are spelled with
ize
do not belong in this category because the
ize
is not a true suffix or because it is part of a diphthong: