The Complete Guide to English Spelling Rules (42 page)

A great number of words that end in
ent
or
ant
do not fit into either category, however, because the ending does not form a suffix:

Just to add to the confusion, we have a group of words that end in
ense:

What is fascinating about this group of
ense
words is that the British spell some of them just the opposite way:

On the eastern side of the Atlantic,
licence
is the noun while the verb is
license
. On the western side of the Atlantic,
license
is used as both noun and verb.

There are times when the different ending gives the word a completely different meaning:

C
HAPTER
44

Using
sy
and
cy

H
undreds of English words end in either
sy
or
cy.
Words ending in
cy
are most common and outnumber the
sy
words by about four to one.

One of the differences between these two endings is the sound. The
cy
has a hard
s
sound while the
sy
is soft. Compare
fancy
and
daisy
.

Spelling rule #1: The suffix
cy
is used to form nouns from root words that end in
t, te, nt,
and
tic:

Spelling rule #2: The
cy
ending may also denote rank, office, or title:

Spelling rule #3: No commonly used verbs end in
cy
. These words will be mostly nouns, but there are a few adjectives which come from roots that end in
c
or
ce
:

Spelling rule #4: The
sy
ending is also used to create nouns or adjectives. The adjectives in this group tend to be informal or diminutive:

A number of words that end in
sy
are medical terms that end in
epsy, opsy,
etc.:

But no commonly used verbs end in
sy.

Needless to say, there are numerous words, both nouns and adjectives, that end in
sy
or
cy
where these endings are not suffixes:

C
HAPTER
45

Using
igh, ough, augh

W
ithout a doubt. the most annoying spellings in the English language are the ancient
igh, ough,
and
augh
. They are thousand-year-old relics that should have vanished centuries ago, but never did. The
gh
sound was once pronounced and can still be heard in the Scottish pronunciation of
loch,
but though the spelling remains, the sound has disappeared from general speech.

A great many popular words contain one of these spellings and there are no rules to help the student. The best we can do is list the most commonly used words according to their various sounds.

Note that the British pronounce
slough
to rhyme with
cow.
In North America, the word
slough
has become two words. When referring to a swamp or mud hole, it is
slue.
When it is used as a verb to describe the removal of a reptile’s skin, or a similar action, it is
sluff
.

(1) The long
i
sound with
igh
: