5 spelling rules (and exceptions) to improve your English

Hello, lovely students, and welcome back to English with Lucy.

Today, I have prepared a lesson to help you with your spelling.

Now, I love English, obviously.

I've called myself English with Lucy, but

I have to admit, spelling is really frustrating, even for native speakers,

for proficient learners, for lots of people.

Unlike with some other languages,

it isn't always possible to predict how to spell an English word based on how it

sounds, and vice versa.

You can't always predict how to pronounce

an English word based on how it's spelt or written.

However, I do have some good news for you.

English spelling does have a number of

rules and although there are always exceptions, the majority of words do

follow these patterns.

I know that many of us have predictive

text and spell checkers that highlight spelling errors and can help prevent

embarrassing mistakes, but it is still worth dedicating a little bit of time to

learning some spelling rules.

So, I have put together 5 super

helpful tips that will allow you to improve your spelling in no time at all.

You will notice a great improvement in your spelling by the end of this video.

At the end of the video, I have also included a good old-fashioned spelling

test, so you might want a pen or paper with you.

And to help you master some of the key spelling rules, we're going to have a

look at some of today's top news stories.

And disclaimer, the hilarious news

headlines that follow are 100 % not real!

Before we start, I want to remind you

that, as always, I have created a gorgeous free PDF to go with this lesson.

In that PDF, you will find all of the spelling rules that we cover in today's video.

It also contains lots of extra examples to really help you get your head around,

really understand English spelling.

I have also included a list of the most

commonly misspelled words in English.

So, if you really want to take your

spelling to the next level, make sure you download the PDF.

All you have to do is click on the link in the description box, you enter your

name and your email address, you sign up to my mailing list, and the PDF will

arrive directly in your inbox.

After that, you will automatically

receive my free weekly PDFs alongside my news, course updates and offers.

It's a free service and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Okay, let's get started with the lesson.

Let's take a look at the first headline

from today's edition of the absolute best newspaper in the UK, The EWL Gazette.

I was actually reading the first headline as I was drinking my morning cappuccino.

Sip, Sip, hooray! Caffeine receives scientists backing as the espresso route

to higher patient and client satisfaction.

Do you get it?

Sip, Sip, hooray! Instead of Hip, Hip, Hooray!

And espresso route instead of express route.

I love wordplay in English, and you'll often find a lot of similar puns in headlines.

British newspapers love playing with words, and often, the worse the joke or

pun, the better.

This humorous headline illustrates our

first spelling rule, I before E except after C.

I before E except after C.

It rhymes and everything.

This is one of the very first spelling

rules that I learnt at school.

It's really catchy, but what does it mean?

Well, when we write a word with the letters I and E next to each other, we

usually put the I first, and we saw this in the headline with the words patient

and client.

Here are some more common words that

follow this rule.

We have friend, niece, thief and review.

The second part of this rule is except after C.

I before E except after C.

And this means that after the letter C, the order switches and we write EI.

We saw this with the word receive.

C comes first, so I and E switch and it's

EI.

Some more examples are receipt, perceive,

deceit and cealing.

Now, this is English, and  there are always exceptions.

In fact, we saw a couple in the headline with the word caffeine, which is spelt EI.

And the word scientist, which is spelt CIE, even though the rule is I

before E except after C. I'm going to give you some more examples of exceptions

to this rule, and I've also included even more in the PDF that goes with this lesson.

Some really common words that are spelled EI are weird, and this one is an

exception because it's weird.

I always remember it that way.

It doesn't follow the rule because it's weird.

We also have foreign, protein, height and

the one that catches so many people out their.

We also have the names Neil and Keith and

Neil is my husband's middle name and every time I'm filling in a formal or

official document, and I have to write his full name, I have to stop and think when

I write Neil just to double-check because it feels alien to me to put E before I

when I know the rule is I before E,

but Neil is an exception.

Some words that are spelt CIE, we

have society, ancient and efficient, efficient.

Now, that might seem like a lot of exceptions.

Out of all the rules I'm going to teach you today, this is perhaps the one that

has the most exceptions.

If you're ever in doubt, make sure you

double-check in a dictionary.

Let's move on to the second headline that

caught my attention.

Rats dismayed as butterflies declared prettiest creature on subways.

Okay, this one left me a little bit confused.

I've seen quite a few rats on the London Underground, but never any butterflies,

sadly, or maybe happily for the butterflies.

The second spelling rule I want to show

you is this.

If a word ends in a consonant + the

letter Y, we change the Y into I before adding a suffix.

In English, we have five vowels, A, E, I, O and U.

All of the other letters are consonants apart from Y, which can be controversial.

That's not important here.

A suffix is a letter or letters added to

the end of a word to create a new word.

Let's look at one of the nouns in our headline.

Butterfly ends in the consonant L + the letter Y.

So if we want to make the word plural, as we saw in the headline, we need to change

the Y into I before adding the suffix -ES.

Notice how we need to add -ES to form the

plural of this word, not just S on its own.

This is wrong.

This is wrong.

This is correct.

Butterflies, F -L -I -E -S.

We also saw this change with the adjective pretty.

Now, pretty ends in the consonant T plus Y, so the comparative and superlative

forms are prettier and prettiest.

Pretty, prettier, prettiest.

We change the Y to I and then add the suffix.

Here are some more examples.

Lucky + -LY, luckily.

Marry + AGE, marriage.

Try + ED, tried.

Cry + ES, cries.

And party + ES, parties.

Remember, with this rule, we add -ES, not

just S on its own to form the plural and the third-person singular.

Be careful when adding the suffix -ING, ing.

We don't normally like to have two I's

together, so keep the Y when adding -ING.

Fly + -ING, flying, not fleeing.

Try + -ING, trying, not trying.

Now, speaking of I's, don't forget to

keep your eye out for exceptions.

See what I did there?

Yeah, in English, we even have exceptions to exceptions, and one of the most common

is the word skiing, ski + -ING, skiing.

It's natural to want to write skying, but

it's skiing with two I's and this one often catches my students out.

Remember, if a word ends in a vowel + Y, there is no need to change the letter Y.

For example, the words dismay and subway from our headline, both end in a vowel

plus Y, so the Y stays.

Dismay + -ED, dismayed.

Subway + S, subways.

Here are some more examples.

We have jerseys, buys, surveyed, enjoyed.

Please be careful, though.

There are several exceptions, which we can see with some very common AY words,

for example, daily, paid, and said.

Careful with the pronunciation of said,

not said.

Ready for your third headline?

Beginner's luck? Upset judges suspect foul play as spelling bee winner is

spotted checking phone.

Surely, they shouldn't have allowed

phones in the competition.

By the end of today's lesson, you'll be

ready to enter a spelling competition with no cheating necessary, thanks to me.

This headline clearly illustrates our next spelling rule.

When a word ends in a consonant + vowel + consonant pattern, we double the final

consonant before adding a suffix.

Consonant + vowel + consonant is

often shortened to CVC.

We usually do this with one-syllable

words when we add a suffix that begins with a vowel.

Some of the most common suffixes to consider here are -ING, -ED, -ER, -OR, and

-EST. -ING, -ED, -ER, or -EST.

In the headline, we saw the words winner

and spotted.

The base or root forms of both these

words end in a consonant, vowel, consonant, or CVC pattern.

So, the final consonant is doubled when we add a suffix beginning with a vowel.

Win + -ER, winner.

Spot + -ED, spotted.

Some more common examples are bigger, hottest, rubbing, dropped, and chatted.

This rule also applies when adding the suffix -Y.

Mum becomes mummy.

We also have daddy and sunny.

Now, we don't normally double the consonant when we add a suffix that

begins with a consonant, for example, -S or -NESS.

Plan + -S, plans.

Fit + -NESS, fitness.

One T there.

We also often double the final consonant

with words that are stressed on the second syllable, for example, begin, beginner.

Upset, upsetting.

Refer, referral.

We don't usually double the consonant if the word is stressed on the first

syllable, for example, offer, offered.

Visit, visitor.

Open, opening.

Now, there are, of course, exceptions to

this rule.

One important exception is that in

British English, we sometimes double the final L, even when the stress is on the

first syllable.

In American English, a single L is

generally preferred, for example, traveller, labelling, cancelled.

Double L in British English, single L in American English.

We're going to take a look at a few more differences between British and American

spelling a little bit later.

Okay, let's look at our fourth headline,

content creator faces backlash after freely admitting to using pets as writers.

Now, I absolutely swear this isn't me.

I love Diego dearly, but he only ever

provides me with inspiration and snuggles.

Moving swiftly on to explain the rule, we

often drop the final E when we add a suffix beginning with a vowel.

We've already seen some common suffixes that begin with vowels, such as -ER, -EST,

-OR, and -ING.

In this headline, the root word becomes

creator, use becomes using, and write becomes writers.

We don't normally drop the E if the suffix begins with a consonant, for

example, freely, useful, agreement, as always, there are exceptions.

Can you believe it?

Can you believe there are exceptions?

For example, we remove the E from argue to make the noun argument.

Very common spelling mistake there.

Argument, no E.

In fact, argument spelt like that even

looks wrong to me.

I feel like the E should be there, but no.

We also sometimes have alternative spellings to help us tell the difference

between words.

For example, to die, as in the opposite

of to live, and to dye with a Y, as in to colour your hair, or to permanently

change the colour of something.

Dying, dyeing, pronounced in the same way,

spelt differently.

Okay, let's move on to our final and

perhaps most bizarre headline.

Headline number 5: Ape creates new app by

hugging huge hat in bathtub.

What a headline.

Now, I am super excited about rule number 5, because to explain it, we're going

to have to take a brief dive into pronunciation, my favourite topic.

Normally, when a word has a CVC or consonant-vowel-consonant pattern, the

vowel in the middle is pronounced with a short sound.

For example, hat, pet, win, not hug.

If there is a silent E at the end of the word, the vowel sound changes and is

pronounced the same as the letter from the alphabet- A, E, I, O, U.

So, the A in hat becomes the A in hate, the E in pet becomes the E in Pete, the I

in win becomes the I in wine, the O in not becomes the O in note, and the A in

hug becomes the U in huge.

I'm sorry, but how cool is that?

That is the coolest rule ever.

This spelling rule can really help you,

especially if you hear the word before you've ever seen it written.

Now, that's all we've got from the headlines, but I have a couple more tips

I'm going to go through super quickly because they are going to help you make

big improvements to your spelling accuracy.

Extra tip number 1, learn common

consonant clusters.

English is jam-packed with consonant

clusters and a consonant cluster is a group of consonants with no vowel in between.

It's a really good idea to learn how to spell and recognise common clusters like

G HT.

We find this cluster in many irregular

past simple and past participle forms, such as bought, thought, caught and

fought and we also find it in other common words like right, tonight, eight,

and height.

Notice how the letters GH are not

pronounced, they are silent, and this can make spelling these words correctly

particularly challenging.

We have so many silent letters in

English, and I've included some common words with silent letters in the PDF, so

make sure you download it, the link is in the description box.

Knowing those silent letters will help you with your pronunciation accuracy as well.

Extra tip number 2, American or British?

My final tip for you is to be aware of

the differences in American and British spelling.

We've already seen an example of this

with the words which ended in L, travelled, for example, but there are

quite a few more differences that I would like to draw your attention to.

It doesn't really matter which spelling you choose, but you should try to be

consistent, especially if you're taking a formal exam.

Here are some common differences.

Firstly, in American English, most people

tend to drop the U in words that are spelled with the letters O-U-R in

British English, for example, colour, favour, neighbourhood.

Also, in American English, a Z, as we would call it, or a Z, as they call it,

often replaces the S in many words ending in I-S-E in British English, for

example, organise, analyse.

In British English, both spellings are

acceptable, again, just try to be consistent.

In British English, some words that are

spelt with a single L, like skilful, enrol, and fulfil, are spelt with a

I've left some more examples in the PDF

for those of you who are really interested in learning more about the differences.

Right! It is time to see how many of these rules you remember.

Grab a pen and paper.

It is time for a spelling test.

I need you to fill in the gaps or add the suffixes to the words on screen and I

want you to pause the video and take your time.

When you're ready, press play and I will

give you the correct spelling along with the explanation.

Here are your words.

Please pause the video whilst you write

your answers.

Here are the answers.

Receive.

Niece.

Weird.

The rule is I before E, except after C.

Weird is a common exception to the rule because it is weird.

It doesn't follow the rules.

Don't get caught out.

Number 2, ladies, replies, keys

We only change Y into I when we have a

consonant + Y, like with the words lady and reply.

Did you remember to add the -ES after the I?

Key ends in a vowel plus Y, so the Y stays.

Don't forget to share your scores in the comments section and tell me if you got

any wrong which ones you found most difficult.

Number 3, helper, runner, opener.

We double the final consonant in the word run as we have a CVC pattern.

Help ends in VCC, and open is stressed on the first syllable, so we don't double

the consonant.

Number 4, hopeful, careful, hateful.

We only usually drop the E when adding a suffix that begins with a vowel.

Number 5, removal, proposal, reversal.

These words end in a silent E, and we're

adding a suffix that begins with a vowel, so the E is dropped.

Okay, how did you do?

What was your score out of 15?

Please let me know which ones you didn't get right, the ones you got wrong, so I

know what to work on with you in the future.

Don't forget to check out the PDF which

has lots more examples and exceptions for you to study.

The link is there.

I really hope you enjoyed this lesson.

I hope you learnt something.

If you like learning with me here on YouTube,

you will love my B1, B2, and C1 courses.

They are 12-week programmes.

Across the programmes, we teach reading, listening, pronunciation, grammar,

vocabulary, conversation, writing.

They are truly amazing, I have to say so.

Our course students have had the most fantastic results and we're very proud of them.

I'd love you to join them.

If you do want to check out my

programmes, just visit englishwithlucy.com.

I will see you soon for another lesson.