Guide to English spelling
Many Mums and Dads are dealing with the same problem - helping their kids master English spelling, so a few bits of information first to help you know where you are.
Kids learn to speak from their parents, usually without any formal instruction. But when it comes to reading and writing, the child needs time in learning to associate letters of the alphabet with particular sounds. We try to start them off but expect school to finish the process. Without this skill, used easily and competently, your child won't be able to master other subjects, such as maths, geography, science - the list is endless. But sometimes our children seem to be struggling even when they have long since entered the school gates. How can we help them? The Spelling Society has issued this short booklet to give you some tips.
Your child will no doubt be exposed to US practice, but in this booklet we assume British rather than American spellings. The rules that we identify are on the whole applicable to both systems.
With a few exceptions, such as Chinese and Japanese, most modern languages adopt the alphabetical principle for their writing systems. That means that a letter or letter combination stands for a particular sound. In certain languages such as Spanish and Italian, we can usually predict the pronunciation of a word from seeing the spelling as well as predict the spelling of a word from hearing it pronounced (so called "two way phonemicity"). With most other languages you can at least predict the pronunciation from the spelling, even if the sound can be represented in more than one way (eg French).
Unfortunately, good old English, for all its many pluses (one gender, simple plurals, few inflexions etc) suffers from a "double whammy" when it comes to spelling — not merely can't you predict spelling from pronunciation but you can't always predict pronunciation from spelling. This is because English has many different ways of representing the same sound AND has some letter combinations as well that can represent more than one sound. Understanding this fundamental problem will help you to understand the difficulties your child may be facing – as indeed you probably did in your youth!
Most children in the English Speaking World do eventually learn to master spelling more or less satisfactorily. But they tend to take up to three years longer to complete this process than those speaking other languages (at massive cost to the educational budget and therefore the taxpayer), and an unacceptably high proportion (about 23%) never master the process at all causing all kind of social problems. Of course we don't want our child to be one of these, do we – which is why the Spelling Society has caused this booklet to be published.
Various teaching methods have been tried over the years to help children master English spelling and to cope with the fact that ours is one of the most irregular of modern spelling systems. The chances are that the method used in your child’s school will be based on synthetic phonics, because this is the Government’s present preferred method. It is thought to be particularly useful for children at the earliest stages of reading and is based on teaching the child to put together different sound / character patterns to assemble simple words. The method has had some success when matched by adequate teaching resources, but, like all other methods, it can’t overcome the amount of memorisation required for irregularities.
The suggestions in this booklet are not intended to cut across synthetic phonics or any other method – they are rather intended to be a supplement, to help the child who is not at the earliest stage of learning to read and write, but is nevertheless having difficulty with spelling. Essentially the approach in this booklet is more analytic, based on the rules of English spelling and distinguishing the reliable from the unreliable.
The Sounds Made by 21 Consonants
Letter(s) Sounds represented
b bat
c cat, city
ch choke, chemistry, chef
d dog
f fog,
g gold, gin
h hat, who
j jam,
k king
l lemon
m man
n nuts
p pat
ph pheasant
ps psychology
qu queen
r ran
s slam, please,
sh shed,
t tin
th thing, that
v van
w wand
wh when
x execute, exactly, xylophone
y yak, fairy, why, dysfunction
z zebra,
Letter(s) Sounds represented
p pat
ph pheasant
ps psychology
qu queen
r ran
s slam, please,
sh shed,
t tin
th thing, that Letter(s) Sounds represented
v van x execute, exactly, xylophone
w wand y yak, fairy, why, dysfunction
wh when z zebra,
Despite the “double whammy” described above, English spelling does have a number of underlying rules and some of them are fairly reliable and helpful. If they were applied consistently, English spelling would be a lot easier. Unfortunately, for reasons that are too long and complicated to discuss in this booklet, English spelling breaks its own rules with depressing frequency, and it is these breaches, together with a fair number of common words spelled quite eccentrically, that cause most of the problems. What we are going to do in this booklet is to set out these rules, and offer some help for dealing with instances where they appear to be broken.
This booklet is not a magic bullet to teach English spelling at one fell swoop. Many have sought such a cure, but our spelling system is too irregular for any such teaching method to offer more than limited help. A major feat of memorisation is required of anyone tackling English spelling, whatever aids and short cuts they use. Nevertheless we hope that this publication will make it easier for you to help your children to overcome their spelling problems. Essentially we are going to define rules that can usually be relied on and show how to ease the task of coping with exceptions and irregularities. This in turn will reduce the amount of memorisation required: if a word can be brought within a rule, then you don’t have to learn it on its own as an irregular.
(a) The letters in normal font can only represent one sound, thus: bat, den, fog, hill, jam, lane, pin,pheasant, psychiatry, queen, run, sham, tumble, van, win, why, zebra.
(b) ph (derived from the Greek Ф) is pronounced as an f (pheasant). Exception: the boy’s name Stephen (when not spelled Steven), and in some compounds such as uphold, upholstery, haphazard, uphill
(c) ps (derived from the Greek letter Ψ) is pronounced as “ss” (psycho”).
(d) q is always followed by a u and represents the sound “kw” (queen), except at the end of a word when it represents the sound “k” – eg cheque, or in isolation: Iraq.
(e) wh represents essentially the same sound as in w – except in certain dialects that pronounce it as a “hw”. Exception – who (pronounced hoo.)
The letters in italics can represent more than one sound:
(a) c usually represents the sound “k” as in king. But it can also represent the sound “ss” when followed by an e, i, or y. Thus cede, city, cyber. The combination sc usually follows the same rules eg scene, scythe, scatter. A double cc usually represents the sound “k” (eg tobacco), Exceptions: accede, accept etc.
(b) ch usually represents the sound in “chop”. But it can also represent the sounds in “chemistry” and “chef” respectively. TIP: There are no easy rules for deciding which sound is represented. The best one can say is that the ch sound is the usual one, the k sound usually occurs in words of Greek origin and the sh sound in words of French origin. If it looks scientific, it is probably one of the former – if it’s about cookery one of the latter! The combination sch usually stands for the sound “sk” (eg school).
(c) g usually represents the sound as in “goat”, “gobble”, “grasp” etc. It often stands for the sound in “jam” when followed by e, i, or y (eg gem, ginger, gyro). When a u follows a g it means that the sound is hard not soft – as in guess, guide, guild, guilt). Exceptions: get, gelding, gaol (if not spelled jail), gild (golden), girder, girl, (h)anger.
(d) s usually represents the hissing sound in sun, simple, snatch etc. It represents the sound z when coming between vowels and at the end of words. Thus wise, easier, represent, his, pans, goes. (Exceptions: this, house, mouse etc).A double ss is often used at the end of words to show that the sound is not a z (eg miss, hiss, mass, kiss).
(e) The letter z can also be used where -se would otherwise be acceptable: eg amaze).
(f) th can represent two sounds: in thin and in this. There are some rules to help. Treat the “normal” sound as in thin. The other sound occurs: (i) before –er (eg brother, lather, whether, other, wither. Exception: ether; (ii) at the end of a word before an e (eg breathe, seethe). AND (iii) in a number of common words that just have to be learnt: the, this, that, these, those, than, then, there, thus, with.
(g) x has three basic sounds. It represents “ks” when stressed, or before a consonant (eg execute, axe, extreme). It represents the sound “gz” when unstressed and before a vowel example, example, exonerate).When an x comes at the beginning of a word (usually of Greek origin) it is pronounced as a z (xylophone).
(h) y has four sounds and is a vowel as well as a consonant. At the beginning of a word it is consonant and represents the sound as in “yellow”. In all other cases it is a vowel. At the end of a word when unstressed it represents the sound as in fairy (turning to ie in the plural or in the past tense – fairies, carried). When stressed other than at the beginning of a word it usually represents the sound as in cyber, dye, my, why etc. When unstressed other than at the end of a word it can represent “i” as in dysfunctional, dystopia. Exception: beyond.
Other ways of representing consonant sounds.
(a) The combinations –tion, –ssion, -cian and –cean all represent the sound like “shun” at the end of words such as nation, mission, politician, ocean.
(b) The combinations –sion and –sure after a vowel represent a sound found in words such as lesion, adhesion, leisure, pleasure, measure (BUT expulsion).
(c) Endings such as -ace, -ece, -ice, -oce –uce produce the same hissing sound as s (eg police)
(c) g usually represents the sound as in “goat”, “gobble”, “grasp” etc. It often stands for the sound in “jam” when followed by e, i, or y (eg gem, ginger, gyro). When a u follows a g it means that the sound is hard not soft – as in guess, guide, guild, guilt). Exceptions: get, gelding, gaol (if not spelled jail), gild (golden), girder, girl, (h)anger.
(d) s usually represents the hissing sound in sun, simple, snatch etc. It represents the sound z when coming between vowels and at the end of words. Thus wise, easier, represent, his, pans, goes. (Exceptions: this, house, mouse etc).A double ss is often used at the end of words to show that the sound is not a z (eg miss, hiss, mass, kiss).
(e) The letter z can also be used where -se would otherwise be acceptable: eg amaze).
(f) th can represent two sounds: in thin and in this. There are some rules to help. Treat the “normal” sound as in thin. The other sound occurs: (i) before –er (eg brother, lather, whether, other, wither. Exception: ether; (ii) at the end of a word before an e (eg breathe, seethe). AND (iii) in a number of common words that just have to be learnt: the, this, that, these, those, than, then, there, thus, with.
(g) x has three basic sounds. It represents “ks” when stressed, or before a consonant (eg execute, axe, extreme). It represents the sound “gz” when unstressed and before a vowel example, example, exonerate).When an x comes at the beginning of a word (usually of Greek origin) it is pronounced as a z (xylophone).
(h) y has four sounds and is a vowel as well as a consonant. At the beginning of a word it is consonant and represents the sound as in “yellow”. In all other cases it is a vowel. At the end of a word when unstressed it represents the sound as in fairy (turning to ie in the plural or in the past tense – fairies, carried). When stressed other than at the beginning of a word it usually represents the sound as in cyber, dye, my, why etc. When unstressed other than at the end of a word it can represent “i” as in dysfunctional, dystopia. Exception: beyond.
Other ways of representing consonant sounds.
(a) The combinations –tion, –ssion, -cian and –cean all represent the sound like “shun” at the end of words such as nation, mission, politician, ocean.
(b) The combinations –sion and –sure after a vowel represent a sound found in words such as lesion, adhesion, leisure, pleasure, measure (BUT expulsion).
(c) Endings such as -ace, -ece, -ice, -oce –uce produce the same hissing sound as s (eg police)
English spelling is full of redundant letters. They were probably retained long after they ceased to be pronounced to distinguish the meaning of words that sound alike (homonyms) but others have no useful purpose whatsoever. Common ones: answer, dumb, gnash, gnome, knife, plumber, wrong – in fact in any word beginning with gn, kn or wr, the first letter is almost certainly silent.
There are many redundant e’s at the end of words such as: are, have, give, were etc. These mislead because they do not act as Magic E, indeed they do not alter the pronunciation of the word at all. Generally words with redundant letters just have to be memorised. BUT note the tips shown in the following paragraphs.
Where a verb ends with a “d” sound in the past tense (technical term: a weak verb), add an –ed rather than a single d (loved, pushed, picked). The e is of course redundant (except in verbs ending in d or t (eg folded, batted), but if you remember this rule, then it removes one category of redundant letters you would otherwise have to memorise!
Any word with a short vowel ending in the “v” sound will also have a redundant e (have, give, glove, live, love, shove etc.) BUT where the vowel is long, the e is not redundant: live (adjective), wives, rave, etc.
Some words just can’t be brought within any rules and have to be memorised. They include some very common ones – shown in italics.
Numbers:
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, seventy, eighty, ninety, hundred, thousand, million; first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth, sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth, nineteenth, twentieth etc.
Days of the Week:
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday (Tuesday and Thursday can probably be treated as regular on the basis that they are formerly two words: Thor’s day and Freia’s day!)
Months of the year:
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, September, October, November, December.
Seasons:
Spring, summer, autumn, winter.
It’s difficult enough predicting the pronunciation from English spelling, let alone the other way round. English is a million miles away from the “two way phonemicity” of easy spelling systems such as Spanish or Italian. However, there are a few cases where you can make reasonably firm predictions:
(a) Many consonant sounds can only be represented by one letter, so when you hear that sound you know which letter will represent it: big, dog, gun, hit, lack, me, no, pin, queen, run, toe, vine, zebra.
(b) The short vowel sounds can normally be represented by one vowel only: cat, bet, bit, sock, run.
(c) The long vowel sound “oi” can only be represented by that combination, or by oy before a vowel or at the end of a word (eg boy, royal).
(d) The sound in “found” can only be represented by that combination, or by ow at the end of a word or before a vowel or an –n: proud, town, cow, tower).
(e) The “kw” sound will almost always be represented by a qu, except in words of foreign origin.
(f) The “k” sound at the end of a word is usually spelled with a “ck” as in thick, crack, fleck (exceptions, romantic, pacific etc). Also when the sound is followed by an e,i or y (cricket, sticky, lucky).
(g) The “k” sound followed by e, i, or y must always be represented by a k (keen, kitten, frisky).
(h) The “j” sound at the beginning of a word (unless g) is usually a single j (jam, jingle, jerry). At the end of a word it is usually spelled with a –dge as in cadge, judge, fudge, kedge, hedge, etc. Exceptions after an n (eg range, flange), also privilege.
(i) With some exceptions, the sound “ch” becomes “tch” when following a short vowel (switch, glitch) but remains as “ch” following any other vowel (approach).
(j) The Daft Rascal - Americans and British pronounce quite a lot of words differently, although these differences are usually consistent, so we still understand each other (just, in some cases!).One particular difference is the words illustrated in the following sentence:
“The daft rascal pranced and gasped when I showed my last staff pass.”
The words in question are spelled with a single a – which is pronounced as short throughout most of the English Speaking World, including the USA and many English regional accents (try saying the sentence in Yorkshire or Lancashire!). But British Received Pronunciation (aka BBC English), pronounces them as if the a were an “aa” as in bazaar. If you use that pronunciation, it will help you to remember the spelling if you note that the combinations underlined usually fall into this pattern (eg aft, asc, ans, asp, ast, aff, ass).
(k) Remember the advice about –ed in the past tense and words ending in the v sound.
It will probably take you quite a while to take in and remember all the rules and sub-rules of English spelling and to come to terms with just how many irregularities to be memorised there are. If, however, having read so far you think that the rules outlined are moderately helpful and that they and the various tips will reduce the number of irregularities to be learnt, we have the following suggestions as to how you get it over to your kids.
(i) Get a good dictionary. It’ll save arguments!
(ii) Start with the consonants first, explaining which are the ones that have totally predictable sounds.
(iii) Go through the consonants that can represent more than one sound. Explain the rules that can usually be relied on, eg c, sc, g, th, x, & y; be prepared to spend a little more time on ch, and s; take some time to deal with the exceptions.
(iv) Go on to the vowels. Start by getting your child to recognise that the sounds in the second column are the regular way of representing the letters in the first column.
(v) Go to the third column and get your child to recognise the less frequent ways of representing the sound (eg –ign, -ild, -old, -aste, etc).
(vi) Spend some time going through the tricky vowel combinations which can represent more than one sound. Get your child to recognise what is the regular representation of the letter combination (as we define it in this booklet) before dealing with other sounds that these combinations can represent.
(vii) Explain the magic e and doubling rules in principle.
(viii) Explain the tips that help to reduce the number of exceptions that have to be learnt to the above.
(ix) Draw up a list of common irregular words that just have to be learnt and get the child to memorise them gradually.
As an additional aid, you can go through texts that your child has to learn and mark the relevant letter combinations with a red, blue or brown pencil as appropriate – if it’s a school text book, copy the page in whichever way seems best and colour the copy! Alternately, use a normal pencil to strike out letters that are redundant, (including those that should not be doubled), add a dot above letters that are not doubled when they should be, and underline irregular words or the elements in them that don’t follow the rules.
If you have got to this stage, you will realise just how irregular English spelling is and how (despite all the rules and tips we have included in this booklet) your child has a major task of memorisation. As we have said, the English speaking child takes up to three years longer to learn to read and write proficiently compared with those whose maternal tongue is another language. And adult illiteracy is stubbornly high in the English Speaking World; it is not simply a characteristic of the British education system.
While we do not advocate any particular alternative spelling system at the moment, the Society is trying to making people aware of the economic and social costs of traditional English spelling in the hope when people fully realise the extent of these costs, they will be more open to the desirability of change to something less irregular and more predictable, so that English speakers may enjoy the benefits of those languages which have developed less eccentrically. Perhaps having read this booklet, you too may be more open to change!
