Rule: i before e
Examples: belief, chief, friend, field, fiend, niece
Exceptions: either, foreign, height, leisure
Rule: …except after c
Examples: receive, ceiling
Exceptions: conscience, financier, science, species
Rule: …and in long-a words like neighbor and weigh
Examples: eight, feint, their, vein
Rule: In short-vowel accented syllables that end in a single consonant, double the consonant before adding a suffix that begins with a vowel.
Examples: beginning, mopped, runner, sitting, submitting
Exceptions: boxing, buses (“busses” is also acceptable), circuses, taxes
Rule: There is no doubling if the syllable ends in two consonants, the last syllable is not accented, or the syllable does not have a short vowel.
Examples: asking, curling; focused, opening; seated, waited
Rule: With words or syllables that end in a silent e, drop the e before adding a suffix that begins with a vowel.
Examples: achieving, baking, exciting, riding, surprising
Rule: If the suffix doesn’t start with a vowel, keep the silent e.
Examples: achievement, lately
Exceptions: hoeing, mileage, noticeable, judgment, ninth, truly
Rule: With syllables that end in y, change the y to i before adding a suffix (including the plural -es).
Examples: carries, cities, dries, enviable, ladies, luckiest, beautiful, bountiful
Exceptions: annoyance, babyish
Rule: Keep the final y when it is preceded by a vowel.
Examples: keys, monkeys, plays
Rule: …and when the suffix begins with i, since English words do not typically have two i’s in a row.
Examples: babyish, carrying, marrying
Exceptions: skiing
Rule: When forming the plural of a proper noun, just add -s unless the proper noun ends in ch, s, sh, x, or z.
Examples: Bartons, Blairs, Hubbards, Murphys, Bushes, Collinses, Lynches, Martinezes, Wilcoxes
Rule: When forming plurals of hyphenated nouns, use the plural form of the main word, regardless of where it falls within the word.
Examples: brothers-in-law, clearing-houses, ex-wives, not-for-profits, runners-up, T-shirts
Rule: Add -es to words ending in s, sh, ch, x, or z.
Examples: classes, dishes, couches, quizzes, taxes
Exceptions: epochs, monarchs (ch spelling makes k sound)
Rule: For words ending in a consonant and an o, add -es.
Examples: heroes, potatoes, tomatoes, zeroes
Exceptions: memos, photos, zeros (also acceptable)
Rule: For words ending in a vowel and an o, add -s.
Examples: patios, radios, zoos
Rule: For words ending in f or fe, either change the f to v and add -s or -es or just add -s with no changes.
Examples: knives, leaves OR cuffs, roofs
Rule: Some words have whole word changes for the plural forms.
Examples: children, feet, geese, mice, women
Rule: Some words have the same spellings for singular and plural forms.
Examples: deer, fish, sheep
