230
RULE ROOT WORD PRESENT / PLURAL PAST PART. / COMPARATIVE -ING FORM -LY / -ABLE -l travel travels trave
ll ed (GB) trave
ll ing GB) traveled (US) traveling (US) hill
hillier hilly no piano pianos o forego foreg
oe s foregoing
foregoable potato potat oe ssh push pushes pushed pushing pushable
pushier -ss pass passes passed passing passable V. + w narrow
narrower narrowly x fix fix es fixed fixing fixable C + y
(1 S) shy s
hie s s
hie d shying shyly
s hie r C + y
(2 S) happy
hap pie r hap
pil y marry mar
rie s mar
rie d marrying mar ria ble V + y enjoy enjoys enjoyed enjoying enjoyable
-zz jazz jazz
es jazzed jazzing jazzable
jazzier Legend S = syllable (2 S =
two syllables, C = consonant, V = vowel
Notes:
In the table above there are some words that are not in common use
•
(e.g.
gladder, jazzable ), but are simply designed to highlight a spelling rule. Check with your journal whether American or British spelling is required. Ensure
• your spelling is consistently British or American. For more details see http://
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spelling_differences#Simpli fi cation_of_ae_and_oe Some
words can be spelled two ways •
ageing / aging, spelled / spelt, dreamed / dreamt, focussed / focused, focussing / focusing. Some words have a different spelling depending on whether they area noun or verb. Here are some typical examples
imbalance (n,
unbalance vi practicei (n, GB English,
practise (v, GB v + n US.
Many people often use •
-ize and
-ise indifferently.
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