Spelling rulz!
Jun. 17th, 2005 09:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwynWhat's this? A usage post?! OMG, you might say, that thing I friended this stupid cow for in the first place and that she's completely abandoned doing. But this one is something light and breezy because basically I haven't got the brain power to make something more complex. Spelling rules! The bane of everyone's existence.
I've already addressed the issue of homophones/homonyms/whatever the hell you want to call those words that mix everyone up (your/you're, their/they're/there) and so on, except I can't link to that frackin' post because the memories function isn't working in LJ today, apparently. But most people are also confused by the basic rules of spelling -- making plurals, the whole i before e thing, when to keep an e with a suffix, when not to, that sorta thing.
When we were kids, we got the "I before E, except after C" rule drummed into our heads, but the problem with that is that most of the time they left off the most important part of the equation -- "or when sounded like ay, as in neighbor and weigh." Gosh, that one would have been helpful to know! The other big issue with this little mnemonic, of course, is that it's not bulletproof -- there are a bunch of exceptions, which only serves to confuse people more.
I before E: relieve, believe, sieve (I always spell this wrong, because I have a brain like one, really), niece, fierce and so on
E before I receive, deceive, sleigh, freight, eight, etc.
the annoying exceptions: seize (another one I cannot spell right, because I confuse it with sieve above), either, weird, height, foreign, leisure
This is one place where spellcheckers are definitely recommended -- you won't run into homophone problems with these words for the most part, so if you have trouble, and can't even remember them well enough to look them up, definitely run your spellcheck program to find these. I think, also, that they would be the least likely words (in some cases) to get people on your ass about your bad spelling, simply because most people won't even catch them while reading, nor will most betas. I can't count how much stuff I've read where the author glowingly thanked her fantastic betas, who pretty much missed all the ie combo words, not to mention a lot of other obvious stuff.
But what to do about that stupid E hanging off of certain words, when you change the word in a sentence by adding a suffix? For instance, you've got desire, but then someone desir(e)ing, or gentle and gentl(e)ness -- what do you do with it? the rule for this one (and of course there are exceptions) is that you drop a silent e when you add a suffix that begins with a vowel; keep the final e if the suffix starts with a consonant.
Bodie never thought Doyle was a prude, but he was acting rather prudish with that pole dancer.
The care at that hospital was usually top-notch, but Dr. Carter wasn't very careful with his patients.
Some exceptions to try to remember: changeable, judgment (I have no idea why we spell it without the e in this country, but we do, and it's stupid, but there it is), argument, and truly.
How do you add an -s or -ed to words that end in y? The rule here is that most often, you'll change that -y to an i if it's preceded by a consonant, but not when it's proceeded by a vowel.
For a situation comedy, Friends is pretty good, but I don't usually like comedies.
Crockett knew how to play the drug dealers' games, but this time, they played him.
Proper names are an exception here: if the name ends in y, you wouldn't change it to an -i if you were making a plural: I had a crush on David Cassidy, but that didn't mean I thought all the Cassidys were hot.
Here's one rule that trips me up all the time, and one I'm reluctant to include just because it's ridiculously convoluted: if a final consonant is preceded by a single vowel, and the consonant ends a one-syllable word or a stressed syllable, then you double the consonant when adding a suffix that begins with a vowel. I cannot ever remember how to do occurrence, for instance, because I always have to spell it out in my head -- occur has one r, but occurrence has two. Other examples: Jack would have bet (single-syllable word) that Daniel wasn't a betting man. Wes wasn't afraid to commit (that second syllable is normally stressed) to someone, but right then, he wasn't in a committed relationship. This is a tough one to remember, but you can usually find the answer in a good dictionary. Few people are ever likely to have to take spelling tests, as I do, but if you can get this one right, you're way ahead of me!
So, how do you know when to add just -s to a plural of a regular old noun, or -es? For most things, you'll only need to add an -s: table-tables, computer-computers, TV-TVs, etc. (notice no apostrophe on TVs). But if your noun ends in -s, -sh, -ch, or -x, then you use the -es form: church-churches, ax-axes, wish-wishes, and so on. Words ending in -o tend to trip people up, too, when it comes to making them plural. The rule here is usually to add an just a lil' -s if the o is preceded by a vowel, and -es when it's preceded by a consonant.
I'm making a vid to Holding Out for a Hero with Bodie and Doyle as my heroes.
Video may have killed the radio star, but I'll take videos over radios any day.
The last one that trips people up because they aren't familiar with the rules is how to pluralize hyphenated compound words. Here, you add that plural -s onto the chief word in your compound: One mother-in-law is enough, I don't need two mothers-in-law. This also applies to words like attorneys general, and courts martial -- you're pluralizing the noun (the particular thing or person you're talking about), not the descriptor.
None of these are, as you can tell, simple rules. And rules have a habit of disappearing from our memory when we most need them. But if you're stuck, go for a dictionary or run a spellchecker, and you'll be way ahead of most of the people around you. Foreign spellings of plurals or words like judgement might not show up in a US checker, but most of the rules still apply.
I've already addressed the issue of homophones/homonyms/whatever the hell you want to call those words that mix everyone up (your/you're, their/they're/there) and so on, except I can't link to that frackin' post because the memories function isn't working in LJ today, apparently. But most people are also confused by the basic rules of spelling -- making plurals, the whole i before e thing, when to keep an e with a suffix, when not to, that sorta thing.
When we were kids, we got the "I before E, except after C" rule drummed into our heads, but the problem with that is that most of the time they left off the most important part of the equation -- "or when sounded like ay, as in neighbor and weigh." Gosh, that one would have been helpful to know! The other big issue with this little mnemonic, of course, is that it's not bulletproof -- there are a bunch of exceptions, which only serves to confuse people more.
I before E: relieve, believe, sieve (I always spell this wrong, because I have a brain like one, really), niece, fierce and so on
E before I receive, deceive, sleigh, freight, eight, etc.
the annoying exceptions: seize (another one I cannot spell right, because I confuse it with sieve above), either, weird, height, foreign, leisure
This is one place where spellcheckers are definitely recommended -- you won't run into homophone problems with these words for the most part, so if you have trouble, and can't even remember them well enough to look them up, definitely run your spellcheck program to find these. I think, also, that they would be the least likely words (in some cases) to get people on your ass about your bad spelling, simply because most people won't even catch them while reading, nor will most betas. I can't count how much stuff I've read where the author glowingly thanked her fantastic betas, who pretty much missed all the ie combo words, not to mention a lot of other obvious stuff.
But what to do about that stupid E hanging off of certain words, when you change the word in a sentence by adding a suffix? For instance, you've got desire, but then someone desir(e)ing, or gentle and gentl(e)ness -- what do you do with it? the rule for this one (and of course there are exceptions) is that you drop a silent e when you add a suffix that begins with a vowel; keep the final e if the suffix starts with a consonant.
Bodie never thought Doyle was a prude, but he was acting rather prudish with that pole dancer.
The care at that hospital was usually top-notch, but Dr. Carter wasn't very careful with his patients.
Some exceptions to try to remember: changeable, judgment (I have no idea why we spell it without the e in this country, but we do, and it's stupid, but there it is), argument, and truly.
How do you add an -s or -ed to words that end in y? The rule here is that most often, you'll change that -y to an i if it's preceded by a consonant, but not when it's proceeded by a vowel.
For a situation comedy, Friends is pretty good, but I don't usually like comedies.
Crockett knew how to play the drug dealers' games, but this time, they played him.
Proper names are an exception here: if the name ends in y, you wouldn't change it to an -i if you were making a plural: I had a crush on David Cassidy, but that didn't mean I thought all the Cassidys were hot.
Here's one rule that trips me up all the time, and one I'm reluctant to include just because it's ridiculously convoluted: if a final consonant is preceded by a single vowel, and the consonant ends a one-syllable word or a stressed syllable, then you double the consonant when adding a suffix that begins with a vowel. I cannot ever remember how to do occurrence, for instance, because I always have to spell it out in my head -- occur has one r, but occurrence has two. Other examples: Jack would have bet (single-syllable word) that Daniel wasn't a betting man. Wes wasn't afraid to commit (that second syllable is normally stressed) to someone, but right then, he wasn't in a committed relationship. This is a tough one to remember, but you can usually find the answer in a good dictionary. Few people are ever likely to have to take spelling tests, as I do, but if you can get this one right, you're way ahead of me!
So, how do you know when to add just -s to a plural of a regular old noun, or -es? For most things, you'll only need to add an -s: table-tables, computer-computers, TV-TVs, etc. (notice no apostrophe on TVs). But if your noun ends in -s, -sh, -ch, or -x, then you use the -es form: church-churches, ax-axes, wish-wishes, and so on. Words ending in -o tend to trip people up, too, when it comes to making them plural. The rule here is usually to add an just a lil' -s if the o is preceded by a vowel, and -es when it's preceded by a consonant.
I'm making a vid to Holding Out for a Hero with Bodie and Doyle as my heroes.
Video may have killed the radio star, but I'll take videos over radios any day.
The last one that trips people up because they aren't familiar with the rules is how to pluralize hyphenated compound words. Here, you add that plural -s onto the chief word in your compound: One mother-in-law is enough, I don't need two mothers-in-law. This also applies to words like attorneys general, and courts martial -- you're pluralizing the noun (the particular thing or person you're talking about), not the descriptor.
None of these are, as you can tell, simple rules. And rules have a habit of disappearing from our memory when we most need them. But if you're stuck, go for a dictionary or run a spellchecker, and you'll be way ahead of most of the people around you. Foreign spellings of plurals or words like judgement might not show up in a US checker, but most of the rules still apply.
