All Tips & Tricks
Practical spelling strategies for exam candidates, students, and parents — one tip at a time.
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1
SPELLING RULE
I Before E — Except After C
“Receive”, “ceiling”, and “deceit” follow the rule. But watch for exceptions like “weird”, “seize”, and “their” — learn both sides.
2
SPELLING RULE
Drop the E Before Adding -ing
“Make” becomes “making”, “hope” becomes “hoping”. Keep the E when the suffix starts with a consonant: “hopeful”, “careful”.
3
SPELLING RULE
Double the Last Letter After a Short Vowel
“Run” → “running”, “sit” → “sitting”. If the vowel sound is long, don’t double it: “eat” → “eating”, “read” → “reading”.
4
SPELLING RULE
When to Use -tion vs -sion
Use -tion after most consonants: “action”, “mention”. Use -sion after vowels or certain consonants: “decision”, “explosion”.
5
SPELLING RULE
Silent Letters Follow Patterns
K is silent before N (“knife”, “knock”). W is silent before R (“write”, “wrong”). B is silent after M (“climb”, “thumb”).
6
SPELLING RULE
Don't Confuse -able and -ible
If the root is a full word, it’s usually -able: “comfort” → “comfortable”. If not, it’s often -ible: “vis” → “visible”.
7
SPELLING RULE
Change Y to I Before Adding a Suffix
“Happy” → “happiness”, “carry” → “carried”. But if the suffix starts with I, keep the Y: “carry” → “carrying”.
8
SPELLING RULE
Plurals — When to Add -es Instead of -s
Words ending in -s, -sh, -ch, -x, or -z need -es: “buses”, “wishes”, “boxes”. Most other words just add -s.
9
MEMORY TRICK
Use Mnemonics for Tricky Words
“Because — Big Elephants Can Always Understand Small Elephants.” A silly sentence can lock in a word you keep getting wrong.
10
MEMORY TRICK
Say the Word Wrong on Purpose
Pronounce the silent letters out loud: “Wed-NES-day”, “Feb-RU-ary”, “choc-O-late”. Exaggerating helps your brain remember what’s hiding.
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