With a list of 30 rules, Richa Pant ensures you will no longer have to rely on your spellchecker

Ever felt as if you just can't spell correctly? Well, you're not the only one - everyone has his or her bad spelling days! Here's a compilation of useful tips that can help you become a good speller:

1. This is the best-known spelling rule:
i before e, except after c or when sounded like "ay" as in neighbour and weigh. And except seize and seizure. And also leisure, weird, height, and either, forfeit and neither.

Here are some words that follow the rule:

  • IE words: believe, field, relief
  • CEI words: ceiling, deceit, receive
  • EI words: freight, reign, sleigh

Some exceptions: either, foreign, height, leisure, protein, weird

'CIEN words' are another exception to the rule. These include ancient, efficient, and science.

2. Here's another popular spelling rule:
"Silent e helps a vowel say its name."

This means that when a word ends with a vowel followed by a consonant and then silent e, the vowel has a long sound. That's the difference between rate and rat, hide and hid, and cube and cub.

3. Have you heard the rule -
"When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking?"

It means that when there are two vowels in a row, the first usually has a long sound and the second is silent. That's why it's team, not taem; coat, not caot; and wait, not wiat. This rule will help you in putting vowels in the right order.

4. A good way to understand a word is to break it into syllables. Look for prefixes, suffixes and roots. Practise each short part and then the whole word.
Examples:
dis-ap-pear-ing
tra-di-tion-al

5. You can also make up funny memory aids.
For example, for desert (arid land) or dessert (a sweet treat), remember that with dessert, you would like seconds so there are two s's. Similarly, remember that there's a rat in the middle of 'separate'.

6. Another type of memory aid is to make up a sentence in which the first letter of each word can be used to make the spelling word. The sillier the better - funny sentences can be easier to remember.

  • chili: cats have interesting little ideas
  • physical: please have your strawberry ice cream and lollipops

7. Pronounce words correctly. This can help you avoid some common spelling errors, such as canidate instead of candidate, libary instead of library.

8. Use mnemonics (memorising aids) for tricky words.

  • You hear with your ear.
  • The word here is contained in its opposite there.
  • Villain - a villain is one who lives in a villa.
  • Donkeys, monkeys - there are keys in these animals.
  • The principal is a pal. It's good principle (rule) to tell the truth.

9. There is no word in English ending in -full except full.

  • thankful
  • grateful
  • spoonful

10. Under and over compounds are written as one word.

  • overestimate
  • overrate
  • underestimate
  • underrate

11. Hyphens: the tendency today is to spell most compounds as one word.

  • upstairs
  • lunchroom
  • teenager
  • newsstand
  • textbook

12. The possessive pronouns never take the apostrophe because they are already in the possessive case.

  • its
  • theirs
  • yours
  • hers

13. Verbs in -eed or -ede. There are only three -eed verbs:

  • exceed
  • proceed
  • succeed

14. All others are regularly ede:

  • precede
  • intercede
  • concede

15. Alright is not an established word; use all right.

16. Alot is not one word. The correct form is a lot.

17. Already is acceptable. Note difference from all ready.

  • The boys are already in school.
  • They were all ready when the bus came.

18. Adverbs are usually formed by taking the word as it is and adding - ly to it.

  • occasional - occasionally
  • accidental - accidentally
  • wonderful - wonderfully
  • careful - carefully

19. Lose little e. When -ing comes to stay, little e runs away. (This is why make becomes making and bake becomes baking.)

20. Look out for compound words (words that are made up with two short words fused together);
For example, overrate, handbag, etc.

If you see the word as two, it will help you remember not to miss out any letters, especially in words with double letters.

21. Look out for words with disappearing sounds and log them in your memory;
For example, conference, average, ridge.

22. Watch out for silent letters at the start of words, particularly k (knife), h (herb), and g (gnaw).

23. No English word can be spelt with a 'uv' combination; whenever you hear this sound it will be spelt 'ov'; e.g., uncover, discover.

24. Seven words contain an 'all' sound at the start of the word, but they are all spelt with only one 'l':
although; almighty; altogether; also; almost; already; always.

25. Words that begin with 'ex', followed by a soft 's' sound are spelt 'exc';
e.g., excellent, excerpt, excise.

26. Most words that start with an 'ap' sound are spelt 'app' (with a syllable split between the letters). Exceptions are: apart; apartment; apostrophe; apologise; apology.

27. For words ending in an 'ick' sound; if the word has one syllable, it will end 'ick'; if the word has two or more syllables, it will end in 'ic';
e.g., stick, trick, magic, logic.

28. Words ending in 'chur' are almost always spelt 'ture'; e.g. picture, rapture.

29. Drop the final 'e' when adding a vowel suffix or a 'y'; e.g., starve- starving; believe - believable.

There are a few exceptions, such as 'manageable', peaceable, and 'changeable', as well as other words that contain a soft 'c' or 'g' sound.

Keep the final 'e' when adding a consonant suffix;
e.g., strange - strangely; name - namely.

There are a few exceptions to this rule, for example, argue - argument, true - truth.

30. If there is a vowel before the final 'y' of a word, just add 's' to make it plural; e.g., ploy - ploys, weekday - weekdays. Change other 'y' endings to 'ies' when wanting to make plurals; e.g., army - armies, copy-copies.

Also, don't rely on electronic spellcheckers. They can miss errors - especially when you have used the wrong word but spelt it correctly.

And, most importantly, start reading. By reading different texts and seeing words repeatedly, you will familiarise yourself with difficult words. Soon you'll automatically recognise what looks right and what doesn't.