Rule | Examples | |
---|---|---|
final double consonant | drop the last letter, but with –ll only after a short vowel, and with –ss only in monosyllables | add→ad, bill→bil, bluff→bluf, doll→dol, egg→eg, loss→los, glass→glas But all [ɔ:l], roll [rɔul], needless |
ae (æ) and oe (œ) pronounced [ə / ɪ] | use e | aesthetic→esthetic, foetus→fetus, alumnae [ə'lʌmnɪ:] (unchanged) |
bt pronounced [t] | use t | debt→det, doubt→dout |
ch pronounced [k] | drop silent h except before e, i, y | character→caracter, school→scool But chemist, architect, monarchy (unchanged) |
silent and misleading –e | drop the e | are→ar, give→giv, have→hav, were→wer, gone→gon, examine→examin, practise→practis, definite→definit, active→activ, involve→involv, serve→serv, achieve→acheev, leave→leev, freeze→freez, gauze→gauz, sleeve→sleev |
ea pronounced [e] | use e | head→hed |
ea pronounced [ʌ] | use a | heart→hart |
eau and eaux pronounced [ɔu] | use o | bureau→buro |
ei pronounced [ɪ] | use ie | conceit→conciet, deceive→deciev |
–ey pronounced [ɪ] | use -y | chimney→chimny, money→muny |
gh pronounced [f] | use f | cough→cof, laugh→luf, enough→enuf |
gh pronounced [g] | use g | aghast→agast, ghost→gost |
-gm pronounced [m] | use m | apothegm→apothem, paradigm→paradim |
–gue after a consonant, a short vowel or a digraph representing a long vowel or diphthong | drop silent –ue | catalogue→catalog, league→leag, prologue→prolog tongue→tung But not in rogue, vague, a.s.f. |
–ise and –yse pronounced [aɪz] | use –ize | advertise→advertize, analyse→analize, rise→rize |
–mb after a short vowel | use m | bomb→bom, crumb→crum But not after a long vowel as in comb, tomb, a.s.f. |
–oe pronounced [ɔu] | drop silent e, except in inflected forms | foe→fo, hoe→ho foes, hoed (unchanged) |
tho, thru, thoro, burocrat, frate, harth, herse, staf and telegraf
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