• Spelling English words is easy if you follow the rules and use available resources.can image by studio vision1 from Fotolia.com
  
  English words can be tricky to spell even if you are a native speaker of the language. However, there are general rules you can use to aid in spelling. Most of the spellings of English words follow these rules; although, there are some exceptions. You should be able to correctly spell many English words if you adhere to the general rules, and there are aids available to help you spell the words that are the exceptions to the rules.
  
  

"I" Before "E" Except After "C"

• In words that contain the letters "i" and "e," the "i" will usually come before the "e." Exceptions to this rule include words that contain a "c" directly before the "i" and "e" like "receive." Another is when the "i" and "e" makes an "ay" sound like in "neighbor." In these words, the "e" comes first.
  
  

Drop the Final "E"

• When adding a suffix to a word that ends in a silent "e," you should drop the "e." For example, the word "advance" becomes "advancing." However, if the suffix begins with a consonant you should keep the "e" as in "advancement."
  
  

Change the "Y" to an "I"

• When adding and ending to a word that ends is "y," you should change the "y" to an "i" and add "-es." For example, "try" becomes "tries" and "apply" becomes "applies." However, this rule does not apply to adding the ending "-ing." For example, "cry" will become "crying."
  
  

Double the Final Consonant

• You should double the final consonant when adding an ending that begins with a vowel like "-ing," "-ed" and "-er" when you accent the last syllable of the word, and the word ends with a vowel followed by a consonant. For example, the word "clap" becomes "clapping," and the word "submit" become "submitted." However, the word "hope" will become "hoping" and the word "open" will become "opened" because "hope" ends in a vowel and the accent falls on the first syllable of "open."
  
  

Use Available Resources

• There are always going to be more exceptions to the rules, but there are resources you can use to check the spelling of words. Spell checkers on computers will catch many spelling errors. However, they cannot determine if you are using the wrong word such as "your" instead of "you're." A dictionary is also a valuable resource; use it to look up spellings of words you are unsure of.