RULES
1) Every word in the English language has a vowel.
2) ‘Q’ and ‘U’ always go together.
The letter q is always followed by u. The letter q has no sound of its own. Children must
be told that the sound of quis borrowed from letters k and w.
Examples: queen, quick, quiet
3) When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking.
When two vowel letters appear together in a word, usually the first vowel letter produces the
long sound, and the second vowel letter is silent.
Examples: rain, seed, tied, boat and fuel
4) Magic ‘e’
The e at the end of the word does not say a sound itself. The magic ‘e’ hops on one consonant
and changes the sound of the first vowel from a short to a long one.
Examples: A : mat changes to mate
E : met changes to mete
I : rid changes to ride
O : hop changes to hope
U : cut changes to cute.
5) Shy ⏴i>and toughy ⏴y>
The letter i is too shy to stand at the end of a word. Hence the toughy y takes its place. For
example, the word day has a y at the end and not i. The letter i is replaced by y in words like
bunny and joy. Children just need to know that when a y is not the first letter, it often takes the
place of the i and it is then a vowel.
6) Hard <c> (/k/ sound ) and soft <c> (/s/ sound)
When the vowels a, o and u are in the second position in a word, we use the letter c to begin
that word and it usually has the /k/ sound, for example, cat, cot and cut.
1
Exceptions: kangaroo, kurta, karate wherein the word starts with letter k.
However, all these words are not of English origin.
When the vowels e and i are in the second position in a word, we use the letter k
to begin that word, for example, kite and key.
However, if the letter c is followed by the vowels e, i, or y the sound is usually
softened to a /s/ as in the words cite, dice, circus, cycle.
7) The <ck> rule
When a word ends with a /k/ sound and has a short vowel sound before it, the /k/
sound is represented by <ck>
Examples: back, neck, chick, clock, duck
When a word ends with a /k/ sound and has a digraph before it, the /k/ sound is
represented by <k>.
Examples: soak, cheek, took, perk, dark.
8) Hard ‘g’ and soft ‘g’
The sound of letter g is hard or soft depending on the vowel that follows it.
When g meets a, o, or u, it makes a /g/ sound (hard sound).
Examples: gas, gather, goblet, goddess, gum, gutter
When g meets e, i, or y, it makes a /j/ sound (soft sound).
Examples: gel, general, giant, ginger, gypsy
Some exceptions: gift, get, gear
9) The FSZL rule is spelling rule. The letters /f/, /s/, /z/ and /l/ are doubled after
short vowel sound
Examples : off, miss, buzz, hill
Exceptions to this spelling rule : us, bus, gas, if, of, this, yes, plus, nil, pal.
10) The /j/ sound and the /ch/ sound
When the /j/ sound follows a short vowel sound in a word, it is usually spelled as
<dge>
Examples: bridge, fudge, pledge
When the /j/ sound follows a long vowel sound in a word, it is usually spelled as
<ge>
2
Examples: stage, age, huge
When the /ch/ sound follows a short vowel sound in a word, it is usually spelled
as <tch>
Examples: catch, fetch, stitch
11) The digraph ⏴ch>has three sounds- /k/, /sh/ and /ch/.
a) /k/ - school, orchid, stomach
b) /sh/- chef, Chicago, brochure
c) /ch/- coach, chick, channel
12) Pronouncing the letters ‘v’ and ‘w’
While making the sound of v, we bite our lower lip, and while making the sound
of w, our lips form a tight circle like the oo as in boo.
13) No English word ends with ‘v’ (`ve’ is used in such cases).
Examples: give, stove, positive
Exception to this rule is the word spiv.
14) Usually when ‘w’ is before <or>, the sound of <or> is /er/.
Examples: work, word
However there are exceptions to this rule.
Some exceptions: sword, sworn
15) The letter ‘x’ has multiple pronunciations.
X has the following pronunciations:
a) /eks/ as in X-ray, X-mas tree
b) /ks/ as in fox, box
c) /gz/ as in exam , exit
d) /z/ as in xylophone, Xerox
e) / k/ as in excite
f) /ksh/ as in anxious
3
16) When 2 consonants are placed side by side, they have only one sound. i.e
say the consonant sound only once.
Examples : egg, jazz, bell
17) One vowel followed by two same consonants in a row will result in the
vowel producing a short sound.
Examples : pull, dinner, summer
18) Sounds of ⏴ou>
a) /ow/ as in found
about, house, shout, mouse, count, loud, sound, hound
b) long o as in four
pour, course, court, mourn, fourth
c) /oo/ as in you
group, soup, youth, could, would, should
d) /uh/ as in country
cousin, double, young
18) Different sounds of ‘ough’
The ough occurs in many words, but it does not always sound the same.
The different sounds of ough are as follows:
a) though (like o in go)
b) through (like oo in too)
c) cough (like off in offer)
d) rough (like uff in suffer)
e) plough (like ow in flower)
f) ought (like aw in saw)
4
20)Doubling rule
In case of CVC words, the last consonant doubles whenever the following
suffixes are added to them:
ing, ed, er, est
bat – batting
jot - jotted
run – runner
wet - wettest
If the last consonant is w, x, or y, it does not double.
bow - bowed and not bowwed
tax - taxed and not taxxed
pay - payer and not payyer
5
ALTERNATIVE VOWEL SPELLINGS
Alternative ways in which some of the vowel sounds can be written have been
mentioned in the table below:
Long /a/ ai rain, pain, gain
a_e make, cake, take
ay bay, day, hay
ei vein, beige, veil
eigh weight, eight, neigh
Long /e/ ee seek, week, meet
e_e these, delete, compete
ea each, beat, seat
Long /i/ ie tie, fries, pie
i_e like, bike, pile
y dry, shy, why
igh sight, might, right
6
Long /o/ oa boat, throat, coal
o_e rope, hope, home
ow snow, flow, crow
oe toe, foe, hoe
Long /u/ ue argue, tissue, issue
u_e use, tube, perfume
ew few, new, nephew
Little /oo/ oo look, cook, took
u pull, put, bull
Long /oo/ oo moon, soon, wool
ue clue, sue, blue
ew flew, drew, chew
u_e June, rule, flute
/er/ er water, brother, silver
ir girl, dirt, sir
ur
fur, curl, church
/or/ or short, north, forty
au fault, August, pause
aw paw, jaw, raw
al talk, chalk, walk
7
/oi/ oi soil, coil, voice
oy joy, boy, toy
/ou/ ou out, house, round
ow how, now, cow
