Just like choosing the wrong colors to paint a picture of this eye catching cat, the most damaging mistakes a writer can make are probably misspelling or misusing words. Just a few of these errors will make a reader lose confidence in what you’re trying to say.
Here are the basic rules of English spelling and the most commonly misused words.
Spelling It Out
You might remember this spelling rule from your younger years in school:
I before e,
Except after c,
Or when sounded as a,
As in neighbor or weigh.
That’s certainly a helpful rule—most of the time. It works for words such as beige, ceiling, conceive, feign, field, inveigh, obeisance, priest, receive, shield, sleigh, and weight.
But take a look at all these words: ancient, being, caffeine, either, feisty, foreign, height, leisure, protein, reimburse, science, seize, society, sovereign, species, sufficient, and weird.
There are an awful lot of exceptions, aren’t there?
Here are some rules that generally apply to English nouns. Every rule will have an exception (and probably more than one), but these rules will provide you with some useful guidelines. Let's start with:
Forming Plurals of Nouns
1. To form the plural of most English words that don’t end in –s, –z, –x, –sh, –ch, or –ss, add –s at the end:
desk = desks, book = books, cup = cups
2. To form the plural of most English words that end in –s, –z, –x, –sh, –ch, and –ss, add –es at the end:
bus = buses, buzz = buzzes, box = boxes, dish = dishes, church = churches, kiss = kisses
There are some exceptions to this rule that include quizzes, frizzes, and whizzes. (Note that the –z is doubled.)
3. To form the plural of some English words that end in –o, add –es at the end:
potato = potatoes, echo = echoes, hero = heroes, veto = vetoes
To make things interesting, for some other words that end in –o, add only –s at the end:
auto = autos, alto = altos, two = twos, zoo = zoos, piano = pianos, solo = solos
And—just to keep you on your toes—some words ending in –o can form the plural in either way:
buffalo = buffaloes/buffalos, cargo = cargoes/cargos, ghetto = ghettos/ghettoes
4. To form the plural of most English words that end in a consonant plus –y, change the y to i and add –es:
lady = ladies, candy = candies, penny = pennies
5. To form the plural of most English words that end in a vowel plus –y, add –s:
joy = joys, Monday = Mondays, key = keys, buy = buys
6. To form the plural of most English words that end in –f or –fe, change the f to v and add –es:
knife = knives, leaf = leaves, wife = wives, wolf = wolves
Exceptions to this rule include oaf, chef, cliff, belief, tariff, plaintiff, roof, and chief. All simply add –s to form their plural.
7. Some words form their plurals in ways that defy categories:
child = children, mouse = mice, foot = feet, person = people, tooth = teeth, ox = oxen
8. Foreign words, such as those of Greek or Latin origin, often have an irregular plural. In some cases, both the regular and irregular plural forms are acceptable.
alumnus alumni
analysis analyses
focus focuses or foci
index indexes or indices
9. Some words are the same in both singular and plural:
deer, offspring, crossroads, headquarters, cod, series
Coming Up in the Next Post: Adding Prefixes and Suffixes!
Excerpt From: Susan Thurman & Larry Shea. “The Only Grammar Book You'll Ever Need.”
Thanks alot.
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