Students who are struggling with decoding and spelling will benefit from explicit instruction offered with programs such as PAF. In addition to the six syllable types mentioned here, there are many other rules that help to give organization to the English language. Here are 15 spelling rules as detailed in the PAF program.
Letter Sound Rules
1. When the letter c comes before e, i, or y it makes its soft sound /s/ (city, cellar)
2. When the letter g comes before e,i, or y it makes its soft sound /j/ (gel, ginger)
3. No words end in the letter v or j or i (with the exception of words of foreign origin (i.e. spaghetti)
4. The letter q is always followed by a u and is pronounced /kw/ (queen)
5. The letter y says its consonant sound /y/ (yellow) at the beginning of a word and its vowel sound /ē/ or /ī/ or /ĭ/ in the middle or end of a word (happy, gym)
Types of Silent E
6. The silent (or magic) e changes a short vowel sound into a long vowel sound (bit/bite)
7. Silent e is needed when a word ends in v (live)
8. Silent e is needed to make c or g make its soft sound (dance, change)
9. Silent e is needed on special syllable endings (bubble)
10. Silent e is needed on singular words that end in s (horse)
Short Vowel Rules
11. The consonants I,f,s, and z are doubled after a vowel (fizz, kiss, tell)
12. The sound /k/ is spelled –ck after a short vowel (tick)
13. The sound /j/ is spelled -dge after a short vowel (fudge)
14. The sound /ch/ is spelled –tch after a short vowel
15. In a word with a special syllable ending (bubble) or a root word of two syllables (rabbit), the middle vowel is usually doubled after a short vowel
By Joanna Brown, Reading Specialist
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