The final ‘ie’ changes to ‘y’ before –ing. e.g. die + ing – dying / lie + ing – lying 12th - - Appendix Page . Use of ‘ie’ and ‘ei’ a) When ‘ie’ or ‘ei’ is pronounced like ‘ee’ in ‘bee’, ‘i’ comes before ‘e’ except after ‘c’.
e.g. ‘ie’ – field / achieve / believe ‘ei’ after ‘c’ – receive / deceive / receipt / deceit (Note some exceptions: seize / surfeit / protein) b) This rule does not apply to those words, where the two vowels ‘ei’ are not pronounced like ‘ee’ as in ‘bee’. e.g. height / weight / neighbour / leisure / fiery / friend .
Use of ‘oi’ and ‘oy’ ‘oi’ is used in the middle of a word and ‘oy’ is used at the end of a word. e.g. turmoil, soil, boil / destroy, boy, toy . Use of ‘ou’ and ‘ow’ ‘ou’ is used in the middle of a word, whereas ‘ow’ is used at the end of words, except those that end in letter ‘n’ or letter ‘d’.
e.g. blouse, mount, found / borrow, sorrow . Confusing endings -our, -or, -ar, -er, -re, -able, -ible, -ent, -ant, -ence, -ance, -ceed, -cede are often confusing because there are no rules to decide when to use one or another. We should learn them only through familiarity and by use.
Here is a list of some words with each of these endings. You can recall and add a few more. -ar – beggar, burglar, circular, grammar, particular, popular, regular, scholar, secular -er – adviser, beginner, courier, deliver, explorer, gardener, lecturer, manager, observer, promoter -or - ancestor, bachelor, corridor, director, equator, governor, instructor, monitor, operator, traitor -our – behaviour, endeavour, flavour, rumour, splendour -re – agriculture, atmosphere, literature, millionaire, pressure, temperature, questionnaire -able – acceptable, bearable, comfortable, durable, profitable, respectable, valuable, workable -ible – audible, compatible, divisible, eligible, horrible, possible, responsible, sensible, terrible -ent – adjacent, confident, different, excellent, obedient, intelligent, permanent, resident, sufficient -ant – assistant, brilliant, dominant, elegant, ignorant, important, pleasant, reluctant, triumphant -ceed – exceed, proceed, succeed -cede