Lesson 14 Spelling
You remember in the formation of plurals, we learned that words ending in y change y to i when es is added; as, lady, ladies; baby, babies; dry, dries, etc.
There are several rules concerning words ending in y, knowledge of which will aid us greatly in spelling.
1. Words ending in ie change the ie to y before ing to prevent a confusing number of vowels. For example, die, dying; lie, lying; tie, tying.
2. Words of more than one syllable ending in y preceded by a consonant, change y into i before all suffixes except those beginning with i. For example:
| happy, | happily, | happiness; |
| witty, | wittier, | wittiest; |
| satisfy, | satisfied, | satisfying; |
| envy, | enviable, | envying; |
This exception is made for suffixes beginning with i, the most common of which is ing, to avoid having a confusing number of i’s.
3. Most words ending in y preceded by a vowel retain the y before a suffix. For example:
| destroy, | destroyer, | destroying, |
| buy, | buyer, | buying, |
| essay, | essayed, | essayist. |
The following words are exception to this rule:
laid,
paid,
said,
daily,
staid.
Make as many words as you can out of the words given in this week’s spelling lesson by adding one or more of the following suffixes: er, est, ed, es, ing, ly, ness, ful, ment, al.
Monday
Beauty
Portray
Deny
Rare
Multiply
Tuesday
Mercy
Bury
Obey
Lovely
Envy
Wednesday
Tie
Defy
Study
Decry
Crazy
Thursday
Merry
Silly
Lusty
Imply
Day
Friday
Dismay
Duty
Employ
Satisfy
Pretty
Saturday
Pay
Joy
Journey
Qualify
Sorry