A. Vowels

1. When there is only one vowel in a word, it usually says its short sound. man, den, pig, mop, dug

2. When there are two vowels in a word, the first vowel is usually long and the second
vowel is silent. make, seat, time, boat, cute

B. Basic Spelling Rules

1. I comes before ‘e’ except after ‘c’ or when sounding like ‘ay’ as in neighbor and weigh.
Exceptions: caffeine, codeine, counterfeit, either, foreign, forfeit, height, leisure, neither, protein,
seize, seizure their, weird.

2. A /k/ sound at the end of a one syllable word with a short vowel is usually spelled with a ‘ck’ letter
combination. pack, deck, kick, clock, duck

3. When ‘c’ comes before ‘e, i, and y,’ it usually has a soft /s/ sound. cent, city, cycle

4. When ‘c’ comes before ‘a, o, and u,’ it usually has a hard sound of /k/. can, cot, cup

5. When ‘g’ comes before ‘e, i, and y,’ it usually has a soft sound of /j/. gentle, gin, gym

6. When ‘g’ comes before ‘a, o, and u,’ it usually has a hard sound. game, got, gum