The Complete Guide to English Spelling Rules (34 page)

Note that words with a soft
c
or a soft
g
will naturally need the
er
ending to retain the correct sound:

If the word ends in a silent
e
, it will usually take the
er
ending:

Comparative adjectives usually end in
er
.

Spelling rule #3: The vast majority of words ending in
ar
are adjectives:

However, there are about sixty nouns that also end in
ar
:

Note that sometimes the different spelling indicates a different meaning:

A
sailer
is a type of ship, but a
sailor
is a seaman.

A
censer
is for burning incense, but a
censor
is a person.

A
quitter
is a person who quits, but
quittor
is a horse disease.

Lumber
refers to wood, but
lumbar
refers to the spine.

Note that
finger
is an anomaly because the
er
is part of the root word. It also breaks the hard
g
rule.

Some dictionaries offer
adviser
or
advisor
, also
conjurer
or
conjuror
. As these persons are carrying out an action, the ending should be
er.

C
HAPTER 35

Using
y, ry, ary, ery, iry,
ory, ury, yry

T
o the student of English, these seven possible endings must seem enormously confusing. But they do fit into logical patterns. Almost all of these endings are simply variations of the
ry
suffix.

The word emceed is the past tense of emcee, which is formed from an acronym (MC, Master of Ceremonies) and is so new that some writers prefer not to use it.

Spelling rule #1: Most words in this group simply use the root word followed by
ry
. If the word ends in
r
, do not double the
r
:

Spelling rule #2: The silent
e
is often dropped:

And the vowel before the
ry
is often dropped:

Note that most of the words that end in
ary
are adjectives.

But the nouns in the
ary
group are usually complete words:.