The Complete Guide to English Spelling Rules (43 page)

Note that
height
and
sleight
are the only commonly used words that use the
ei
spelling.

(2) The f sound with augh and ough:

Note that
laugh
and
draught
are the only commonly used words that use the
au
spelling, and
draught
has now been largely replaced by
draft.

(3) The long
u
sound with
ough
—
through
and
slough.

(4) The
ow
sound with
ough
:

(5) The
oh
sound with
ough:

(6) The
aw
sound with
ough
:

(7) The
aw
sound with
augh
:

Note
nought
or
naught.
The
nought
spelling is preferable.

Note also that
aught
and
ought
have different meanings.

(8) The
ay
sound with
eigh
and
aigh:

Note that
straight
is the only word in this group that uses the
ai
spelling.

There are additional words that contain the gh spelling:

Note that the Indian word
dingi
later gained an unnecessary
h.
The words
ghost, ghastly,
and
aghast
were originally spelled
goost, gastly,
and
agast.

Fortunately, some changes are slowly beginning to appear. The
h
has been dropped from three of the nine words listed above:

In the
igh
group, the spellings
brite, flite, lite,
and
nite
are now widely used in advertizing and in trade names. In time, this spelling will be in general use.

N
OTES:

(1)   In the
ough
group, the new spellings
tho, altho,
and
thoro
are now minimally acceptable and often used.

(2)   
Boro
in place of
borough
is quite common in placenames.

(3)   
Doughnut
is almost always spelled
donut.

(4)   
Beseeched
is now more commonly used than
besought
.

(5)   The spelling
thru
is quite popular. It is widely used on road signs and in the transportation industry and on restaurants that offer a
“drive-thru.”
Although it has been around for over one hundred years, it has not yet been fully accepted.

(6)   The word
plough
has been replaced by
plow.

(7)   The awkward word
drought
is pronounced in a number of interesting ways. The most common are
drout
and
drouth.

(8)   In the
f
group, the board game of draughts is called checkers in North America and the word
draught
is now spelled
draft.

C
HAPTER 46

Using
f, ff, ph, gh

T
he
f
sound can be produced in four different ways, but by far the most common is the single
f
, which can be found at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end of a word. Only about sixty words end in a single
f
. Many of the nouns among them will change the
f
to
ve
when made into a plural.

Spelling rule #1: A single
f
is used at the beginning of a word:

Spelling rule #2: A single
f
is used when it follows a long vowel sound: