English spelling follows patterns more often than it seems. Learning a few reliable rules, and the handful of words people confuse most, will sharply cut your spelling errors.
Why this matters Spelling counts directly towards the accuracy marks in IGCSE writing. Even brilliant ideas lose marks if common words are misspelt, so a little rule-learning pays off across every piece you write.
Plurals
- Most words add -s: book → books.
- Words ending in a consonant + y change y to ies: baby → babies.
- Words ending in s, x, ch, sh add -es: box → boxes, wish → wishes.
Adding suffixes
- Drop a silent e before a vowel suffix: hope → hoping, care → caring.
- Double the final consonant after a short vowel: run → running, stop → stopped.
- i before e except after c (when the sound is 'ee'): believe, receive.
Words people mix up
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| their | belonging to them |
| there | in that place |
| they're | they are |
| your | belonging to you |
| you're | you are |
A few more pairs trip people up: to, too and two; where and were; and lose (to misplace) versus loose (not tight). When you are unsure, say the sentence in full and check the meaning matches the word. Learning these by heart removes some of the most frequent slips in exam writing.
Remember that British spelling differs from American in some common words: write colour, favourite, realise and travelling rather than the American forms. Choosing one system and staying consistent shows careful, controlled writing.
Proofreading tip: read your work slowly, one line at a time, looking only for spelling. Keep a personal list of words you often get wrong and check them every time.
Common exam mistake: Muddling there/their/they're or your/you're under exam pressure. These words sound identical but mean very different things, and mixing them up is one of the fastest ways to lose accuracy marks even in an otherwise strong piece of writing.
Exam technique: Keep a short personal list of the words you misspell most often and check specifically for them in your final proofread. Reading a piece once for content and a separate time purely hunting for your known weak spots catches far more errors than one general read-through.