spelling conventions
How words look
Spelling conventions are the agreed-upon rules and patterns for writing words in a language.
English spelling conventions include silent letters, doubled consonants before suffixes, and "i before e except after c." The term often appears in discussions of standardization: American and British spelling conventions differ on words like color and honour.
Conventions vary by region and evolve over time.
- silent lettersSpelled but not voiced
- double lettersIdentical adjacent characters
- capitalizationUsing big letters properly
- proper nounsNames of specific entities
- diacriticSymbol modifying letter pronunciation
letter combinations · orthography · writing system · phoneme · British English · hyphenation · Canadian English · American English · standardization · spell checker · Indian English · Australian English · etymology · loanword · dictionary · grammar · rules · punctuation
- Style GuidesStrunk and White, stylebook, editorial guidelines, AP style, house style
- spellingorthography, silent e, silent letters, misspelling, misspellings
- Norwegian grammarnouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns
- Gaelic grammarmutations, case, cases, conjugation, verb conjugation
spelling conventionspronunciation guides
Notation for spoken sounds
spoken language · oral tradition · phonetics · sound patterns · speech
spelling conventionscreative spelling
Unconventional letter choices
misspelling · spelling errors · phonetic spelling · eye dialect
spelling conventionspronunciation
Manner of speaking words
pronunciation guides · speech patterns · oral tradition · phonology · articulation