Spelling Patterns for Short Vowels



Each short vowel has to be spelled with one single letter.


Short vowels ar ocasionally spelled with digraphs. It's confusing. Digraphs should not be used for short vowel sounds. Use single vowel letters for short vowel sounds.







= Spelling Patterns for Short A =



Basic Patterns
add, ash, ask, ass, ax, back, bag, bat, bath, cap, cash, cat, catch, dam, dash, fad, fan, fat, gag, gal, gap, gasp, hat, jack, jazz, lag, mad, man, map, nap, pad, rant, rapt, rat, sad, smash, tab, tag, tax, van, zap


Irregular Spellings
Short-A sound shud be spelled with the letter "a".

bade --- (badd), bade/beId/
draught --- draft
guarantee --- garantee
guaranty --- garanty
laugh --- laff
laughter --- lafter
plaid --- plad
plait --- (plat), plait/pleIt/


notice
The letter "a" in some words such as "ask, draft, fast, pass, past" has two ways of pronunciations --- Short A sound and Braud A sound. However, they ar treated here as if they just hav Short A sound.

Just overlook "aunt", which can hav both Short A sound and Braud A sound.




= Spelling Patterns for Short E =



Basic Patterns
bed, bell, better, best, center, cherry, deck, dental, desk, ebb, edge, egg, gender, hell, leg, levy, mess, nest, next, pen, pet, red, rental, rest, set, seven, shed, shredder, swell, tell, tennis, terrible, vest, vex, web, well


Irregular Spellings
Short-E sound shud be spelled with the letter "e", except some special exceptions such as "again", "any", "many", "says".

Dubble the consonant letter after stressed short E in the middle of words when needed. But you shud not alow any new dubblings of voiced "s"(as in "plesant" and "plesure") and "v"(as in "heven" and "hevy").

friend --- frend
heifer --- heffer
jeopardy --- jeppardy, jepardy
leopard --- leppard, lepard

ea → e(about 80 words shoen here)
abreast --- abrest
ahead --- ahed, (ahedd?)
airhead --- airhed
already --- alreddy
bedstead --- bedsted
bread --- bred, (bredd?)
breadth --- bredth
breakfast --- brekfast
breast --- brest
breath --- breth
cleanliness --- clenliness
cleanse --- clenze, clense
dead --- ded
deadline --- dedline
deadly --- dedly
deaf --- def, deff?
deafen --- deffen
(dealt) --- delt
death --- deth
dread --- dred
dreadful --- dredful
dreadnaught --- drednaut
dreamt --- dremt
endeavor --- endevor
farmstead --- farmsted
feather --- fether
head --- hed
header --- hedder
heading --- hedding
headline --- hedline
headstart --- hedstart
health --- helth
healthy --- helthy
heather --- hether
heaven --- heven
heavy --- hevy
homestead --- homested
instead --- insted
jealous --- jellous
jealousy --- jellousy
lead --- ledd (to distinguish from "led", the past tense and past participle of "lead")
leady --- leddy
leapt --- lept
leather --- lether
leaven --- leven
meadow --- meddo, meddoe
(meant) --- ment?
measure --- mesure
peasant --- pesant
pheasant --- phesant
pleasant --- plesant
pleasure --- plesure
(read) --- redd (to distinguish from "red", the color of blud)
ready --- reddy
realm --- relm
(said) --- sed
spread --- spred
stead --- sted
steady --- steddy
steadfast --- stedfast
stealth --- stelth
sweat --- swet
sweater --- swetter
thread --- thred
threat --- thret
threaten --- thretten
treachery --- trechery
tread --- tred
treadle --- treddle
treadmill --- tredmill
treasure --- tresure
unhealthy --- unhelthy
unleaded --- unledded
unsteady --- unsteddy
wealth --- welth
wealthy --- welthy
weapon --- weppon
(weather) --- wether (Homophones: wether, whether)
zealot --- zellot
zealotry --- zellotry
zealous --- zellous




= Spelling Patterns for Short I =



Basic Patterns
Short I sound shud be spelled with the letter "i", or ocasionally "y".

bid, big, bit, chin, chip, cinder, citrus, civic, dig, dish, fish, fist, gig, hidden, hit, jigsaw, jinx, jitterbug, lick, link, mimic, mist, mix, nick, nitwit, pill, pin, quick, rim, ring, sick, sin, sit, still, thick, thin, tin, tip, villa, wish, with, zip

cylinder, cymbals, cynical, cyst, gym, gypsy, hymn, hypnotism, lynch, lyric, mystery, myth, physical, pygmy, rhythm, sympathy, system, typical


Irregular Spellings
Use "i" to respell these words.

business --- bizness (alreddy in use)
busy --- bisy
pretty --- pritty
sieve --- siv
(women)---(wimmen, wimmin)

pending --- build, building, built, guild, guilt, guilty, etc.




= Spelling Patterns for Short O =



Basic Patterns
Short O sound shud be spelled with the letter "o", or ocasionally "a".

bot, bother, chop, cost, cotton, dock, dog, dot, folly, fond, font, fox, gong, gospel, gossip, hot, jolly, knot, lobby, lobster, lock, log, long, mock, moth, nod, not, odd, ox, pod, pot, rock, rod, rot, socket, soft, sonic, toss, toxic, volume

quality, quantity, squash, swallow, swan, swap, wallet, wand, want, wash, what


Irregular Spellings
Use "o" to respell these words.

bureaucracy --- burocracy (However, retain "-eau" as in "bureau".)
bureaucrat --- burocrat (In this case, the "eau" is not short-O, but unstressed. However, use "o" insted of "eau" after the manner of "burocracy".)

yacht --- yot

cough --- coff
trough --- troff


notice
For some speakers, "hot" and "dog" hav different vowel sounds. However, it wud be better to regard them as the same, Short O.




= Spelling Patterns for Short U =



Basic Patterns
Short U sound shud be spelled with the letter "u", or ocasionally "o".

but, cup, duck, dust, fun, funny, gun, guts, hub, hut, just, luck, mummy, nun, pub, pun, putt, rug, run, rush, rusty, suck, sudden, sun, sunny, Sunday, yuck, yummy

come, front, none, some, son, ton, won, wonder
Go to "O" with Short-U Sound.


Irregular Spellings
Use "u" to respell these words.

does --- dus
doesn't --- dusn't

blood --- blud
bloody --- bluddy
flood --- flud
flooding --- fludding

enough --- enuff
rough --- ruff
tough --- tuff

couple --- cupple
double --- dubble
trouble --- trubble

touch --- tuch
young --- yung

courage --- currage
discourage --- discurrage
encourage --- encurrage
flourish --- flurrish
nourish --- nurrish

### As for words such as "country" and "southern", we retain them as if they wer proper nouns.

As for "cousin", we suspend judgement. (Or "cuzzen"?)

done