Spelling Rules for Class 5 to 8 | English Grammar MCQs for Olympiad, Navodaya & TOEFL Exams

SPELLING RULE PART-1

(i) What is Spelling?

Spelling means writing words correctly using the proper order of letters.

When we spell words properly, other people can easily read and understand what we want to say.

Good spelling is an important part of learning English. It helps us write better sentences, complete school work neatly, and communicate clearly with teachers, friends, and family members.

(ii) Why Do We Need Spelling Rules?

Correct spelling is useful because it:

improves our writing skills,
makes communication clear and easy to understand,
helps us read and learn new words,
increases confidence while writing,
and helps us score better marks in exams and assignments.

For example:

boook ❌ → book ✅
frend ❌ → friend ✅
becaus ❌ → because ✅

Learning spelling rules makes difficult words easier to remember.

RULE 1: “i” Before “e” Except After “c”:

Usually, in spelling the letter i comes before letter e.

Examples

believe
field
chief

But after the letter c, e comes before i.

Examples

receive
ceiling
deceive

Text Box: Exceptions to the Rule
Do not double the last consonant when:
• the word ends with two vowels before the consonant, or
• the word is longer and the stress is not on the last syllable.
Examples
• rain → raining ❌ (not rainning)
• keep → keeping ❌ (not keepping)
• visit → visiting ❌ (not visitting)
• open → opened ❌ (not openned)

RULE 3: Do Not Double the Final Consonant When the Vowel Sound is Long

When a word has a long vowel sound, we usually do not double the final consonant before adding “-ing” or “-ed”.

A long vowel sound is when the vowel says its own name, such as:

a in rain
ea in clean
oi in boil

In these words, the vowel sound is stretched or spoken clearly, so the last consonant remains single.

Examples

rain → raining
clean → cleaned
boil → boiling
wait → waiting
paint → painted

RULE 4: Drop Silent “e” Before Adding “-ing”

Many English words end with a silent “e”. A silent “e” is a letter that is written but not clearly pronounced when we say the word aloud.

When we add “-ing” to such words, we usually remove the final silent “e” before adding the new ending.

This rule helps make the spelling shorter, smoother, and easier to read.

Examples

make → making
dance → dancing
write → writing
drive → driving

.

RULE 5: Keep the “e” Before Adding “-ful” or “-less”

When adding the suffixes “-ful” or “-less” to a word ending in “e”, we usually keep the final “e”.

The silent “e” is not removed because the new word is easier to read and pronounce correctly with the “e” included.

Examples

care → careful
hope → hopeful
use → useless
shame → shameless
peace → peaceful

Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs)

Q1. Which is the correct spelling?

A.

recieve
B. receive
C. receeve
D. receve

Q2. Choose the correct word.

A. runing
B. running
C. runned
D. runingg

Q3. Which spelling is correct?

A. makeing
B. makking
C. making
D. makeingg

Q4. Choose the correct form.

A. hopful
B. hopeful
C. hopfull
D. hopefull

Q5. Which word is spelled correctly?

A. beleive
B. chief
C. cheif
D. fieeld

Q6. Which is the correct spelling?

A. claped
B. clapedd
C. clapped
D. clapd

Q7. Choose the correct word.

A. danceing
B. dancing
C. danceingg
D. dancinng

Q8. Which word is correct?

A. cleanning
B. cleaned
C. boilling
D. rainning

Q9. Which is the correct spelling?

A. carefull
B. careful
C. carful
D. carefool

Q10. Which word is an exception to “i before e”?

A. field
B. chief
C. weird
D. believe

Q11. Choose the correctly spelled word.

A. stoping
B. stoped
C. stopped
D. stopingg

Q12. Which form is correct?

A. usefull
B. useless
C. usless
D. uselees

Q13. Which spelling is correct?

A. writeing
B. writting
C. writing
D. writtingg

Q14. Which word is correct?

A. ceiling
B. cieling
C. ceilling
D. seiling

Q15. Which spelling is correct?

A. swiming
B. swimming
C. swimmed
D. swimmng

Q16. Choose the correct form.

A. rainning
B. raining
C. rainedd
D. raininng

Q17. Which word is correctly spelled?

A. peacful
B. peaceful
C. peacefull
D. peeceful

Q18. Which word is correct?

A. recieve
B. friend
C. freind
D. beleef

Q19. Choose the correct spelling.

A. driving
B. driveing
C. drivving
D. drivng

Q20. Which word is spelled correctly?

A. begining
B. beginning
C. begininng
D. beggining

Q21. Which word is correct?

A. hopeful
B. hopless
C. careles
D. peacless

Q22. Choose the correct spelling.

A. field
B. feild
C. feeld
D. fielld

Q23. Which word is correct?

A. bakeing
B. baking
C. bakking
D. bakng

Q24. Which spelling is correct?

A. cleanerd
B. cleanned
C. cleaned
D. cleanned

Q25. Choose the correct word.

A. deceeve
B. decieve
C. deceive
D. deccieve

Answers and Explanations

Question	Answer	Explanation
Q1	B. receive	After the letter “c”, we usually write “ei”.
Q2	B. running	The final consonant is doubled before adding “-ing”.
Q3	C. making	The silent “e” is removed before adding “-ing”.
Q4	B. hopeful	The final “e” is kept before adding “-ful”.
Q5	B. chief	“i” usually comes before “e”.
Q6	C. clapped	The final consonant is doubled before adding “-ed”.
Q7	B. dancing	The silent “e” is removed before adding “-ing”.
Q8	B. cleaned	Long vowel sound words usually do not double the consonant.
Q9	B. careful	The final “e” is kept before adding “-ful”.
Q10	C. weird	“Weird” is an exception to the “i before e” rule.
Q11	C. stopped	The final consonant is doubled before adding “-ed”.
Q12	B. useless	The final “e” remains before adding “-less”.
Q13	C. writing	The silent “e” is removed before adding “-ing”.
Q14	A. ceiling	After “c”, we usually use “ei”.
Q15	B. swimming	The final consonant is doubled before adding “-ing”.
Q16	B. raining	Long vowel sound words do not double the consonant.
Q17	B. peaceful	The final “e” is kept before adding “-ful”.
Q18	B. friend	“Friend” is the correctly spelled word.
Q19	A. driving	The silent “e” is removed before adding “-ing”.
Q20	B. beginning	The final consonant is doubled before adding “-ing”.
Q21	A. hopeful	The final “e” is kept before adding “-ful”.
Q22	A. field	“i” usually comes before “e”.
Q23	B. baking	The silent “e” is removed before adding “-ing”.
Q24	C. cleaned	The word has a long vowel sound, so the consonant is not doubled.
Q25	C. deceive	After the letter “c”, we usually use “ei”.

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