Quiz: Not Even a Harvard Grad Can Correctly Spell All These Words. Can You?

Spelling is a skill that is taught in elementary school, but many people go through adult life without the necessary spelling skills to write properly. The English language can be tricky at times, but there are a few spelling rules that will help to make it easier to deal with. The first one is the i before e except after c rule, and you can see this in words like "receive" and "believe." What makes spelling particularly challenging are all the exceptions to the rules, and this rule is no exception to that—words like "leisure" and "ancient" don't follow the rule. Another important rule to follow is adding -es to words ending in -s, -ss, -z, -ch, -sh, –x, so "business" becomes "businesses" and "quiz" becomes "quizzes." There are also important spelling rules regarding silent e's, and we usually drop the final silent "e" when we add vowel suffix endings. For example, "write" becomes "writing" and "imagine" turns into "imagination." If a word ends in a consonant plus a y, the y changes to i (unless adding endings with "i" -ing -ish, which already begins with an i). You see this in "happy" becoming "happiness," or "ready" becoming "readiness." Another important rule to follow is that most words ending in "-f" or "-fe" change their plurals to "-ves", so you get "wife" becoming "wives" and "shelf" becoming "shelves." To see how well you know all these spelling rules and others, take this quiz now and choose the correctly spelled word!