Writing Tips
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Index S
- Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day
- Saint John
- Saint Johner
- Saint John River
- Salish
- Salishan
- Salish Sea
- same
- Sami
- sanction
- Sask.
- Saskatchewan
- Saskatchewaner
- Saskatchewanian
- satisfaction in
- satisfaction of
- satisfied with
- Saultite
- Sault Ste. Marie
- Scando-
- sceptic
- Scoto-
- scrutiny
- seasonable
- seasonably
- seasonal
- seasonally
- secure against
- secure from
- secure in
- seem
- segue
- Segway
- seismo-
- seldom
- seldomly
- semi-
- semi-annual
- semicolon
- sensual
- sensuous
- sentence fragment
- septic
- Serb
- Serbian
- Serbo-
- Serbo-Croatian
- serial commas
- serif fonts
- serve
- serve to illustrate
- service
- serviceable
- sesqui-
- set
- several different
- sex
- sharp
- sharply
- signed at
- signed in
- simile
- simple sentence
- sink
- sink down
- Sino-
- sit
- SK
- skijoring
- slippery slope
- so as an adverb
- socio-
- solstice
- somber
- sombre
- some
- somni-
- son-
- soni-
- sono-
- Sons of the Clergy Islands
- Soo
- sort of
- sorts of
- spacing
- spacing with periods
- spans of time
- speak
- specific example
- specter
- spectre
- speculate about
- speculate in
- speculate on
- speculate upon
- spelling: able/ible and ative/itive endings
- spelling: combinations with all
- spelling: final consonants doubled before a suffix
- spelling: frequently misspelled words
- spelling: international variations
- spelling: plurals of foreign nouns
- spelling: SI/metric units
- spelling: spell-checking
- spelling: verbs ending in ie
- spelling: verbs ending in sede
- spelling: words ending in a silent e
- spelling: words ending in c
- spelling: words ending in -ise and -ize
- spelling: words ending in n
- spelling: words ending in y
- spelling: words with ei and ie
- spring
- square brackets
- Stampede City
- standard time
- stanza
- start
- stationary
- stationery
- stay-at-home
- steal
- St. John’s
- St. John’san
- St. John’ser
- strata
- stratum
- streets and buildings: abbreviations and numbers
- sub-
- subject (1)
- subject (2)
- subject area
- subject complement
- subjected to
- subject predicate order
- subject to
- subordinating conjunctions
- subsequent
- subsequent to
- substitute for
- successful achievement
- successfully achieve
- sucr-
- sucro-
- sudden impulse
- suggest that
- suited for
- suited to
- summer
- summer time
- sum total
- super-
- supposably
- supposedly
- surprise
- surrounded
- surrounded on all sides
- Swedo-
- sym-
- sympathetic to
- sympathetic toward(s)
- sympathize with
- sympathy between
- sympathy for
- sympathy with
- syn-
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spelling: words ending in a silent e
Spelling rules vary for words formed from a root ending in silent e.
Silent e before a suffix beginning with a vowel
The final e is usually dropped before a suffix beginning with a vowel.
- debate, debatable
- desire, desirable
- dine, dining
- excite, excitable
- make, makable
- subdue, subduing
but
- mile, mileage
Some words, however, can either drop or retain their final e before a suffix beginning with a vowel (the preferred spelling in Canada is the one listed first in the list below):
- age, aging, ageing
- like, likeable, likable
- love, lovable, loveable
- move, movable, moveable
- rate, rateable, ratable
- sale, saleable, salable (US)
- size, sizable, sizeable
After c or g
When e follows c or g, it is retained before the vowels a and o to preserve the soft sound of these consonants; however, it is not usually retained before i:
- change, changeable (but changing)
- courage, courageous
- gauge, gaugeable (but gauging)
- knowledge, knowledgeable
- notice, noticeable (but noticing)
- peace, peaceable
- trace, traceable (but tracing)
Note: In the case of knowledgeable, the spelling without an e after the g is also accepted: knowledgable.
Before i
Note that the e is retained even before i in some cases in order to distinguish a word from a similarly spelled one or to preserve a particular pronunciation:
- dyeing
- singeing
- shoeing
- toeing
but
- routing
Silent e before a suffix beginning with a consonant
Words ending in a silent e generally retain the e before a suffix beginning with a consonant:
- complete, completeness
- hope, hopeless
- waste, wasteful
- whole, wholesome
Exceptions
The following words do not retain the e before the suffix ly:
- due, duly
- subtle, subtly
- true, truly
- whole, wholly
Also, abridgment, acknowledgment and judgment can be spelled with or without an e after the g. In Canada, the preferred spelling is as follows:
- with the e,for abridgement and acknowledgement; and
- without the e, for judgment.
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