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fli

clu

antiq

hiv

sausaj

Words rarely end in...

✈️

🔍

⚱️

🐝

🌭

❌

This rule works for 98% of English words and almost 100% of native English words.

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fly

clue

antique

hive

sausage

Use these endings instead.

✈️

🔍

⚱️

🐝

🌭

This rule works for 98% of English words and almost 100% of native English words.

✔️

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Use these spelling patterns instead:

Letters	Notes	Examples	Don’t spell like this!
igh	This spelling pattern is less common. The GH is silent in this spelling pattern, however, GH can say ‘f’ in other words.	sigh, thigh	si, thi
ie	Silent Final E can be added to the end of a word to stop it ending in I. IE generally makes the long I sound at the end of a one syllable word and the long E sound at the end of a multisyllabic word.	tie, vie, die	ti, vi, di
y	This is the most common spelling pattern to replace the letter I. Y generally makes the long I sound at the end one syllable word and the long E sound in a multisyllabic word.	my, try, spy, fly	mi, tri, spi, fli

Words rarely end in I

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Words that end in I

Sushi 🍣 - Japanese	Taxi 🚕 - French	Salami 🥓 - Italian
Ski 🎿 - Norwegian	Mini 🚗 - abbreviation	Macaroni 🍲 - Italian
Zucchini 🥒 - Italian	Hi-fi 🎶 - abbreviation	Yogi - Sanskrit
Origami 🦢 - Japanese	Wi-fi 📶 - abbreviation	Sashimi 🍥 - Japanese
Tsunami 🌊 - Japanese	Ravioli 🍝 - Italian	Wasabi - Japanese
Emoji 😊 - Japanese	Pepperoni 🍕 - Italian	Teriyaki 🍗 - Japanese
Safari 🐘 - Swahili	Alibi ⚖️ - Latin	Tai Chi ☯️ - Chinese
Khaki 👖 - Hindi	Radii 📏 - Latin	I - English
Bikini 👙 - French	Hi 👋 - English	Papi - Italian
Graffiti 🎨 - Italian	Spaghetti 🍝 - Italian	Maxi 👗 - English

Should the word ‘I’ be in this list? Does it start with I or end with I?

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Some Latin plurals end in I

Alumni 🎓 Latin
Fungi 🍄 Latin
Nuclei ⚛️ Latin
Stimuli ⚡ Latin
Cacti 🌵 Latin
Syllabi 📘 Latin
Bacilli - Latin
Radii 📏 Latin
Loci 📍 Latin
Gladioli 🌸 Latin
Genii - Latin

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Use these spelling patterns instead:

Letters	Notes	Examples	Don’t spell like this!
ue	Silent Final E can be added to the end of a word to stop it ending in U.	blue, true, clue, argue	blu, tru, clu, argu
oo	UI is another way to make this sound, however it goes in the middle of the word as it ends in I.	zoo, too, boo, moo	zu, tu, bu, mu
ew	Remember long vowel U has two sounds. The ‘yoo’ sound, as in cube or unicorn and the ‘oo’ sound, as in rule or tube.	new, few, grew, flew	nu, fu, gru, flu

Words rarely end in U

OUGH is used in the word ‘through’ to stop it looking like ‘thru’. OE is used in the word ‘shoe’ to stop it looking like ‘shu’.

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Words that end in U

You - English	Kudu 🦌 - Afrikaans	ShihTzu 🐶 - Chinese
Thou 🙏- English	Emu 🐦 - Portuguese	Gnu - Khoisan
Menu - French	Lulu 🌸 - English	Kabu 🚜- Japanese
Tofu 🍜 - Japanese	Ragu 🍝 - Italian	Katsu 🍱 - Japanese
Guru - Sanskrit	Nauru 🌴 - Micronesian	Bantu 🌍- Bantu
Bayou 🐊 - French	Snafu 💥 - English	Timbuktu 🌍- African
Haiku ✍️ - Japanese	Impromptu 🎭 - French	Chateau - French
Shoyu 🍶 - Japanese	Caribou 🦌 - French	Jui-Jitsu- Japanese
Honshu 🗾 - Japanese	Juju 🔮 - West African

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Q is almost always followed by the letter U, so Q is rarely found at the end of a word. If Q needs to be near the end of a word it is often in the form QUE like in words unique and antique. In QUE, Q is followed by U and Silent Final E is added to stop the word ending in U.

Words rarely end in Q

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Words that end in Q

Iraq - Arabic
BBQ 🍖 - Acronym
IQ - Acronym
Tranq 💉 - Abbreviation
Shaq 🏀 - Nickname
HQ 🏢 - Acronym
FAQ 📘 - Acronym
Tariq 🌙 - Arabic
Cinq (5) - French

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Use this spelling patterns instead:

Words rarely end in V

Letters	Notes	Examples	Don’t spell like this!
ve	Silent Final E can be added to the end of a word to stop it ending in V. The Silent Final E doesn’t always jump one letter change the vowel’s sound like in the words give, glove, love and have.	have, give, live, leave	hav, giv, liv, leav

Short Vowel VE words: have, glove, love, shove, dove, above, give, live, forgive and olive.

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Words that end in V

Improv 🎭 - Abbreviation	Rev 🚗 - Abbreviation	Kiev - Ukrainian
Shiv 🔪 - Slang	Spiv 🎤 - British Slang	ATV 🚙 - Acronym
Gov - Abbreviation	Dev ‍💻 - Abbreviation	SUV 🚙 - Acronym
EV ⚡ - Acronym	UV 🌞 - Acronym	TV 📺 - Acronym
RV 🚐 - Acronym

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Use these Soft G spelling patterns instead:

Words rarely end in J

Letters	Notes	Examples	Don’t spell like this!
dge	Use DGE after a short vowel sound in a one syllable word.	bridge, edge, badge, hedge	brij, ej, baj, hejj
ge	Use GE after a long vowel sound or consonant in a one syllable word. GE is frequently used at the end of multisyllabic words. The stress of multisyllabic words can often change the sound of the vowel before the ‘j’ sound. If the first syllable of a two syllable word is stressed, the vowel will often take on a schwa sound. EG package sounds like ‘PACK-ij’.	cage, large, stage, change	caj, larj, staj, chanj

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Words that end in J

Taj Mahal 👑 - Hindi
DJ 🎧 - Acronym
Raj 🙏 - Hindi
Hadj 🕋 - Arabic

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hard

The Soft G Rule

When the letter G is followed by E, I or Y it generally makes the soft G sound ‘j’ instead of the hard G sound ‘g’.

gauge

soft

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Watch these videos for more information.

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Use these spelling patterns instead:

Letters	Notes	Examples	Don’t spell like this!
ay	AI goes in the middle of a word, while AY goes at the end. This is not a consistant spelling rule as there are many ways to make the long A sound: A, AI, AY A_E, EA, EI, EIGH, EY & ET.	play, day, stay, tray	plai, dai, stai, trai
oy	OI goes in the middle of a word while OY goes at the end to stop a word ending in I. Some exceptions apply to this rule.	boy, toy, enjoy, joy	boi, toi, enjoi, joi
ow	The /aʊ/ sound OW as in COW. OU goes in the middle of a word while OW goes at the end of a word to stop a word ending in U. OW can go in the middle of a word when followed be L,N or ER.	cow, now,	cou, nou

Words rarely end in I,U,Q,V & J

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Are ‘native’ words an outdated concept?

As the world rapidly becomes more globalized due to increased travel, cultural connections, social media and the internet, it's getting harder to tell the difference between native English words and words that are foreign or borrowed.

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Whi? ... I mean why?

Why don’t words end in I,U,Q,V and J?

I - English spelling rules inherited from Latin prohibited a final I to prevent confusion with lowercase L or Roman numerals. Y replacing I produced smoother and nicer looking handwriting flourishes at the end of a word.

U - English spelling conventions inherited from Latin required a silent E after U to prevent a word from ‘looking incomplete’.

Q - French Normans invaded England and replaced the Germanic spelling CW with QU to better reflect Latin spelling rules.

V - English spelling rules inherited from Latin prohibited a final V.

J - The letter J arrived late in English (from French in the Renaissance), and it never developed as a final letter.

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Frequency analysis of ending letters.

Letter	Frequency	Letter	Frequency
E	20%	M	1%
S	14%	P	1%
T	7%	C	0.80%
D	5%	U	0.50%
N	5%	B	0.40%
R	5%	H	0.30%
Y	5%	W	0.20%
A	3%	F	0.10%
L	3%	X	0.10%
O	2%	V	0.04%
I	1.50%	Z	0.04%
G	1.50%	J	0.001%
K	1%	Q	0.0001%

Please note this data was not taken from dictionaries but from words in context. It was taken from the Google Books Ngram Corpus. This is a massive dataset comprising millions of books scanned by Google.

Based on the data, there are many letters that are unlikely to appear at the end of a word. So why is the song only about I,U,Q,V and J? The song focuses on these letters as their sounds have alternative spellings. The letter B is unlikely to end a word but we do not need to learn an alternative spelling pattern if we hear the ‘B’ sound at the end of a word.