Orthography and Spelling Rules Flashcards

When applying the doubling rule to polysyllabic base words before a vowel suffix, a CALT understands that 'refer' becomes 'referring' but 'offer' becomes 'offering' (not 'offerring'). Which factor is the PRIMARY determinant of whether the final consonant doubles in these multisyllabic cases?

Answer: Whether the stress falls on the final syllable of the base word

In polysyllabic words, the doubling rule requires that stress falls on the FINAL syllable of the base word before doubling applies. 'Refer' is stressed on the final syllable (re-FER) → 'referring'. 'Offer' is stressed on the first syllable (OF-fer) → 'offering' (no doubling). The 1-1-1 conditions (one final consonant, one preceding vowel) are necessary but not sufficient for multisyllabic words — final-syllable stress is the additional and decisive criterion.

The Latin prefix 'in-' (meaning 'not') is spelled 'ir-' in 'irrelevant', 'il-' in 'illegal', and 'im-' in 'immobile'. Which phonological/morphological process produces these variant spellings?

Answer: Regressive assimilation, where the following consonant's place of articulation influences the prefix

Regressive (or anticipatory) assimilation means the sound that comes AFTER influences the sound that comes BEFORE. The initial consonant of the base word pulls the prefix's final consonant toward its own place of articulation: 'in-' + 'relevant' → 'ir-relevant' (both alveolar); 'in-' + 'legal' → 'il-legal' (both lateral); 'in-' + 'mobile' → 'im-mobile' (both bilabial). The base word reaches backward to reshape the prefix spelling — hence regressive.

Standard English orthography holds that 'g' represents /dʒ/ before the letters 'e', 'i', and 'y'. However, several high-frequency Anglo-Saxon words are exceptions where 'g' remains hard despite being followed by 'e' or 'i'. Which of the following words does NOT follow this Anglo-Saxon exception pattern — meaning its 'g' IS pronounced /dʒ/ as the standard rule predicts?

Answer: gender

'Gender' comes from Old French/Latin and its 'g' correctly follows the standard soft-g rule, producing /dʒ/. By contrast, 'give,' 'gill,' and 'gird' are Anglo-Saxon words that retain the hard /g/ sound even before 'e' or 'i' — these are systematic exceptions that a structured literacy practitioner must teach explicitly rather than as rule-governed. Recognizing etymological origin (Anglo-Saxon vs. Romance/Latin) helps explain and predict these exceptions.

A student asks why 'unnatural' is spelled with two n's rather than one. A CALT's most accurate and instructionally precise explanation invokes which orthographic principle?

Answer: Morpheme integrity, which preserves the complete spelling of each meaningful unit regardless of adjacent letters

Morpheme integrity dictates that each morpheme retains its full, unchanged spelling when combined with others. 'Un-' always ends in 'n'; 'natural' always begins with 'n.' When joined, both letters are preserved: 'un' + 'natural' = 'unnatural' (double n). This principle explains many doubled letters at morpheme boundaries (e.g., 'misspell' = 'mis-' + 'spell'; 'illegal' = 'il-' + 'legal'). The FLOSS rule is inapplicable here because it governs word-final position in monosyllables, not morpheme-boundary doubling.

A CALT is teaching a student to distinguish Greek-origin from Latin-origin words to aid spelling decisions. The student encounters 'chorus,' 'character,' 'chord,' and 'chemistry.' Which statement BEST explains the orthographic significance of the 'ch' spelling in these words for a structured literacy framework?

Answer: The 'ch' = /k/ pattern is a reliable marker of Greek origin and should be taught as a Greek combining form convention

In structured literacy, students learn that 'ch' can represent three sounds depending on word origin: /tʃ/ in Anglo-Saxon words (chip, church), /ʃ/ in French loanwords (chef, chandelier), and /k/ in Greek-origin words (chorus, character, chord, chemistry, chronicle). Teaching 'ch' = /k/ as a Greek-layer convention gives students a reliable etymological anchor for spelling and decoding. French 'ch' words produce /ʃ/, not /k/, making option A incorrect.

The standard orthographic rule states that 'tch' is used to spell /tʃ/ immediately after a short vowel (e.g., catch, fetch, stitch, notch, hutch). Yet 'much,' 'such,' 'rich,' and 'which' use 'ch' despite following a short vowel. A CALT teaching this rule would MOST accurately characterize these four words as:

Answer: High-frequency Anglo-Saxon words that are learned as rule exceptions requiring explicit memorization

'Much,' 'such,' 'rich,' and 'which' are among the oldest, highest-frequency words in English — core Anglo-Saxon vocabulary whose spelling was fixed before the 'tch' convention was systematically applied. They are genuine exceptions to the short-vowel + /tʃ/ → 'tch' rule and must be explicitly taught as such. They are not French borrowings (which would more often produce /ʃ/), and there is no following consonant blocking 'tch.' A skilled CALT names these four words specifically as the primary exceptions students need to internalize.