RULES OF SIMPLIFIED SPELLING
1. ae, æ or e, not final. General Rule: Choose e. Examples: anesthetic, chimera, era, esthetic, ether, medieval, paleontology, etc.
2. -bt, with b silent. General Rule: Omit b. det, dettor, dout, indetted, redout, redouted, redoutable.
3. ea, pronounced [ɛ]. General Rule: Drop a. Examples: hed, spred, sted, tred, thret, helth, welth, dremt, ment, plesant, etc.
4. ea, pronounced [ɑ], before r. General Rule: Drop e. barken, hart, harth.
5. -ed or 'd, pronounced [d]. General Rule: Use simple d in all cases (reducing a double consonant). Examples : aimd, armd, burnd, deemd, dimd, feld, fild, hangd, raind, stird, veild, etc.
6. -ed or -t, pronounced [t], the preceding single consonant being doubled before -ed (-pped, -ssed) and left single before -t (-pt, -st). General Rule: Choose -t in all cases. Examples: dipt, dript, dropt, stept. stopt, blest, prest, mist, blusht, washt, wisht, lockt, packt, etc.
7. -ence or -ense (Latin -ensa). Restricted Rule: Choose -ense. defense, offense, pretense; also license (Latin -entia).
8. -ette or -et. General Rule: Choose -et. Examples: coquet, epaulet, etiquet, omelet, quartet, quintet, septet, sextet, etc.
9. gh or f, pronounced [f]. Restricted Rule: Choose f. draft, not draught.
10. -gh, silent: (1) -ough or -ow, pronounced [aʊ, au]. Restricted Rule: Choose -ow. plow. (2) -ough or -o, pronounced [ɔo, o, ɔ]. Restricted Rule: Choose -o. altho, tho, thoro, boro, -boro (in place names), furlo. (3) -ough or -o, pronounced [ʊu, u, ʊ]. through, thro', thro. Restricted Rule: Choose thro, but advance it now to thru.
11. -ice, unstrest, pronounced [is]. General Rule: Spell -is. Examples : artifis, coppis, cornis, crevis, edifis, justis, notis, servis, etc.
12. -ile, unstrest, pronounced [iɫ, ɫ]. General Rule: Omit e. Examples: agil, futil, servil, juvenil, etc. When otherwise pronounced, as [aiɫ, iɫ], retain -ile.
13. -ine, unstrest, pronounced [in]. General Rule: Omit e. Examples: determin, doctrin, engin, examin, genuin, imagin, pristin, etc. When otherwise pronounced, as [ain, in], retain -ine.
