TEAS spelling rules: the 10 rules to know, with word lists and practice
TEAS spelling questions test a short list of rules: i before e, dropping or keeping a silent e, changing y to i, doubling a final consonant, plurals, prefixes and a few endings, plus words that sound alike. Spelling sits in the English section's conventions of standard English area, 12 of its 33 scored questions, shared with punctuation, capitalization and sentence structure.
Below are the 10 rules with their exceptions, the plural and sound-alike tables, 60 commonly misspelled words with the trap in each, 15 practice questions and a 7-day plan. The words are everyday English, not rare vocabulary; the TEAS uses American spelling.
How spelling is tested on the TEAS
The English and language usage section is 37 questions in 37 minutes, 33 scored, in three content areas (ATI exam details):
| Content area | Scored questions | Where spelling fits |
|---|---|---|
| Conventions of standard English | 12 | Spelling, punctuation, capitalization, sentence structure |
| Knowledge of language | 11 | Grammar for clarity, formal and informal style |
| Using language and vocabulary to express ideas in writing | 10 | Word meaning, word parts, the writing process |
Spelling questions usually take one of three shapes: pick the correctly spelled word out of four; find the misspelled word in a sentence; or pick the word that fits a sentence when two sound the same (their, there, they're). At one question a minute you have no time to sound words out letter by letter, so the goal is to know the rule on sight. For the whole section, read the TEAS English and language usage study guide.
Rule 1: i before e, except after c
Write ie in most words, ei right after c, and ei when the sound is "ay".
- ie: believe, achieve, field, piece, relief, friend, patient, chief
- ei after c: receive, ceiling, deceive, receipt, conceive
- ei sounding like "ay": neighbor, weigh, eight, vein, reign
Exceptions to learn by heart: weird, seize, either, neither, leisure, foreign, height, their, protein, caffeine. And ie after c where c sounds like "sh": science, species, ancient, efficient, sufficient, conscience. The rule is a guide, not a law; the exceptions above are the ones tests pick.
Rule 2: drop a silent e before a vowel ending, keep it before a consonant
| Word | Vowel ending: drop the e | Consonant ending: keep the e |
|---|---|---|
| hope | hoping, hoped | hopeful |
| care | caring | careful, careless |
| state | stating | statement |
| use | usable, usage | useful |
| love | lovable | lovely |
Keep the e after a soft c or g before -able or -ous, so the letter stays soft: noticeable, manageable, changeable, courageous, outrageous. Drop it even before a consonant in a few words: argument, truly, ninth, wholly, awful, judgment (the American spelling).
Rule 3: change a final y to i after a consonant
- Consonant + y → i: happy → happiness, carry → carried, study → studies, heavy → heavier, beauty → beautiful.
- Keep the y before -ing, so you never write two i's: carrying, studying, worrying.
- Vowel + y keeps the y: play → played, employ → employment, enjoy → enjoyable, key → keys.
- Exceptions: paid, said, laid, daily, slain.
Rule 4: double the last consonant (the 1-1-1 rule)
Double the final consonant before a vowel ending when the word has one syllable, one vowel before the last letter, and one final consonant: stop → stopped, run → running, swim → swimmer, big → biggest, plan → planned.
- Two or more syllables: double only when the stress falls on the last syllable: begin → beginning, occur → occurred, occurrence, prefer → preferred, admit → admitted, commit → committed.
- If the stress moves off the last syllable, don't double: prefer → preference, refer → reference.
- Stress on an earlier syllable: don't double: open → opened, visit → visited, benefit → benefited, travel → traveled (American; British writes travelled).
- Never double w, x or y: fix → fixed, snow → snowing, play → player.
- Two vowels or two final consonants: don't double: rain → raining, help → helping.
Rule 5: plurals
| Word ends in | Do this | Examples | Exceptions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Most letters | Add -s | nurse → nurses, test → tests | |
| s, x, z, ch, sh | Add -es | bus → buses, box → boxes, church → churches, brush → brushes | |
| Consonant + y | y → ies | baby → babies, city → cities, artery → arteries | Names: the Kennedys |
| Vowel + y | Add -s | day → days, monkey → monkeys | |
| f or fe | Often → ves | knife → knives, leaf → leaves, life → lives, half → halves | roof → roofs, chief → chiefs, belief → beliefs, chef → chefs |
| Consonant + o | Often add -es | potato → potatoes, hero → heroes, echo → echoes | photo → photos, piano → pianos, memo → memos |
| Irregular | Learn them | child → children, foot → feet, tooth → teeth, mouse → mice, person → people, woman → women | |
| Same in both | No change | deer, sheep, series, species, aircraft |
Plurals from Latin and Greek
Health science uses many of these, and they show up in TEAS reading and science passages too.
| Singular | Plural | Pattern |
|---|---|---|
| bacterium, datum, ovum | bacteria, data, ova | -um → -a |
| vertebra, alga | vertebrae, algae | -a → -ae |
| nucleus, bronchus, fungus | nuclei, bronchi, fungi | -us → -i |
| diagnosis, analysis, crisis | diagnoses, analyses, crises | -is → -es |
| criterion, phenomenon | criteria, phenomena | -on → -a |
| appendix, index, matrix | appendices (or appendixes), indices (or indexes), matrices | -ix/-ex → -ices |
Rule 6: a prefix never changes the word's spelling
Add the prefix to the whole word, letters and all. That is why some words get a double letter:
- dis + satisfied = dissatisfied; dis + appear = disappear (one s)
- mis + spell = misspell; mis + take = mistake
- un + necessary = unnecessary; un + natural = unnatural
- il + legal = illegal; ir + regular = irregular; im + mature = immature; im + mobile = immobile
- over + run = overrun; inter + related = interrelated
Word parts carry meaning as well as spelling; the prefix, root and suffix tables are in our TEAS vocabulary list.
Rule 7: -cede, -ceed and -sede
This one is a closed list, so it is easy points:
- -sede: only supersede.
- -ceed: only exceed, proceed, succeed.
- -cede: every other one: precede, recede, concede, intercede, secede.
Watch the family: proceed but procedure; exceed but excess.
Rule 8: -able or -ible
A guide that works most of the time: if the part before the ending is a whole word, write -able; if it isn't, write -ible.
| -able (whole word before it) | -ible (not a whole word) |
|---|---|
| acceptable, dependable, comfortable, readable, breakable | visible, possible, terrible, edible, plausible, compatible |
| With a dropped e: lovable, usable, desirable | Exceptions: sensible, flexible, responsible, digestible, accessible |
Learn the exceptions in the second column as a list; the guide gets the rest.
Rule 9: -ance or -ence, -ant or -ent
No rule decides these, so learn the families. The noun and the adjective share the vowel: independent, independence; relevant, relevance.
- -ance / -ant: attendance, appearance, maintenance, assistance, resistant, relevant, significant, dominant
- -ence / -ent: existence, independence, occurrence, persistence, permanent, apparent, consistent, competent
Two that are missed most: maintenance (not maintainance) and existence (not existance).
Rule 10: add -ly to the whole word
- final + ly = finally; usual + ly = usually; careful + ly = carefully (the double l is right)
- sincere + ly = sincerely; immediate + ly = immediately; definite + ly = definitely
- Words ending in -ic take -ally: basically, logically, specifically. Exception: publicly.
- Consonant + le: drop the e and add y: gentle → gently, simple → simply, possible → possibly.
- Exceptions: truly, duly, wholly.
Words that sound alike: the pairs the TEAS uses
A spell checker can't save you here, which is why tests like them. Read the sentence, then choose by meaning.
| Words | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| their / there / they're | belongs to them / a place / they are | They're bringing their charts over there. |
| its / it's | belongs to it / it is | It's clear the cell lost its nucleus. |
| your / you're | belongs to you / you are | You're late for your shift. |
| to / too / two | toward / also, very / 2 | Two nurses went to the ward, too. |
| affect / effect | to change (verb) / a result (noun) | The drug's effect may affect sleep. |
| accept / except | to take / leaving out | We accept every form except this one. |
| than / then | comparing / time | Rest first, then study more than an hour. |
| principal / principle | main, the head of a school / a rule | The principal reason is a basic principle. |
| compliment / complement | praise / completes | The colors complement each other. |
| stationary / stationery | not moving / paper | The bike stayed stationary. |
| aural / oral | of the ear / of the mouth | An oral dose is swallowed. |
| breath / breathe | noun / verb | Take a breath; breathe slowly. |
| lose / loose | to misplace / not tight | Don't lose the loose screw. |
| advice / advise | noun / verb | I advise you to take her advice. |
| weather / whether | rain or sun / if | Check whether the weather is clear. |
| sight / site / cite | seeing / a place / to quote | Cite the source of the site visit. |
60 commonly misspelled words, with the trap in each
These are words people misspell often, grouped by the trap. Spell each one aloud by its trap, not letter by letter.
| Trap | Words |
|---|---|
| Double letters | accommodate (cc, mm), address, aggressive, appearance, commitment, committee, embarrass (rr, ss), harass (one r), millennium (ll, nn), necessary (one c, ss), occasion (cc, one s), occurred, possession (ss, ss), recommend (one c, mm), success, tomorrow (one m, rr), until (one l) |
| ie or ei | achieve, believe, foreign, height, leisure, receipt, receive, seize, weird, neighbor |
| A vowel you don't hear | separate (a in the middle), definitely (ite), cemetery (three e's), category, privilege (no d), grammar (ar), calendar (ar), library, February, government (n before m), environment (n before m) |
| Silent letters | column, rhythm, knowledge, psychology, pneumonia, schedule, conscience, conscious, subtle, doubt |
| -ance, -ence, -ant, -ent | maintenance, existence, independent, occurrence, perseverance, permanent, relevant |
| Endings and families | noticeable, judgment, argument, truly, supersede, exceed, pronunciation (pronounce, but pronunciation) |
Two habits that help: break the word into syllables (sep-a-rate, en-vi-ron-ment), and link it to a family member you can hear (definite → define; grammar → grammatical).
Spelling is a small part of one section. To see where your English stands next to reading, math and science, take our free TEAS practice test: 15 questions scored against your program's minimum.
American spelling on the TEAS
The TEAS is an American exam, so use American spellings. Watch these if you learned British English:
- -or, not -our: color, behavior, favor, labor, tumor
- -er, not -re: center, fiber, liter, meter
- -ize, not -ise: organize, recognize, analyze
- One l before an ending when the stress is early: traveled, canceled, labeled
- e, not ae or oe, in medical words: anemia, hemoglobin, pediatric, esophagus, estrogen, diarrhea
- Others: judgment, defense, license (noun and verb), gray, program
15 TEAS spelling practice questions
Our own questions in the styles above. Give yourself one minute each, the section's pace, then check the rule behind every miss.
- Which is spelled correctly? (a) recieve (b) receive (c) receeve (d) riceive
Answer: (b). Rule 1: ei after c. - Which is spelled correctly? (a) noticable (b) noticeable (c) noticible (d) notecable
Answer: (b). Rule 2: keep the e after a soft c. - Which is spelled correctly? (a) occured (b) ocurred (c) occurred (d) occurrd
Answer: (c). Rule 4: stress on the last syllable, so double the r. - Which plural is correct? (a) vertebras (b) vertebrae (c) vertebraes (d) vertebries
Answer: (b). - Find the misspelled word: "The patient's arguement for leaving early was reasonable."
Answer: arguement. It is argument. - Which is spelled correctly? (a) proceed (b) procede (c) prosede (d) proseed
Answer: (a). Rule 7: proceed is one of the three -ceed words. - Which plural is correct? (a) potatos (b) potatoes (c) potatose (d) potatoe
Answer: (b). - Choose the word: "The new schedule will ___ every shift." (a) affect (b) effect
Answer: (a). A verb meaning to change. - Which is spelled correctly? (a) dissatisfied (b) disatisfied (c) dissatisified (d) disattisfied
Answer: (a). Rule 6: dis + satisfied. - Which is spelled correctly? (a) carryed (b) carried (c) carreid (d) caried
Answer: (b). Rule 3: consonant + y → i. - Which is spelled correctly? (a) maintainance (b) maintenence (c) maintenance (d) maintanance
Answer: (c). - Choose the word: "The nurse checked ___ the room was ready." (a) weather (b) whether
Answer: (b). - Which is spelled correctly? (a) beginning (b) begining (c) beginnig (d) beggining
Answer: (a). Rule 4: be-GIN, stress on the last syllable. - Which is spelled correctly? (a) visable (b) visible (c) visibel (d) vizible
Answer: (b). Rule 8: "vis" is not a whole word. - Find the misspelled word: "She was definately sure the seperate files were in the cabinet."
Answer: definately and seperate. They are definitely and separate.
For timed questions across all three English content areas, take the TEAS English practice test: 33 free questions with the reason for each answer.
A 7-day plan for TEAS spelling
About 20 minutes a day. Spelling is a small slice of 12 questions, so pair it with punctuation and grammar in the same sessions.
| Day | Study | Done when you can |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rules 1 and 2 | Spell the i-before-e exceptions and the soft c/g words from memory |
| 2 | Rules 3 and 4 | Add -ed and -ing to 10 words without a miss |
| 3 | Rule 5 and the Latin and Greek plurals | Give the plural of every word in both tables |
| 4 | Rules 6 to 10 | Recite the -cede/-ceed/-sede list; sort 10 words into -able and -ible |
| 5 | Sound-alike words | Write a sentence for each pair in the table |
| 6 | The 60 commonly misspelled words | Have someone read 20 aloud; spell 19 right |
| 7 | The 15 questions above, then a timed English set | 14 of 15 right; reread the rule for every miss |
Spelling mistakes that cost points
- Trusting how a word sounds. Separate, definitely and privilege all hide a vowel you don't hear.
- Doubling when the stress is early. Visited, opened and benefited take one consonant.
- Dropping the e in noticeable or manageable. The e keeps the c or g soft.
- Mixing its and it's. If "it is" doesn't fit, there's no apostrophe.
- Adding -es to every o word. Photos, pianos and memos take only -s.
- Using British spelling. Color and center, not colour and centre.
TEAS spelling FAQ
How many spelling questions are on the TEAS?
ATI doesn't publish a count for spelling alone. It is part of conventions of standard English, which has 12 scored questions shared with punctuation, capitalization and sentence structure.
What kind of spelling words are on the TEAS?
Common English words that follow, or break, the rules above, and sound-alike pairs. You won't need rare words; the 60-word table covers the kind of trap the questions set.
Is there a TEAS spelling word list?
ATI doesn't publish one. Lists online, including ours, are built from the rules and from words people often misspell. Learn the rules first; the list is practice for them.
Does the TEAS use British or American spelling?
American. The exam is written for US nursing and allied health programs.
How do I study for TEAS spelling fast?
Spend one day on the rules, one on the sound-alike pairs and one on the misspelled-word table, then test yourself. The 7-day plan above stretches that with review days.
Sources
- ATI, ATI TEAS exam details: English questions, minutes and content areas. Read for our format guide, October 2026.
- ATI, ATI TEAS Version 7 content outline: the conventions of standard English objective.
- Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster Dictionary: American spellings and plurals checked 2026-11-03.
More English guides: TEAS grammar rules, the TEAS vocabulary list, the TEAS English study guide, the TEAS English practice test, or all guides. To see how your English compares with your program's minimum, take the free practice test: 15 questions across the four sections, scored, with the reason for every answer.