Y becomes I before a suffix

Happy becomes happier, cry becomes cried, baby becomes babies. A reliable change, and one that explains a lot of otherwise odd-looking words.

Word endings

y + suffix → i SUFFIX_Y_I_01

Strong rule · High reliability · Common · Intermediate · Reading and spelling

• /i/ /aɪ/ the y sound, respelled: happier, cried, babies

Where Wiggler teaches it: Skill 13: Suffixes

Child explanation

Happy plus -er is happier, not happyer. The y turns into an i when something is added.

The rule

When a suffix is added to a word ending in a consonant plus y, the y changes to i — happier, cried, babies, happily. It does not change before -ing, because English avoids ii.

What is really going on

The change exists because English orthography avoids y in the middle of a word where i would do. The exception before -ing (crying, not criing) exists because the resulting ii sequence is not permitted. A y after a vowel does not change: play becomes played, not plaied.

Position in the word

• End of a word — At the join between root and suffix. For example: happier, cried, babies.

When this rule works

• A consonant comes directly before the y.

When this rule does not work

• A vowel comes before the y: play → played, boy → boys, key → keys.
• The suffix is -ing: cry → crying, carry → carrying.

Examples

Easy examples

happier, cried, babies, happily

More examples

tried, dried, carried, hurried, cities, stories, ponies, easier, prettiest, angrily

Contrast pairs

• cried versus crying — The y changes before -ed but not before -ing.
• babies versus boys — Consonant before y versus vowel before y.

Teacher note

Teach when plurals of -y words appear, which is early. It also retroactively explains the ie in cried and tried, which children otherwise try to read as a vowel team — a small but real source of confusion.

Learn these first

• The letter Y — y — The clearest case in English of position deciding sound. Y is a consonant at the start of a word and a vowel everywhere else — and which vowel depends on how many syllables the word has.
• The -s and -es ending — -s / -es — Three sounds — /s/, /z/ and /ɪz/ — and the sound before the ending decides which. Children produce all three correctly in speech before anyone teaches them.

Related rules

• The letter Y — y — The clearest case in English of position deciding sound. Y is a consonant at the start of a word and a vowel everywhere else — and which vowel depends on how many syllables the word has.
• The -ed ending — -ed — /t/ in jumped, /d/ in played, /ɪd/ in wanted. Only the third adds a syllable, and only after t or d.
• The -s and -es ending — -s / -es — Three sounds — /s/, /z/ and /ɪz/ — and the sound before the ending decides which. Children produce all three correctly in speech before anyone teaches them.
• IE — ie — Long i at the end of a short word — pie, tie, lie — and long e in the middle of a longer one: chief, field, believe.

• Previous in Word endings: The -le, -el, -al and -il endings — -le / -el / -al / -il — Four spellings, one sound: /əl/. Reading them is easy; choosing between them when writing is not, and there is no rule that decides it.
• Next in Word endings: The FLOSS rule — -ff -ll -ss -zz — After a short vowel at the end of a one-syllable word, f, l, s and z are doubled. Doubling changes nothing about the sound.
• All reading rules

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