1. Spelling
-el -al -le
endings

2. travel, local, example
All three endings sound the same – so
how do you know which one to use?
 There are no rules…
… but here’s some help

4. And the answers are:
-le
-al
-el

5. So if you don’t
know which ending
(and there’s no dictionary about)
use the –le ending
(for a 70% chance of being right!)

6. Now look at
this …

7. What do the letters in
each of these two groups
of have in common?
b d f h k l t
g j p q y

8. These
b d f h k l t
all have ‘sticks’
(parts of the letter that are tall)

9. And these
g j p q y
all have tails
(parts that drop below the line)

10. Do you notice anything about
these words?
table, apple, candle, single, rifle, cattle
They all end with _____ .
The letter before this ending has a
_______ or a _______ .

11. And these?
towel, travel, tunnel, camel, local, usual
They all end with ___ or ___ .
The letter before this ending
has/hasn’t got a stick or tail.

12. See?
table, apple, candle, single, rifle, cattle
towel, travel, tunnel, camel, local, usual
table, apple, candle, single, rifle, cattle,
towel travel, tunnel, camel, local, usual

13. It’s not always true, but often
-le words have a letter with a stick or
tail before the ending
-al and –el words have a letter without
a stick or tail before the ending.

14. For much more on spelling
visit
The English Language
Garden
and
The Spelling Blog …

15. English Language
Garden
www.elgweb.net
and
The Spelling Blog
http://thespellingblog.blogspot.com