Words ending in -le

Double letters indicate a short vowel sound: little, middle, settle, shuffle, apple, Muggle, gabble

Single letters indicate a long vowel sound: title, idle, beetle, trifle, table, bugle, gable

Let's look at beetle and settle, then title and little.

beetle has -tle so has a long vowel sound.

settle has -ttle so has a short vowel sound.

But title and little both have a single i but title has long vowel sound and little has a short vowel sound .

Say these words and notice the long and short vowel sound differences (on video above): table — apple; title — little; idle — middle.

Can you hear the long vowel sound in table, title, idle, noble, bugle, beetle?

table, title, idle, noble, bugle say their alphabet name: -a- “ay”, -e- “ee”, -i- “eye”, -o- “oh”, -u- “you”

Long vowel sounds with double vowels in beetle, steeple, needle, people, poodle, oodles, measles.

Short vowel sound in middle, little, settle, shuffle, apple, giggle, puzzle

Note that no letters are doubled before -le if there are two different consonants: single, angle, ankle, sprinkle, stumble, bundle, bangle = short sounds. But gargle, sparkle, startle, turtle, purple (r-influenced long sound).

Not many people know this rule. Most good spellers know these common spellings and can see the letter patterns in them. But it's always great to know why spelling is the way it is, and helps with the questions and frustrations about spelling.
Let's have a look at the difference between these patterns, sounds and spellings.

You need to look carefully and notice the patterns. But don't get too stressed about the sound if you can't hear the differences between the short & long vowel sounds.

table (long), able, cable, stable vs. babble (short), dabble, gabble, rabble, scrabble

bible vs. bubble, rubble, stubble, double, trouble

title vs. tittle-tattle, battle, cattle

beetle vs. brittle, little, spittle

idle, bridle vs. middle fiddle

cradle, ladle vs. saddle, paddle

bugle, google vs. struggle, giggle

maple, staple vs. apple, dapple, grapple

trifle, rifle vs. shuffle, muffle

sparkle vs. sprinkle

gargle vs. gaggle, haggle, giggle

gurgle, burgle vs. juggle, struggle

Look at these: tickle, tackle, chuckle, pickle

Add the c to the k (-ckle) when it's a short vowel sound.

Let's look at the -stle letter pattern 

castle, wrestle, whistle, bristle (the t is silent). Wrestle has a silent w, too. Whistle has a silent h (in most accents). See the Silent Letters lesson.

Spelling rules.

Drop the ‘e’ when adding vowel endings (-ed, -er, -ing): giggle — giggling, settle — settling, settled, chuckle — chuckling, shuffle — shuffling, shuffled

Change the -e- to -y: giggle — giggly, prickle — prickly, fiddle — fiddly

Add -ment: puzzle — puzzlement, settle — settlement

Below is an exercise and video spelling test from my Spelling Rules Course.