-y to -i spelling rule

The -y to -i- Spelling Rule
beauty → beautiful
happy → happiness
angry → angrily

Change the -y to -i- when adding suffix endings if a word ends in a consonant + y.

But we don't change y when we add endings beginning with i like -ing, -ish or they’d be too many i’s! (studied but studying)

We change the -y to -ies for plurals: story — stories.

beauty + ful → beautiful. Also beautify, beautician
happy + ness → happiness. Also happily, happier, happiest
angry + er → angrier. Also angriest, angrily
pretty: prettier, prettiest
ready: readily, readiness
try: tried but trying
defy: defies, defied but defying
apply: applies, applied, application but applying

dry: dried, but drying, dryish (keep the “y” because we don’t want two i’s together) but exceptions are dryer or drier, dryly or drily

Some -ay words change the -y to -i and makes the -ai- patterns in
day + ly = daily,
gay + ety = gaiety. Also gaily
lay – laid
pay – paid
say - said
slay - slain

We have a reversal of -y to -i- rule when we change some words ending in -ie- to -y-
die + ing = dying (dieting X too many vowels in a row!)
tie + ing = tying
lie + ing = lying

Change the -y to -ies:
apply — applies
supply — supplies
deny — denies
magnify — magnifies
dry — dries
try — tries
balcony — balconies
ceremony — ceremonies
story — stories

Get it right: happy
Although the adjective happy ends in the letter 'y', the related noun happiness is spelled with an 'i' (not a 'y'):
✗ Health, love, and happyness are what everyone looks for in their life.
✓ Health, love, and happiness are what everyone looks for in their life.

For most other adjectives ending in 'y', the same rule applies:
adjective → related noun
empty → emptiness
lazy → laziness
lonely → loneliness
tidy → tidiness
ugly → ugliness

Do the exercise below.