9.4 Spelling Rules, Word Relationships, Acronyms & Idioms

9.4 Spelling Rules, Word Relationships, Acronyms & Idioms

Quick Summary: The RPR job analysis lists spelling rules under the task "Produce accurate transcripts using proper spelling, word usage, and punctuation," and lists homophones, homonyms, synonyms, antonyms, acronyms, initialisms, phrases, and idioms under "Demonstrate a broad knowledge of vocabulary." This section covers the core English spelling patterns, the vocabulary terms for word relationships, how to write acronyms and initialisms, and idioms that are often misspelled. It also shows how NCRA's skills-test grading guide scores spelling-related choices.

Why Spelling Counts

Spelling errors are easy to see on the page and hard to defend. NCRA's grading guide for the RSR, RPR, and RMR skills tests, What is an Error? (last updated March 2026), counts each misspelled word, including typographical errors, as an error. It also counts a compound word written as two words (or two words written as one), and words used in place of an acronym or an acronym used in place of words. The guide notes that the skills tests are built on the punctuation rules in Merriam-Webster's dictionary, and a Merriam-Webster dictionary is on the job analysis reference list, so it is the natural first reference for spelling questions.

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Core Spelling Rules

1. ie and ei

The rhyme "i before e except after c, or when sounded like ay" covers many words: believe, relief, receive, ceiling, deceit, neighbor, weigh. Memorize the exceptions instead of trusting the rule: seize, weird, either, neither, leisure, foreign, height, forfeit, and ie after c in words such as ancient, efficient, and conscience.

2. Silent Final e

• Drop it before a suffix beginning with a vowel: argue → arguing, judge → judging, advise → advisable.
• Keep it before a suffix beginning with a consonant: statement, hopeful, likely. Exceptions include argument, truly, ninth, and judgment (Merriam-Webster lists judgement as a variant).
• Keep it after soft c or g before a or o: noticeable, manageable, courageous.

3. Final y

• Consonant + y: change y to i before most suffixes (deny → denied, denies; liable → liability), but keep the y before -ing (denying, copying).
• Vowel + y: usually keep the y (convey → conveyed, attorney → attorneys, employ → employer). A few common words are irregular (pay → paid, day → daily).

4. Doubling a Final Consonant

• One-syllable words ending in a single vowel plus a single consonant double the consonant before a vowel suffix: plan → planned, stop → stopped.
• Longer words double only when the stress falls on the last syllable: occur → occurred, occurrence; refer → referred; admit → admitted; commit → committed.
• No doubling when the stress is earlier: benefit → benefited, offer → offered, travel → traveled (American spelling).
• No doubling before a consonant suffix: commitment, allotment.

5. Plurals

• Add -es after s, sh, ch, x, and z: witnesses, bushes, matches, taxes.
• Consonant + y becomes -ies (parties, liabilities); vowel + y just adds -s (attorneys, delays).
• Some f/fe words change to -ves (knife → knives, half → halves), but many do not (chiefs, beliefs, proofs).
• For hyphenated or open compounds, pluralize the main word: attorneys general, sisters-in-law, courts-martial.
• Some Latin and Greek plurals are standard (criteria, phenomena); for others Merriam-Webster lists two plurals (memorandums or memoranda, appendixes or appendices). Choose one and stay consistent.

6. Frequently Misspelled Words in Legal Work

accommodate, acquitted, arraignment, cancellation, commitment, defendant, dependent, embarrass, harass, indictment, judgment, liaison, occurrence, privilege, receive, recommend, separate, subpoena, supersede, withheld

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Word Relationships

Homophones cause the most transcript errors because the steno outline, and often the CAT dictionary, cannot tell them apart without context (see Section 9.3).

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Writing Acronyms and Initialisms

1. Write what the speaker said. If a witness says "F-B-I," write FBI; if the witness says "Federal Bureau of Investigation," write it out. The skills-test guide counts swapping one form for the other as an error.
2. Periods: Most styles write agency and professional abbreviations without periods (FBI, CPA, DUI). Check the dictionary and your style guide for forms such as U.S. and a.m./p.m.
3. Plurals and possessives: Add s without an apostrophe for plurals (CPAs, MRIs, DUIs) and 's for possessives (the FBI's report).
4. A or an: Choose the article by sound, not letter. Write an FBI agent and an MRI (the first sound is a vowel sound), but a HIPAA form and a NATO base.
5. Build them into the dictionary: Add outlines for the acronyms and initialisms you expect in a case (for example, the parties' company names and the agencies involved) before the job.

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Idioms That Are Often Misheard or Misspelled

Idioms are transcribed as spoken, but their standard spellings matter when you know which expression the speaker used:

If a speaker clearly uses a nonstandard version, the verbatim rule applies: record what was actually said rather than silently correcting it.