Know Your Suffixes: -ise and -ice

It is often difficult to spell words that end in -ise or -ice. For example, is it practise or practice?

Many -ise and -ice words can function as both nouns and verbs, and sometimes (but not always!) this affects how they are spelt.

You must practise your violin tonight. (verb)

What time does choir practice start? (noun)

The same rule applies for advise/advice and devise/device, although the nouns and verbs are pronounced slightly differently in these examples anyway.

Some words are spelt -ice whether they are nouns or verbs. These include:

sacrifice

slice

suffice

invoice.

There are also a number of words that are spelt -ise whether they are nouns or verbs. These include:

exercise

promise

surprise

disguise

Just to make matters even more complicated, a number of these words are spelt differently in American English, but we will concentrate on British English in this worksheet!