-gue and -que.
A French way to end.

These endings came into English from French. The letters ue at the end are silent.

Try a little practice ↓

THE RULES, ONE AT A TIME

Look at the word.
Then add the ending.

-gue

A hard g sound

league

At the end of these words, the hard g sound is spelt -gue, a French spelling. You don’t hear the u or the e. (Tongue is an Old English word that later took this spelling.)

tongue; vague; rogue; plague

-que

A k sound

antique

At the end of these words, mostly from French, the k sound is spelt -que. You don’t hear the u or the e.

unique; technique; cheque

-ique

Says “eek”

unique

Many -que words end in -ique, which sounds like “eek”. In words of two or more syllables, the stress falls on it.

antique; boutique; critique

-gue

British -logue

catalogue, dialogue

British English keeps -gue in words ending in -logue. American English writes catalog and analog, but usually keeps dialogue.

monologue; prologue; epilogue

Exceptions to remember

In a few words the ending is said, not silent: argue (“ar-gyoo”) and segue (“seg-way”). Cheque is the British spelling for a bank cheque; American English writes check. The ending -esque also comes from French and means “in the style of”: picture → picturesque, statue → statuesque.

A note for the grown-ups.

Rules summarised from the Department for Education’s English spelling appendix. Examples and practice are original site copy, checked against the ENABLE2K word list. Spelling rules have exceptions; check unfamiliar words in a dictionary.