Appendix 6 : Spelling

   6.1   

Nouns, verbs and adjectives can have the following endings:

 

noun + -s/-es (plural)	books    ideas    matches
verb + -s/-es (after he/she/it)	works    enjoys    washes
verb + -ing	working    enjoying    washing
verb + -ed	worked    enjoyed    washed
adjective + -er (comparative)	cheaper    quicker    brighter
adjective + -est (superlative)	cheapest    quickest    brightest
adjective + -ly (adverb)	cheaply    quickly    brightly

 

When we use these endings, there are sometimes changes in spelling. These changes are listed below.

 

 

   6.2   

Nouns and verbs + -s/-es

 

The ending is -es when the word ends in -s/-ss/-sh/-ch/-x:

     bus/buses                 miss/misses              wash/washes    

     match/matches        search/searches        box/boxes

 

Note also:

     potato/potatoes       do/does       tomato/tomatoes       go/goes

 

 

   6.3   

Words ending in -y (baby, carry, easy etc.)

 

If a word ends in a consonant* + y (-by/-ry/-sy/-vy etc.) y changes to ie before the ending -s:      baby/babies     story/stories     country/countries     secretary/secretaries      hurry/hurries     study/studies     apply/applies     try/tries y changes to i before the ending -ed:      hurry/hurried     study/studied     apply/applied     try/tried y changes to i before the endings -er and -est:      easy/easier/easiest     heavy/heavier/heaviest     lucky/luckier/luckiest y changes to i before the ending -ly:      easy/easily     heavy/heavily     temporary/temporarily

* a e i o u are vowel letters.  The other letters (b c d f g etc.) are consonant letters.

 

 

y does not change before -ing:

     hurrying     studying     applying     trying

 

 

y does not change if the word ends in a vowel* + y (-ay/-ey/-oy/-uy):

     play/plays/played     monkey/monkeys     enjoy/enjoys/enjoyed     buy/buys

 

 

An exception is: day/daily
Note also: pay/paid     lay/laid     say/said

 

 

   6.4   

Verbs ending in -ie (die, lie, tie)

 

If a verb ends in -ie, ie changes to y before the ending -ing:

     die/dying     lie/lying     tie/tying

 

 

   6.5   

Words ending in -e (hope, dance, wide etc.)

 

Verbs If a verb ends in -e, we leave out e before the ending -ing:      hope/hoping     smile/smiling     dance/dancing     confuse/confusing Exceptions are be/being and verbs ending in -ee:     see/seeing     agree/agreeing If a verb ends in -e, we add -d for the past (of regular verbs):      hope/hoped     smile/smiled     dance/danced     confuse/confused

 

Adjectives and adverbs If an adjective ends in -e, we add -r and -st for the comparative and superlative:      wide/wider/widest     late/later/latest     large/larger/largest If an adjective ends in -e, we keep e before -ly in the adverb:      polite/politely     extreme/extremely     absolute/absolutely If an adjective ends in -le (simple, terrible etc.), the adverb ending is -ply, -bly etc:      simple/simply     terrible/terribly     reasonable/reasonably

 

 

   6.6   

Doubling consonants (stop/stopping/stopped, wet/wetter/wettest etc.)

 

Sometimes a word ends in vowel + consonant. For example:

     stop     plan     rub     big     wet     thin     prefer     regret

 

 

Before the endings -ing/-ed/-er/-est, we double the consonant at the end. So p → pp, n → nn etc. For example:

stop	p → pp	stopping	stopped
plan	n → nn	planning	planned
rub	b → bb	rubbing	rubbed
big	g → gg	bigger	biggest
wet	t → tt	wetter	wettest
thin	n → nn	thinner	thinnest

 

If the word has more than one syllable (prefer, begin etc.), we double the consonant at the end only if the final syllable is stressed :

     preFER / preferring / preferred          reGRET / regretting / regretted

     perMIT / permitting / permitted        beGIN / beginning

 

 

If the final syllable is not stressed, we do not double the final consonant:

     VISit / visiting / visited                         deVELop / developing / developed

     HAPpen / happening / happened        reMEMber / remembering / remembered

 

 

In British English, verbs ending in -l have -ll- before -ing and -ed whether the final syllable is stressed or not:

     travel / travelling / travelled              cancel / cancelling / cancelled

For American spelling, see Appendix 7.

American spelling:     travel → traveling / traveled     cancel → canceling / canceled

 

 

Note that we do not double the final consonant if the word ends in two consonants ( -rt, -lp, -ng etc.):      start / starting /started     help / helping / helped     long / longer / longest we do not double the final consonant if there are two vowel letters before it (-oil, -eed etc.):      boil / boiling / boiled     need / needing / needed     explain / explaining / explained      cheap / cheaper / cheapest     loud / louder / loudest     quiet / quieter / quietest we do not double y or w at the end of words. (At the end of words y and w are not consonants.)      stay / staying / stayed     grow / growing     new / newer / newest