Spelling
1. Nouns, verbs and
adjective can have the following endings:
Noun + -s/-es (plural)
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Books ideas
matches
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Verb + -s/-es (after he/she/it)
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Works
enjoys washes
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Verb + -ing
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Working
enjoying washing
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Verb + -ed
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Worked
enjoyed washed
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Adjective + -er (comparative)
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Cheaper
quicker brighter
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Adjective + -est
(superlative)
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Cheapest
quickest brightest
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Adjective + - ly (adverb)
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Cheaply quickly brightly
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When we use these endings, there are
sometimes changes in spelling. These changes are listed below.
2. Nouns and verbs +
-s/-es
The ending is –es when the word ends
in –s/-es/-sh/-x
bus/buses miss/misses wash/washes
match/matches search/searches box/boxes
Note also:
Potato/potatoes tomato/tomatoes
Do/does go/goes
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
hurry/hurries study/studies
y changes to i before the ending –ed:
hurry/hurried
study/studies
y changes to i before the ending –er and –est:
easy/easier/easiest
lucky/luckier/luckiest
y changes to i before the ending –ly:
easy/easily heavy/heavily
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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 buy/buys
An exception is: day/daily
Note also: pay/paid lay/laid say/said
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
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
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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
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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 à pp,
nànn etc.
For example:
Stop
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P àPP
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Stopping
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Stopped
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Plan
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N à NN
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Planning
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Planned
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Rub
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B àBB
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Rubbing
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Rugged
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Big
|
G àGG
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Bigger
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Biggest
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Wet
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T à TT
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Wetter
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Wettest
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Thin
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N à NN
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Thinner
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Thinnest
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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 perMIT
/ permitting / permitted
reGRET
/ regretting / regretted beGIN
/ beginning
If the final
syllable is not stressed, we do not double the final consonant:
VISit
/ visiting / visited deVELop
/ developing / developed
HAPpen
/ happened / 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
Note that
We do not
double the final consonant if re word ends in two consonants (-rt, -lp, -ing
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
