Spelling rules

Charles Dube

A COUPLE of weeks ago we talked about the “verb”, from the definition to simple tenses. We learnt that verbs can be divided between regular and irregular verbs. Regular verbs just add “-ed” to the infinitive when changing them to the simple past tense. Infinitive form of the verb is that which you find listed in a dictionary. Examples: jump – jumped, fail – failed, look – looked, walk – walked.

Add “-d” if the infinitive ends with “-e”: For instance, like – liked, hate – hated, taste – tasted. If the infinitive ends in a consonant plus “-y” replace the “-y” with “- i” then add “-ed”: marry – married, cry – cried, fry – fried. If the infinitive ends in one vowel and one consonant, double the consonant. When the infinitive has only one syllable: for example, ban – banned, fit – fitted, rob – robbed, sip – sipped. When the stress is on the last syllable with more than one syllable: for example: control – controlled, occur – occurred, label – labelled, program – programmed. Note that when the stress is not on the last syllable the last consonant is not doubled. Examples: happen – happened, listen – listened, allow – allowed, storm – stormed. Add “-ed” if the infinitive ends in: -ss, -ch, -sh, -x, -er, -mb, -mp. Examples of verbs: pass – passed, hiss – hissed, watch – watched, mix – mixed, enter – entered, stammer – stammered, climb – climbed, camp – camped, rush – rushed, flash – flashed.

Irregular verbs do not follow the “-ed” rule. Not all verbs add “-ed” – lots of verbs in the simple past tense are irregular. Remember these common ones: to get – got, to wear – wore, to be – was/were, to go –went, to take – took, to eat – ate, to steal – stole, to buy – bought. Some verbs do not change to form the simple past – they stay the same. For example, cut, remains the same even in the past tense. I cut a big piece of cake at the wedding.

Most common examples: beat, cost, hurt, hit, hurt, put, set, cast, burst, hung, let, rid, slit, and split. Forming and spelling –ing verbs. This one can be used to describe ongoing actions, either in the present or the past. The –ing verb says what is or was happening. To talk about an action that is still happening or was still happening in the past, you need to use the present or past form of the verb “to be” plus the main verb in its “-ing” form.

So, if you are writing in the present tense, you will need either “am”, “are” or “is”. If you are writing in the past, use “was” or “were”. Then the main verb adds “-ing” on the end. Most verbs just add -ing on the end without changing the spelling of the verb. 1. Verbs which have a long vowel sound – A long vowel sound is when a vowel has a strong sound, like, “keep” or “eat”. A long vowel often has the same sound as the letter of the alphabet.

For example, “E” sounds like “ee”. You just need to add “-ing” to verbs with long vowel sounds – keep – they are keeping chickens, eat – You are eating. 2. Verbs which end with two consonants. Verbs such as “help” and “ask” end with consonants. Again you just need to add “-ing”. Help – she is helping in the office. Ask – they are asking for help. Jump – he is jumping. 3. Some verbs which end with two vowels. Verbs like: “agree,” “see”, and “flee” end with two vowels.

The normally feature is that you just add –“-ing”. Examples: agree – agreeing. They ended up agreeing with him. See – she is seeing him. Flee – they were fleeing from the rebels. However, you cannot add “-ing” to all verbs ending in two vowels. There are exceptions to this rule, such as words ending in “-ie”: For instance – die – dieing is incorrect. The correct spelling is die – dying. 4. Verbs which end in “y”.

Research says, unlike other suffixes, you do not have to worry about changing the “y” to an ‘i’ when adding ‘–ing’. It does not matter if the verb ends with a consonant and then a “-y”, or with a vowel and then a “-y” or with a vowel and then a “-y” – you just add “-ing”. Words like fly – the bird is flying. Pay – he is paying his workers. Try – they are trying hard to meet the deadline.

Some verbs drop the final “e” before adding –ing. Verbs with a silent “e” at the end drop the “e” before adding “-ing”. A silent “e” is the one which you do not hear, for example, the “e” at the end of “strike”. You need to remove the “e” before adding “-ing” – striking. The striking workers were ordered to report for duty.

Let me repeat the rule on words with double letters in between. The common mistake is doubling when changing verbs from the present to the past or present continuous tenses. The most common example is on this one: dine – dined – dining. When people talk of the dining hall they always make a mistake of doubling the “n” and write “dinning”. Study the following simple rule to understand the correct spellings.

When a one syllable word ends with a consonant, double the consonant when you add an ending. Here are some examples: ban – banned – banning, bar – barred – barring, bat – batted – batting, cap – capped – capping. Otherwise, the consonant is not doubled.

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