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| stanley | Thursday 31st of March 2005 12:48:26 AM |
| Doubling final consonants - References
[1] http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/learnit/learnitv328.shtml [2] http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/learnit/learnitv11.shtml ----------------------------------------------------------- Ken Lee from Malaysia writes: Some verbs double the final consonant and some do not, e.g. slide - sliding does not, but chop - chopping does. Why is it so and how to know when and with what verbs to add just -ing or to double the consonant before adding -ing? Roger Woodham replies: slide - sliding / smile - smiling / hope - hoping The clue in these examples, Ken, is that the consonant does not come right at the end of the verb. All of these verbs, and many more in infinitive form, end in -e. As you can see, what happens in all these cases is that we drop the -e before we add -ing: I am hoping to see her on Thursday. I hope she's feeling better by then. see - seeing / agree - agreeing Note that if the verb ends in -ee, the final -e is not dropped when -ing is added: I could see you standing there on the thin ice. Seeing you standing there made me nervous. slide - sliding / slip - slipping / sleep - sleeping If we slip (on the ice, i.e. accidentally) rather than slide on it, the final consonant is doubled when -ing is added. This is because the consonant comes at the end of the word and is preceded by only one vowel letter and a short vowel sound. If there were two vowel letters and a longer vowel sound, as with sleep/sleeping, the consonant would not be doubled: I'm just slipping out for a coffee. Do you want some? ~ Don't bother. I'm going to slip out myself for some fresh air. b > bb / d > dd / g > gg / l > ll / m > mm / n > nn / p > pp / r > rr / t > tt These are the final consonants that are doubled when -ing is added. And not only when -ing is added. They are doubled before any ending that begins with a vowel, e.g the past simple or past participle ending -ed and the comparative and superlative endings -er and -est. Compare the following: I grabbed his shirt to slow him down. 'Don't grab my shirt!' he shouted. pack - packing, climb - climbing Note that verbs ending with double consonants, e.g. pack - packing, climb - climbing, are not affected. Neither are longer verbs that end in unstressed syllables, e.g. visit - visiting, offer - offering. (Note travel - travelling is an exception here.) panic - panicking Verbs ending in -c change to -ck before -ing, etc, is added: It's important not to panic if you lose your way. Panicking will only make matters worse. write - writing - written / bite - biting - bitten Note the vowel change from long to short and the doubling of the consonant in the past participle form of these two verbs: I've been bitten by your dog! ~ That's impossible. My dog never bites anyone. ----------------------------------------------------------- Zully Ramirez-Gamboa: For example: 'Words of one syllable, ending in a single consonant preceded by a single vowel, double the final consonant before a suffix beginning with a vowel. run -ing; running; big-est; biggest' If the word ends with two or more consonants, or if the final consonant is preceded by two vowels instead of one, the rule does not apply: debt-or: debtor; yard-age: yardage; swear-ing: swearing. I would like to know other rules, because I will have an oral exam. Roger replies: You raise two issues, Zully: spelling and pronunciation. Pronunciation in the stem syllable doesn’t change when the final consonant is doubled as in ‘run - running’, ‘big - bigger’, or ‘shop - shopping’. The doubling of the consonant is important. If the past tense forms of ‘shop’ were spelt ‘shoped’ or ‘shoping’ instead of ‘shopped’ or ‘shopping’ , they would have the same vowel sound as ‘hoped’ or ‘hoping’, and this would be confusing: ‘shoping in the supermarket’, rather than ‘shopping in the supermarket’. In verbs like 'swear' or 'shout' or 'shoot', the two vowels together produce either a diphthong or a long vowel sound and it is therefore unnecessary to double the consonant in the past tense or past participial form. Beware exceptions to the rule, though. Thus, while: 'He trailed her by five minutes' would be the norm, if we reverse the 'i' and the 'a' to produce ‘trial’ and we talk about trialling (= testing or piloting) an exam, then the 'l' is doubled, at least in British English: ‘We trialled the exam in South America.’ | |
