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:
match/matches, wash/washes, bus/buses, miss/misses, box/boxes, search/searches
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 lorry/lorries hurry/hurries study/studies country/countries apply/applies secretary/secretaries 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
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 enjoy/enjoys/enjoyed buy/buys, monkey/monkeys
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.)
1 Verbs
If a verb ends in ~e, we leave out e before the ending ~ing:
hope/hoping smile/smiling dance/dancing confuse/confusing
Exceptions arc: 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
2 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 the adverb ending ~1y:
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, wet, thin, slip, 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
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/happening/happened
reMEMber/remembering/remembered
In British English, verbs ending in -1 have -]I- before ~ing and ~ed whether the final syllable is stressed or not:
travel/travelling/travelled
cancel/cancelling/cancelled
For American spelling,
Note that:
we do not double the final consonant if the word ends in two consonants (~rt, ~1p, ~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
