Verb Forms and Verb Tenses (#6):
Spelling - ing Forms
English verbs have five basic forms: the base form, the - S form,
the - ing form, the past form, and the past participle form.
There are several ways to spell -ing forms:
1. If a verb ends in a stressed vowel + one or more
consonants + e or ue, "drop" the e and add - ing.
Examples:
abáte / abating; ache / aching; bathe / bathing;
beliéve / believing; bite / biting; care / caring;
deléte / deleting; dive / diving; ensláve / enslaving;
excíte / exciting; file / filing; gripe / griping;
hope / hoping; joke / joking; live / living;
make / making; paráde / parading; paste / pasting;
raise / raising; revíle / reviling; save / saving;
smoothe / smoothing; taste / tasting;
glue / gluing; rue / ruing; sue / suing
2. If a verb ends in - ie, change the - ie to - yand
add - ing.
Examples:
die / dying; lie / lying; tie / tying; vie / vying
3. If a verb ends in y, add - ing. It doesn't matter if
there is a vowel or a consonant before y.
Examples:
pry / prying pray / praying
spy / spying spay / spaying
4. If a verb ends in a vowel + one consonant,
double the consonant and add - ing.
Examples:
beg / begging; chat / chatting; dig / digging;
fit / fitting; grin / grinning; grip / gripping;
hop / hopping; mix / mixing; nip / nipping;
pin / pinning; quit / quitting; rip / ripping;
sit / sitting; tip / tipping; win / winning
5. If a verb ends in a stressed vowel + r,
double the r and add - ing, but if a verb ends
in an unstressed vowel + r, do not double,
the r: just add - ing:
confér / conferring ánswer / answering
defér / deferring óffer / offering
refér / referring súffer / suffering
6. If a verb ends in a vowel, add - ing.
Examples:
do / doing; echo / echoing; go / going; ski / skiing
7. Add - ing to all other verbs.
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Special Notes:
1. Note that sometimes two consonant letters are
needed to spell a single consonant sound:
ache loathe
bathe smoothe
breathe wreathe
cache writhe
clothe
(In ache, the letters ch are pronounced k and in
cache, they're pronounced sh. The letters th are
pronounced like th in them.)
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Notice also that sometimes two vowel letters are
needed to spell a single vowel sound:
achieve raise
believe receive
loathe soothe
peeve smoothe
2. The two words die and dye have the same sound (dái)
but different spellings: die ('become dead') and
dye ('to color'). For die, the -ing form has i changing
to y before -ing is added. For dye, the -ing is added
after the e (which is not the normal pattern):
die ---> dying dye ---> dyeing
3. The spellings vowel + consonants + e and
vowel + consonants show two different vowel
sounds. Notice that when - ing is added, the first
spelling drops the e and adds -ing, but the second
spelling doubles the consonant and adds -ing.
Examples:
file / filing fill / filling
hope / hoping hop / hopping
mope / moping mop / mopping
tape / taping tap / tapping
Spelling the - S Form
English verbs have five basic forms: the base form, the - S form,
the - ing form, the past form, and the past participle form.
The - S form is very commonly used for main verbs and auxiliary
verbs in the simple present tense when the subject is or means
he, she, or it. The - S form is also very commonly used as a full
(has) or contracted ('s) auxiliary verb in the present perfect tense
when the subject is or means he, she, or it.
For be, the - S form is is. For have, it is has. For other verbs,
there are three different spellings: - s, - es, and - ies:
1. Add - s to the base form.
This is the most common spelling for the -S form and
is the spelling used for most verbs.
Notice, especially, that - s is added when the base form
ends in one or more consonants + e:
aches, bakes, breathes, cares, caches, dives,
edges, fiddles, files, glares, hates, hopes, jokes,
lives, makes, notes, pastes, races, spares, surprises,
tastes, types, writes
Notice that - s is also added when the base form ends
in one or more consonants (but without e):
adds, bets, beats, calls, claps, cheats, cleans, digs,
drops, eats, fills, finds, fits, gets, grabs, hops, kills,
knits, links, lists, means, needs, opens, puts, quits,
robs, rings, rips, sends, stops, tells, trusts, voids,
wants, works, zips
In addition, notice this spelling is used with the small
number of verbs ending in two vowels (including - ie):
agrees, argues, boos, coos, flees, glues, moos,
sees, shoos, shoes, tees, woos
dies, lies, ties, vies
2. Add - es to the base form.
This happens in two situations:
a. when the base form ends in the vowel o:
does, goes, soloes
b. when the base form ends in ss, sh,
(t)ch, zz, and x:
assesses, blesses, caresses, fusses,
kisses, misses, passes, tosses;
blushes, dashes, flashes, gnashes,
hushes, lashes, mashes, pushes, rushes,
splashes, stashes, washes, wishes;
catches, ditches, etches, flinches,
hitches, itches, marches, mooches,
patches, reaches, searches,
scratches, teaches, touches, watches;
buzzes, fizzes;
boxes, coaxes, faxes, fixes,
relaxes, vexes, waxes.
3. Change y to i and add - es.
This happens when a verb ends in a consonant + y:
apply / applies; bury / buries;
carry / carries; copy / copies; cry / cries;
dry / dries; fly / flies; fry / fries;
hurry / hurries; marry / marries; pity / pities;
ply / plies; pry / pries; tidy / tidies; try / tries;
worry / worries.
Verbs that end in a vowel + y do not change the y
to i and then add - es, however:
buy / buys; employs / employs; enjoy / enjoys;
flay / flays; lay / lays; pay / pays; play / plays;
say / says; slay / slays; spray / sprays; stay / stays;
sway / sways;
Important:
Compare flay / flays, play / plays, and pray / prays
with fly / flies, ply / plies, and pry / pries to see
how these spelling rules work for verbs ending in s.
Verb Forms and Verb Tenses (#8):
Spelling Regular Past Forms
English verbs have five basic forms: the base form, the - S form,
the - ing form, the past form, and the past participle form. There
are two types of past forms--for regular and irregular verbs.
The past form of regular verbs ends in - d, - ed, or - ied. Here are
some guidelines for spelling.
1. Add -d to the base form.
This happens when the base form ends in a vowel
and one or more consonants plus e:
ached, baked, blamed, breathed, cared, cached,
chased. diced, dozed, dyed, edged, fiddled, filed,
glared, grated, hated, hoped, joked, lived,
mired, noted, paced, pasted, raced, raised,
sliced, spared, surprised, tasted, typed, whined.
This also happens when the base form ends in ue,
oe, or ie:
glued, rued, sued, hoed, toed, died, lied, tied
2. Change -y to -i and add -ed.
This happens when a verb ends in a consonant
and y:
apply / applied; bully / bullied; bury / buried;
carry / carried; copy / copied; cry / cried;
dry / dried; ferry / ferried; fry / fried;
hurry / hurried; marry / married;
parry / parried; pry / pried; query / queried;
rely / relied; tarry / tarried; tidy / tidied;
try / tried; vary / varied; worry / worried
This does not happen when a verb ends in a vowel
and y:
annoy / annoyed; bray / brayed; destroy / destroyed;
employ / employed; enjoy / enjoyed;
fray / frayed; gray / grayed; obey / obeyed;
play / played; pray / prayed; prey / preyed;
stay / stayed; stray / strayed; sway / swayed;
toy / toyed
Compare fray / frayed with fry / fried;
pray / prayed , prey / preyed and parry / parried
with pry / pried.
3. Double the final consonant and add -ed
if there is a single stressed vowel before
the final consonant.
ban / banned; can / canned; hem / hemmed;
mop / mopped; pin / pinned; sip / sipped;
trap / trapped; wad / wadded; whip / whipped;
compél / compélled; confér / conférred;
prefér / preférred; refér / reférred
Note:
Compare cane / caned and can / canned;
mope / moped and mop / mopped;
pine / pined and pin / pinned;
wade / waded and wad / wadded.
Also compare óffer / óffered and confér / conférred;
trável / tráveled and compél / compélled.
4. Add -ed to the base forms of all other
regular verbs.
