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.
Nouns and verbs + -s/-es
The ending is -
es when the word ends in -s/-
ss/-
sh/-
ch/-
x:
bus/buses miss/misses wash/washes match/matches search/searches box/boxes
Note also:
potato/potatoes do/does tomato/tomatoes go/goes
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 country/countries secretary/secretaries hurry/hurries study/studies apply/applies 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
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 enjoy/enjoys/enjoyed buy/buys
An exception is: d
ay/d
ailyNote also: p
ay/p
aid l
ay/l
aid s
ay/s
aid
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
Words ending in -e (hope, dance, wide etc.)
VerbsIf a verb ends in -
e, we leave out
e before the ending -
ing:
hope/hoping smile/smiling dance/dancing confuse/confusing
Exceptions are
be/
beingand verbs ending in -
ee: s
ee/see
ing agr
ee/agree
ingIf a verb ends in -
e, we add -
d for the past (of regular verbs):
hope/hoped smile/smiled dance/danced confuse/confused
Adjectives and adverbsIf 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 (simp
le, terrib
le etc.), the adverb ending is -
ply,
-bly etc. :
simple/simply terrible/terribly reasonable/reasonably
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 → 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 reGRET / regretting / regretted perMIT / permitting / permitted 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 -
l have -
ll- before -
ing and -
ed whether the final syllable is stressed or not:
travel / travelling / travelled cancel / cancelling / cancelled
For American spelling, see Appendix 7.
Note that
we do not double the final consonant if the word ends in
two consonants ( -
rt, -
lp, -
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
