Words ending in -e (smoke, hope, wide. etc.)

Verbs If a verb ends in -ie, we leave out e before -ing: smoke/smoking    hope/hoping    dance/dancing     confuse/confusing Exceptions: be/being                   verbs ending in -ee:    see/seeing    agree/agreeing If a verb ends in -e, we add -d for the past (of regular verb) smoke/smoked    hope/hoped     dance/danced      confuse/confused

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 -ly polite/politely    extreme/extremely     absolute/absolutely If an adjective ends in -le (terrible, probable, etc.), we leave out e and add -y for the adverb terrible/terribly    probable/probably    reasonable/reasonably

Doubling consonants (stop/stopping/stopped, hot/hotter/hottest, etc.)

Sometimes a verb or an adjective ends in consonant - vowel - consonant. For example stop   plan   rob   hot   thin   wet   prefer   begin We double the final consonants (-pp-, -nn- etc.) of these words before -ing, -ed, -er and -est stop/stopping/stopped    plan/planning/planned    rob/robbing/robbed hot/hotter/hottest           thin/thinner/thinnest        wet/wetter/wettest If the word has more than one syllable (prefer, begin, etc.), we double that final consonant 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, and the last consonant is I, the consonant may be single or doubled: travel/traveling/traveled       or     travelling/travelled cancel/canceling/canceled   or     cancelling/cancelled If the final syllable is not stressed, we do not double the final consonant VISit/visiting/visited                 deVELop/devloping/developed LISten/listening/listened           reMEMber/remembering/remembered We do not double the final consonant if the word ends in two consonants (-rt, -rn, -ck, etc.) start/starting/started    turn/turning/turned    thick/thicker/thickest We do not double the final consonant if there are two vowel letters before it (-oil, -eed, -ain, etc.) boil/boiling/boiled      need/needing/needed      explain/explaining/explained cheap/cheaper/cheapest       loud/louder/loudest       quiet/quieter/quietest Note that we do not double y or w at the end of words. (At the end of words y and w are not consonants; they are part of the vowel sound.) stay/staying/stayed       grow/growing       new/newer/newest