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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
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