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.