Spelling Verbs
1. Adding –s to verbs
Most verbs simply add an –s to form the third person
eat → eats, treat → treats, sleep → sleeps, work → works
The exceptions are:
Add –es to verbs ending in
–ss: miss → misses, pass → passes
–zz: buzz → buzzes
–x: mix – mixes, tax → taxes
–ch: catch – catches, watch → watches, touch → touches
–sh: push – pushes, wash → washes
–o: do → does, go → goes, echo → echoes
Verbs that end in a consonant + -y change the –y to –ies
carry → carries, try → tries, study → studies
Verbs that end in a vowel + -y only add –s
pay → pays, say → says, play → plays
2. Adding –ing to verbs
Most verbs simply add an –ing to the verb
eat → eating, treat → treating, sleep → sleeping, work → working
The exceptions are:
Verbs that end in an –e, lose the –e
use → using, smoke → smoking, write → writing
Verbs that end in –ee, keep the –ee
agree → agreeing, see → seeing
Verbs that end in –ic change to –ick
picnic → picnicking, traffic → trafficking
Verbs that end in –ie, change to –y
lie→ lying, tie → tying
We double the last consonant if:
The verb has one syllable and ends in a vowel + consonant
sit → sitting, stop → stopping, →plan → planning
except: play → playing, show → showing
The verb has two syllables and the second syllable is stressed
begin → beginning, admit → admitting but differ → differing
The verb ends in a vowel + l
travel → travelling, equal → equalling
3. Doubling the final consonant
We saw in a previous point above that if a verb has two syllables and the second syllable is stressed, as well as if verbs ends in a vowel + l, we double the final consonant. However, there are other situations when we have to double the final consonant:
- Word ends in vowel + consonant + -ing/-ed/-er/-est:
stop → stopped, stopping, stopper
put → putting
big → bigger, biggest
run → runner, running
set → setter, setting
4. Adding –ed to verbs
Most verbs simply add an –ed to the verb
help → helped, treat → treated, work → worked
The exceptions are:
- Verbs that end in an –e, add –d
use → used, smoke → smoked, like → liked
- Verbs that end in –ee, keep the –ee
agree → agreed, free → freed
- Verbs that end in –ic change to –ick
picnic → picnicked, traffic → trafficked
- Verbs that end in a consonant + y, change to –ie
try → tried, fry → fried, reply → replied
- We double the last consonant if:
- The verb has one syllable and ends in a vowel + consonant
slam → slammed, stop → stopped, →plan → planned
except: play → played, show → showed
- The verb has two syllables and the second syllable is stressed
regret → regretted, admit → admitted but happen → happened
- The verb ends in a vowel + l
travel → travelled, equal → equalled
