Spelling Verbs

1. Adding –s to verbs

Most verbs simply add an –s to form the third person

eat → eat s, 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 → carr ies, try → tries, study → studies

Verbs that end in a vowel + -y only add –s

pay → pay s, 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 → help ed, 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 → tr ied, 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