Double or Nothing?
“How do I know when to double the last letter when I want to add -ing to a word?” — A query from a confused blogger, who didn’t identify him- or herself.
Actually, this is a lot simpler than you might think. It all depends on the vowel preceding that last consonant. (Usually. Remember that English is chock full of exceptions to rules.)
Take the words grope and stop. Grope has a long vowel sound before the final consonant, so we do not double the consonant when adding the “-ing” suffix: grope, groping.
Stop, on the other hand, has a short vowel sound before the final consonant, so we must double the final consonant before adding “-ing”: stop, stopping.
Oh, and it’s not just “-ing,” but any suffix that you add to the word. Stop, stopped. Grope, groped.
Who cares? you ask. Well, besides that blogger who e-mailed me, the law apparently does. I heard some time back about a man who received a citation for stopping in a “no stopping” zone. The zone was clearly marked with a sign that read “NO STOPING.” The man went to court and contested the citation and its concomitant fine, as he had not violated the sign’s instructions. Stoping, you see, is a form of the verb to stope, which means to extract mineral ore from a vertical vein. The man was not stoping; he had merely stopped his car to take in the view. The court upheld the man’s contention, as the sign, with its misspelling, did not convey the meaning that would have been required to discourage motorists from parking along the roadway in question. To stop and to stope are, after all, very different things. The judge advised the municipality to change its sign.
So it is important. It can be embarrasing to find that you have misspelled a word in this way. The difference between a sloping hill and a slopping one, which would be engaged in a mudslide, is vast. So is the difference between a hoping bride and a hopping one. I would assume that the former is pleasantly anticipating her nuptials; I would guess that the latter had been trod upon by a careless groom.
I cannot, at the moment, recall any exceptions to this rule, but I am certain that there must be at least one. If I think of it, I’ll add it on. In the meantime, use the vowel-sound rule to save you embarrassment, grief, and communication breakdowns. And maybe even impress your boss.
2 Comments
And what about focus? I have had more arguments about this one than anything else.
According to the Collins, both are correct. But no matter which one you use, someone is going to tell you it’s wrong. Hmmm.
I suspect that one may be British, and the other US. But which?
No Stoping Zone
I’ll have to remember that one. Hawai`i is full of misspelled signs.
The one I see the most is “writting.” Seems a lot of my friends spend their time writting me letters. Must be some new-fangled slang I’m not aware of.