Spelling Tips Doubling Consonants when Adding a Suffix

Spelling Tips Doubling Consonants when Adding a Suffix Spelling Tips: Doubling Consonants when Adding a Suffix The â€Å"doubling up† rule (also known as the â€Å"1:1:1 rule†) is one of the few rules in English spelling that is correct most of the time. Given how confusing English can be, we find this reliability oddly comforting. Let’s look at how it works. What is the â€Å"Doubling Up† Rule? The â€Å"doubling up† rule states that, when adding a vowel suffix (e.g., â€Å"-ing† or â€Å"-ed†) to a single syllable word that ends with one vowel followed by one consonant, we should double the final consonant. For instance, â€Å"dig† gains an extra â€Å"g† when changed to â€Å"digging.† Additional examples include: Base Word (Single Consonant) With Vowel Suffix (Double Consonant) Star Starring, Starred, Starry Run Running, Runner Big Biggest, Bigger As you can see with â€Å"starry† (i.e., lit by stars) above, â€Å"y† is sometimes treated as a vowel when using this rule. Other words like this include â€Å"sunny,† â€Å"blurry† and â€Å"furry.† The Exceptions The only universal spelling rule in English is that there’s actually no universal spelling rule in English. As such, we need to mention a few exceptions: words that end in â€Å"w,† â€Å"x† or â€Å"y.† These letters aren’t usually doubled in English, so single syllable words that end in a vowel plus â€Å"w,† â€Å"x† or â€Å"y† don’t require doubling the final letter when adding a vowel suffix: Base Word (Single Consonant) With Vowel Suffix (Double Consonant) Play Playing, Player, Played Snow Snowing, Snowiest, Snowed Box Boxing, Boxer, Boxed Multi-Syllable Words Things get a bit trickier with words that are more than one syllable long. Some still require doubling the final consonant when adding a vowel suffix, such as: Base Word (Single Consonant) With Vowel Suffix (Double Consonant) Begin Beginning, Beginner Regret Regretting, Regretted Control Controlling, Controlled, Controller These are generally words where the final syllable is stressed. When the final syllable of a multis include: Base Word (Single Consonant) With Vowel Suffix (Single Consonant) Open Opening, Opened Listen Listening, Listened, Listener Happen Happening, Happened In some cases, whether to double the final consonant depends on the suffix added. â€Å"Prefer,† for example, gains an extra â€Å"r† in â€Å"preferred† or â€Å"preferring.† This is because, in both, the final syllable is stressed. However, no doubling is required in â€Å"preference,† since the final syllable here is unstressed. There are also some words that end in an â€Å"-l† that are conventionally spelled with a single consonant in American English, but take a double consonant in British or Canadian English: Base Word American English (Single Consonant) British/Canadian English (Double Consonant) Travel Traveled, Traveling, Traveler Travelled, Travelling, Traveller Cancel Canceled, Canceling Cancelled, Cancelling Model Modeled, Modeling, Modeler Modelled, Modelling, Modeller As such, it’s important to proofread your work carefully and double check any words that you’re not 100% sure are spelled correctly.