2. ‘-ing’ FORM
• Verbs ending with consonant, double the
consonant:
put – putting, carol – carolling, travel – travelling
• Exceptions: Some verbs ending in r, x, w or y are
exceptions to the doubling rule:
tear – tearing, blow – blowing, cry – crying
• Verbs ending with vowel, drop the vowel:
take – taking, make – making, lose – losing
3. • Verbs ending in ‘ie’, drop the e and change the i
to a y:
die – dying, lie – lying, tie – tying
• Verbs ending in y after a vowel, keep the y when
adding ‘ing’:
buy – buying, play – playing, stay – staying
4. PAST FORM
• Verbs ending with ‘ed’ (regular verbs):
- add only d to a verb which ends in e:
change – changed, create – created
- in verbs that end with y preceded by a consonant,
drop the y, replace it with i and add ed:
study – studied
*However, if the y is preceded by a vowel (a, e, i, o,
u) just add ed: play – played
• When a verb ends with a letter sequence
of consonant-vowel-consonant, double the final
consonant: stop (t=consonant, o=vowel,
p=consonant) – stopped
5. • If the verb is longer than one syllable, double only if
the stress falls on the last syllable: prefer
(f=consonant, e=vowel, r=consonant, stress falls on
last syllable /fer/) – preferred
• The letters h, w, x, y are never doubled:
convey – conveyed, fix – fixed, swallow – swallowed
• Irregular verbs: think – thought, hide – hid, sit – sat
• Same spelling, different pronunciation: read
•
6. PRESENT SIMPLE THIRD PERSON FORM
• Add es or only s after the last letter of the verb
for (HE/HIM, SHE/HER, IT):
- es: go – goes
- s: choose – chooses
• No change in spelling (for THEY/THEM)