In this session, we would be working to understand the double consonant rule that is frequently found in the words which have the suffix words added to those words. For instance, let’s see the example which will help to gain a better understanding.
- She was not able to hold the bags and dropped them on the floor.
Now, you can see that the word has only one syllable as “dropt” but it is written in the form of two syllables.
Examples of Double Consonant Words
But there is one thing which you need to ensure is that these consonants are not always doubled by adding the suffixes. It is very important to get insights into all the spelling rules with double consonants.
Let’s have a look at some examples of double consonant words along with sentences where they are used.
| Word | Examples |
Attic | I have many photographs and old possessions in my attic. |
Address | What is your new home address? |
Beginning | My hair is beginning to go grey. |
Collect | Some people like to collect things, for example, football stickers. |
Happen | The future is things that are yet to happen. |
Brilliant | I have a brilliant driving instructor. |
Bitter | Lemons have a bitter taste. |
Difficult | The conversion from Dollars to Yen was difficult to make. |
Aggressive | She had been aggressive in the argument. |
Necessary | I will be happier with this project when I have finished all the necessary modifications. |
Successfully | The challenge was completed successfully. |
Annoyed | You will be annoyed if the pancake gets scorched. |
Apparatus | Do you have the correct apparatus for this experiment? |
Brilliant | I have a brilliant driving instructor. |
| Collection | A record is a collection of related information. |
Traffic | The police started to divert the traffic. |
Channel | The rainwater was passed through an underground channel. |
Double Consonant Spelling Rules for Suffix -ing, -ed.
As you see the double consonants are frequently been used or found in words that have a suffix added to the end of the words. For example:
- She dropped the heavy bag in the car.
- He cropped all the pictures that she would upload on social media.
- It occurred to me that you should work on weekends as well.
As you can see that there is only one syllable “drop” but the word is written as if it had two syllables and hence it becomes “dropped” and not “droped”. Similarly, the words “crop”, “occur” also have one syllable but it is written as “cropped”, “occurred”.
When you are adding certain endings to the words such as -ed, -ing, – er, and -est, then the words tend to have double consonants. These ending will represent the past tense, progressive tense, comparative and superlative respectively. But this is not necessary, the consonants are not always being doubled when you add thee suffixes. Therefore, it is essential to learn the rules of spelling words with double consonants.
| Tip: Want to make sure your writing always looks great? These 5 Pro Writing Tips can save you from misspellings, grammatical and punctuation mistakes, and other writing issues. |
1. Add Suffix in Single-Syllable Words
Suppose you are trying to add the suffix to just one-syllable words, then you need to follow the “Consonant-Vowel-Consonant” Rule.
If you check the last three letters of the one-syllable word then the last consonant should be doubled by adding the ending.
Consider the examples below:
- The word “drop” becomes dropped or dropping.
- The word “big” becomes bigger or biggest.
- Drop – Dropped- Dropping
- Big-Bigger-Biggest
- Crop-Cropped-Cropping
- Occur-Occurred-Occurring
When the last three letters of the word don’t follow the CVC pattern, don’t double the last consonant: The word “rest” becomes rested, not restted.
2. Adding Suffix to Multi Syllable Words
If you are trying to add a suffix to a word with more than just one syllable. Then the issue is not with the consonants or vowels. But you need to focus on the syllables which are stressed or emphasized.
If you are stressing are on the first syllable, you need not double the consonant. Let’s check the example given below.
- The word “begin” becomes beginning.
In the above example, you can see that the double consonants are used because the emphasis is placed on the second syllable of “begin.”
- The word “visit” becomes visiting or visited.
Here, in this sentence, you can see that the double consonants are not necessary because the emphasis is placed on the first syllable of “visit.”
In case you are in doubt, it may be helpful to pronounce these two-syllable words out loud to determine which syllable is stressed. This will help you decide whether to use double consonants.
We bring some examples of the words on which we have applied suffixes -ing, -ed, -y, -est, -er.
- Whir – Whirring
- Occur – Occurring
- Commit – Committed
- Ship – Shipped
- Mud – Muddy
- Fit – Fittest
- Big – Bigger
- Sad – Saddest
- Stop – Stopped
Note: You can see that there are words that can have certain endings such as -ed, -ing, -er, and also -est. Here you can easily use the double consonant rule. These word endings might also represent the past tense, progressive tense, comparative sense or superlative respectively.
Conclusion:`
You can see that these are the ground rules that you need to remember while you are writing more than speaking. It will help you to carefully notice the difference and identify the double consonants which are being used more quickly. So, we hope that you actually enjoyed the double consonant. You can share your views through comments in the section below. Englishbix will always help you to take a few minutes to explore all the grammar stuff.