Adding an ending to a word sometimes changes the word first. Three things can happen. The base stays as it is — jump/jumping, paint/painted, help/helpful, slow/slowly. It doubles its last consonant — hop/hopped, run/running, skip/skipped, sun/sunny. Or it drops a silent e — hike/hiking, bake/baking, smile/smiled. Which one happens is predictable, not arbitrary.
How it is taught
Each change is taught as a separate decision made about the base word before the ending goes on. Doubling applies to a one-syllable word with one short vowel and one final consonant, when the ending starts with a vowel — which is why 'hop' becomes 'hopped' but 'jump' does not become 'jumpped'. Dropping the e applies to silent-e words before a vowel ending, which is why 'smile' becomes 'smiled' but 'care' keeps its e in 'careless'. Children practise sorting base words by which change they will need before writing anything.
Where children get stuck
- Doubling is skipped and the meaning changes: 'hoped' written for 'hopped'. The double consonant is what keeps the vowel short.
- The silent e survives when it should not — 'hikeing', 'bakeing', 'smileed'.
- -ed is spelled the way it sounds. It has three pronunciations — /t/ in 'hopped', /d/ in 'smiled', /ed/ in 'wanted' and 'planted' — but only one spelling, so children write 'hopt' and 'jumpt'.
- Doubling gets over-applied to words that already end in two consonants: 'jumpping', 'planttted'.
Word list
| Word | Syllables | Division |
|---|---|---|
| running | 2 | run-ning |
| jumping | 2 | jump-ing |
| hopped | 1 | hopped |
| smiled | 1 | smiled |
| faster | 2 | fast-er |
| slower | 2 | slow-er |
| teaching | 2 | teach-ing |
| painted | 2 | paint-ed |
| wanted | 2 | want-ed |
| planted | 2 | plant-ed |
| hiking | 2 | hik-ing |
| baking | 2 | bak-ing |
| skipped | 1 | skipped |
| clapped | 1 | clapped |
| sunny | 2 | sun-ny |
| funny | 2 | fun-ny |
| windy | 2 | wind-y |
| helpful | 2 | help-ful |
| careless | 2 | care-less |
| slowly | 2 | slow-ly |