Talk:Z13087
Rules
The rule is to add the morpheme -ing in all cases.
Orthographically:
1. If a word ends in -e, delete it and add “ing”, unless it ends in -ee, -ie, -oe, or -ye. If it ends in -ie, replace “ie” with “y” and add “ing”, otherwise just add “ing”. For words ending in -ue, just adding “ing” is generally a less common alternative.
If a word ends in -ce or -ge, deleting the “e” may lead to (apparent) confusion with a similar word ending in -c or -g. The “e” will be retained if there is a (relatively common) verb that is the same apart from the e (so hinge → hinging but singe → singeing); deletion of the e is the prescriptive norm but retention seems to have become more common in certain cases, like “whingeing” Google ngram for “whingeing”, “whinging”). For words ending in -dge, just adding “ing” is a less common or non-standard alternative.
- ice → icing
- true → truing
- free → freeing
- lie → lying
- toe → toeing
- dye → dyeing
- eye → eyeing
- sauté → sautéing
- fête → fêting
- queue → queueing (perhaps the more common form today)
- hinge → hinging
- singe → singeing
- sing → singing
- whinge → whinging or whingeing (the more common form today)
- badge → badging (“badgeing” is non-standard but de-badgeing has been observed in connection with automobiles)
2. If a word ends in -c, add “king” (panic → panicking). May not apply to to abbreviated words (mic → micing, spec → speccing; there are alternatives here).
3. In most varieties of English (but not in US-English), if a word ends in -l after a single vowel, add “ling” (cancel → cancelling), but “parallel” is an exception (parallel → paralleling). US-English doubles the l only if the final syllable is stressed (“excelling” but “canceling”).
4. If a word ends in -b, -d, -f, -g, -k, -m, -n, -p, -r, -s, -t, -v or -z preceded by a single vowel, double the final consonant and add “ing”. Does not apply to an unstressed final syllable (fillet → filleting but sublet → subletting). Sometimes a final -s is doubled even when the syllable is unstressed (focus → focusing or focussing).
5. Otherwise, just add “ing” (the morphological rule). GrounderUK (talk) 23:04, 10 February 2024 (UTC) [originally at implementation Talk:Z13091].