255. Nouns Made from Adjectives

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Some English nouns are made by changing an adjective spelling

WORD MAKING WITH ENDINGS IN ENGLISH

Words are created for many reasons and in many different ways. One way is by giving an existing word a new grammatical function. In English, for example, the verb GO is used as a noun in the expression have a go (see 176. Ways of Using GO, #8); and advanced, the participle of the verb ADVANCE, has become an adjective (with a slightly evolved meaning) in expressions like advanced grammar (see 261. Words with Complicated Grammar 3, #2).

In these examples, the new grammatical usage is not accompanied by any change in the form of the word. Often, however, a new usage is signalled by a form change, typically in the spelling at the end of the word. For example, the verb TREAT becomes a noun through the addition of -ment (see 249. Action Noun Endings).

Most word-changing endings in English are associated with one or more particular word classes. Thus, -ment indicates a noun, while -al indicates either a noun or an adjective (see 172. Multi-Use Suffixes, #3). This is useful information, since it can assist both reading (as a pointer to meanings of newly-encountered words – see 177. How to Guess Meanings in a Text) and writing (offering a possible way to express a particular meaning). Hence, improving familiarity with common endings in English and the word class(es) they typically indicate can be a worthwhile language development activity.

In this blog, the above-mentioned posts on action noun endings (which make nouns from verbs) and multi-word suffixes are partly aimed at assisting this familiarity (along with 106. Word-Like Suffixes and 304. Adjectives Made from a Verb). Here, nouns made from adjectives are the main topic, but adjectives made from nouns are also briefly considered.

One area where this information can prove useful is indirect questions involving the idea of how + adjective, e.g. how useful / relevant is…. These are often (but not always) replaceable by the adjective’s related noun + of (the usefulness / relevance of…) – fewer words and more elegant-sounding (see 185. Noun Synonyms of Question Words). Another area is the construction of paraphrases in order to avoid “plagiarism” or poor style (see 270. Paraphrasing Adjectives with Words of Other Kinds).

Also useful to know is the fact that an adjective and its related noun often work with other words in the same way. For example, happy and happiness both allow a following with; willing and willingness both allow a following to verb. There are, however, some problematic exceptions, notably possible / possibility (see 78. Infinitive versus Preposition after Nouns).

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SPELLINGS OF ADJECTIVE-DERIVED NOUNS

A noun can be considered to have been made from an adjective if it contains a recognizable adjective spelling to which either no ending or a noun ending has been added, with or without a spelling modification. For example, the noun happiness is obviously the adjective happy combined with the noun ending -ness.

English has quite a variety of endings that can be added to an adjective to make a noun. However, there are plenty of adjectives that none of them can be added to. For example, healthy and massive become nouns not by adding a noun ending, but rather by removing an adjective one (health, mass). They are, in fact, adjectives made from nouns – a category briefly considered at the end of this post. Adjectives starting with un- often need to drop or change un-. For example, undoubted becomes no doubt, and unable becomes inability.

Here is a list of endings that can be considered to be making a noun from an adjective:

1. -ANCE

abundance, brilliance, defiance, distance, dominance, elegance, extravagance, ignorance, importance, observance, radiance, relevance, reliance, reluctance, repugnance, resistance

Adjectives that create nouns of this kind tend themselves to end with -ant – an ending from which some -cy nouns are also made.

Note that –ance does not always combine with an adjective: it is also a common way of making a verb into a noun (e.g. admit – admittance). Most -ance nouns are derived from only an adjective or only a verb, but a few (underlined above) can be linked with either.
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2. -ATION and -TION

abbreviation, corruption, dejection, desperation, determination, frustration, inclination, intention, relaxation, satisfaction, separation, variation

Like -ance, this ending can create nouns from verbs as well as from adjectives. Indeed, it does so much more commonly. The above nouns all express a state. Most of the adjectives end in -ed, exceptions being desperation (from desperate), corruption (corrupt) and intention (intent). Separation links with both separate and separated (= semi-divorced).
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3. -CY

accuracy, adequacy, buoyancy, constancy, currency, decency, delicacy, efficacy, frequency, hesitancy, immediacy, intricacy, (il)legitimacy, (il)literacy, militancy, numeracy, profligacy, solvency, sufficiency, transparency, vacancy

Adjectives that become nouns with this ending tend to be spelt with “-ate” or “-t(e)”.
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4. -ENCE

absence, ambivalence, convenience, dependence, diligence, effervescence, emergence, eminence, equivalence, evidence, expedience, indulgence, insolence, obedience, permanence, persistence, prescience, presence, prominence, prudence, residence, reticence, violence

As with -ance, underlining here shows the possibility of derivation from either a verb or an adjective. In the latter case, the adjective usually ends in -ent. However, not all -ent adjectives make -ence nouns: some, like frequent, make -cy nouns, and content needs -ment. For more on content, see 254. Tricky Word Contrasts 10, #1. For more on emergence, see 157. Tricky Word Contrasts 5, #3.
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5. -ILITY

acceptability, adaptability, capability, excitability, intelligibility, likeability, nobility, possibility, probability, reliability, remarkability, stability, suitability, susceptibility, viability, visibility

Most of these nouns are derived from adjectives ending in -able or -ible (= “able”). The underlined ones have a related verb with passive meaning: likeability, for example, means “ability to be liked” (see 27. How to Avoid Passive Verbs).
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6. -ISM

atheism, capitalism, defeatism, environmentalism, fatalism, pacifism, radicalism, realism, socialism, vegetarianism

In most cases, this ideology-naming -ism ending corresponds to the adjective ending -ist – only vegetarianism and radicalism above do not. All of the corresponding adjective spellings are additionally usable as people nouns.
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7. -ITY

activity, actuality, ambiguity, clarity, curiosity, density, duality, enormity, (in)equality, eventuality, extremity, factuality, familiarity, formality, generosity, (in)humanity, immunity, individuality, inferiority, laxity, legality, majority, masculinity, mutuality, necessity, (ab)normality, obscurity, oddity, personality, plurality, potentiality, (im)practicality, rapidity, (ir)rationality, (un)reality, (ir)regularity, rigidity, (in)security, severity, (dis)similarity, stupidity, superiority, universality

Some of these, it will be seen, modify the spelling of the adjective (e.g. clear, dense, curious, enormous, generous, immune, necessary, secure, severe, unequal). A common adjective type that becomes a noun with -ity ends in -al. For more on security, see 236. Tricky Word Contrasts 9, #1.
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8. -MENT

amazement, amusement, bafflement, contentment, disappointment, embarrassment, employment, enlightenment, entitlement, excitement, involvement, puzzlement

All of these examples are derived from -ed adjectives, and hence ultimately from verbs (see 245. Adjectives with a Participle Ending). Like the adjectives, they convey the passive meaning of the verb and refer to a resultant state rather than an action. For example, amazement means “the state of being amazed”.

In most cases, the same noun can also express an action (e.g. “the act of amazing”), but must then be considered a verb-derived “action” noun rather than a noun derived from an adjective. The -ment ending is also found on many nouns that are solely derived from a verb (see 249. Action Noun Endings), so that it is easily thought of as more typically combining with verbs than with adjectives.
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9. -NESS

calmness, childishness, closeness, considerateness, decisiveness, enormousness, extensiveness, fullness, goodness, happiness, holiness, hopelessness, kindness, nastiness, nervousness, peevishness, pointedness, purposefulness, quickness, redness, responsiveness, restiveness, separateness, slowness, tastiness, tightness, tiredness, thankfulness, tirelessness, wholeness, willingness

This is perhaps the largest of all the categories. Many adjectives that become nouns with it have no adjective ending of their own. There are, however, some adjective endings that seem especially combinable with -ness, notably -y (happiness), -ish (peevishness), -ive (restiveness), -ful (thankfulness) and -less (hopelessness). For extensive lists of -ful and -less adjectives, see 106. Word-Like Suffixes.
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10. -SION

confusion, diffusion, division, precision

Diffusion and precision come from the -se adjectives diffuse (see 236. Tricky Word Contrasts 9, #4) and precise. The others come from -ed adjectives.

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11. -TH

breadth, depth, length, strength, truth, width.
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12. -TY

anxiety, certainty, difficulty, ferocity, loyalty, naivety, royalty, safety
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13. NO ENDING

alternative, double, elite, equivalent, future, human, hurt, level, north, opposite, past, potential, present, principal, specific, square, subordinate, suspect, upset, welcome

Nouns can be spelt the same as an adjective just as many are spelt the same as a verb. For example alternative, used as an adjective in alternative possibilities, is a noun in the obvious alternative (see 266. Indicating Alternatives).
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14. ODDITIES

falsehood, freedom, height, likelihood, marriage, pleasure, wisdom

Among these, falsehood, likelihood, freedom and wisdom are notable because the -hood and -dom endings are more typically added to nouns (e.g. childhood, parenthood, knighthood, kingdom). Marriage and pleasure correspond to the stative -ed adjectives married and pleased.

The above lists show that some adjectives have two related nouns with different meanings. For example, observant is related to observance (= duty fulfilment) or observation (= perception), and worthy is related to worth (= value) or worthiness (= suitability). Other pairs are:

complete – completeness / completion
enormous – enormousness / enormity (see 276. Tricky Word Contrasts 11, #6)
equivalent – equivalent / equivalence
human(e) – human / humanity
intricate – intricacy / intricateness
potential – potential / potentiality
selective – selection / selectiveness (see also attentive, suggestive)
separate – separateness / separation
special – specialness / speciality
tolerant – tolerance /toleration

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SPELLINGS OF NOUN-DERIVED ADJECTIVES

The following list and examples are offered for reference only. In concentrating on endings that can be added to a noun, they do not necessarily include every possible adjective ending. Moreover, most in the list are also found on adjectives not derived from a noun (e.g. -ic on frantic, -ly on early).

ABLE / -IBLE

Typically added to verbs, but some nouns too, e.g. contemptible, impressionable, knowledgeable

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-(I)AL

artificial, autumnal, behavio(u)ral, central, critical, doctrinal, essential, exceptional, facial, factual, fictional, industrial, informational, judgmental, logical, marginal, minimal, monumental, mystical, original, political, positional, presidential, professional, recreational, regional, residential, spacial, tactical

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-ARY

documentary, dietary, fragmentary, legendary, momentary, monetary, visionary

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-ATE (pronounced /ət/)

affectionate, extortionate, passionate

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-FUL

See 106. Word-Like Suffixes.

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-IC

cosmic, economic, emphatic, fantastic, formulaic, gigantic, graphic, historic, ironic, magnetic, manic, microscopic, panoramic, periodic, photographic, poetic, politic, scenic, strategic, synthetic, talismanic (see 90. The Greek Impact on English Vocabulary)

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-ICAL

biological (and other adjectives made from an -ology noun), conical, cylindrical, economical, farcical, historical, hypothetical, mathematical, mythical, numerical, practical, spherical, theatrical, typical

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-ISH

childish, fiendish, hellish, impish, mannish

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-IVE

Typically added to verbs (see 304. Adjectives Made from a Verb, #2), but some nouns too, e.g. destructive, effective, festive, instinctive, massive, purposive, qualitative, quantitative, repetitive, responsive, successive

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-LESS

See 106. Word-Like Suffixes

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-LIKE

Usable with most nouns to indicate a similarity, e.g. child-like, spring-like (see 149. Saying how Things are Similar)

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-LY

daily, earthly, friendly, heavenly, homely, hourly, leisurely, manly, timely, womanly, worldly

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-OUS

dangerous, disastrous, frivolous, furious, glorious, harmonious, humorous, joyous, judicious, momentous, mountainous, numerous, poisonous, pompous, porous, rebellious, repetitious, righteous, scandalous, suspicious, victorious, wondrous

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-SOME

awesome, fearsome, handsome, irksome, lonesome, thanksome, troublesome

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-Y

angry, dirty, easy, fiddly, fiery, grainy, gritty, hasty, hilly, hungry, lengthy, meaty, messy, needy, noisy, predatory, rainy, risky, showy, smiley, speedy, squeaky, touchy, tricky, watery, wealthy, wintry, woody, worthy

249. Action Noun Endings

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Action nouns are usually recognizable from the way they end

ACTION NOUNS AND THEIR ENDINGS

The term “action noun” in this blog means a noun that has similar spelling to a particular verb and can express the same meaning. Examples are movement, spelt substantially like the verb MOVE and able to mean “moving”, and existence, similar obviously to EXIST and able to mean “existing”. Action nouns are a subgroup of what are often technically called “nominalizations”. Most are grammatically uncountable, though also usable, often in a countable way, to express a non-action meaning (see 14. Action Outcomes). Action nouns have a number of special uses in professional writing (see 131. Uses of “Action” Nouns).

As the examples above indicate, action nouns are typically made by adding extra letters onto the end of a verb. The endings are varied, but each one is typically found on numerous different nouns. In this post I wish to provide a fairly exhaustive list of these endings, along with points of interest that they raise. In the process, I hope to produce what will prove to be a usefully extensive list of common action nouns.

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LIST OF ENDINGS

The following list of common action noun endings does not include -ing, as I take action words with that ending to usually be verbs in the gerund form rather than nouns (see 70. Gerunds). Although some nouns do have -ing, they tend not to represent actions (see 240. Nouns that End with “-ing”).

The words illustrating each ending are not intended to be exhaustive. The fairly rare ones that are mostly countable (i.e. able to be plural or follow a / an) are underlined.

-AGE: blockage, breakage, carriage, coverage, leakage, linkage, marriage, passage, shrinkage, spillage, spoilage, storage, usage, wastage

-AL: appraisal, approval, arrival, avowal, bestowal, betrayal, deferral, denial, dismissal, dispersal, disposal, perusal, portrayal, proposal, rebuttal, recital, referral, refusal, removal, renewal, reversal, revival, survival, trial, withdrawal

-ANCE: acceptance, admittance, allowance, assistance, assurance, attendance, appearance, conveyance, defiance, deliverance, disturbance, endurance, entrance, insurance, maintenance, observance, performance, perseverance, reliance, resemblance, resistance, semblance, surveillance, utterance

-ATION: argumentation, cessation, condemnation, condensation, consideration, continuation, derivation, determination, examination, exclamation, experimentation, explanation, exploration, formation, inclination, installation, interpretation, limitation, observation, occupation, preparation, presentation, pronunciation, publication, quotation, reclamation, refutation, relaxation, revelation, taxation, temptation, valuation, variation, finalization, harmonization, immunization, materialization, memorization, neutralization, normalization, pressurization, publication, realization, restoration, revelation, specialization, summarization, utilization, valuation, variation, visualization

-(A)TION: abbreviation, accumulation, annihilation, appropriation, articulation, association, calculation, celebration, creation, demonstration, discrimination, domestication, donation, duplication, elevation, enumeration, equation, estimation, evaluation, evaporation, exaggeration, excavation, extermination, facilitation, generation, hesitation, illustration, indication, inflation, irrigation, manipulation, motivation, nomination, operation, regulation, relation, relegation, rotation, separation, speculation, stagnation, termination, toleration, vibration

-ENCE: abstinence, convergence, correspondence, dependence, deterrence, divergence, emergence, existence, incidence, inference, insistence, occurrence, preference, pretence, recurrence, reference, residence, subsidence

-ICATION: application, clarification, classification, edification, electrification, exemplification, falsification, identification, implication, magnification, mollification, multiplication, notification, nullification, purification, qualification, quantification, ratification, signification, specification, unification

-IS: analysis, diagnosis, emphasis, metamorphosis, synthesis

-MENT: accompaniment, acknowledgement, advancement, advertisement, agreement, alignment, announcement, annulment, appointment, arrangement, assessment, attachment, attainment, commencement, commitment, concealment, confinement, containment, curtailment, derailment, development, embellishment, enactment, encouragement, endowment, enforcement, engagement, enhancement, enjoyment, enlargement, entertainment, enticement, establishment, fulfilment, harassment, improvement, investment, involvement, judgment, management, measurement, movement, payment, procurement, pronouncement, punishment, recruitment, replacement, replenishment, requirement, retirement, statement, treatment

-SION: admission, commission, comprehension, concession, conclusion, conversion, decision, digression, discussion, diversion, division, emission, expansion, expression, expulsion, extension, fusion, impression, inclusion, omission, permission, persuasion, possession, progression, provision, recession, reversion, revision, succession, suppression, suspension

-T: ascent, complaint, deceit, descent, pursuit, receipt, restraint

-TION: acquisition, (re)action, addition, assertion, assumption, attention, attribution, collection, competition, composition, conception, connection, construction, contraction, conviction, corruption, deception, definition, demolition, description, destruction, detention, diminution, direction, disinfection, distribution, exemption, exposition, extinction, extraction, imposition, infection, injection, insertion, instruction, intention, interruption, introduction, opposition, perception, prediction, presumption, production, prohibition, reception, recognition, redemption, reduction, relation, repetition, restriction, resumption, retention, satisfaction, solution, suggestion, supposition, transition

-URE: closure, departure, enclosure, disclosure, erasure, exposure, failure, pressure, seizure

-Y: apology, assembly, delivery, discovery, entreaty, entry, expiry, injury, inquiry, mastery, mimicry, mockery, photography, piracy, recovery, scrutiny, summary

PHRASAL VERB DERIVATIVES: check-in, climb-down, comeback, cutback, downturn, holdup, outbreak, pick-up, roll-out, selloff, shutdown, slowdown, takeover, take-up, upswing, upturn

SAME AS THE VERB: advance, appeal, approach, attack, attempt, boost, change, capture, climb, collapse, compromise, contrast, cure, cut, decrease, deed, delay, demand, dip, drop, encounter, escape, fight, exit, fall, fight, flow, fracture, guarantee, guess, hope, increase, journey, look, mention, need, march, move, position, progress, promise, purchase, push, reform, release, request, research, return, review, rise, rush, search, start, stop, support, surge, survey, transit, travel, trust, turn, use, wish

OTHER: birth, choice, coercion, commentary, comparison, conspiracy, criticism, death, defence, flight, growth, hatred, hypnotism, loss, oversight, practice, pretence, proof, response, sale, speech, success, suspicion, tendency

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OBSERVATIONS

An important general point about endings that can make action nouns is that they do not exactly match these nouns: some are on an action-expressing noun that lacks a corresponding verb, and others are on a noun that does not express an action, despite having a corresponding action verb (I exclude here nouns expressing the meaning of state verbs, like dependence, which do have action noun characteristics: see 280. Alternative Meanings of Action Nouns).

Action nouns with no corresponding verb include activity, ellipsis, genesis, incidence and reprisal. Nouns with a relevant ending that do not express an action include advice, ailment, difference, edition, hypothesis, luggage and position. For a discussion of edition, see 197. The Language of Bibliographies, #3.

Some action noun endings are more able than others to elsewhere make words that cannot be action nouns – they are what I term “multi-use” (see 172. Multi-Use Suffixes). The -al ending is very often added to a noun to turn it into an adjective (industry – industrial, space – spatial). Quite often, -ence or -ance changes an adjective into a non-action noun, e.g. absent – absence, eminent – eminence, relevant – relevance, reluctant – reluctance (see 255. Nouns Made from Adjectives). The “zero” ending on verbs often makes adjectives rather than nouns (see 304. Adjectives Made from a Verb). Words with -ment that are never action nouns include ailment, contentment and instalment.

The -age and -ure spellings are further action noun endings that can end other kinds of words, but not usually as suffixes. Examples are advantage, village, leisure and nurture (for numerous others, see 135. French Influences on English Vocabulary, #3). The -ment spelling sometimes acts similarly (e.g. element, experiment, monument, increment).

Also notable is the occasional existence of alternative action noun spellings, expressing different action meanings:

ADMIT: admission / admittance
ADVANCE: advance / advancement
ATTEND: attendance / attention
DELIVER: deliverance / delivery
ENTER: entrance / entry
EXPOSE: exposition / exposure
MOVE: a move / movement
OBSERVE:  observance / observation
PRONOUNCE: pronouncement / pronunciation
RECEIVE: receipt / reception
REFER: reference / referral
SUCCEED: success / succession
SURVEY: survey / surveillance
USE: use / usage

The majority of the endings in the main list are clearly those containing “ion”:  -ation, -(a)tion, -ication,  -ization, -sion and -tion. The “tion” spelling is always pronounced /∫әn/ (like in fashion), but some “sion” spellings are instead pronounced /ʒәn/ (like in Asian), the relevant words being conclusion, decision, fusion, diversion, division, inclusion, persuasion, provision, reversion and revision. Their corresponding verbs end mainly in /d/ but sometimes in /t/ or /z/.

In -(a)tion nouns, the “a” is also present in the verb (create – creation), and hence is not really part of the ending in the way it is with -ation (tax – taxation). Some might argue that the “t” of -(a)tion should also be bracketed as belonging to the verb rather than the ending, but I feel  it really is part of the ending, the verb having dropped its “t” before it in order to avoid a “tt” that would break English spelling rules (see 248. When to Double a Consonant).

I have separated -(a)tion and -tion nouns in order to highlight the frequency of -ate verbs among those that can become an action noun. Where the -tion ending is derived from a verb with a final “t”, such as direct, I again consider the “t” to belong to the ending rather than to the verb, for the reason given above. Most -tion endings are added straight onto the verb, but note the added vowel in addition, competition, composition (and other -pose derivatives), diminution, repetition and solution, as well as the added “p” in assumption, redemption and resumption.

Verbs that add -ation are not easy to predict, apart from those with -ize. It is noticeable that the change in some is more than just the added ending, e.g. argue – argumentation, cease – cessation, pronounce – pronunciation, publish – publication and reclaim – reclamation. Such changes are not only found in the formation of action nouns (see 41. Unexpected Vowels in Derived Words).

Nouns with -ication are overwhelmingly made from verbs ending in -fy (clarify – clarification). Exceptions are still from verbs that end in “y” pronounced /aɪ/: apply, imply and multiply (but not deny – denial). Two -fy verbs that do not use -fication are satisfy (making satisfaction) and defy (defiance).

All of the -sion nouns are made from a verb ending in either “t(e)” (e.g. permit), “d(e)” (e.g. decide) or “s(e)” (e.g. revise). Unfortunately, this does not mean that all verbs with one of these spellings make an action noun with -sion. For example, direct becomes direction and recruit becomes recruitment.

The French language has greatly influenced the formation of English action nouns, but those with -is are, like their related verbs, of Greek origin (see 90. The Greek Impact on English Vocabulary). In addition to the ones in the list above, ellipsis and genesis can express an action but have no related English verb, while hypothesis does derive from a verb (hypothesise), but signifies only the result of an action.

A notable feature of -ment nouns is the number derived from en- verbs. It seems almost a rule that en- verbs make action nouns with -ment.

Phrasal verbs, like verbs in general, do not all have a related noun. Moreover, action nouns are not the only kind that can be made from them. With all nouns, however, formation is the same: joining the two constituent words (verb + adverb) into one (see 139. Phrasal Verbs, #3). Often the verb remains at the start (sell off – a sell-off), but sometimes it is second (break out – an outbreak). A further feature of action nouns made from phrasal verbs is their frequent countability.

Nouns spelt the same as their related verb are very numerous, but many are unable to express an action, or at least raise doubts. This seems true, for example, of comment, end, grasp, lecture, promise, outline and risk. Among the examples that signify an action, the frequency of countable nouns is again notable.

248. When to Double a Consonant

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Consonant doubling in English is not completely irrational

CONSONANT-DOUBLING RULES IN ENGLISH

Knowing whether or not to double a consonant in a particular word is one of the more widespread of the numerous spelling problems posed by English. Although there is a simple rule that a consonant should not normally be doubled after a long vowel, there is no similar clarity concerning what to do after short vowels, which sometimes have a following double consonant and sometimes do not.

In this post, I hope to show that a number of useful rules, or at least guidelines, do actually exist concerning consonant doubling after short vowels. First I will show which vowels are long and which are short, and then I will present a list of the rules along with copious examples of relevant words, including as many as I can find that are commonly-misspelt.

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LONG AND SHORT VOWELS

The length of an English vowel is generally indicated more by its sound than its spelling, though spelling does give clues. Phoneticians note that the sound of “long” vowels can differ from that of “short” ones in different ways – in the time they take to say, for example, or the force of their enunciation, or in the part of the speech organs that they are made with. It is even noted that the same vowel can be long or short depending on which criterion it is recognised by.

However, the traditional classification, upon which English spellings tend to be based, is primarily as follows:

SHORT VOWELS

/æ/ as in had
/e/ as in head
/ɪ/ as in bid
/o/ as in dot
/ʌ/as in cut
/ʊ/ as in put or took
/ә/ as in the

LONG VOWELS

/eɪ/ as in save
/ɑ:/ as in harm
/i:/ as in see
/aɪ/ as in like
/әʊ/ as in hope
/ɔ:/ as in form
/ɔɪ:/ as in void
/u:/ as in proof
/з:/ as in serve or occur

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GUIDELINES ON CONSONANT DOUBLING AFTER A SHORT VOWEL

1. At the End of One-Syllable Words

There are a small number of particular consonant letters that usually need to be doubled when they end a one-syllable word straight after a short vowel. The main ones are:

FINAL “f” 

miff, riff, sniff, stiff, tiff, off, quaff, bluff, huff, puff, stuff (also staff even though the vowel in some English varieties is long /ɑ:/)

EXCEPT: if, of (the “f” in of is actually pronounced /v/).

FINAL “l”

mall, bell, dell, hell, sell, shell, tell, bill, drill, fill, hill, mill, pill, still, till, doll, poll, roll, cull, dull, hull, mull, full, pull (also ball, call, fall, gall, hall, pall, squall, tall and wall even though the vowel is long /ɔ:/; and install, recall despite a long vowel and two syllables).

EXCEPT: col, pal.

FINAL “s”

ass, mass, less, mess, press, stress, hiss, kiss, miss, boss, cross, loss, moss, toss, fuss (also brass, glass, grass and pass even though the vowel in some English varieties is long /ɑ:/)

EXCEPT: this, bus, pus and “s” pronounced /z/ (as, is, has, his, does).

Exceptional doubling at the end of multi-syllable words is necessary in compass, digress, distress and mattress, as well as words with the -less and -ess suffixes. Examples of the former are faultless, harmless, reckless (for an extensive list, see 106. Word-like Suffixes). The latter is the female-denoting use in words like hostess. It is often dropped today for gender-equality reasons. It is sometimes pronounced with /e/ (as in hostess) but mostly with/ә/ (e.g. in actress, mistress, seamstress, waitress).

FINAL “z”

jazz, fizz, buzz

EXCEPT: whiz, fez
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Single-syllable words ending in a different double consonant from the above include ebb, add, odd, egg and inn.

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2. Before Most Grammatical Endings

This guideline is especially likely to be described in English coursebooks. It applies to consonants immediately before the grammatical suffixes -ing, -ed, -er and -est. For doubling to be necessary, the consonant must be unaccompanied by others and located after a short vowel (except /ә/). Examples of words that meet this requirement are dam (damming), beg (begging), begin (beginning), stop (stopping) and rub (rubbing).

Words whose final consonant cannot be doubled before a grammatical ending are of various types. In some, the preceding vowel is long, e.g. hope (hoping), beat (beating) and like (liking). In others, there are two or more consonant letters after the vowel, as in hang, link, dock, cough and rust. A few exceptional spellings meet both of the main requirements but still rule out doubling. One is the letter “x” (fixing). Another is short vowels spelt like a long one, as in come, have, live, promise and head. The long-vowel spelling in the first four is the silent “e” at the end; that in the last is “ea” instead of just “e” (see 29. Illogical Vowel Spellings).

Words with no doubling because they have /ә/ before their final consonant are illustrated by gallop, matter and lessen. Note, though, that in British English a final /l/ after /ә/, as in signal and travel, does usually need doubling.There are also some words where doubling is unexpectedly necessary. Most have long /з:/ or /ɑ:/ before a final /r/, as in occur (occurring), refer (referring), stir (stirring), bar (barring), mar (marring) and star (starring). Incorrect spelling of some of these is common (see 188. Causes of Common Spelling Mistakes, #4).

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3. With some Other Word Additions

Both the start and the end of a word can be expanded with non-grammatical additions, most of which create a different word with its own dictionary listing. A double consonant will be created if both the word and the added part contain the same letter and the two occurrences are next to each other. For example, adding -ness to stubborn creates a double “n” (stubbornness). Other examples are disseminate, ennoble, hopefully and unnecessary.

In some cases, the last letter of a prefix (an addition at the start) is changed to match the first letter of the main word. For example, in- (= “not”) + logical creates illogical (see 146. Some Important Prefix Types).

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4. In Words of Latin or Greek Origin

The double consonants in accommodation can be explained by reference to Latin, the ancient language from which the word is derived. There, -mod- carries the core meaning, while ac- and -com- refine it. Placing ac- before -com- creates the double “cc”; placing -com-before -mod creates the double “mm”. Ac- is actually a modification of ad, a Latin preposition, made because “d” is difficult to say before “c”. For a fuller explanation and numerous further examples, see 45. Latin Clues to English Spelling.

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5. In Words Recently Borrowed from Other Languages

Apart from Latin, English has borrowed words containing a doubled consonant from numerous other languages which commonly use doubled consonants. With the majority, remembering the spelling is better than trying to find a rule. Examples are abbey (French), alligator (Spanish), coffee (Arabic via Dutch), delicatessen (German), embarrass (French), guerrilla (Spanish), hippo (Greek), juggernaut (Hindi/Urdu), spaghetti (Italian), staccato (Italian), symmetry (Greek) and zeppelin (German).

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6. In the Middle of some Other Words

There are some combinations of surrounding letters that require a single consonant sound to be spelt with a doubled rather than lone consonant letter, especially in two-syllable words:

BETWEEN A SHORT VOWEL AND “-y”

canny, carry, craggy, happy, carry, jazzy, petty, pretty, hilly, silly, bitty, folly, holly, poppy, soppy, chubby

EXCEPT pity, city

The /k/ sound is unlikely to be spelt with a double consonant in this situation, the usual preference being for “ck” (cocky, lucky, sticky etc.). The doubled consonant is likely to be kept in words derived from the spellings above, such as carriage and silliness.

BETWEEN A SHORT VOWEL AND “-le”

apple, baffle, battle, cattle, haggle, paddle, rabble, kettle, meddle, peddle, mettle, nettle, settle, brittle, giggle, little, boggle, bottle, toggle, bubble, cuddle, huddle, muddle, rubble, supple

EXCEPT couple, double, trouble, treble, triple, bicycle

Again, the /k/ sound is normally spelt with “ck” (tackle, fickle, trickle), though bicycle is an exception. It is interesting to observe that changing the spelling of “-le” to “-el” or “-al” is likely to cancel the requirement for a double consonant – cf. medal, metal, model, rebel (noun).

BETWEEN A SHORT VOWEL AND “-ow”

Both pronunciations of “-ow” (cp. low, cow) follow this rule:

allow, arrow, callow, bellow, fellow, mellow, billow, minnow, pillow, borrow, follow, wallow, burrow

EXCEPT avow, below, widow

BETWEEN A SHORT VOWEL AND /ә/

matter, pallor, letter, cellar, bitter, pillar, skipper, collar, dollar, butter, mutter, shutter, udder

EXCEPT colour, feta, phenomena, rigour

Note, finally, that the categories listed above are probably not the complete set – words outside them, such as terrify, are quite easily found. It should not be forgotten also that the word lists are illustrative rather than exhaustive.

223. Uses of Hyphens

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English uses hyphens in four main situations, each of which can cause problems

THE PROBLEM WITH HYPHENS

A hyphen (–) is a punctuation mark that shows togetherness of words or word parts, as in top-ranking. The spelling with “ph” indicates that the name comes from Greek, where hyph-en literally means “under one”, i.e. “unitary” or “together” (see 90. The Greek Impact on English Vocabulary). Hyphens look like dashes – indeed one respected grammar book says that they are “a form of dash”[i]. However, dashes have very different uses (see 294. Parentheses), and computer writing tools like Microsoft Word make them visibly longer than hyphens.

English has numerous hyphen-containing (“hyphenated”) words. The problem is that there is no single rule indicating when or when not to use a hyphen. Instead, different rules have to be listed, and some are quite complicated. The inevitable result is that hyphens are sometimes used or not used wrongly, even by writers whose mother tongue is English. In this post I wish to look in detail at hyphen rules in English and to highlight some common errors to avoid. The approach is similar to that in 50. Right and Wrong Comma Places and 58. Optional Apostrophe Endings.

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LIST OF USES

Hyphens go in four main places: words split between lines of text, some compound words, some words with a prefix or suffix, and word groups acting together like an adjective before a noun.

1. Words Split between Lines

Most people know about this use of hyphens. However, it is also an area where incorrect usage is very common, especially among writers whose mother tongue is not English. The problem is not usually whether to hyphenate a word but where. There are two key rules: word breaks (and hence hyphens) may only be between syllables, and they should not be located before or after just one letter of their word, and often two as well.

One consequence of this rule is that not all syllable divisions can be used for splitting a word, those before or after just one or two letters being excluded. Thus, a split between different lines is unnatural or undesirable with words like o·ther, re·fer, to·ma·to and emp·ty (syllable breaks marked by ·). Such words are normally better written in full at the start of the new line.

Another consequence is that writers must be able to recognise syllable divisions. They must know, for example, that the first syllable of complain, after which the word can be broken at the end of a line, is not *comp- but com- . The surest way to discover the right syllable division is through a dictionary (most dictionaries show this along with a word’s pronunciation). However, there are a few rules that might help.

The most fundamental rule is that written syllables nearly always have a single clearly-spoken vowel (see 125. Stress and Emphasis, second section). Therefore, a group of consonants without a vowel is not a separate syllable: a word like strengths has only one syllable, ruling out divisions like streng- and -ths. Moreover, written vowels that are not separately spoken, such as “a” in repeats, do not make a separate syllable, and hence cannot be in their own word division: repe-ats is impossible.

Perhaps the greatest problem in deciding syllable divisions arises when there are two consonants between two spoken vowels, as in brother, stamping, accommodation, proclaim and plastic. There is not always a clear solution, but some rules can help.

Bro·ther, not *brot·her, is obviously correct because the “th” is a single sound (see 155. Silent Consonants). Stamp·ing is right rather than stam·ping because -ing is a recognizable unit, a common suffix (see 172. Multi-Use Suffixes). Accom·modation is divided as shown because double consonants are nearly always split in the middle. The way pro·claim is divided reflects the unitary nature of pro-, a preposition in the ancient European language Latin. Knowledge of Latin prepositions and verbs is not actually so difficult to acquire because English is full of them (see 45. Latin Clues to English Spelling). Plas·tic, on the other hand, illustrates the numerous words that are harder to judge.

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2. Compound Words

Some words can be divided into meaningful parts. If at least two of these parts are able in other contexts to be used by themselves, their combined use is likely to be a “compound”. An example is household (house + hold). On the other hand, if only one of the parts can make a word by itself, there is usually no compound. This is the case, for example, with strongest, where strong- can stand alone but -est cannot.

Some compounds have a hyphen between their meaningful parts, but many, like household, do not. Examples with hyphens are:

VERBS

speed-read, fast-forward, fine-tune

NOUNS

father-in-law, pie-chart, safe-deposit, tell-tale, world-beater

ADJECTIVES

high-grade, time-lapse, wishy-washy, sky-high, left-hand, mind-blowing, ever-present (see 272. Uses of “Ever”, #1), yellow-green (see 278. Colours, #6).

There do not appear to be many definite rules about when and when not to include a hyphen within a compound word. It is noticeable, however, that some words inside a hyphenated compound are also commonly used separately with different grammatical properties. For example, the verb fast-track matches the noun fast track, the noun tell-tale matches the verb expression tell tales (= betray secrets), and the noun a mix-up matches the phrasal verb mix up (though many compound nouns made from a phrasal verb lack a hyphen– see 249. Action Noun Endings).

Uncertainty about the need for a hyphen with frequently-occurring word combinations is made worse by the fact that English has many such combinations that, for no apparent reason, have to be written as separate words rather than as a compound. Examples are town hall, wish list, time travel and water cooler. The absence of hyphenation in water cooler is particularly surprising given its presence in such similar combinations as world-beater.

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3. Words with a Prefix or Suffix

The problem with prefixes and suffixes is again that the need for a hyphen is not always predictable. Ex- and non-, for example, are prefixes that always precede a hyphen (ex-manager, non-conformist), while un and dis never or rarely do (unusual, displeased). Trans-America versus transcontinental and mid-July versus midday illustrate variable usages.

Similarly, the suffixes in useful and happiness typically lack a hyphen, while those in cost-wise and child-like usually need one. For more prefix examples, see 146. Some Important Prefix Types; for more suffix ones, see 106. Word-Like Suffixes.

Again, a limited number of useful generalizations can be made. Prefixes ending in a vowel usually need a hyphen before another vowel, e.g. pre-existing, pre-industrial, re-evaluate, pro-active. Pseudo-prefixes (not preceding a possible English word, like super- in supervise – see 146. Some Important Prefix Types) never have a hyphen, while other prefixes, like super- in supernatural and super-heated, sometimes do. Trans- and mid- are hyphenated only before proper nouns (trans-Europe, trans-Himalaya, mid-Atlantic).

Suffixes that do not resemble independent words – as in going, called, discovery and lighten – never need a hyphen. Word-like suffixes seem to need one in about 50% of cases: other hyphenated examples are accident-prone, camera-shy and butter-rich. Non-hyphenated examples are workshy, advisable, fearsome and praiseworthy.

 

4. Multi-Word Descriptions of a Following Noun

Hyphenation often occurs between two or more words that together describe a noun after them. The words vary in their grammatical type, common combinations being:

A. Adjective + noun (six-page, low-carbon, spare-time)
B. Adjective + -ing (sour-tasting, good-looking)
C. Noun + -ing (house-hunting, leaf-eating, mind-blowing)
D. Adverb + -ing or -ed (fast-flowing, easily-recognised, well-known)
E. Preposition + noun (in-form, out-of-order, up-to-date)
F. Phrasal verb + -ed + phrasal-verb adverb (mixed-up, pressed-down, hemmed-in)
G. Noun + opposite or sequence noun (love-hate, subject-verb)
H. Noun + adjective (olive-green, sugar-free, garden-fresh)

Combination A does not include all adjective-noun uses before another noun. A hyphen tends to be necessitated by particular kinds of starting adjective, or by a need to clarify overall meaning. The starting adjective kinds that usually necessitate a hyphen include:

A1. Number words (six-page, four-star, hundred-year – see 136. Types of Description by Nouns, #4)
A2. Number words with -th (fourth-century, tenth-floor)
A3. Adjectives before a noun with -ed (red-blooded, bald-headed, many-sided – see 291. Subtleties of “-ed”, #7).

An exceptional non-hyphen use in category A1 is between number words and percent, e.g. a six percent increase (see 201. Words with Complicated Grammar 1, #2).

Unclear meaning can arise with adjective-noun descriptions of another noun because the adjective does not have to describe the noun directly after it – it can describe the second noun instead. For example, in important customer accounts, important could be describing either customers or accounts (see 124. Structures with a Double Meaning 1, #6). A hyphen after the adjective is an optional way of clearly linking the adjective with the first rather than second noun (important-customer accounts).

Combination B is quite rare because the participle is usually formed from the small number of verbs that need an adjective complement (for a list, see 220. Features of Complements, #2).

In combination C, the noun before an -ing verb is grammatically its object. There are two subtypes:

C1. Also usable without a hyphen as an ordinary noun phrase (e.g. House hunting is…). Other examples are note-making and water-skiing.

C2. Only usable as an adjective. For example, *Mind blowing is… would be unlikely. Other examples are fun-loving, leaf-eating and time-consuming.

It is likely that C1 expressions are gerunds (see 71. Gerund and Participle Uses of “-ing”), so that with a following noun they resemble nouns used like adjectives. The C2 kind are more like adjectives than participles (see 245. Adjectives with a Participle Ending, #8). For numerous additional C-type examples, see the end of 320. Special Participle Uses, #2.

Combination G is fairly infrequent. Other common “opposite” pairs like love-hate are stop-start and on-off. A “sequence” noun is one that works with another to express a real-world sequence, as in subject-verb agreement or number-letter combinations.

For more examples like olive-green in H, see 278. Colours, #8.

Combinations A1, A2 and G above can only go before a noun. The others can occupy other adjective positions. Most drop their hyphen there (e.g. …is up to date: see 114. Tricky Word Contrasts 3, #6). Those that keep their hyphen are of two main kinds. One is A3 (adjective + noun + -ed), e.g.:

(a) The structure is many-sided.

The other type of hyphen-keeping combination is fixed pairs ending in a verb with -ing or -ed (i.e. some of the combinations in groups B, C2 or D). Examples are good-looking, time-consuming and well-known. Being fixed, they feel more like compound words (similar to the adjectival ones listed in section 2 above, such as high-grade), which are also hyphenated in all sentence positions. For more about collocation, see 209. Fixed Phrases with “and”.

___________

[i] CARTER, R. & McCARTHY, M.  Cambridge Grammar of English.  Cambridge, CUP (p. 850).

188. Causes of Common Spelling Mistakes

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It can be useful to classify spelling mistakes according to their likely cause

THE VALUE OF ANALYZING SPELLING MISTAKES

The inconsistency of English spelling rules means that spelling mistakes by learners of the language are inevitable and even necessary. Fortunately, most are temporary, disappearing as we become more aware of the rules and more familiar with the correct spellings through reading. The few mistakes that persist long enough to become deeply ingrained and hard to overcome usually do so as a result of more than just the inconsistency of the rules.

Strategies for eliminating mistakes of this kind are well established. It is always useful to have your writing looked over by a friend, tutor or spellcheck in order to identify or confirm your weaknesses. After becoming aware of a particular spelling that you always struggle with, you will probably benefit from noting it and making a conscious effort to memorise it (see 202. Some Strategies for Learning English).

I believe that acquiring an understanding of the deeper reasons behind language errors is one way of helping them to be remembered and consciously tackled. In this post I wish to present a variety of spelling error types and show how each one links together a group of commonly-misspelt words. The approach is similar to that in 142. Grammar Errors with Passive Verbs,  144. Words that are Often Heard Wrongly and 170. Logical Errors in Written English.

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TYPES OF SPELLING MISTAKE CAUSE

Each of the following seems to explain a variety of spelling mistakes.

1. Silent Consonants

Although this is a surprisingly widespread phenomenon in English (see 155. Silent Consonants), spelling mistakes resulting from it seem quite rare – indeed pronunciation errors, such as pronouncing both “b”s in bombing, seem more likely.

Common spelling mistakes involving silent consonants include *caracter, *enviroment and *wether, which respectively lack “h”, “n” and “h” again.

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2. Spelling of another Word

There are various ways in which a spelling mistake can be caused by the spelling of another word. One is the topic of the entire Guinlist post 41. Unexpected Vowels in Derived Words, a survey of words that are not spelt as one would expect when familiar with words of very similar meaning and spelling.

An example of a word that is spelt as the spelling of a related word would suggest is the noun improvement; it merely adds to the base spelling of the verb improve without altering it. By contrast, the noun made from maintain is not *maintainance but maintenance, and is easily misspelt as a result. There is nothing predictable about this base spelling change: you just have to know it. Other commonly misspelled words that probably have this cause include procedure, pronunciation and height.

A slightly different problem within the same category is with the -ing form of WRITE, writing. It is not irregular or illogical in any way, but is very commonly misspelt with a double “t” *writting. The single “t” is regular in that it follows the general rule for adding -ing or -ed to a verb, namely no consonant doubling if the vowel before has a “long” pronunciation. This vowel in writing has the long /aɪ/ pronunciation. Consonant doubling is necessary only when the vowel before -ing is “short”, such as /ɪ/ in sitting. For lists of long and short English vowel sounds, see 248. When to Double a Consonant.

The cause of the spelling mistake, I think, is the influence of the related word written. The double “tt” there is necessary because the vowel before it, though spelt the same as in writing, is pronounced differently: with a short /ɪ/ instead of the long /aɪ/. For more examples like this, see 97. Verb Form Confusions.

The word title is also frequently written with “tt” despite the preceding “i” being long. I suspect that here the influence comes from the completely different word little, which of course has /ɪ/ instead of /aɪ/. There are a few other common confusions that result from the existence of two completely different words with similar spellings. Examples are complement vs. compliment, principle vs. principal (see 48. Tricky Word Contrasts 1), stationary vs. stationery and underlie vs. underline (see 81. Tricky Word Contrasts 2, #6). It can be hard to remember which of the spellings belongs to which meaning, with consequent spelling errors.

Other common errors that may be caused by similar-looking words include dropped “h” from whether, reversal of the final -se in categorise and “e” instead of the first “a” in separate. Although the incorrect spelling *wether could just be a result of the earlier-mentioned “silent” nature of the “h”, it could also be influenced by the spelling of weather. The problem with categorise could be the fact that the -ies ending exists in the plural form of the noun category. The incorrect spelling *seperate could be influenced by the spelling of desperate. These two spellings differ because they are derived from different Latin verbs: se-parate and de-sperate.

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3. Variable Spellings of the Same Word Ending

Three word endings that vary in their spelling are -sion/-tion, -able/-ible and -ent/-ant. Choosing the right spelling with the first of these need not always be a problem because some fairly clear rules exist, for example that verbs with a final -d, such as suspend, become nouns with -sion like suspension (see 249. Action Noun Endings). However, the other two endings are less predictable – one often has to know Latin or a modern language derived from it, especially French, to choose correctly.

There is, however, one strategy, particularly with -ent/-ant, that just depends on knowing English. This is to consider the spelling and pronunciation of related words in the hope that they might give a clue. For example, the need for -ent with different is obvious if you are familiar with the pronunciation of differential. For lists of words with -ent and -ant, see 172. Multi-Use Suffixes, #5 and #6.

Adjectives ending in -able or -ible are often a useful alternative to a passive verb (see 27. How to Avoid Passive Verbs). Examples with -able are advisable, changeable, culpable, knowable, predictable, recognisable, readable and understandable. Dropping -able tends to leave a recognisable English verb. Words with -ible include divisible, gullible, intelligible, possible, tangible and visible.

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4. Words that Break Spelling Rules

English spelling, despite the many problems that it gives, does actually follow some rules. One of the best-known is “i” before “e” except after “c”. However, this has the problem that there are many exceptions. The exceptions seem to be where mistakes in the positioning of “i” and “e” are most likely. Problem words include foreign, height, weight and seize. Also notable are achieve, believe and niece, which all follow the rule but are often misspelt. Perhaps in the first one the “ch” is wrongly considered to be “c”.

A different spelling rule may explain the common mistake of writing a single “r” in occurred. The rule is the above-mentioned one about not doubling a consonant after a long vowel when adding -ing or -ed. It indicates that there should be a single “r” in occurred because the “u” has the long sound /з/. However, the rule is not kept with this particular word. The same happens with recurred, referred, preferred and transferred.

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5. Double Consonants in Long Words

It seems fairly easy to notice when a word contains a double consonant. Moreover, if the word is short, like putting, normally there is also no difficulty in deciding where that double consonant should be placed. In longer words, however, multiple possible locations for a double consonant become likely, and remembering which is the right one can be difficult.

The following words are all able to cause uncertainty about where their double consonant occurs. A consonant in each that is sometimes wrongly doubled is capitalised: beGinning, diSappear, neCessary, occaSion, proFessor, reCommend and reFerred.

In a few other words, there are two double consonants, and the error is making one of them single. The cause could be the rareness of such combinations. Common examples are accommodation, embarrass, occurred, possession, reConnaissance and successful.

For some advice on when consonants need to be doubled, see 248. When to Double a Consonant.

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6. Immediately-Repeated Syllable Spellings

When all or some of the same spelling is repeated in successive syllables in a word, we sometimes seem to miss the repetition and think there is only a single occurrence. A commonly misspelt word with this characteristic is beginning. The repeated letters are underlined. The typical misspelling is *beging. Other examples are:

labo(u)rers, commonly misspelt as *labo(u)rs.

maintaining and containing, commonly misspelt as *maintaing and *containg .

possesses, commonly misspelt as *posses.

In the first of these, although -or and -er are not identical spellings, they have identical pronunciation.

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7. Unusual Letter Sequences

This phenomenon is probably a factor in the frequent misspelling of foreign as *foreing. The last three letters -ign are of course in most other words ordered to make -ing. A further element in this mistake may be the “silent” nature of the “g”.

The last two letters of centre, manoeuvre, sceptre and metre are in a similarly unusual (actually French) order. However, reversing their spelling is not a spelling mistake but merely a switch from British to American English!

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8. Spellings in another Language

I myself was once caught out by this potential influence, writing *paradeigm instead of paradigm. I was taking my spelling from Ancient Greek, a language I had studied at university, without realising that English had subtly altered its spelling.

Two errors common among French speakers, because of the way the equivalent words are spelt in French, are a double “s” in resources and *a mean instead of a means. Spanish speakers need to be vigilant in order not to replace “t” with “c” in -tion words.

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9. Words with a Difficult Pronunciation

Struggling to pronounce a word correctly often causes no spelling problem, but there are exceptions. For example, many speakers of East African languages find it difficult to pronounce the /ɪ/ sound in the middle of longish words like discipline, hesitate, municipal, president and studying, with the result that sometimes the corresponding letter is dropped from the spelling.

155. Silent Consonants

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75% of English consonant letters sometimes appear in the spelling of a word without being pronounceable

THE PROBLEM OF SILENT CONSONANTS

One of the many peculiarities of English spelling is its occasional use of consonant letters that are not pronounced when the word is spoken. This phenomenon is likely to be encountered by learners of English even at very elementary levels, in such words as knee, night and talk. A common reason for it is that the unexpected spellings once did represent the way their word was pronounced, but they stopped doing so because the pronunciation of the word changed as a result of the natural evolution that all languages undergo. The spellings of the words have not changed because the invention of printing made spellings in general more standardized and fixed.

Many words with a silent consonant actually do not seem to be much of a learning problem. However, a fair number can cause erroneous pronunciation of the consonants in speech, and some can cause spelling errors (see 188. Causes of Common Spelling Mistakes). In this post I wish to survey and classify the wide variety of words that contain one or more silent consonants, in the hope that raised awareness might assist some readers to improve their pronunciation or spelling of English.

Other Guinlist posts touching on consonant pronunciation include 90. The Greek Impact on English Vocabulary,  135. French Influences on English Vocabulary and 243. Pronunciation Secrets. For information about unexpected pronunciations of vowels, see 29. Illogical Vowel Spellings and 86. The Pronunciation of “e” and “i”.

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DEFINITION OF SILENT CONSONANTS

It is important to distinguish silent consonants from a variety of other consonant letters that are not pronounced in their typical way. Of these latter, an important group is consonant letters that combine with a neighbouring letter either to make a sound that neither would make by itself or to remove ambiguity about how the other letter should be pronounced. If this other letter is a vowel, the indicated sound will also be a vowel; otherwise it will be a consonant.

Typical consonant letters that combine with a vowel for these purposes, so that they cannot be considered silent, are “h”, “w” and “y”, as in oh, cow and toy. The letter “r” is also one in Australian and Southern British English, for example in cart and term (it only ever has the /r/ sound at the start of a syllable), but is clearly pronounced in the USA, Ireland and Scotland. Two consonant letters that commonly combine with particular other consonant letters in one way or another are “h” in words like choice, phrase, show and think, and “k” after “c” (back, check, ticket etc.).

Another type of consonant letter that is not silent despite being pronounced in an unexpected way is, in certain positions, the letters for the so-called “plosive” consonants (/p, t, k, b, d, g/). These letters are often only partially pronounced before other plosive sounds (as in stop doing and log cabin) and at the end of sentences (see 91. Pronunciation in Reading Aloud). It is easy to think they are completely silent in such situations when in fact they are not.

Thirdly, I am not considering any letters within a doubled consonant to be silent. Although it is true that most doubled consonants in English are pronounced no differently from single ones, so that logically one of the pair could be called “silent”, doubled consonants are so common in English (see 248. When to Double a Consonant), and the rule for pronouncing them is so simple, that nothing seems likely to be gained from listing all the possibilities.

Repetition of the same consonant at the end of one word and the start of the next, as in can never, while looking and turned down, is even less of interest, since here the double occurrence does make a pronunciation difference. Although the two identical letters are pronounced as a single sound, they need more time to be pronounced than if they were just a single letter (see “lengthening” in 91. Pronunciation in Reading Aloud). Similar to these are neighbouring consonants in the same word that are spelled differently but represent a single sound, such as -nm- in environment and and -db- in handbag (see 243. Pronunciation Secrets, #1). Here, the first letter is not pronounced, but it still increases the time needed to say the second.

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COMMON SILENT CONSONANTS IN ENGLISH

The following categories of silent consonant are identifiable:

1. The Letter “k”

This seems to be silent only and always at the start of words (even words within longer words) where there is a following “n” (knack, knead, knee, breadknife, knight, knock, know, knuckle etc.).

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2. The Letter “h”

At the start of a word, this letter is silent in honour and its derivatives (honourable, honorific, honorarium etc.) and also honest. In addition, there are hour and heir.

In most varieties of English, “h” after a starting “w” is silent, as in wheat, when, where, whether, whet, whey, while, whistle and why.

Inside words, a common silent occurrence is in -ham at the end of British (not American) place names like Birmingham, Cheltenham, Tottenham and Nottingham (the pronounciation is /-әm/ in all of these). The word vehicle has no /h/ sound, being pronounced /’vi: jә kl/, and there is none in shepherd and silhouette. The “h” in Thames can also be called silent because it does not alter the /t/ to /θ/. Similar is “h” after “r” in words of Greek origin like rhyme, rhino and diarrhoea.

Finally, “h” is silent after “c” in words of Greek origin, such as choir; it does not change the sound of “c” in any way (see 90. The Greek Impact on English Vocabulary). Other examples are anarchy, anchor, character, cholesterol, chorus, Christmas, chrome, epoch, orchestra, psychology and scheme.

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3. The Letter “p”

Words of Greek origin beginning “ps-”, “pt-” or “pn-“ tend to be pronounced without the /p/ (see 90. The Greek Impact on English Vocabulary). Examples are combinations with psych- (psychology, psychic) and pseudo- (pseudonym, pseudopod), as well as psalm, pterodactyl and pneumatic.

Elsewhere, three notable words are receipt (/rɪ ‘si:t/), coup (/ku:/) and corps (/kɔ:/), the latter two being borrowings from French.

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4. The Letter “b”

A major context for the silence of this letter is after “m” at the end of a word, as in bomb, climb, comb, crumb, dumb, lamb, limb, tomb and womb. The “b” remains silent even after the addition of -ing, -ed or -er (bombing, combing, dumbing, lambed, dumber), but not in the verbs crumble (which is like humble and tumble) or limber (like timber).

In addition, there are some words where a silent “b” is followed by “t”, e.g. debt, doubt and subtle.

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5. The Letter “l”

The main locations where this is silent are inside the three modal verbs could, would, should; between “a”/“o” and “k” in words like stalk, talk, walk, folk and yolk; and between “a” and “m”, e.g. alms, calm, palm, psalm and salmon.

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6. The Letter “s”

A few words of French origin have a silent “s” at the end (corps, debris, fracas, rendezvous). Words with it in the middle include isle, aisle, island and viscount. The “i” is pronounced /ɑɪ/ in all of these (see 86. The Pronunciation of “e” and “i”).

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7. The Letter “t”

This letter is usually silent when sandwiched between “s” and “le”, as in bustle, castle, epistle, pestle, rustle and thistle, and often silent between “f” (or “s”) and “en” in words like often, soften, listen, glisten, fasten and hasten.

Words that end in “-et” tend to be borrowings from French. Some must be pronounced in the French way, ending in the vowel /eɪ/ without “t”, some not (see 135. French Influences on English Vocabulary). The former include ballet, beret, bidet, bouquet, buffet (= self-service food), cachet, chalet, croquet, duvet, ricochet, sobriquet, tourniquet and valet. Two other French-derived words with a silent final “t” are depot and rapport.

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8. The Letter “w”

There are two striking contexts for this silent letter. One is words beginning “wr-”, such as wrangle, wreck, wrestle, wring, write, wrong, wrought and wry. The other is a few words (usually place names) ending in “-wich” or “-wick”, for example Greenwich and Harwich (but not Midwich) and Chiswick and Warwick (but not Gatwick or Northwick).

Another notable place name is Southwark (pronounced /’sʌ ԺƏk/), and “w” is also silent in two, who, whole, sword and awry.

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9. The Letter “c”

One silent use of this letter is after “s” in words like ascent, crescent, irascible, miscellaneous, nascent, reminisce, scene, sceptre (but not sceptic), science and visceral. This group does not include rescind because the “c” there is changing the pronunciation of the neighbouring “s” into /∫/. Another use is before unstressed “es” in such British place names as Leicester, Worcester, Bicester and Gloucester. One other notable silent “c” is in indict.

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10. The Letter “g”

This letter is commonly silent between “i” and “n” in words like align, benign, deign, feign, foreign, malign, reign, sign and sovereign. However, it is not silent in poignant (since it changes the following /n/ to /nj/) nor in benignant and malignant. Other notable words are champagne, gnaw, gnome, gnu and phlegm. Recognise seems to allow a choice about pronouncing the “g”.

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11. The Letters “gh”

These are well-known silent letters before “t” in words like bright, fight, might, tight, ought, brought, sought, thought, caught, taught, eight, height and weight. They also occur without the “t” in though, through, bough, plough, high, weigh, neighbour etc. (however, they are less “silent” in cough and tough because the consonant sound /f/, though unexpected, exists where they occur).

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12. Other Letters

There is a silent “n” at the end of autumn, column, condemn, hymn  and solemn, while at the start of mnemonic it is the “m” that is silent. In iron, the “r” is silent, in yacht the “ch” and in Wednesday the first “d” (along with the following “e”). Some borrowed French words, such as laissez-faire and rendezvous, contain a silent “z”.

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It is probable that some interesting examples of silent consonants are missing from these lists. Readers who are aware of any are invited to mention them via the comment facility below.

97. Verb Form Confusions

There are good reasons why some irregular verbs in English are harder to remember than others

VERB FORM IRREGULARITIES IN ENGLISH

Like most languages, English has a wide variety of verb “forms” to express such meanings as “number”, “person”, “tense”, “voice” and “mood”. Some of these forms are made just by changing (or even not changing) the spelling and/or pronunciation of the verb (e.g. see/sees/saw), but most involve the addition of one or more new words (“auxiliary verbs”), either with or without a change in the original verb (e.g. will see/has been seen).

Most of these variations follow predictable rules, so that knowing how to change one verb in order to express a particular meaning gives the ability to change most other verbs in the same way. However – again as in most other languages – some verbs break these rules, varying their forms in quite unexpected and sometimes surprising ways, and are said as a result to be “irregular”. Since there is no consistency in the way they break the rules, the unexpected forms usually have to be memorised individually.

Actually, memorising irregular verb forms is not as burdensome in English as it is in many other languages, the reason probably being the English preference for auxiliary verbs – which are less prone to irregularities – over pronunciation changes. Hence elementary learners of English soon find that the irregularities come down to two per verb: the simple past tense and the “past” participle (see 52. Participles Placed Just After their Noun). Memorisation thus focuses on lists like this:

Within such lists, some verb forms seem to be much harder to remember than others, regardless of the learner’s first language. Some are even a problem for mother tongue English speakers. The purpose of this post is to highlight some of the most common problems of this kind, and to suggest some reasons why they might occur.

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CONFUSING VERB PAIRS

 1. LOSE versus CHOOSE

One of the most frequent verb form errors is to spell lose with an extra “o” (*loose). The error is rarely overcome by explanations that loose is an adjective opposite in meaning to tight and rhyming with goose (with the “s” pronounced /s/ and not /z/).

The difficulty for learners, I think, is that once again English is being less logical than they are (a common occurrence – see 10. Words with Unexpected Grammar 1 and 41. Unexpected Vowels in Derived Words). The illogicality is that –ose is not the normal English way of spelling the /u:z/ sound– elsewhere it represents the different vowel of hose and rose (see 29. Illogical Vowel Spellings).

The fact that the similarly-sounding choose is spelt as it is must also contribute to the incorrect spelling of lose. Spelling errors caused by the spelling of another word seem to happen quite often in English (see 188. Causes of Common Spelling Mistakes).

It is quite a common error as well to spell choose with one “o”. If the cause is not confusion with the past tense chose, it is likely to be the influence of lose. Some even confuse choose/chose with the similarly-spelt noun choice. The noun related to LOSE (loss) can cause similar problems with that verb.

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2. LIE versus LAY

A glance at the table above will show that the past simple form of LIE (lay) is the same as the base form of the different verb LAY. The two verbs are also similar in that LIE has a “y” like LAY when it ends in -ing (lying). In addition, the meanings are close: LIE means “be in (or assume) a horizontal position” (see 295. Options in Saying Where, #1), while LAY means “put … into a horizontal position”.

Grammatically speaking, LIE is “intransitive” – complete without additional words (see 113. Verbs that Cannot be Passive) – while LAY needs an object (see 8. Object-Dropping Errors). Yet another complication, though perhaps not such a cause of confusion, is the existence of a third similarly-spelt verb, LIE meaning “speak falsely”, which has a regular past tense form (lied).

A major confusion that results from all of this is the use of LAY when LIE is needed, for example:

(a) *The wheat was laying on the ground.

(b) *Children laid close to their parents.

The underlined words here should, of course, be lying and lay.

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3. RISE versus RAISE

Meaning is again a source of confusion here. RISE means “go up” and does not have an object, while similar-looking RAISE means “cause … to go up”.  There are some other, less common pairs of the same kind: FALL (= “be brought to the ground by gravity”) versus FELL (= “cause [a tree] to fall), and START (= “make a jerky move of surprise”) versus STARTLE (= “cause [someone] to start”). FELL is similar to LAY in being spelt the same as the past tense of the verb it resembles.

The kind of causative verb meaning illustrated here is actually quite widespread in English – it is just unusual in being associated with two different but look-alike verbs. Slightly more common is the involvement of two not-so-similar verbs, e.g.:

LAUGH (= “make a sound of amusement”) versus AMUSE (= “cause … to laugh”)

DIE (= “stop living”) versus KILL (= “cause … to die”)

FUNCTION (= “act as intended”) versus OPERATE (= “cause … to function”)

STAY/REMAIN (= “continue in the same place”) versus KEEP (cause … to stay/remain).

Very often, both meanings exist in a single verb. For example, INCREASE means either “grow” or “cause … to grow”, BEGIN means either “go into operation” or “put … into operation” and OPEN means either “become accessible” or “make accessible” (for more examples, see 4. Verbs that Don’t Have to be Passive).

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4. LEAD versus READ

The common error of spelling the past tense of LEAD lead instead of led is probably another confusion of similar-looking verbs. The verb READ has a past form spelt read but rhyming with led. A further complication is the existence of the noun lead (= dark grey metal) pronounced the same as led.

The similar sounds of these verbs’ first letters can be a further problem for speakers of languages that differentiate them less than English does.

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5. WRITING versus WRITTEN

A common spelling error is *writting with a double “tt”. An obvious probable factor is the double “tt” in written (see 188. Causes of Common Spelling Mistakes). The reason why “tt” is not used in writing is that the preceding vowel (“i”) is pronounced differently, despite being written the same: long /aɪ/ instead of the short /ɪ/ of written.

It is a general rule that a consonant between a long vowel and -ing is not doubled – cf. hoping, seeking, training –  while one between a short vowel and -ing is – cf. hopping, selling, banning (see 248. When to Double a Consonant, #2). The same rule dictates that BEGIN needs “nn” before -ing (beginning): writing a single “n” there is another common error.

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VERBS THAT BREAK A TREND

Some form errors occur with verbs that do not behave exactly like other verbs they resemble (see 10. Words with Unexpected Grammar 1 for more on this kind of error). One verb of this kind is SING. Its past tense form is sang, but is often incorrectly spelt sung instead. The reason may be that some verbs do have “u” instead of “a” in their past tense form. Consider this:

The probable reason for the error is fairly clear from even this small sample: verbs ending in -ng tend to have “u” in their past tense, but SING is an exception (BRING is another, of course, its other forms both being brought). A similar sort of problem occurs with the past tense of FREEZE. One might expect it to be regular like those of SQUEEZE and SNEEZE, but in fact it is the irregular froze.

It is as well to note in passing that HANG does not always change to hung. Its other forms will be hanged instead when the meaning is “suspend (someone) by a rope around the neck”.

A trend of a different kind involves the verb PRACTISE. Spelling it as shown with -SE is British English; American English spells it with -CE. In both countries, the related noun has -CE. The varying British spellings are mirrored by ADVISE (verb) and ADVICE (noun). The trend-breaker is thus the American spelling.

However, it is users of British English who have the most problems. The single American spelling of both verb and noun is obviously easier to remember, while the British spellings are not just more complicated but also prone to American English influences. The spellings of ADVISE/ ADVICE might be a useful guideline for British English users wanting to get the “right” spelling.

86. The Pronunciation of “e” and “i”

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There are some rules that can show when the letters “e” and “i” should each be pronounced like short “i” 

VARIABILITY OF VOWEL LETTER PRONUNCIATIONS

Correctly pronouncing vowel letters is a well-known problem in English. One reason is the existence in English of an unusually large number of vowel sounds (around 20), with only 5 official vowel letters in the alphabet to represent them (a, e , i, o, u), so that each letter has more than one way of being pronounced. Quite often, the right pronunciation can be discovered from clues like whether or not “e” is written at the end of a word (compare the “a” in hat and hate), but there are still numerous “illogical” spellings, such as bury pronounced like berry and bass pronounced like base (see 29. Illogical Vowel Spellings).

The letters “e” and “i” contribute their fair share of illogical pronunciations, but even their more normal uses seem able to cause problems for speakers whose mother tongue is not English. In this post I wish to consider some less-appreciated normal pronunciations of these two letters, and also to touch on some that are not so normal.

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NORMAL PRONUNCIATIONS OF “e”

Some normal pronunciations of “e” are not very problematic. Of these, the best-known is probably the short one in words like end and lesson. Others are created by combining “e” with certain other letters, such as another “e”, as in meet, or “-a”, as in beam, or a consonant like “-r” or “-w”, as in her and few (see 155. Silent Consonants).

Slightly more problematic, but still not the focus here, is the /ə/ sound of the (see 202 Some Strategies for Learning English, #3).The troublesome normal “e” pronunciations that I wish to concentrate on are /ı/ and /i:/ in words like response and ether.

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1. Pronouncing “e” as /ı/

Some common places where, in many varieties of English, “e” is usually pronounced the same as the “i” in ship are (a) word-final -es and -ed that are syllables by themselves, e.g. reaches, judges, houses, sorted and eroded (see 243. Pronunciation Secrets, #2); (b) -est in superlative adjectives, e.g. quickest, hardest; and (c) the first syllable of words like response and security. I wish to say more about this last.

Two conditions must be met for pronouncing “e” as /ı/ in the first syllable of a multi-syllable word. Firstly, the syllable must be unstressed, i.e. not the most strongly pronounced syllable in the word (see 125. Stress and Emphasis). If the syllable is stressed, “e” is generally pronounced /e/ or /i:/. Secondly, the “e” must not accompany a pronunciation-changing letter like “a” or “r” (as in per-form, where the pronunciation is /ə/).

Here are some examples of words with an unstressed first “e” needing to be pronounced /ı/. Most are of Latin origin with first syllables derived from Latin prepositions (see 45. Latin Clues to English Spelling).

be-neath, be-side, de-ceive, de-fer, de-spise, de-spite, de-tect, de-velop, e-ject, e-lated, me-ander, pre-clude, pre-tend, re-ceive, re-main, re-spond, re-view, se-cure, se-duce, se-lect

Unfortunately, there are a few exceptions too, usually in longer words such as derivation, pre-pos-i-tion and de-mo-li-tion, all of which have an unstressed first “e” pronounced /e/.

When the unstressed letter “e” forms a syllable by itself at the start of a word, the /ı/ pronunciation is practically universal. Examples are e-galitarian, e-ject, e-laborate, e-lated, e-numerate, e-radicate, e-special, e-ternal, e-valuate, e-voke and e-volve. Examples of words where unstressed “e” starts a longer first syllable are en-act, en-hance, en-thusiastic, ex-amine and ex-ample. In words like this, the “e” can usually be pronounced either /e/ or /ı/.

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2. Pronouncing “e” as /i:/

The longer /i:/ sound is usually spelt “ee”, “ea” or “ie/ei” (e.g. teeth, treat, piece). Spellings with “e” alone tend to be in fairly well-defined places, especially the end of a stressed first syllable. Examples are de-cent, de-mon, de-tail (British Eng), de-tour (British Eng), de-viate, e-dict, e-mail, e-qual, e-ra, e-ther, e-vil, fe-male, fre-quent, ge-nius, pre-paid, pre-view, re-alise, re-bate, re-name, re-sit, sce-nic, ste-reo, the-sis.

In a few cases, a stressed first syllable needing to be pronounced /i:/ can also be unstressed and pronounced /ı/ to make a different word. Spellings which allow this are examples of “homographs” (see 6. Homonyms and Homographs). Examples are de-fect, re-call, re-ject, re-mit and re-search.

Unfortunately, there are also many words where “e” at the end of a stressed first syllable is pronounced /e/ instead of /i:/, such as be-vy, de-legate, de-licate, de-luge, de-monstrate, de-nier, de-pot, de-vil, e-very, he-resy, le-vy, ne-cessary, rhe-toric and sphe-rical. Some words like this can again be given a different meaning by moving the stress and changing the first vowel sound to /ı/ as a result. Examples are de-sert (= “place with few plants” changing to “abandon”), pre-sent, re-cord and re-fuse.

A notable kind of unstressed first syllable with /i:/ is de- meaning “remove” (see 146. Some Important Prefix Types). Examples are debrief, decommission, decompose, defuse (see 236. Tricky Word Contrasts 9, #4), depopulate deregulate and devalue. Note also theoretical. Perhaps the reason why the- has /i:/ despite being unstressed is that it is derived from a noun (theory) where it is stressed; perhaps its origin as a Greek word with a long “e” is a factor.

One situation where “e” in a later stressed syllable is likely to be pronounced /i:/ is before the letter “r”. Examples are arterial, criterion. experience, inferior, interference, managerial, mysterious and superior. Note also strategic.

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NORMAL PRONUNCIATIONS OF “i”

The letter “i” is usually pronounced either /ı/ as in pill or /aı/ as in pile. Only in a few words, often borrowed from other languages, is it pronounced /i:/ (e.g. bidet, chic, ski). There are a number of ways of deciding whether “i” should be pronounced /ı/ or /aı/, but they are not all completely reliable. Readers may find the following useful.

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3. When to pronounce “i” as /ı/

A. When “i” is the last pronounced vowel of a word, and has only consonant letters after it. Examples are mix, drip, milk, thick, shrink, begin, vermin, insulin.

B. When “i” is followed by a double consonant (except “-rr”) or “-ck”, e.g. filling (not the same as filing!), pinned (cp pined), picks (not the same as peeks!), dinner, mission, beginning, hilly. One exception to this rule is frisson, a recent borrowing from French and hence still pronounced in the French way with /i:/ (see 135. French Influences on English Vocabulary); another is dis-sect, pronounced /daı-/.

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4. When to say /aı/

A. When “i” precedes “e” at the end of a one-syllable word, with or without a final “-s”: pie, lie, die, tie, flies, fries, plies, shies, skies, spies, tries.

B. When “i” precedes a single consonant and “e” at the end of a word, e.g. fine, mile, spice, expire, incline, invite, facile, finite (but not definite or infinite), expedite, erudite, supervise, dynamite. Important exceptions are opposite, requisite, urine, doctrine, imagine, intestine, clandestine and determine, which all have /ı/ (though derivatives ending in -nal, such as doctrinal, have /aı/).

C. When “i” is followed by “gh”: nigh, high, sigh, thigh, alight, blight, bright, fight, flight, fright, light, might, night, plight, right, sight, slight, tight.

D. When “i” is followed by a consonant and “y” at the end of a two-syllable word, e.g. briny, stripy, tiny, spiny, spiky, slimy, icy, ivy, wily (but not lily).

E. When “i” is in one of the following prefixes of Latin or Greek origin: tri-, bi-, micro-, bio- and dia- (for more about Latin and Greek, see 45. Latin Clues to English Spelling and 90. The Greek Impact on English Vocabulary. See also 146. Some Important Prefix Types). Example words are triangle, triumph, tripartite, tricycle, triennial, trial, tribunal (but not tribune or tribute); biped, bicycle, biennial, bisexual, binomial; microscope, microbe, microeconomic; biopic, biography, biology; diarrhoea, diagonal, dialogue, dial, diaspora, diaphragm, diabetes, diagnostic, diagram, diary and diet. Note that multi- ends with /aı/ in American English and /ı/ in British English.

F. When “i” is the entire first syllable of a multi-syllable word: i-bex, i-con, i-cy, i-dea, i-dentify, i-dentity, i-dle, i-dol, i-on, i-rate, i-ron, i-sle, i-vory, i-vy (but not i-magine and i-rascible).

G. When “i” ends a stressed first syllable and has a consonant before it: bi-son, bi-ble, bri-dal, bri-dle, cli-mate, di-et, fi-nance, fi-bre, fi-ery, fi-nite, gi-ant, hi-fi, li-able, mi-graine, mi-nor, mi-nus, pri-mary, qui-et, si-lo, sti-fle, sti-pend, stri-ker, ti-ny, ti-tle, vi-a, vi-able, vi-tal (but not li-quid, li-quor, li-quorice, li-gature, li-tigate, vi-gour, bi-shop, bi-det).

H. When “i” precedes -nd or -ld at the end of a short word: kind, bind, (be)hind, find, (re)mind, blind, rind, mild, child, wild, wind (= make many turns) (but not wind = “blowing air” and rescind).

I. When “di” is the first of two syllables: di-et, di-gest, di-gress, di-late, di-rect, di-verge, di-verse, di-vert, di-vulge (but not di-git, di-vide, di-vine).

J. When “i” is in a word of similar spelling and meaning to one that follows another /aı/ rule, e.g. financial, climatic, bridal, tidal, arrival, revival, survivor (but not criminal, definition, inclination, unity, wilderness, wisdom – see 41. Unexpected Vowels in Derived Words).

Finally, it is worth noting the following /ai/ words, which seem to follow no rule, or to break a rule: pint (not the same as mint, hint, lint, etc.), pi (not like ski), criterion, environment, migrate, minute (=“very small”), dissect, and climb (cp. limb). Readers who know of any others are welcome to mention them via the comment facility below.

62. Choices with Capital Letters

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Some kinds of noun in the middle of a sentence can be used either with or without an initial capital letter

VARIABILITY IN THE USE OF CAPITAL LETTERS

The question of whether or not to use a capital letter at the start of a word is one of those elementary ones that can still cause uncertainty for advanced users of English (rather like comma usage, subject-verb agreement and paragraph length).

One area where the use of starting capital letters can be problematic is in headings and titles – considered elsewhere within these pages in 178. How to Write a Heading and 197. The Language of Bibliographies. Another area is words that reference books like Collins Cobuild Grammar say have an “optional” need for a starting capital: words referring to compass positions (e.g. North / north – see 151. Ways of Using Compass Words), seasons (Summer / summer), decades (The Eighties / the eighties), sectors (the Army / the army), and roles (Minister / minister).

In this post I wish to examine three kinds of expression that have an optional need for a starting capital – names of high-status roles, names of sectors, and descriptive names – and to suggest some guidelines for choosing or rejecting the capital letter.

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CAPITALS IN THE NAMES OF HIGH-STATUS ROLES & SECTORS

High-status role names include minister, president, manager, head teacher, rector, bishop and chair, while high-status sector names include government, army, church, management, high court and senate. All of these names may or may not begin with a capital letter, depending on how important the role or sector is to the writer. Consider this example: 

(a) The Government have passed a new motoring law. 

The use of the capital G here probably means that the writer is saying something about his/her own government, or at least is showing unusual respect for someone else’s. For example, in an American newspaper the sentence would probably be referring to the American government. A small g, on the other hand, would indicate that the government in question was not the writer’s own. In the same way, the use of Church would suggest that the writer either belonged to the religious institution in question or at least thought it deserved special respect; while church would distance the writer from it.

The choice between God and god is a particularly interesting one. Is the usage with a capital letter a standard proper name like Mary or a respect-showing role name like The President? In fact it could be either. As a proper name, it is likely to be used by people who believe in only one god – without, of course, the/a(n) or equivalent: 

(b) God is the Supreme Being. 

Interesting here is the additional use of capital letters in Supreme Being. This expression is not a proper name (the name is God). One reason for its capitals could be that it is felt to be a respect-deserving high-status role name, but more probably the reason is just a tendency among believers in God to capitalise the first letter of any word (even pronouns and adjectives) that describes or represents Him.

Using God not as an ordinary name but as a role name with implied respect would be common among people who believed in more than one god (or by writers who wanted to show respect for such people). In this case, there would normally be an article or a plural ending: 

(c) The Ancient Greeks worshipped Poseidon, the God of the sea.

(d) Poseidon was one of the Greek Gods. 

The god here is named Poseidon, not God, so that God is surely a status expression (and could be written with a small g). For more about religious influences on English, see 137. Words that Reflect English Culture.

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CAPITALS IN DESCRIPTIVE NAMES

A name is a standard way of referring to something. Ordinary names, such as Britain or chair, only refer, while descriptive names, such as East Africa and wallpaper, both refer and describe (see 206. Ways of Conveying a Name). Expressions that only refer tend automatically to be names too. However, descriptive expressions are less definitely names because they are not always the standard way of referring to what they describe. For example, a large island south of India is a non-naming description because it refers to somewhere with a different standard name (Sri Lanka – see 77. Apposition).

Some names start with a capital letter and some do not. It all depends on what the name refers to. Most names of people and places, for example, need a capital (see 47. Article Errors with Proper Nouns), while most other names do not. Yet doubts about whether or not to use a capital letter when referring to a person or place can still arise with a descriptive expression. The reason is that there can be doubt about whether or not it is a name at all – whether or not, in other words, it is the standard way of referring to the idea in question.

One of the visitors to the Home page of this blog provided a good example of such doubt when enquiring whether a corner of a playground known as the wild garden should have capital letters. The answer I gave was that it depended on whether the phrase was being used as a name or as a non-naming description. It would certainly be the latter if there was another expression that was recognised as its name (e.g. Wonderland), but it would probably be a name (The Wild Garden) if there was no other way of identifying it.

To give another example, my daughter’s family acquired a cat some years ago and did not bother to give it a name. Sometimes they referred to it as bad cat, sometimes miaow, and sometimes bird killer. However, a child in the family made such a habit of using miaow that the rest of the family started to follow suit, until eventually the constancy of the use caused the description to be considered the cat’s name (with a capital).

An example of a different sort is provided by the contrast between Earth (or The Earth) and earth. The former of course refers to the world, a place, while the latter just means “soil”. Perhaps this is not strictly a difference between a name and a description – more one between two different but related meanings of the same word (see 7. Metaphorical Meanings) – but it seems worth mentioning in this context.

There is an interesting usage in a prayer that Roman Catholic Christians say in order to demonstrate and reinforce their belief. Generally, Catholics call their church The Catholic Church – a descriptive name. However, in the prayer (whose wording is carefully controlled by the church’s authorities), the phrase is the catholic Church, with only Church capitalised. The authorities are unlikely to have made a mistake with their English here (despite my word processor suggesting they have, and hence proving again the weaknesses of computer grammar checking – see 68. How Computers Get Grammar Wrong 1).

Removing the capital from Catholic, so that this word ceases to be part of the name, forces more attention to be given to its ordinary meaning of “universal”, and at the same time changes the role of Church from part of a descriptive name to a name of a wider sector (see 283. Lesser-Known Features of Adjectives, #4). The changed spelling seems to reflect a wish to refer to all Christians rather than just those called The Catholic Church. The fact that non-Catholic Christians use these words in the same way in their version of the prayer offers support for this interpretation. 

Another familiar descriptive name that can also be used as an ordinary description (despite computer underlining) is New Year. Here are examples of the two uses: 

(e) A fireworks display was put on for (the) New Year.

(f) The new year will begin in January. 

The name use, illustrated by (e), refers to an event, just like Ramadan, Thanksgiving or The Olympics, while the ordinary description is implied not to be an event. Use as a name is often indicated by the ability of the noun to be used without the/a(n) or similar.

45. Latin Clues to English Spelling

The Ancient Romans Spoke Latin 

Deciding whether or not to double a consonant in an English word of Latin origin is easier if you know a little about Latin

THE LINK BETWEEN LATIN AND ENGLISH

Latin, the language of the ancient Romans, was spoken across Europe 2000 years ago. It is not spoken today, but most of the languages of Southern Europe, such as French and Italian, are descended from it. Although English is not a descendant of Latin, it has borrowed a very large number of Latin words. Some arrived around 1000 years ago when England was ruled by French-speaking kings (see 135. French Influences on English Vocabulary); while others were adopted by English-speaking academics and scientists as names for new concepts and discoveries (ancient Greek was also an important source of such words – see 90. The Greek Impact on English Vocabulary).

English words of Latin origin are especially common in academic and professional writing (see 108. Formal and Informal Words,  130. Formal Abbreviations and 172. Multi-Use Suffixes). Spelling them can be tricky. A common uncertainty is whether to write a single or a double consonant in words like aCCoMModation and proFeSSor (see 188. Causes of Common Spelling Mistakes, #5). One reason why these words give trouble is that their pronunciation is no guide to their spelling – the spelling reflects the Latin origin of the words rather than how to say them.

This post presents some basic facts about Latin that might help English words of Latin origin to be spelled correctly. Other posts on spelling can be accessed by clicking on SPELLING in the “Categories” menu to the right of this page.

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LATIN PREPOSITIONS IN ENGLISH WORDS

Very often, English words derived from Latin start with a former Latin preposition, and it is this that frequently helps to create the above-mentioned spelling problem. There is consequently value in knowing the spellings and meanings of common Latin prepositions. Such knowledge can also help the meanings of unfamiliar words to be worked out in reading (see 177. How to Guess Meanings in a Text), and can indicate in writing where in a word to split it between different lines (see 223. Uses of Hyphens, #1).

Common Latin Prepositions in English Words

Some of these Latin prepositions can combine with existing English words, even ones with no Latin links, to make new English words, such as inter-city (see 146. Some Important Prefix Types). However, uses of this kind are not particularly important in the following discussion of spelling: removing the Latin preposition from most of the words considered below will usually not create a new word. 

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A RULE FOR NOT DOUBLING CONSONANTS NEAR THE START OF A LATIN-DERIVED WORD

An important feature of Latin prepositions is that some (underlined above) end with a vowel (e.g. re-), while some end with a consonant (e.g. con-). This feature is important because it gives some help in knowing whether or not to double a consonant in a Latin-derived word.

One useful rule is that Latin prepositions ending with a vowel are not followed by a doubled consonant. This does not mean that other Latin prepositions (ending in a consonant) always give rise to a doubled consonant (some do and some do not), but at least we can be sure that Latin prepositions ending with a vowel are almost never associated with a double consonant. Here are some examples of words whose Latin preposition ends with a vowel and hence is not followed by a double consonant:

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Sample of Latin-Derived Words whose Preposition Ends in a Vowel

                               a-void                                              pre-tend

                               de-tain                                             pro-fess

                               di-rect                                              re-ject

                               e-volve                                             se-duce

Note how the presence of the Latin preposition pro- in profess reduces the difficulty of remembering that there is only one “f” (unfortunately, it is harder to get the later double consonant “ss” right, as no preposition is involved and we just have to remember that the Latin word fess was spelt that way). In the same way, another commonly-misspelt word, referring, can be “proved” not to have a double “f” by the presence of the Latin preposition re-.

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A GUIDELINE FOR CONSONANT DOUBLING NEAR THE START OF A LATIN-DERIVED WORD

As mentioned above, a consonant at the end of a Latin preposition is sometimes doubled in an English word and sometimes not. There are two different types of double consonant. In one, the consonant at the end of the preposition is simply the same as the one after it (just as is the case when prefixes and suffixes are added to ordinary English words like normally: see 248. When to Double a Consonant, #3). In the other, which is more frequent, the consonant at the end is changed so as to be the same as the consonant immediately after it.

Most consonant doubling of the second type involves ad-, con-, ob- and sub-. Dis- changes to dif– before “f”. The preposition ad- is especially likely to change its last letter. It can become acc-, aff-, agg-, all-, amm-, ann-, app-, arr- ass- or att-. Here are some examples:

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Words with Alternative Spellings of the Latin Preposition ‘ad-‘

                                  abbreviate                                     announce

                                  accept                                              approach

                                   affect                                                arrange

                                   aggregate                                       assist

                                   alliance                                           attend

The other Latin prepositions with a variable final consonant do not change their spelling as often as ad-, but they do do so in some very common English words. Here are some examples:

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Words with Alternative Spellings of Other Latin Prepositions

                                   collapse                                           differ

                                   commit                                            diffuse

                                   correct                                             succeed

                                   occupy                                             suffer

                                   offer                                                 suggest

                                   oppose                                            supply

For more about diffuse, see 236. Tricky Word Contrasts 9, #4.

In order to know when to write the last consonant of a Latin preposition just once, when to write it twice, and when to change it and write it twice, it is necessary to know a little more about Latin. Latin prepositions nearly always combine with other former Latin words, particularly Latin verbs. If you know a few Latin verbs, it will become much easier to make the right spelling choices with any of the changeable prepositions. Here are some very common verbs:

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Common Latin Verbs after Latin Prepositions in English Words

-act (do)                                           -port (carry)

-ceed/-cede (go)                            -pose (place)

-claim (shout)                                 -press (press)

-cur (run)                                         -pute (think)

-dict (say)                                        -rect (control)

-duce/-duct (lead)                        -sist (stand)   

-fer (bring)                                       -spect (look)

-ject (throw)                                     -tain (hold) 

-leg/-lect (read)                             -tend (stretch)

-mit (send)                                       -vise (see)      

-pel (push)                                    -vok/-voc (call)

-opt  (choose)                                  -it (go)            

Consonant doubling depends on the first letter of the Latin word after the preposition. 

– If this letter is a vowel (e.g. -opt), no doubling occurs (e.g. adopt). 

– If it is the same consonant as the one at the end of the preposition, there is a simple double consonant (e.g. ad-dict). 

– If it is a consonant that is hard to say after the preposition, the end of the preposition is changed to match it, creating a new double consonant. Defining “hard to say” is not so easy though; here are the main combinations of this kind: -DF- (changes to -FF-), -DG- (-GG-), -DP- (-PP-), -DT- (-TT-), -BC- (-CC-), -BF- (-FF-), and –BP- (-PP). 

– If it is a consonant that is not hard to say, there is no changing or doubling. For example, ad- keeps its single “d” before “m” in ad-mit and “v” in ad-vise, and con- stays the same in consist.

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PRACTICE IN SPELLING ENGLISH WORDS OF LATIN ORIGIN

The following exercise is offered as a means of strengthening understanding and memorisation of the various spelling points made above.

EXERCISE: Identify the correct spelling in each pair (answers below)

1. command/comand
2. suppervise/supervise
3. occurring/ocurring
4. attraction/atraction
5. propposed/proposed
6. deffinition/definition
7. acclaim/aclaim
8. suppresses/supresses
9. connecting/conecting
10. innocent/inocent
11. addult/adult
12. addict/adict
13. suggesting/sugesting
14. occupation/ocupation
15. dissect/disect
16. opperate/operate
17. accommodate/acommodate
18. ommitted/omitted
19. ressurrect/resurrect
20. oppening/opening
21. proffer/profer
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Answers

1. DOUBLE: com-mand
2. SINGLE: super-vise
3. DOUBLE: oc-curring
4. DOUBLE: at-traction
5. SINGLE: pro-posed
6. SINGLE: de-finition
7. DOUBLE: ac-claim
8. DOUBLE: sup-presses
9. DOUBLE: con-necting
10. DOUBLE: in-nocent
11. SINGLE: ad-ult
12. DOUBLE: ad-dict
13. DOUBLE: sug-gesting
14. DOUBLE: oc-cupy
15. DOUBLE: dis-sect
16. SINGLE : operate (There is no Latin preposition)
17. DOUBLE: ac-com-modate
18. SINGLE: o-mitted (A rare change of ob- to o-)
19. SINGLE + DOUBLE: re-sur-rect
20. SINGLE: opening (There is no Latin preposition)
21. DOUBLE: pro-f-fer (This word has two prepositions, pro- and ob-, which share the same “o”. The doubled “ff” is caused by ob-, not pro-)