Spelling homework help

[RubberDuck]

Ds1 is currently having the -ing rules explained to him (and tested). If there's an 'e' you remove the 'e' and add -ing. If there's two consonants (cc) then you just add -ing. If there's a vowel consonant (vc) then you have to double the consonant and then add -ing. Fair enough.

We've had:

shop shopping
talk talking
write writing

etc.

But in this week's group (and no indication that there are words that break this rule) there is:

speak speaking
shout shouting

So why isn't it speakking and shoutting? Is there a rule they missed off or are these just exceptions designed to trip up the unsuspecting 7 year old?

you're looking for rules in English which don't exist.

Well I thought that... but the homework is supposed to be testing these non-existent rules.

I think you may be referring to the gerund?
= different uses, shop is a noun, talk is an adjective ... oh the complexities of the damn English language. I may well be barking up the wrong tree here too

then again, when you use them as verbs (which obv they are doing) the entire theory falls flat on its erm face

Oh good god... I hope not ... they're 7/8.

Parents eve this week. I'll interrogate them on it

perhaps because there's a double vowel before the consonant?

Ooo could be lilo. Let's think.... shoot/shooting, book/booking, hoot, hooting. That works

(waits for someone clever to find the exception to that!)

I assume that there's a general "rule" that when there's a double vowel/dipthong before the consonant then you don't double the consonant.

The teacher may be planning to use this homework as a starting point for introducing that idea.

Problem is, they don't include the -ing version on the list of words. Just provide the words and the rule.

I can imagine that a fair few of the kids are learning the wrong versions this week, because they're blindly following the rule without having an adult check.

Short vowel = double consonant is the rule.

So a single o or a etc saying its sound (ah, eh etc) gets a double letter. A digraph (2 vowels which make 1 sound eg ea, ou etc ), stay as a single letter.

lilolil on the right tracks - it's because the double vowel makes its own sound which wouldn't change.

So shout: ou = ow, won't change. Likewise with speak.

But shop: the o could change sound - so with one p (shoping) it would appear to sound like sloping.

Thank you all Will be better prepared tomorrow night instead of doing the "because it just IS okay?!!!"

damn my slow typing!

"If there's a vowel consonant (vc) then you have to double the consonant and then add -ing."

Or maybe you could shift this explanation slightly: If there's a consonant, vowel consonant (c vc) thenyou have to double the consonant and then add 'ing'. I think it works!!!

Spelling 'Rules': Jenny Chew says, 'I only ever taught my students 3 rules, which I called 'drop, swop and double'. They are all related to what happens when suffixes are added to base words'. She adds, 'These rules are for the spelling-beyond-the-beginner stage, not about beginning-reading or beginning-spelling'.

Drop a silent 'e' before adding a suffix beginning with a vowel, including 'y' (unless the 'e' is needed to keep a 'c' or 'g' soft). So we get 'hoping', 'smiled' (the 'e' is not the original silent 'e' but part of the suffix), 'operator', 'smoky' etc., but 'outrageous' and 'serviceable' (the 'e' stays in to keep the 'g' and 'c' soft). Even if the students didn't master the soft 'c' and 'g' bit, just knowing the other bit helped them to spell dozens of words correctly which they might otherwise have misspelt. I taught 'wholly', 'duly', 'truly', 'awful' and 'argument' as exceptions.

Swop the 'y' at the end of a base word for an 'i' before adding any suffix at all unless there is a vowel before the 'y' or the suffix itself begins with 'i'. Hence 'marriage', 'carried', 'reliable' etc. but 'conveyor', 'displayed', 'enjoyment' (vowel before the 'y') and 'carrying', copyist' (suffix begins with 'i').
Double a single consonant after a single short stressed vowel before adding a suffix beginning with a vowel. Hence 'hopping', 'beginner', 'stepped', 'forgotten', 'referral' etc.