RULES REFERRING TO THE FORMATION OF THE PARTICIPLES OF VERBS.

I.

Verbs which terminate in e take d alone when forming the past tense, and omit the e when adding ing for the present participle; as: hope, hoped, hoping.

Dye, eye, hoe, keep the e; as: dyeing, eyeing, hoeing.
And see Rule II.

[The rule for the spelling of verbs in ieve and eive may be usefully placed here: when c precedes the troublesome vowels, spell them ei; if not, ie.

Examples: conceive, deceive, perceive, receive. But achieve; believe, relieve; grieve, reprieve, retrieve; thieve. Also note verbs in ceed and cede. Exceed, proceed, succeed; but accede, concede, precede, recede.]

II.

Verbs ending with a, ee, o, x, ow, aw, ew, or with a double letter, always retain the same when ed or ing is added; as: huzza, huzzaed, huzzaing; free, freed, freeing; flow, flowed, flowing; vex, vexed, vexing.

III.

Monosyllables which terminate with a single consonant, preceded by a single vowel, require the doubling of the consonant when ed or ing is added; as: pen, penned, penning.

Sometimes the d is changed into t; as: dipt (for dipped).

IV.

Verbs ending with two consonants do not double the last when adding ed or ing; as: print, printed, printing.

V.

Verbs which terminate in a single consonant preceded by two vowels (making in pronunciation a single vowel, usually long) or a diphthong, do not double that consonant when ed or ing is added; as: clean, cleaned, cleaning.

Sometimes the d is changed into t; as: knelt (for kneeled).

VI.

In verbs of more than one syllable, ending in a single consonant, preceded by a single vowel (or vowel sound), the doubling of the consonant is always required on adding cd or ing, when the accent is on the last syllable; as confer, conferred, conferring.

Except chagrin, chagrined, chagrining; invalid, invalided, invaliding.

VII.

In verbs not accented on the last syllable, the doubling of the final consonant does not take place when ed or ing is added; as profit, profited, profiting.

VIII.

But verbs ending in preceded by a single vowel (or vowel sound), generally double this consonant, even when the accent is not on the last syllable; as: travel, travelled, travelling; impel, impelled, impelling.

Parallel more commonly takes single : paralleled, paralleling.

Verbs ending in c (for older ck) take ck before the endings; as: traffic, trafficked, trafficking.

Also two in s: bias, biassed, biassing; nonplus, nonplussed, nonplussing. But bias often keeps single s.

And some others; as: periwig, periwigged, periwigging.

IX.

Verbs which end in y preceded by a consonant, change the y into i on adding ed, as try, tried; but when ing is added, the y is retained, as: try, trying. These verbs also, on taking es or eth in the third person singular, or est in the second person singular, of the present tense, change they into i; as: try, tries, trieth; fly, flies, flieth. X.

Verbs ending in y preceded by another vowel, do not change the y into i when ed or ing is added; as: pray, prayed, praying.

Except that lay, pay, say, make their past tense, laid, paid, said.

XI.

Verbs ending in ie change this termination into y when ing is added; as: lie, lying.

But hie makes hieing.

XII.

In many cases the long vowel of the present is shortened or otherwise modified in the past tense and past participle; and the ending of the past participle in en is still used in many verbs. The d of the present is sometimes changed to t in the past tense and the past participle.

There are other occasional minor changes; and in a few instances no apparent change at all. No particular rules can be laid down for these cases; they must be learnt one by one.

Some few nouns are the same in both numbers; as: deer, grouse, sheep, species, swine.

There are some nouns restricted to the plural form; as: alms, annals, archives, ashes, bellows, billiards, clothes, drawers, dregs, goods, hustings, lees, news, oats, odds, riches, scissors, shears, thanks, tidings, tongs, trousers, victuals, vitals, wages, &c. Alms and riches are, historically, singular forms assimilated to the plural ending.

Collective nouns, as people, parliament, &c., though plural in signification, take a singular verb, when the individuals indicated are spoken of as a body and not as individuals.

Some words that are apparently plural take a singular verb, the meaning implied by them being singular; as: "The means is or are sufficient" (according as one or more means are "The news is true"; intended).

ADJECTIVAL AND ADVERBIAL TERMINATIONS.

No precise and universal rules can be laid down to indicate the changes that take place in words when they receive endings in order to convert them into Adjectives and Adverbs. But some broad hints in special classes of cases may be of some service.

ADJECTIVES.

1. Drop final silent e before an adjectival ending that begins with a vowel: as, adjectiv-al, cur-able, us-able, lov-able, Rom-ish, whit-ish, blu-ish, ros-y, wir-y.

Exceptions.-When c or g precedes the e, keep the e before able and ous: as, peace-able, charge-able, courage-ous, advantage-ous, umbrage-ous.

When 1, m, s, or v precedes the silent, the is frequently retained: as, sale-able, blame-able, excise-able, move-able. Also, flue-y, glue-y, game-y, swipe-y, wine-y, &c. (as well as, glu-y, gam-y, win-y, and the like).

Of course ce remains; as: agree-able, see-able.

2. When final y is preceded by a consonant, change the y into i; as: happy, happi-er, happi-est, fanci-ful, beauti-ful, bodi-less, pli-able. Except before ish and ing; as: baby-ish, cry-ing (really a participle).

3. Wilful, skilful, are more common than willful, skillful. So skilless, final being dropt before the ending.

4. Words of a single syllable, ending in a single consonant preceded by a single vowel (usually short), have the single consonant doubled before taking en, er, est, y, ish, able, &c.; as: wooll-en, (the 00 is pronounced as a short vowel), madd-er, madd-est, bigg-er, bigg-est, mudd-y, skinn-y, starr-y, badd-ish, bigg-ish, clubb-able.

But words of two syllables, or with two final consonants, or with a long vowel (or diphthong) preceding, take the ending without change; as: ricket-y, flower-y, water-y, milk-y, cloud-y, oil-y, seed-y, eat-able.

ADVERBS.

1. Adjectives are turned into Adverbs by simply adding ly; as: brave-ly, strong-ly, courageous-ly.