Page 244 - Basic English Usage

322 ~ 323 246

Note the spelling of these words:
‘gallop ‘galloping ‘galloped (NOT -gatepping—gatepped)
de'velop de'veloping de' veloped (NOT devetepping—devetepped)
In British English, we double / at the end of a word even in an unstressed
syllable.
‘travel ‘travelling ‘equal ‘equalled
(In American English, fis not doubled in unstressed syllables: ‘traveling.)

The reason for doubling is to show that a vowel has a ‘short’ sound. This
is because, in the middle of a word, a stressed vowel before one
consonant is usually pronounced long. Compare:
hoping haupin/ hopping /hopin/
later /lerta(r)/ latter fleata(r)/
dining I‘dainin/ — dinner /'dina(r)/

322 spelling: final -e

When a word ends in -e, and we add something that begins with a vowel
(-ing, -able or -ous), we usually leave out the -e.
hope hoping
make making
note notable
fame famous
This does not happen with words ending in -ee.
see seeing agree agreeable

In words that end in -ge or -ce, we do not leave out -e before aor o.
courage courageous replace replaceable

323 spelling: full stops with abbreviations

A full stop is the small dot (.) that comes at the end of a sentence.
in American English, full stops are often used after abbreviations
(shortened words), and after letters that are used instead of full names.
Mr. Lewis Ms. Johnson Andrew J. McCann
etc. eé.g. USA.
S.E. Asia T.S Eliot
In British English, we now usually write abbreviations without full stops.
Mr Lewis MsJohnson Andrew J McCann
etc eg USA
SEAsia TSEliot