Collins Cobuild English Grammar

manages

In most other cases the s is pronounced /z/.

leave leaves refer refers

R56    With verbs whose base form ends in a consonant letter followed by y, you substitute ies for y to form the s form.

try tries cry cries

R57    With verbs which end in sh, ch, ss, x, zz, or o, es rather than s is added to the base form of the verb. The es is pronounced /Iz/ when it is added to a consonant sound, and pronounced /z/ when it is added to a vowel sound.

diminish diminishes reach reaches pass passes mix mixes buzz buzzes echo echoes

R58      With one-syllable verbs that end in a single s, you usually add ses. Forms with a single s are more common in American English.

bus busses buses gas gasses gases

R59    Most verbs have -ing participles formed by adding ing to the base form, and past forms formed by adding ed to the base form.

paint painting painted rest resting rested

With all -ing participles, the ing is pronounced as a separate syllable: /Iŋ/.

With verbs whose base form ends with one of the sounds /f/, /k/, /p/, /s/, /ʃ/, or /tʃ/, the ed of the past form is pronounced /t/. For example, pressed is pronounced /prest/ and watched is pronounced /wɒtʃt/.

With verbs whose base forms ends with the sound /d/ or /t/, the ed of the past form is pronounced /d/. For example, patted is pronounced /pæId/ and faded is pronounced /feIdId/.

With all other verbs, the ed of the past form is pronounced /d/. For example, joined is pronounced /ʤɔInd/ and lived is pronounced /lIvd/.

R60    With most verbs that end in e, the -ing participle is formed by substituting ing for the final e. Similarly, you substitute ed for the final e to form the past form.

dance dancing danced smile smiling smiled fade fading faded

R61    In the case of a few verbs ending in e, you just add ing in the normal way to form the -ing participle. You still substitute ed for e to form the past.

singe singeing singed agree agreeing agreed

Here is a list of these verbs:

age

agree

binge

canoe

disagree

dye

eye

flee

free

glue

knee

queue

referee

see

singe

tiptoe

whinge

R62    To form the -ing participle of a verb that ends in ie, you substitute ying for ie.

tie tying

Note that the past form of such verbs is regular, following the pattern in R60.

R63    To form the past form of a verb that ends in a consonant letter followed by y, you substitute ied for y.

cry cried

Note that the -ing participle of such verbs is regular, following the pattern in R59.

R64    If the base form of a verb has one syllable and ends with a single vowel letter followed by a consonant letter, you double the final consonant letter before adding ing to form the -ing participle or ed to form the past form.

dip dipping dipped trot trotting trotted

Note that this does not apply if the final consonant letter is w, x, or y.

row rowing rowed box boxing boxed play playing played

R65    The final consonant letter of some two-syllable verbs is also doubled. This happens when the second syllable ends in a single vowel letter followed by a consonant letter, and is stressed.

refer referring referred equip equipping equipped

R66    In British English, when a two syllable verb ends in a single vowel letter followed by a single l, the l is doubled before ing or ed is added to it, even if there is no stress on the last syllable.

travel travelling travelled quarrel quarrelling quarrelled

A few other verbs also have their final consonant letter doubled.

program programming programmed worship worshipping worshipped hiccup hiccupping hiccupped kidnap kidnapping kidnapped handicap handicapping handicapped

R67      All the verbs described in R66, except handicap, can have their -ing participle and past form spelled with a single consonant letter in American English.

travel traveling traveled worship worshiping worshiped

R68    Here is a list of the verbs whose final consonant letter is doubled before ing and ed in both British and American English: