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ESL forum > Grammar and Linguistics > hello everybody    

hello everybody



manoura
Armenia

hello everybody
 
nowdays, i teach my students the present continuous. till now i am doing a great job but really i want to make sure of this issue. when teaching how to add -ing to verbs with stressed vowels such as hop---hopping, we double the last letter,but there are exceptions such as play, stay,pray.
 
how really can i tell my students how to diffrenciate? or just tell them to memorize the exceptions ones.

21 Oct 2008      





Vickiii
New Zealand

Hi manoura,
 
If you notive the three exceptions you listed all end in y.  we never double the Y. 

21 Oct 2008     



wolfy
Chile

Manora,

If you are teaching the present continuous, then you are teaching really quite basic stuff, don�t go into any exceptions other than the "y" as mentioned by vickii, and the following:

In england as a little boy I was taught this...
Sit - Site
Hop - Hope
(and many, many more simple three letter words then adding an "e")

If you say these words you�ll notice that the vowel sounds are very different.

To non Native speakers, you can check using : start/Control Panel/Voice... Just enter the words and let your PC show you how to say these words. �Now add "ing" like this

Site - Siting (the "e" has gone but it�s effect on the "i" can still be heard)
Sit - Sitting (if we simply add "ing" we are actually adding the "e" effect. �Not good. So we add an extra "t")

Notice how your PC reacts differently to each one.
When we add "ing" to a verb, we remove the "e" but for pronounciation it really is still there:

This is also true when we add "ed" for regular verbs in the past, which you�ll be doing later with the same students.
and also for comparing, adding "er" and "est"

I made a ws about this; alas it�s quite poor as I couldn�t shrink the wav files enough to include them, and it was one of my first efforts. �I�ll see if I can�t make another.


21 Oct 2008     



Katiusha (F)
Israel

Hi manoura
 
The rules are like these:
 
1. The verb that contains CVC combination (consonant-vowel-consonant) has to be checked from right to left (from the end of the verb).If you have such a combination it means that you have to double the last letter
run - running. The reason for checking it from right to left is that there are verbs like stop that are CCVC and they also have to double the last letter stopping. If you check it from the end you see that you have CVC combination.
 
 
2. The verb that ends in letter -Y doesn�t have to double the last letter  - play- playing, try - trying
 
3. The verb that ends with -e dropps its -e and adds -ing ending-  write - writing
 
4. The verb that ends with -ie has to change its ending to y+ing - die- dying
 
Hope it is helpful.

21 Oct 2008     



Vickiii
New Zealand

Here is the MAGIC E song
 

You need me, I�m Magic E!
Magic magic eeee,
magic magic eeee.

A strip
gets a stripe with me,
a pip
makes a pipe with me,
hear
what you do with me;
add magic magic eeee,
magic magic eeee.

Words
change around with me,
when they are found with me,
hear
how they sound with me;
I�m magic magic eeee,
magic magic eeee.

A pin
makes a pine with me,
twin
becomes twine with me.
Hear!
What you do with me,
add magic magic eeee,
magic magic eeee...

21 Oct 2008     



goodnesses
Algeria

Hi, manoura
Jordan

Actually here weshould talk about doubling the last "consonant" not "letter" because we don�t double vowels.
We do this with words ending in a "consonant" preceded by a short vowel and we do this when adding a suffix such as "ing" , "er" , "est"...
Stop - stopping
Hot - hotter
Cut - cutting
Fat - fattest
Hit - hitting

HOPE THIS COULD HELP

21 Oct 2008     



Zora
Canada

As a child, I remember our teacher telling us that "y" sometimes functions as a "vowel", so therefore in English three vowels do not go together usually (there are exceptions obviously but for the little kids, this rule usually works well for the verbs just because they don�t have enough vocabulary to question it too much...) 

In other words, I tell them that for example "play" can�t be doubled simply because the "y" is acting like a vowel in this case. Although, you can just use the rule that when "y" is preceded by a vowel, it is left alone and suffers no change at all.

22 Oct 2008     



goodnesses
Algeria

Hi , �Zora - f

Nice to hear from you again.

You�re right the "y" is sometimes used as a vowel but never at the end of a word where it it is always pronounced as a short vowel /i/.

Yellow /j/

Young /j/

Boy /o i /

happy /i/

Then as a vowel at the end of a word it is changed to "i" in spelling.

Cheers

22 Oct 2008     



manoura
Armenia

thank for all your benificial responses my mates... i really happy to get used of your experience because i teach elementary level and they have to learn in simple way
thank u so much

23 Oct 2008