Avoiding spelling mistakes
Sometimes even native English speakers make mistakes when writing the language, because the rules can be too complex or confusing. For writers of Thai English, the most useful approach is just to associate certain words in groups with one another, and if we know a rule for one of them, then it often applies to the rest. At the same time, when we see how certain words are treated similarly, we gain confidence in our own use of the language.
In Thai English, writers of theses and academic research projects sometimes spell the noun opening wrong as openning.
The noun opening is related to the adjective open, meaning not shut. It means a vacant space, or beginning. Since the 1800s, it also means the first performance of a play, as in the expression opening night. From the 1900s onward, it is sometimes used to mean the beginning of an art exhibit.
It can be a challenge to know when changing an adjective such as open to a noun such as opening, when to use two consonants, as if the wrong spelling openning, or when to use only one consonant, as in the correct spelling of opening.
One approach to remember is that if the last syllable of a two syllable word is not stressed, then there should not be two consonants. Since the word open is stressed or accented on the first syllable, this means there should only be one consonant when the letters ing are added to the word to change it to a noun.
Open and opening are not the only words where this approach works. Among others are the following examples:
budget budgeting
benefit benefiting
cancel canceling
counsel counseling
happen happening
listen listening
marvel marveling
offer offering
open opening
quarrel quarreling
ripen ripening
visit visiting
travel traveling
vomit vomiting
worship worshiping
Please note that in all of these cases, the original word is not pronounced with the stress on the second syllable. In these cases, it is possible to add the letters ing without writing two consonants before them.
Here are some examples of two syllable words where the last syllable is stressed. In all of these cases, it would be correct to double the consonant before adding the letters ing.
acquit acquitting
admit admitting
begin beginning
commit committing
control controlling
deter deterring
excel excelling
occur occurring
prefer preferring
refer referring
submit submitting
transfer transferring
As we know, speakers of Thai English often place accents where they should not be in standard English speech. So it may be an issue to remember which of the words in the two lists given above belong with the others. Any hint or rule based on pronunciation may run into difficulties if the writer of Thai English is not sure whether the stress is placed on the first or second syllable of a two syllable words. Even so, it may help to pay attention to the groupings of words, in hopes that if we can be certain of how to pronounce at least a few of them with the correct stress, then we may associate the other words with them.
Further challenges
What should be done with one syllable verbs that end with one consonant after a vowel? For example, words such as beg, blur, flip, plan, stop, thin, rub, and split?
As we know, sometimes the short words in English can pose surprisingly difficult problems. In these cases and others, a one syllable verb ending with a consonant after a vowel, the final consonant should be doubled. Just remember that no word in English ending in ing has a doubled w, x, or y:
beg begging
blur blurring
flip flipping
plan planning
stop stopping
thin thinning
rub rubbing
split splitting
step stepping
stir stirring
swim swimming
tap tapping
wrap wrapping
fix fixing
play playing
plow plowing
What about verbs that end with the letter e? In those cases, the rule is to remove the letter e and add the letters ing. There should be no doubling of consonants in these cases:
date dating
dine dining
hide hiding
hope hoping
injure injuring
ride riding
slide sliding
smile smiling
type typing
write writing
And if a verb has two vowels and a final consonant? The rule is that it is not necessary to double the consonant before adding the letters ing:
bleed bleeding
eat eating
rain raining
ruin ruining
seat seating
fool fooling
dream dreaming
feel feeling
What happens when a verb ends with the letter y after a consonant? In that case, just add the letters ing. As mentioned above, there is no occasion where it will be a good idea to double the letters y, x, or w in English:
carry carrying
dry drying
fry frying
fly flying
reply replying
study studying
try trying
worry worrying
What happens when a verb ends with the letter y after one vowel? In such cases, we also just add the letters ing without doubling anything. So the changes go as follows:
buy buying
employ employing
enjoy enjoying
play playing
pray praying
stay staying
Being more familiar
Again, no writer of Thai English is expected to memorize these lists, but by looking at them, we can become a little more familiar with the way words should appear in English. The strategy is to get to the point where if something is wrong, we react like native speakers of English. They may not know why something is mistaken, but they might have a sense that things are not as they should be. From there, if we feel that we may have made an error, then it is a rapid solution to do a Google search and see if in fact we did make a mistake. By doing so, we can prevent many possible errors in the writing process for our academic research project or thesis.
Having the instinct that something might be mistaken is like being our own spell check service. The only way to get a sense of when things might be wrong is to be very familiar with how things look when they are correct.
As always with rules in any language, there are a few words that do not fit into the general pattern. This is one reason why it can seem frustrating to learn rules about a language. Again, if we become familiar with words that are treated in an unusual way, then it can help us better remember those which go according to the usual pattern.
One example is the word quit. Even though it contains two vowels, when we add the letters ing to it, we do double the consonant, to arrive at the word quitting. It would be wrong to write the word as quiting.
Rather than worrying about the few words which do not follow the rules, let us focus on the majority of words which are treated as we would expect them to be. This increases our probability of getting things right when we write our academic research project or thesis in English.
(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)