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Double consonant
Double consonants appear when adding a suffix if the base word uses the so-called “short" sound of a vowel. See So-called “short” and “long” vowels.
A | E | I | O | U | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Short sound | trap /æ/ | dress /e/ | kit /ɪ/ | lot /ɒ/ | strut /ʌ/ |
Long sound or "name sound" | face /eɪ/ | theme /iː/ | price /aɪ/ | bone /əʊ/ | cute /juː/, flute /uː/, produce /juː,BrE uːAmE/ |
For example, “hop” gives “hopped,” with a double consonant in addition to the suffix -ed. Similarly “fat” gives “fatter,” with a t in addition to the suffix -er.
Magic e explains the necessity of consonant doubling. Take the verb “hope.” If we just add “-ed” then we have “hoped” (note that we compressed two “e”s in order not to have “hopeed”). But suppose we want to add an “-ed” to “hop” and at the same time preserve its vowel sound? Obviously if we write “hoped” we will have the same word as before. In order to indicate the correct vowel sound in “hop” we double the previous consonant to produce “hopped.”
Normally "kk" is not used (exception: trekking); what is used is “ck.”
Letter | Phoneme | Word ending in consonant | Double consonant | Phoneme | Word with magic e | Single consonant |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
a | /æ/ | plan | planning | /eɪ/ | plane | planing |
e | /e/ | pen | penned | /iː/ | theme | themed |
i | /ɪ/ | win | winner | /aɪ/ | write | writer |
o | /ɒ/ | hop | hopping | /əʊ/ | hope | hoping |
u | /ʌ/ | fun | funny | /juː, uː/ | cute, rule | cutie, ruled |
y | /ɪ/ | gym | /aɪ/ | type | typed |
Double consonants are used also in the middle of words with no suffixes. For example in “follow” (/ɒ/ sound) and “solar” (/əʊ/ sound). However “solid” also has an /ɒ/ sound, and no double consonant. Based on this example we generalize as follows: the double consonant pattern shows that the vowel has its short sound (or schwa) but a single consonant cannot be used to determine the pronunciation.
Double consonants at the end of a word[edit | edit source]
Double consonants at the end of a word are normally redundant as these examples show:
- A as /æ/: add - bad
- E as /e/: egg - leg
- I as /ɪ/: inn - win
- O as /ɒ/: odd - god
- U as /ʌ/: mutt - cut
- Y as /ɪ/: chlorophyll - pterodactyl
The table below shows single or double consonants at the end of the word preceded by a single vowel. Uncommon patterns are indicated with yellow.
Letter | Single letter | Double letter | Spelling anomalies |
---|---|---|---|
b | club - job - web | ||
c | music - public - traffic | black - clock - pick | |
d | bed - glad - red | add - odd | |
f | chef - if | off - sheriff - staff | |
g | big - dog - drug | egg | |
h | Sarah - Utah | ||
j | |||
k | trek | ||
l | hotel - local - level | doll - tell - will | “a" as /ɔː/: all - ball - call - fall - hall - install - small - tall - wall "o" as /əʊ/: control - patrol; poll - roll - scroll - stroll - toll "u" as /ʊ/: bull - full - pull |
m | problem - swim - them | ||
n | can - plan - when | inn | |
p | drop - ship - step | ||
q | Iraq | ||
r | car - sir - water | err - purr | |
s | bus - gas - this | across - class - less | “a" as /eɪ/: bass (music) |
t | but - lot - that | boycott - mutt | |
v | mazeltov | ||
x | tax | ||
z | quiz | jazz - buzz |
A + double consonant is /æ/ or /ə/[edit | edit source]
The real rule is: A + double consonant is (almost) never /eɪ/
See also
- As /æ/: channel - happy - package - traffic
- As /ə/: account - address - again - around
Exceptions
- As /eɪ/: bass (in music)
- As /ɔː/: all - ball - call - caller - fall - hall - small - smaller - tall - taller
Exceptions only in British English
E + double consonant is /e/ or /ə/[edit | edit source]
The real rule is: E + double consonant is never /iː/
See also
- As /e/: better - effort - letter - pepper - success - well
Exceptions:
- As /ɪ/: effect - efficient - essential - pretty
I + double consonant is /ɪ/ or /ə/[edit | edit source]
This rule also means I + double consonant is never /aɪ/
See also:
- As /ɪ/: innocent - little - middle - miss - still - village
O + double consonant is /ɒ/ or /ə/[edit | edit source]
This rule means O + double consonant is seldom /əʊ/
See also:
- As /ɒ/: comment - occupy - office - opportunity
- As /ə/: colloquial - communication - occur - official
Exceptions:
- as /əʊ/: controlled - patrolled - poll - roll - scroll - stroll - stroller - toll
- As /ʌ/: sonny - tonne
U + double consonant is /ʌ/ or /ə/[edit | edit source]
This rule means U + double consonant is never /juː/ or /uː/
See also:
- butter - dummy - funny - runny - summer - sunny
Exceptions:
- As /ʊ/: bull - bullet - full - pull
Y + double consonant is /ɪ/ or /ə/[edit | edit source]
This rule also means Y + double consonant is never /aɪ/
See also:
- As /ɪ/: syllable - syllogism - symmetrical - yttrium
- As /ə/: odyssey
R and double consonants[edit | edit source]
In the sequence VrrV, where V is a vowel sound, the spelling "rr" is used for two different sounds. The “short” sound of the vowel (as in carry) and the rhotic monophthong (as in starry.) This second sound is used only when adding suffixes. For example if we add -ed to occur we double the consonant and we get occurred.
Letter | So-called “short” sound | Double consonant | Phoneme | Word ending in consonant | Double consonant (rhotic monophthong) |
Phoneme | Word with magic e | Single consonant |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
a | /æ/ | carry | /ɑː/ | bar | barred | /eə/ | bare | bared |
e | /e/ | cherry | /ɜː/ | prefer | preferred | /ɪə/ | mere | merest |
i | /ɪ/ | mirror | /ɜː/ | stir | stirred | /aɪə/ | fire | fired |
o | /ɒ,BrE ɔːAmE/ | torrid | /ɔː/ | abhor | abhorred | /ɔː, oə/ | bore | bored |
u | /ʌ/ | hurry | /ɜː/ | occur | occurred | /jʊə, ʊə, ɔː/ | cure - assure | cured - assured |
y | /ɪ/ | /ɜː/ | myrrh | /aɪə/ | tyreBrE |
Minimal pairs[edit | edit source]
Letter | Phoneme | Word ending in consonant | Double consonant | Phoneme | Word with magic e | Single consonant |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
a | /æ/ | hat | hatted, hatting, hatter | /eɪ/ | hate | hated, hating, hater |
latter | late | later | ||||
plan | planned, planning | plane | planed, planing | |||
tap | tapped, tapping | tape | taped, taping | |||
a | /æ/ | marry | /eə/ | Mary | ||
a | /ɑː/ | bar | barred, barring | /eə/ | bare | bared, baring |
scar | scarred, scarring | scare | scared, scaring | |||
star | starred, starring | stare | stared, staring | |||
i | /ɪ / | dinner | /aɪ/ | dine | diner | |
fill | filled, filling | like | filed, filing | |||
lick | licked, licking | like | liked, liking | |||
win | winning | wine | wining | |||
i | /ɪ / | litter | /iː/ | literAmE | ||
o | /ɒ/ | comma | /əʊ/ | coma | ||
holly | holy | |||||
hop | hopped, hopping | hope | hoped, hoping | |||
rob | robbed | robe | robed | |||
stock | stocked, stocking | stoke | stoked, stoking | |||
u | /ʌ/ | cut | cutter | /juː/ | cute | cuter |
dull | dully | duly | ||||
hug(*) | hugger | huge | huger | |||
supper | /uː/ | super | ||||
u | /ɜː/ | fur | furry | /jʊə/ | fury |
(*) Not a minimal pair, because the consonant also sounds differently
- Other cases
Root | Double consonant | IPA | Root | Single consonant | IPA |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
belly | bellies | /ˈbeliːz/ | belie | belies | /bɪˈlaɪz/ |
"ss" vs. “s"[edit | edit source]
In most of the following pairs “ss" is a digraph that sounds /s/. In most examples “s" sounds /z/.
Root | Double consonant | IPA | Root | Single consonant | IPA |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
brass | /brɑːs,BrE bræsAmE/ | bra | bras | /brɑːz/ | |
caress | /kəˈres/ | care | cares | /keərz/ | |
cosy | cosiness | /ˈkəʊziːnəs/ | cosine | cosines | /ˈkəʊsaɪnz/ |
deadly | deadliness | /ˈdedliːnəs/ | deadline | deadlines | /ˈdedlaɪnz/ |
dessert | /dɪˈzɜːrt/ | desert (n.) | /ˈdezərt/ | ||
loss | losses | /lɒsɪz,BrE lɔːsɪzAmE/ | lose | loses | /luːzɪz/ |
mousse | /muːs/ | mouse | /maʊs/ | ||
need | needless | /ˈniːdləs/ | needle | needles | /ˈniːdəlz/ |
princess | /ˈprinsɪs, ˈprinses, prinˈses/ | prince | princes | /ˈprinsɪz/ | |
timely | timeliness | /ˈtaɪmlinəs/ | timeline | timelines | /ˈtaɪmlaɪnz/ |