Lesson 1: Verb+ing spelling changes

Normally, it’s very easy to make the verb+ing form. We add ‘ing’ to the infinitive.


  • be → being
  • sleep → sleeping


When the verb ends with ‘e’, we usually drop the ‘e’ before we add ‘ing’. There are many, many verbs like this.


  • share → sharing
  • smile → smiling
  • phone → phoning
  • use → using
  • wake → waking
  • write → writing
  • serve → serving
  • realise → realising
  • practise → practising
  • move → moving
  • live → living
  • ignore → ignoring
  • invite → inviting
  • imagine → imagining
  • give → giving
  • smoke → smoking
  • save → saving
  • make → making
  • have → having
  • take → taking
  • arrive → arriving


Sometimes we have to double the last consonant.


  • swim → swimming
  • run → running
  • begin → beginning
  • fit → fitting
  • forget → forgetting
  • get → getting
  • hit → hitting
  • let → letting
  • plan → planning
  • prefer → preferring
  • put → putting
  • set → setting
  • sit → sitting
  • shut → shutting
  • stop → stopping
  • travel → travelling
  • win → winning


When the verb ends in -ie, we change -ie to -y before we add -ing.


  • die → dying
  • lie → lying



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