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Today I went through a link in Oxford stating

https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/spelling/verb-tenses-adding-ed-and-ing

If the verb has only one syllable and ends with a single vowel plus a consonant (e.g. stop), then you need to double the final consonant before adding -ed and -ing:

stop-stopped-stopping

but then I remembered the words: come and flow.

If we follow this rule it would be comming and flowwing when we add -ing suffix. However it would make the words look strange and alienated cause i have never seen anyone write it like that (at least to the extent of my study). So can you guys help me clarify this situation? Thanks in advance.

choster
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Jessi
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1 Answers1

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Come ends with a vowel and the w at the end of flow does the job of a vowel. It is part of a diphthong.

http://www.dictionary.com/e/w-vowel/

https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/when-is-w-a-vowel?page=2

Michael Harvey
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  • Uhm by the logic of this page https://www.usingenglish.com/forum/threads/163223-quot-an-MBA-quot-M-is-a-vowel-sound "M" in MBA is pronounced as "em" thus making it a vowel and eligible to an MBA. However, in the word come as/k^m/ the "m" at the end is pronounced as" mmm " as in true bilabial sound. So how come we treat it as a vowel? Is there an exception to it? P/s: when we say the term vowel and consonant we use the word pronunciation and not the alphabet letter right? So just to make sure the vowel you are referring to is the /m/, correct? – Jessi May 05 '18 at 13:34
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    M is a consonant. E is a vowel. The Oxford Dictionaries entry you linked to explains that for verbs ending with a silent e, that is dropped before -ed and -ing. Come is such a verb. – Michael Harvey May 05 '18 at 13:48
  • @jessi 'M' is a consonant whose pronunciation starts with a vowel sound. (Which is why it's an MBA, not a MBA.) – Jason Bassford May 06 '18 at 20:54