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What's the method of making the "ing form" of different verbs, in some verbs we double the last letter of that verb e.g: sit becomes sitting, dig becomes digging, and in some verbs we do not need to double the last letter of that verb e.g: go becomes going, read becomes reading. How should we know in which verb we double the last letter?

  • This question should be asked on our sister site for people who are learning English: [ell.se]. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Jun 18 '14 at 17:58
  • I have asked different questions concerned with English language in this site and I have gotten many logical answers. –  Jun 18 '14 at 18:08
  • This is not about English language, this is about English spelling. Any dictionary will tell you if there is an irregular spelling for the completely regular -ing form of a verb. – John Lawler Jun 18 '14 at 18:13
  • @user78248 That does not change the fact that this question is off-topic on this site, but on-topic at ELL. You should also note that of all the questions you’ve asked here, only one has remained open. Two have been closed as duplicates (you should always search before you ask!), and one as off-topic. This one is off-topic, too. In three of your questions, people have asked you to look at [ell.se] and ask such questions there instead of here. Please do so! – Janus Bahs Jacquet Jun 18 '14 at 18:14
  • I'm migrating this to ELL (although I think it is a duplicate there). – Kit Z. Fox Jun 19 '14 at 11:46

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The best rule of thumb I've found is that in a single syllable word, when the last vowel sound pronounced is short (as in the "i" in either "sit" or "dig"), the last consonant is doubled before adding "ing". When the last vowel sound pronounced is long (as in the "o" in "go", or the "i" in "file") the final consonant is not doubled; when there is a final silent "e", it is dropped.

When there are two or more syllables, and the vowel sound in the last syllable is short (as in the verb "visit"), the final consonant is not doubled, thus "visiting".

But as in the case of most spelling rules in English, there are exceptions. The "x" is not doubled in "mixing", for example.