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I'm wondering why we have double letters in words that make the same sound as if it were a single letter. For example apple. The pp makes a p sound, and sound the same as if the word was spelt aple.

A few more examples:

  • sell
  • hill
  • fuss
  • watt
  • happy
  • sunny
  • blossom

I've also notices that the double letters make the same sound as if it were a single letter is not entirely true across the board - especially if the repeated letter is a vowel, for example;

  • feet
  • hoop
  • teen
  • spoon
  • beetle

Why is this? Why do some letters have double letters when having a single letter makes the same sound. It seems to only be for words above 3 characters.

From what I've seen, vowels need the double letter to make another sound, but consonants don't.

hd.
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  • This is a very broad topic. There is a whole tag for doubled-consonants with 47 questions. Note that "apple" and "maple" have different vowel sounds. – herisson Nov 25 '16 at 11:48
  • @sumelic thanks for that new tag. My overall question is why we have double consonants in words when a single consonant makes the same sound. – hd. Nov 25 '16 at 11:57
  • As mentioned in e.g. the answers to this question (http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/5200) double consonants don't usually indicate a different consonant sound, but they may indicate the pronunciation of the preceding vowel sound. – herisson Nov 25 '16 at 12:04
  • "Why" questions can be a bit vague. Are you interested most in how double consonants work in the current English spelling system, or in the history of how double consonants came to be used in English spelling? – herisson Nov 25 '16 at 12:06
  • @sumelic I guess both really - I never learnt about double consonants, so having both points in an answer would be great — if you could? – hd. Nov 25 '16 at 13:03
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    Why do some words end in double consonants? – Řídící Nov 25 '16 at 13:07
  • As rules about spelling and punctuation go, the rule that in words with a double c, the first c is hard and the second c is soft works pretty well. It will help you with "flaccid" but trip you up with "soccer." Before you rely on the rule, remember there's a succor born every day. – Airymouse Nov 25 '16 at 16:09
  • A double vowel is pronounced with a "long" sound. The single vowel, absent other modifiers, is pronounced with a "short" sound. – Hot Licks Nov 12 '19 at 22:49

3 Answers3

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I'm not a native speaker but I see it this way:

Two consonants in a word give us a different pronunciation like in:

  • apple and aple are different in pronunciation [ˈap(ə)l] and [ˈeɪp(ə)l]
  • little, better (double t sounds like d)
  • ladder, bidder (without the double d, it wouldn't be [a] but [eɪ] instead)
  • well (without the double consonants I think it wouldn't be [w], but [v] instead)
  • sunny (without double n would be pronounced as [sjuni] instead of [sʌni])
  • happy (without the double p would be [hāpi] instead of [hapi])
  • watt (without double t would be [wat] instead of [wɒt])

As with vowels i think it will be:

  • feet and fit are differently pronounced [fiːt] longer i and [fɪt] shorter i. Same works for teen, beetle, tree.
  • hoop, spoon have a longer sounding u. [huːp], [spuːn]. You cant' write spun [spʌn], hup [hʌp], because they are pronounced differently and there is no long u in English as a letter.
SovereignSun
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  • Interesting. Though, I've never been taught how to interpret, for example, [sjʌni], so I'm not following :(. Perhaps if I didn't lack the understanding on that, I could better understand. – hd. Nov 25 '16 at 13:08
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    Single t sounds just like d as well, in later, water, title, and so forth. – Peter Shor Nov 25 '16 at 15:44
  • @PeterShor Haven't noticed that neither in Am.E nor in Br.E. only the doubled t – SovereignSun Nov 25 '16 at 16:11
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    Well ... t never sounds like d in BrE, and whether it sounds like d in AmE has nothing to do with whether it's doubled or not. See Wikipedia. – Peter Shor Nov 25 '16 at 16:22
  • Waiter sounds like Wader? – SovereignSun Nov 25 '16 at 16:49
  • Yes, waiter sounds like wader. There might be a small difference in the length of the vowel, but it's not that noticeable. – Peter Shor Nov 25 '16 at 22:56
  • @PeterShor: there might be some connection in the sense that flapping does apparently occur sometimes in some varieties of British English, but usually only after short vowels (I learned about this when researching my answer here: http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/345801/flapping-in-british-english/349536#349536) – herisson Nov 25 '16 at 23:01
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The double consonants in well and apple are making the vowel short as in pest and fast. If the p were not doubled in apple, the word would rhyme with maple; compare apple with dapple.

SusanG
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    And what hapens to "well", how would we pronounce wel? What about spel does the double L make any diference to the pronunciation? – Mari-Lou A Nov 25 '16 at 13:51
  • Сompare apple [æp.(ə)l] with dapple [dæp.(ə)l]. Both are pronounced equally. – SovereignSun Nov 25 '16 at 14:10
  • @Mari-LouA I guess it would be [spiː.l] for spel like in speleology and [spel] for spell. – SovereignSun Nov 25 '16 at 14:14
  • Could it be that well [wel] would change to wel [wæl]? – SovereignSun Nov 25 '16 at 14:22
  • Makes not the damn slightest diference :) (note the single "p" in happen, and the single "f" in different in my previous coment, did you mispronounce different or happen?) English spelling may have some patterns, but there are no hard or fast rules where pronunciation is concerned, regardles of double leters or not. – Mari-Lou A Nov 25 '16 at 16:48
  • @Mari-LouA - This is a helpful rule of thumb, not a money-back guarantee. After all, we're talking about English, the king of the exceptions! – aparente001 Nov 26 '16 at 00:04
  • It is all so very strange. – SovereignSun Nov 26 '16 at 08:34
  • I just randomly got curious and decided to google this topic, and I am on @Mari-LouA's side here. All the examples mentioned do not make any difference on how I have heard people would pronounce ex: wel or well. Consider the amount inconveniences and spelling of mistakes people tend to make with double-lettered-words with the infinitesimal distinction the letters are meant to make, I think it is safe to say, the answer is: there is none! – samayo May 08 '19 at 17:16
  • "gel" certainly rhymes with "well", and "dispel" is similar to both. It's about the history of the word not the pronunciation. (Note that "-all" is pronounced differently to what you might expect, in "call", "wall", etc, but that also applies to "dismal" but not "pal".) – Stuart F Jan 23 '23 at 09:39
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The "T" sound equivalent to "D" as in "water" is true in the American context, but not in British English.. We do differentiate the two sounds. (I'm Australian) We are not immune however from butchering the language. Its a kind of running joke, but some Aussies say "STRINE" when attempting to describe their nationality.

Serge Petelin
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