dropping the e

double_mummy

doing some spelling with the little man

we are dropping the e and adding ing

bake to baking
rake to raking
care to caring

now my son is saying to me why isnt it car - ing becuase its the magic e that made the a sound in care

how i do explain this to him that he is right but that english language doesnt really care about being logical?

Carl31

I'm not sure I get you

by that logic the original 3 would be wrong too. Ie baking would be back - ing

or is he questioning all of the words?

BitterAndTwisted

You tell him precisely that: the english language doesn't follow absolute rules because the roots to the words are gleaned from various different languages, which all have their own rules. And some of those aren't absolute either.

For an entertaining read about this very problem get some of the H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N books by Leonard Ross from the library. Laugh out loud stuff!

hieveryone

double_mummy wrote: »

doing some spelling with the little man

we are dropping the e and adding ing

bake to baking
rake to raking
care to caring

now my son is saying to me why isnt it car - ing becuase its the magic e that made the a sound in care

how i do explain this to him that he is right but that english language doesnt really care about being logical?

This is where spelling teaching in schools really falls down. Add the fact that our language really is bl00dy complicated, and it just gets a mess.

There is no explanation for it, to be honest! Maybe just try to come up with another analogy to help him understand. For example, the 'magic e' swaps places with the 'ing' to make a new word, but keeps their old sounds.

What are school saying about the way they will teach this?

lika_86

It is logical (with exceptions) but only when you don't consider the pronunciation.

There are two kinds of suffix, those that start with a vowel, things like -ing or -ance or -ed and those that start with a consonant - ly -less -ness

With those that start with a vowel, you drop the e, but those that start with a consonant you don't.

Vowel suffix:

Loving, loved, lover,

Consonant suffix:

Lovely, loveless

Obviously there are exceptions though - loveable for example.

Sounds to me like it's just a hurdle the phonics system encounters with with English.

double_mummy

he is asking about all of them i just used one as an example

the school are just telling him thats the way it is done - hence why we are trying to move him schools but thats another issue lol

it might just be a matter of practice rather than logic

lika_86

double_mummy wrote: »

he is asking about all of them i just used one as an example

the school are just telling him thats the way it is done - hence why we are trying to move him schools but thats another issue lol

it might just be a matter of practice rather than logic

I think most if not all schools are teaching reading by using phonics (ie. using sounds to decode words) now, so maybe the best thing you can do is just keep reading with him lots at home.

Shushannah

I think that if "to car" was a verb you would have to spell the gerund as carring.

Similarly it is: slop and slopping and slope and sloping.

I believe the rule is supposed to be:

vowel-consonant-vowel the first vowel is long

vowel-consonant-consanant the first vowel is short.

Hope that helps.

margaretclare

I think it's down to the fact that our language developed from Old English (Anglo-Saxon) and then had Norman-French additions and alterations from the 11th century onwards. We have lost some of the letters that would have made pronunciation clearer. The word 'caring' should actually be spelled '[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]cǣring' but the language has been simplified. Impossible for a young boy to understand. Spelling it '[/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]cǣring' would emphasise that it's a long vowel rather than 'c[/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]æring', the short vowel which would make it 'car - ing' as your son said. [/FONT]

chickenpants

lika_86 wrote: »

It is logical (with exceptions) but only when you don't consider the pronunciation.

There are two kinds of suffix, those that start with a vowel, things like -ing or -ance or -ed and those that start with a consonant - ly -less -ness

With those that start with a vowel, you drop the e, but those that start with a consonant you don't.

Vowel suffix:

Loving, loved, lover,

Consonant suffix:

Lovely, loveless

Obviously there are exceptions though - loveable for example.

Sounds to me like it's just a hurdle the phonics system encounters with with English.

This is how we teach it, but explain it as if the word has a split digraph and the suffix begins with a vowel, you remove the e before adding the suffix. Also, if the root word eg. Stop has a short vowel before the final consonant, you double the final consonant before adding the suffix - stopping. The website twinkl has some good phonics rules posters which might help if you want to support your child at home.

chickenpants

Long and short vowel sounds - it's the sound of them in the word. Eg. Book - the double oo actually makes a short sound, bake is a long split digraph vowel sound with the a and e forming one sound followed by the k