Spelling - Eliminating 'e': Activity 3

Sort the examples into two groups

Answers

• KEEP 'E' GROUP: hoe + -ing → hoeing, shoe + -ing → shoeing, canoe + -ing → canoeing, agree + -ing → agreeing, agree + -able → agreeable, see + -ing → seeing

They are KEEP 'E' examples, even though each suffix starts with a vowel. Why? What is happening in these examples?

• Each base word ends in ee or oe.
• The final e is kept to preserve these sequences of two vowel letters. Otherwise we would get misleading sequences, as in seing or hoing.

Usually, though, the e is dropped when the base word ends in ue, e.g. arguing, rescuing.