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Double the Consonant Rules

Have you ever wondered why there’s a double ‘g’ in ‘egg’ or a double ‘p’ in ‘hopping’? Understanding what are double consonants and when to double consonants is crucial for spelling and reading fluency. This guide will clarify the rules and provide practical examples, including words that double the consonant.

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Angelica
February 9, 2020

Three rules to help your students understand when to double the consonant in words.

1. We expect content words to contain 3 letters.

One of the first words you’ll see in the Viva Phonics program where the consonant is doubled is in the word “egg”. Why is the doubled?
The word “egg” has a specific meaning. It is a content word. A quick look in the dictionary tells us that a content word is “a word, typically a noun, verb, or adjective, or adverb, that carries semantic content.”
We can visualize or draw a picture of the object or action being represented by the word.

Function words have little to no meaning. The words “to”, “the”, and “of” are function words. English likes to keep function words to two-letters, when possible. Thus, why we add that extra consonant to words such as, “egg”, “add”, and “inn.” creating 2 consonant words that adhere to this pattern.

2. The doubled consonant marks the sound of the preceding vowel.

This means that when we see a consonant that is doubled, we can tell that the vowel before it has the short-vowel sound. This is probably the most common consonant doubling rule you’ll encounter with your students. I saved it for number 2 because it is more complex. One of the first inflectional endings I teach that calls for this rule is <-ing>. First, we practice reading words that end in <-ing>. Generally, the base word ends in 1 vowel and 1 consonant. I tell students that we double the consonant to protect the short vowel sound, we double the final consonant. Give the words “hop” and “hope” as an example when teaching. Explain that the base word in “hopping” is “hop” and the base word in “hoping” is “hope”.
hop + ing → hopping
hope + ing → hoping

When adding <-ing> to “hop,” it becomes “hopping” (doubling the ‘p’ to keep the ‘o’ short). For “hope,” it becomes “hoping” (no doubling, as the ‘o’ is long). This helps explain to students how can a teacher explain to students why there is a double n in beginning – the ‘n’ is doubled to preserve the short ‘i’ sound before adding ‘-ing’. This is a key aspect of the double final consonant rule.

3. Double to differentiate the spelling of homophones.

English likes to use different spellings to distinguish between words that sound the same and have different meanings. In this case it often happens with names.

web, Webb
mat, Matt
an, Ann
but, butt

Another thing to keep in mind is that not all consonants are subject to the doubling rule. We don’t double <w, x, y>. Understanding these nuances is part of mastering the single double consonant rule word list and identifying double consonant ending words.

Practical Application and Double Consonant Activities

To reinforce these rules, engaging double consonant activities are highly effective. These can include sorting words by their consonant patterns, identifying doubled consonants in texts, and practicing spelling words that follow these rules. Creating a single double consonant rule word list for students to practice with can also be beneficial.

Source
Venezky, Richard. L. (1999) The America Way of Spelling. The Structure and Origins of American English Orthography. New York, NY: The Guilford Press.

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