Spelling Tips When to Drop the “E” - Proofread My Paper

Spelling Tips When to Drop the â€Å"E† - Proofread My Paper Spelling Tips: When to Drop the â€Å"E† Thanks to acid house, the phrase â€Å"dropping an ‘e’† sounds rather unsavory these days. Nevertheless, in some situations, dropping an â€Å"e† is essential to correct spelling (which is how we proofreaders get our kicks). More specifically, you need to be careful when adding a suffix to a word that ends in â€Å"e† because this changes how certain words are spelled. Luckily, there are a couple of helpful guidelines to follow. Suffixes Starting with Vowels The most important rule is that, most of the time, you should drop the â€Å"e† from the end of a word when adding a suffix that begins with a vowel (e.g., â€Å"-ing,† â€Å"-ed† or â€Å"-able†). For example, the suffix â€Å"-ed† can be added to the word â€Å"talk† to make the past tense â€Å"talked† without any problem. But when a word already ends in â€Å"e,† like â€Å"dance,† we drop the final â€Å"e† so that the past tense is â€Å"danced† (i.e., â€Å"danc-ed,† not â€Å"dance-ed†). Other examples include: Suffix Example Word Modified Version -able Live Livable -age Dote Dotage -ed Inspire Inspired -est True Truest -ing Note Noting -ion Adulterate Adulteration -ory Celebrate Celebratory -ous Fame Famous This isn’t a complete list of relevant suffixes (â€Å"-er,† â€Å"-ation† and â€Å"-ist† are common too), but it should give you a sense of what to look out for. A Few Exceptions As with any rule, there are exceptions to the convention outlined above, such as words that end with double vowels, â€Å"-ce† or â€Å"-ge.† Double Vowels Words that end in double vowels (e.g., â€Å"-ee† or â€Å"-oe†) don’t always require the final â€Å"e† to be dropped when adding a vowel suffix: Agree → Agreeable Shoe → Shoeing However, some modifications do require you to drop the final â€Å"e†: Argue → Arguable Accrue → Accruing There’s no shortcut to getting things right here, so you should always double check the spelling with these and similar words. â€Å"-ce† and †-ge† Here the rule is not to drop the final â€Å"e† from words that end with either â€Å"-ce† or â€Å"-ge† when adding a suffix that starts with an â€Å"a† (e.g., â€Å"-able†) or an â€Å"o† (e.g., â€Å"-ous†): Advantage → Advantageous Bridge → Bridgeable Efface → Effaceable Suffixes Starting with Consonants Finally, suffixes that begin with consonants, most of which dont require dropping the final â€Å"e† from words that end in that letter; the noun â€Å"time,† for instance, can be modified to â€Å"timely† by simply adding the suffix â€Å"-ly.† The problematic words are those that end in â€Å"-ue† like â€Å"true,† â€Å"due† or â€Å"argue,† which do require you to drop the final â€Å"e† when adding a suffix that starts with a consonant: True → Truly Due → Duly Argue → Argument