KeyStage

Year 2 English · Key Stage 1 · Spelling – English Appendix 1

Year 2 spelling: changing y, dropping e and doubling letters

In Year 2, children learn that adding an ending to a word can change how the root is spelt. The y at the end of a word may become an i, a silent e may be dropped, and a final consonant may be doubled. Each change has a reason, and there are only a few patterns to learn, so the topic is about spotting which pattern a word follows. It builds on the simple endings met in Year 1.

Changing y, dropping e, doubling, explained

In Year 1, children add endings such as -s, -ing and -ed to words where the root doesn’t change: jump, jumping, jumped. In Year 2 the root sometimes does change when an ending is added. There are three kinds of change, and each depends on the last letters of the root word and on the type of ending. Looking at the end of the root word first, then at the first letter of the ending, will tell a child which pattern applies.

The first pattern is for words that end in a consonant followed by y, such as copy, fly, happy and carry. Before -es, -ed, -er and -est, the y changes to i: copies, flies, copied, happier, happiest. The exception is -ing, where the y stays, because otherwise two i letters would sit side by side: copying, flying, carrying. This works for nouns and verbs alike: one baby, two babies; I cry, she cries. When there is a vowel before the y, as in toy or play, nothing changes and the ending goes straight on: toys, played, playing.

The second pattern is for words that end in a silent e after a consonant, such as hike, nice and shine. When the ending begins with a vowel (-ing, -ed, -er, -est or -y), the e is dropped: hiking, hiked, nicer, nicest, shiny. The ending takes the place of the e. There is one exception worth knowing, being, where the e of be stays. When an ending starts with a consonant letter, as in nicely or hopeful, the e usually stays; children meet those endings in another Year 2 spelling topic.

The third pattern is doubling. If a word has one syllable, one vowel letter and then one consonant letter at the end, such as pat, hum, sad or run, the last letter is doubled before an ending that starts with a vowel: patting, hummed, sadder, runny. The doubled letter keeps the vowel sound short. Compare hoping, from hope, with hopping, from hop: one double letter changes the whole meaning. The letter x is never doubled (boxing, fixed). Words with two vowel letters before the last consonant, or with two consonants at the end, don’t double either (eating, jumping).

Words your child will hear

Root word
The basic word before an ending is added, such as copy, hike or pat.
Suffix
An ending added to a root word to change its meaning or job, such as -ing, -ed, -er, -est or -y.
Consonant
Any letter that is not a, e, i, o or u. The letter y can act as a consonant or a vowel.
Vowel
The letters a, e, i, o and u. Every syllable has at least one vowel sound.
Syllable
A beat in a word. Pat has one syllable and patting has two.
Double
To write the last letter of a root twice before an ending, as in pat and patting.
Short vowel
A vowel sound like the a in pat or the u in hum.

What the National Curriculum says

In Year 2, pupils should be taught to:

  • Spell words by adding –es to nouns and verbs ending in –y
  • Spell words by adding –ed, –ing, –er and –est to a root word ending in –y with a consonant before it
  • Spell words by adding the endings –ing, –ed, –er, –est and –y to words ending in –e with a consonant before it
  • Spell words by adding –ing, –ed, –er, –est and –y to words of one syllable ending in a single consonant letter after a single vowel letter

Objectives from the National Curriculum in England, © Crown copyright, used under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Try it: adding the ending

Add the ending to each root word: carry + ed, carry + ing, hike + ing and big + er.

  1. Look at the last letters of the root. Carry ends in a consonant (r) and then y. The ending -ed is not -ing, so the y changes to i and the ending goes on: carried.
  2. Same root, new ending. With -ing the y stays, because writing “carriing” would put two i letters together. So carry + ing is carrying.
  3. Hike ends in a silent e, and the ending -ing starts with a vowel letter. The e is dropped and the ending is added: hiking. If the e were kept, we would have “hikeing”, which doesn’t look right.
  4. Big has one syllable, one vowel letter and one consonant at the end. Adding -er, which starts with a vowel, means we double the last letter: bigger. This keeps the i short. Without it we would read “biger” as “bye-ger”.
  5. Read all four words aloud as a check. If a word looks odd, go back to the root and ask the three questions: does it end in y, does it end in e, and does it have one syllable and one single consonant?

carried, carrying, hiking, bigger

Common mistakes and how to help

Keeping the y before the ending: “copyed”, “babyes”, “happyer”

In Year 1, children practised endings on words where the root doesn’t change, so they carry that habit forward.

What helps: Show the pair side by side: copy, copies. Ask what has happened to the y. For -ing, point out that the y stays and ask why (two i letters in a row).

Keeping the silent e: “hikeing”, “niceer”, “shineing”

The root looks complete, so it feels wrong to take a letter away. Children also don’t hear the e, so they have no reason to keep it.

What helps: Say it out loud: “The ending takes the place of the e.” Write the root, cross out the e, and add the ending.

Not doubling, or doubling when it is not needed: “runing”, “jumpping”, “eatting”

The doubling rule only applies to short words with a certain pattern. Children notice doubled letters in words like running and overuse it.

What helps: Count the syllables, then check for one vowel letter and one consonant at the end. If it doesn’t fit, nothing doubles. Show hopping and hoping together.

Doubling letters that never double, such as “boxxing” or “fixxed”

Children notice the doubling pattern and apply it to every short word that ends in one consonant. The x is the exception: it already stands for two sounds, k and s, so it is never written twice.

What helps: Tell them that x never doubles. Write box, boxes, boxing, boxed and notice that the root stays whole.

How to help at home

  • Root, ending, new word. Write root words such as hike, hop, copy and bake on cards, and endings such as -ing and -ed on others. Your child joins them and says out loud what happened to the end of the root.
  • Hop or hope? Act out hopping and hoping, then write each word. Pairs such as hopping and hoping, or tapping and taping, show how one letter changes the meaning and why the doubling rule matters.
  • Family of words. Pick a root, such as carry or shine, and see how many related words your child can build and write: carries, carried, carrying, shiny, shining. Say them aloud and listen for the sound of the root.
  • Short and sweet. Pick three words a week from your child’s reading and practise them in a quick look, cover, write and check. Stop after a few minutes, and keep the tone light.

Related topics

Builds on

Leads on to

More on spelling – English Appendix 1

Everything in Year 2 English

Updated .