Spelling of ing endings in English. What does the ending -ing do in English

IN English language a huge role is played by the endings of words, although there are not so many of them when compared with the same Russian language. They change depending on what time is used and what role this or that part of speech plays in the sentence. In this article, we will consider the rules for writing the ending -ing in English.

long time

First, let's figure out when to use the -ing ending in English? According to the rules of grammar, first of all, this ending is used to form long tenses that depict an action in progress. There are present, past and future long tenses. All of them are formed according to the same principle: the auxiliary verb to be in required form plus a semantic verb that ends in -ing. Examples:

  • I am walking now. I am walking now. This continuous action is presented in the present tense.
  • I was walking when she returned. When she came back, I was walking. And this long action is presented in the past tense.
  • I will be walking tomorrow at six o'clock. I will be walking tomorrow at six o'clock. And finally, a long action in the future tense.

First Communion

Participle 1 has the properties of not only a verb, but also an adjective. According to the rules, the ending -ing in English is also written at the end of the first participle. It helps to describe an action that happens at the same time as another, pronounced predicate. Examples:

Look at the woman reading this magazine. Look at the woman reading this magazine. The word "reading" (reading) appears in this sentence as a participle.

Attaching the ending -ing in English. Rules.

So, it is not enough just to add this ending at the end of the word. Some conditions must be met, for example, pay attention to which letter the word ends with.

If the word ends in -e, then according to the rules, the ending -ing in English replaces the last letter:

Bite - biting, close - closing .

If the word ends with the vowel combination -ie, then the ending is added as follows:

Lie turns into lying, and die, following the same principle, becomes dying. That is, -ie is replaced by y and an ending is added at the end of the word.

If the last letter is a consonant with the preceding stressed vowel, then the consonant is doubled:

If the word ends with l, then a variant spelling is possible. This is due to the peculiarities of British English and American.

These were the basic rules for using the -ing ending. They need to be learned and mastered, because in oral speech it is very often necessary to mention any long actions or use participles. It is necessary to use the endings correctly, this is a guarantee correct speech and letters.

ending ing very often used in English. Perhaps this is one of the most popular English affixes. But, nevertheless, most students, faced with the ending ing, feel confused in understanding and translating words with his participation. Today, we will talk about how to finally understand the intricacies of the ending ing and learn to understand, translate and use forms with its participation.

So, if you see a form with the ending ing, then it could be:

a) participle 1 (Participle 1)

Participle 1 is the first thing that should come to your mind when you encounter the ending ing. To translate participle 1 into Russian, you need to ask two questions - “what is he doing?” or “doing what?”

I want to speak to a student sitting over there. - I want to talk to a student sitting (sitting - what are you doing?) over there.

If the question is “what is doing?” does not fit the meaning, then we ask the question “what are you doing?”, for example:

Mr Smith works hard having only five minutes for the rest. – Mr. Smith works hard, having only five minutes to rest.

b) gerund (Gerund)

The second thing you should think about when you encounter the ending ing is the gerund. A gerund is essentially a noun that names an action. For example: reading - reading, going - walking, typing - typing, etc.

I like reading English books very much. – I like reading English books very much.
I'm not good at swimming. - I'm not a good swimmer (lit.: I'm not very good at swimming).

c) a component of one of the long times

In English, there is a group of grammatical tenses, in the formation of which the ending ing is involved. These times are called Continuous, i.e. "long". Their peculiarity lies in the fact that they are formed with the help of certain auxiliary verbs and a semantic verb with the ending ing. For example, it is formed using the auxiliary verbs am, is, are and the ending ing, which is added to the main verb. For example:

He is sleeping now. - He is sleeping now.

If you assume that the ending ing encountered is a long tense component, then you should first of all pay attention to the other members of the sentence - among them there must be some kind of auxiliary verb. If you find this auxiliary verb, then your next task is to find out exactly what time you met. If you found the auxiliary verbs am, is, are, then in front of you Present Continuous, which must be translated by asking the questions “what do I do?”, “What do I do?”, “What do they do?” and so on. If will and be were among the auxiliary verbs, then you met the time, and you need to ask questions “what will I do?”, “What will I do?” and so on. If you see was verbs, were, then you are dealing with, and you should translate the sentence by asking the questions “what did you do?”, “what did you do?”.

The ending ing can also be used in the formation of tenses Perfect Continuous, but these times are extremely rare, so we will not consider them within the framework of this publication.

So, friends, in this short article we tried to systematize the information related to the ending ing and give you practical rules for translating forms with this ending. We hope that now the ending ing has ceased to be an incomprehensible stain for you in English grammar.

Have you ever wondered why we need endings in words? You have to learn with them more rules and the language only gets more complicated.

However, these are required components of any language. endings connect words in a sentence with each other and indicate their logical connections. With them, serenades sound more lyrical, and you can’t go wrong in the instructions for fragile equipment.

In English, unlike Russian, there are only three endings: -s, -ed And -ing. But there are many more uses for them.

Let's take a closer look ending -ing in English. It is added to:

  1. The initial form of the verb for the formation of long tenses:
    • Present continuous: I am water ing the flowers now I am watering the flowers now.
    • Past Continuous: Jane was drink ing tea at 5 o'clock yesterday Jane was drinking tea at five o'clock yesterday.
    • Future Continuous: We will be playing ing football from 4 till 6 tomorrow We will play football tomorrow from 4 to 6.
    • He said that they would work ing the whole day He said they would work all day.

    Please note that all verbs with ing ending are translated into Russian in an imperfect way- answer the question "what to do?". This will help you when doing all kinds of exercises.

    • Present Perfect Continuous: I have been read ing since 3 o'clock I have been reading since three o'clock.
    • Past Perfect Continuous: We had been walking ing for an hour when we saw the city We had been walking for an hour when we saw the city.
    • Future Perfect Continuous: Children will have been sleeping ing since afternoon when the teacher comes The children will sleep from noon when the teacher comes.
    • Future-in-the-Past Continuous: Jack said that they would have been written ing the essay for 2 hours when the bell rank John said that they would be writing an essay for two hours when the bell rings.

    Ending -ing always points to duration of action- remember this as well as the fact that London is the capital of England.

  2. verb to form participle, gerund and infinitive forms
    • Gerund: I like be ing praised- I like being praised.
      We are fond of cooking ing - We like to cook.
    • Participle: The talk ing boy is my cousin The talking boy is my cousin.
      hav ing visited our friends, we went home After visiting our friends, we went home.
    • Infinitive: I am happy to be danc ing with you I'm happy to be dancing with you now.
      We are sorry to have been spoken ing so loudly We're sorry we spoke so loudly.
  3. The ing ending is also used for formation of other parts of speech, for example, adjectives: An amus ing TV show- funny show
    A shock ing disaster- a shocking disaster
    An interest ing fact- interesting fact
  4. There are also parts of speech in which expressions can end with the ending –ing. But you're in luck - you can be sure that in them it's just part of a word: dur ing - during, during
    sibl ing - brother or sister

As you can see, at the end –ing There are many uses in English. You are required to calm the trembling in the knees and remember that it indicates duration of action, used with impersonal forms of the verb or helps form other parts of speech.

These are actually all the endings that occur in it. Unlike the Russian language, which is rich in various endings. Due to the fact that there are only three endings in English, their use is found everywhere: in verbs, and in nouns, and in adjectives, and in gerunds, and in participles. Let's take a closer look at each of the endings and identify the most common cases of their use.

Ending s in English

So the ending -s in English (also -es) is used in the following cases:

  1. The plural of nouns is formed by adding the ending -s to the noun:
  2. cat - cats;
    table - tables;
    disk - disks;
    window - windows.

  3. If a noun ends in -ss, -x, -z, -ch, -sh, or -o, then -es is added:
  4. fox - foxes;
    bush - bushes;
    potatoes - potatoes
    dress - dresses.

  5. However, nouns borrowed from other languages ​​and ending in -o add the ending -s:
  6. photo - photos;
    piano-pianos.

  7. The ending - s in English (also - es) is used when using verbs in the third person singular in present simple(for he, she, it):
  8. I play - he plays;
    We go - she goes;
    They see - it sees;

  9. This ending is also used to form the possessive case of nouns, which is written with an apostrophe:
  10. my mother's coat - my mother's coat;
    brother's cup - brother's cup;
    Susan's sister - Suzanne's sister.

  11. If the noun is in plural or ends with -s, after we put only an apostrophe:
  12. his parents' anniversary - the anniversary of his parents;
    students' books - students' books;
    Lucas' wife - Lucas' wife.

Ending ed in English

When is the ending ed used in English?

  1. If the verb is used in past simple and it is correct, you need to add the ending - ed to it:
  2. She wached the concert yesterday. She watched the concert yesterday.
    He looked for it two days ago. - He was looking for him two days ago.
    I borrowed this dress from a friend. I borrowed this dress from a friend.

  3. This ending is also used when we are talking about the third form regular verb(past participle) in Perfect tenses:
  4. She has learned English since she was 5.
    The snow had stopped when we arrived.
    I will have dressed the baby by 10 a.m.

  5. A verb ending in -ed is sometimes translated as an adjective (what? what? what?)
  6. folded T-shirt - folded T-shirt;
    blessed marriage - blessed marriage;
    opened door - open door.

Always look to see if a noun follows such a word in order to know which part of speech is more correct to translate a verb with an ending; ed.

Ending ing in English

When is the ending ing used in English?

  1. If we are talking about the fourth form of the verb (or present participle) - the times of the Continuous group:
  2. She is typing now.
    He was walking along the street when he saw an accident.
    I will be reading tomorrow at 5 p.m.

  3. We can also translate a word ending in -ing as an adjective if it is followed by a noun related to it:
  4. sleeping baby - sleeping baby;
    crying lady - crying woman;
    boring book - a boring book.

  5. You can also translate a word with the ending - ing noun (see the Gerund topic) - it all depends on the context and word order:
  6. Stealing is a crime. - Theft is a crime.
    Walking is good for your health. - Walking is good for health.
    I like dancing. - I love dance.

Often there is a need to refer to an action, activity or process in a general sense. In this case, a noun is used that has the same form as the present participle of the verb.

In various grammars, these nouns have received various titles: gerunds (gerunds), verbal nouns (verbal nouns) or forms in -ing (-ing forms). In this grammar, we use the term nouns with -ing (-ing nouns).

It is sometimes difficult to distinguish a -ing noun from a present participle, and usually there is no particular need to do so. However, in some cases it is obvious that such a word is a noun, for example, when it is the subject of a verb, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition.

Singing's one of my interests - I belong to a choir.
They were at school when the emphasis was on teaching rather than learning.
He told how hard the days of walking had been, how his muscles had ached.
The coming of the transistor could not have been foreseen.
Some people have never actually done anything computing.

countable nouns

Since the nouns -ing denote activities in a general sense, they are usually uncountable nouns (uncount nouns); in other words, they have only one form, are not used with numerals, and are usually not used with determiners that precede them.

Nouns in -ing often used because they are the only noun forms derived from verbs such as hear, go, come, bless. Other verbs have derivative nouns that are not nouns in -ing: for example, see And sight, arrive And arrival, depart And departure.

Eating, unlike fighting, is a puisuit in which both sexes freely indulge.
… loss of hearing in one ear.
Only 6 per cent of children receive any further training when they leave school.

Usage with adjectives

If you want to describe an action denoted by a noun on -ing, you can use one or more adjectives before it.

The fight against reckless driving is directed extremely skilfully.
Better training is one of the big challenges of the 1940s.
Not called for a national campaign against under-age drinking.

Several nouns for -ing, denoting sports or recreation, are used much more often than their corresponding verbs. In some cases there is no corresponding verb, although such a verb can always be formed if necessary. For example, a proposal We went caravanning around France much more likely than a suggestion We caravanned around France.

angling, caravanning , paragliding, surfing, blackberrying, electioneering, shoplifting, weightlifting, boating, hang-gliding, sightseeing, window-shopping, bowling, heliskiing, skateboarding, windsurfing, canoeing, mountaineering, snorkelling, yachting

Although these words are not always associated with a verb, most of them can be used as the present participle.

Didn't feel fully-clothed into the lake while boating with a girl-friend.
I spent the afternoon window shopping with grandma.

countable nouns

Some nouns associated with verbs -ing are countable nouns. They usually denote the result of an action or process, or a single example of such an action. Sometimes their meaning is not very close to the meaning of the verb.

The following is a list of the most common nouns of this type:

beginning, feeling, meeting, setting, being, finding, offering, showing, building, hearing, painting, sitting, drawing, meaning, saying, suffering,


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