What's the past participle form of the word exit? Is it exit (irregular, like set)? exited? exitted? On one page I found exited but if that's the case why isn't it exitted (double t) like with the word emit - emitted? Is there a rule when the consonant at the end is doubled and when not?
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3Might have something to do with stress. Exit and exited are stressed on the first syllable; emit and emitted on the second. Similarly ballot|balloted (although OED admits that ballotted does rarely occur).– Andrew Leach ♦Commented Jan 29, 2015 at 10:36
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1 Answer
When we have a word ending in a single vowel and then the consonant 't', the consonant is only doubled before suffixes if that syllable is stressed. So when there is no stress we observe just a single 't'. In the following examples the stressed syllables are premarked with an apostrophe:
- 'rocketed
- e'licited
- 'billeted
- 'ratcheted
- 'exited
However if the last syllable is stressed then we will see a doubling of the consonant:
- ga'rotted
- 'vetted
- re'potted
- a'betted
- e'mitted
This is just a rule of thumb as there are special rules for certain prefixes, and compound words and loan words from other languages will not necessarily follow the rule.
Edit: Please also see Janus' interesting comment below about loan words with silent 't's below!
answered Jan 29, 2015 at 12:57
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3And of course if the t is purely orthographic and doesn’t represent an actual /t/, it is never doubled no matter where the stress is, so those who pronounce ricochet or debut with final stress would still only write one t in ricocheted /rɪkəˈʃed/ and debuted /deˈbjud/. Commented Jan 29, 2015 at 13:04
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@JanusBahsJacquet Yes, indeed. I've directed readers to your comment! :) Commented Jan 29, 2015 at 13:06
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1Same thing with L: caroled, channeled, equaled, medaled, pedaled and penciled but compelled, controlled, dispelled, propelled and patrolled. While “canceled” is the correct spelling according to the stress rule, it is often written “cancelled”. Commented Feb 22, 2018 at 6:31
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2@Scott Quite right, but only in US English though. The first list there all have double <l> in UK and other Englishes! Commented Feb 22, 2018 at 9:29
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1Awesome. I was just having issues explaining to my spawn the discrepancies between hit/hitting, permit/permitting, and exit/exiting. I see now it's due to the first two stressing the final syllable (of the root word) HIT and perMIT, while the latter is EXit. And re " there are special rules for certain prefixes" - damn English with its bizarre special rules. Even as a native speaker six decades in, this still bugs the hell out of me :-) Commented Jul 28, 2023 at 4:38