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I've seen the words

  • plan -> planned, planning
  • begin -> beginning

Why is "happen" different and why is "happenning" an incorrect spelling?

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    What happenned with happened?
    – Blessed Geek
    Commented May 18, 2015 at 9:04
  • Listened, christened, chiseled, fastened, brightened, enlightened, piloted, deepened, ripened, sharpened, smartened, glistened, shortened, opened... Happened is no different. That's the rule, not an exception. And it is, for a change, a rather logical, simple, and obvious rule. We have prior questions on it, and it's even up on Wikipedia.
    – RegDwigнt
    Commented May 18, 2015 at 11:34

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The difference between planned, penned, beginning which have double n's, and happening with a single n is the stressed syllable.

When the syllable that ends in n is stressed, we double the n if another syllable starting with a vowel sound follows it. If we didn't double it, we might feel like elongating the vowel sound of the syllable ending with n.

When the syllable is not stressed, the vowel sound is usually reduced to a schwa, and we don't seem to have the tendency to try and elongate that sound.

Other examples of an unstressed syllable ending with an n would be ripen -> ripening or open -> opening.

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