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2 votes
2 answers
193 views

Were double consonants pronounced at some period of history?

One of the things that makes me wonder is why English has double consonants which are pronounced as single, like ‘ff’ (buffer, stiff), ‘ll’ (allow), ‘mm’ (hammer), ‘nn’ (dinner), ‘ss’ (-ness, floss) ...
tac's user avatar
  • 505
1 vote
0 answers
12k views

Why "controlled" not "controled"? [duplicate]

Unlike British English and other varieties, American English does not double the letter "l" in words such as "traveled", "canceled", etc. However, it does with the word "controlled". Is there any ...
Mohamed Ali's user avatar
  • 1,442
38 votes
3 answers
225k views

“Programming” versus “programing”: which is preferred?

I was surprised that my spell checker did not complain for programing with one m, so I Googled it, and found on free dictionaries that both forms were acceptable. Which one is more common? Does it ...
Ciro Santilli OurBigBook.com's user avatar