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Niko
I want to ask the function of the "double-letter form" in some words as " silly valley
I want to ask the function of the "double-letter form" in some words as " silly valley really common community ", I think it use to divide the word into to part. In that way,
silly become " si + ly ",not "sil+ly";
vally=> va+ly, not val+ly;
really=>rea+ly, not real+ly
common=> co+mon ,not com+mon
community=> co+munity, not com+munity
True or false?
Feb 27, 2010 7:07 AM
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Answers · 2
The double letters are to help in pronouncing the word. Let us say we have any vowel, followed by a consonant, then followed by a vowel: v c v.
The first vowel, by English phonetic rules, would be pronounced in its long form.
"vale", "male", "bale" - the 'a' is pronounced in its long form
However in "valley", the pattern is "v c c v" (vowel, followed by double consonant, vowel)
The 'a' in "valley", because of the double 'l', is pronounced like the 'a' in "hatch" or "mat".
This rule isn't always followed. English is sometimes contradictory. However, the double-consonant rule holds in almost all cases.
February 27, 2010
In my opinion this is false, because it depends on the part of speech and orthography.
February 27, 2010
