The spelling traps in -s, -ing and -ed
A “regular” verb still comes with rules; it just means the ending is predictable once you know a handful of spelling adjustments. Stop becomes stopped, study becomes studies, and each little shift follows a pattern. These small, consistent rules are the kind of thing that is easy to half-know and worth drilling properly.
Regular still has rules
Third person -s
| Rule | Example |
|---|---|
| add -s | work → works |
| hissing sound, add -es | watch → watches, fix → fixes |
| consonant + y, use -ies | study → studies |
| vowel + y, just -s | play → plays |
The -ing form
Drop a silent -e, and double the final consonant after a short stressed vowel.
Past tense, and the US/UK -l
The regular past follows the same silent-e and doubling logic, and consonant + y again flips to -ied.
These are spelling rules rather than vocabulary: getting one wrong means misspelling a word you already know, which is a different kind of memory than translation. Verboteca picks its regular-verb set to include these traps, not only the easy cases.