Are you wondering which spelling is correct - 'writing' or 'writting'? Would you like to know more about the word? If so, you've come to the right place.
Today we will clarify the correct spelling for the term and why we spell it that way. We'll also learn a little more about the word's meaning and the act of writing.
The correct spelling for the word is indeed 'writing' and not 'writting.'
What does word 'writing' mean and when is it appropriate to use it? If you want to find out, read on.
As we have already stated, the correct spelling for the word in question is 'writing.' It is never right to spell it 'writting,' which is not a word in English.
You may use the word 'writing' in your writing (see what we did there?) with confidence, knowing that it is the right way to spell it.
Later in this article, we will review the spelling conventions that mean it should be spelled the way it is. But first, let us define the word.
The word 'writing' comes from the verb 'to write,' which in turn comes from the Old English writan, meaning 'to score, outline, draw the figure of.' The word has two definitions as follows.
Writing is the present participle of the verb 'to write.' It means to inscribe words so that our thoughts or information can be made more permanent or so that we may pass these on to another person to read.
It is a transitive verb, just like 'emasculate.'
Here is an example of the word used in a sentence:
I am writing a letter to my bank to contest the extra charges.
‘Writing’ is also a gerund. A gerund is a verb that takes on a noun's role. Here are some other examples of gerunds used in a sentence. We will underline the verb so you can see how it acts as a noun in these examples:
Curious about why the word is spelled 'writing'? Let's dive in.
So why is the word spelled 'writing' and not 'writting'? The answer is a lot simpler than you might expect. Let us explain.
When a consonant is doubled in a word, this gives the vowel that precedes it a short sound. So in this specific example. The 't' is the doubled consonant, and the 'i' is the vowel that precedes the 't.' If the word were spelled with a double 't,' then we would have to pronounce the word as follows:
R-IT-ING
As we all know, that is not how the word should be pronounced. The 'i' takes a long sound, as such:
R-EYE-TING
That is why there is only one 't' in the word.
As we mentioned earlier, one definition of the word 'writing' is the present participle of the verb 'to write.' The present participle describes an action that is currently taking place. Let's see an example:
I'm writing an economics book.
Let's talk about another verb form: the participle.
Remember when we explained the concept of verb 1, verb 2, and verb 3 in our Past Indefinite Tense article?
Verb 3 is the participle.
Let’s look at verbs 1, 2, and 3 for ‘to write.’
| Verb 1 | Verb 2 | Verb 3 |
| write | wrote | written |
See how verb 3, ‘written,’ has two ‘t’s? Could this explain why some people try to spell the verb with two ‘t’s at all times? Perhaps! But notice how verb 3 - participle - is pronounced. It takes on a short vowel sound, as such:
RI-DDEN, not R-EYE-DDEN
So, as you can see, there are times when the word takes two 't's, but only when using the participle of the verb, such as the present participle or the past participle.
In this part of the article, we will explore the history of writing and the different ways you can use this art form.
If writing means communicating via symbols that are imprinted in a way that can be recorded, then it has been around since the dawn of time (the earliest evidence can be traced back to 3400 BCE).
Pictography is considered to be the oldest type of writing. It uses pictograms and is still in use today. A pictogram is a symbol that conveys meaning via its resemblance to the object it is describing.
As you can imagine, it was not long before this style met its challenges. After all, some concepts cannot be represented with images. Think about it - how would you draw love or the color red?
That's where ideograms come in.
Ideograms are still in use today to represent an idea or concept. For example, everyone is familiar with the symbol representing a danger of death, which you might find on a bottle of bleach.
Over time, words started to be divided into individual sounds, and the Phonecian alphabet was born - allegedly the first ever alphabet!
There are many different types of writing that you may wish to undertake. Here are a few:
This list is non-exhaustive; there are many other types of writing that you can explore, should you be interested in doing so.
As well as many different types of writing, there are also several different mediums that you can use for your writing. These include:
And so on. Why not see if you can come up with some more examples?
Writing is an incredibly beneficial way of recording information. Without it, our world would look entirely different. You would not be reading this article, for instance.
We hope that you feel confident about the correct spelling of the word 'writing' and that you will remember that 'writting' is not a word.
You may even have gotten a little more than you bargained for and learned a little about the history of writing and the different types that exist. You might even be inspired to go ahead and do some writing of your own. If that is the case, we encourage you to do so. It can be very cathartic. Enjoy!
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