Crying and why the -y form stays

Introduction

Crying is a natural human response to emotions such as sadness, frustration, anger or joy. It is an important way for humans to communicate and process their emotions. However, have you ever wondered why we say \"crying\" instead of \"cry-y-ing\"? In this article, we will explore the reason why the -y form is not added to the word \"cry\" when forming the present participle.

The rule of adding -ing

English has a simple rule for adding -ing to verbs: you take the base form of the verb and add -ing to create the present participle. For example, \"run\" becomes \"running,\" \"swim\" becomes \"swimming,\" and so on. However, this rule does not apply to verbs that end in a vowel followed by \"y,\" such as \"cry.\" In these cases, the \"y\" is not converted into \"i\" and \"ed\" is added instead of the \"y,\" as in the past participle form \"cried.\"

The phonetic reason

The reason why the -y form is not used in verbs ending with a vowel followed by \"y\" is related to the phonetics of English. When adding -ing, the suffix creates a new syllable, and the \"y\" is no longer in syllable-final position. Because the \"y\" is no longer syllable-final, it remains the same, and \"ing\" is added after it. For example, in \"carry,\" the \"y\" is at the end of the first syllable, but in \"carrying,\" it is in the middle of the second syllable. If we changed the \"y\" to \"i\" to create \"carri-ing,\" it would change the pronunciation of the word, making it more difficult for listeners to understand.

Conclusion

The -y form does not change to -i when forming the present participle for verbs with a vowel followed by \"y\" because it would change the pronunciation of the word. The phonetics of the English language are an important factor in determining the structure of words, and this is just one example of how they can influence grammar. So the next time you \"cry,\" remember that it's perfectly grammatical and don't worry about changing the \"y\" to \"i.\"