Words Ending in -ING

Last updated 2026-08-15.

-ING is doing three jobs at once

Same suffix, three grammatical hats. Once you can tell them apart, sentences that felt "off" suddenly make sense:

• Gerund — the -ing word acts as a noun. Swimming is fun. (Swap in "swimming" for a noun like "chess." Still works.)
• Present participle — the -ing word is part of a verb phrase. She is swimming. (You cannot swap in "chess" here.)
• Attributive adjective — the -ing word describes a noun. A swimming pool. (The pool doesn't swim; the word just names its purpose.)

A handful of -ing words have drifted so far from their verbs that most people forget they were ever verbs: morning, ceiling, evening, string, thing. If you ask someone what verb "morning" comes from, expect a long pause.

The three spelling rules that trip everyone up

1. Drop the silent E. make → making, dance → dancing, write → writing. Not makeing.
2. Double the final consonant when the verb ends consonant-vowel-consonant and the last syllable is stressed. run → running, sit → sitting, begin → beginning. But open → opening (stress is on the first syllable, so no double).
3. -IE becomes -Y. die → dying, lie → lying, tie → tying. The one that always looks wrong until it doesn't.

Common examples

Playing -ING in Scrabble and word games

The trick isn't finding -ing words — it's finding places to put them. -ING adds three tiles at once, and the G is worth 2 points, so tacking -ING onto an existing verb on the board is one of the highest-value hooks in the game. Scan the board for exposed verbs ending in T, N, or K first; those extend cleanly (SIT + TING, RUN + NING, ASK + ING). Verbs ending in E are trickier because you have to drop the E — you can't just append the tiles.