Listen + ing

[TitoBr]

Hi there!

If I add 'ing' to 'begin' I double the last consonant and the result is: 'beginning'.

Why does 'listen' do not follow the same pattern?

Cheers,
Tito

 

[Roman55]

I am not a teacher.

Because the tonic stress is on the second syllable in 'begin' and on the first syllable in 'listen'.

The consonant is only doubled if the final syllable carries the stress.

This is true of AmE and BrE, with a couple of common exceptions for BrE which are 'travel' and 'cancel'.