Which is correct: "growing" or "growing"? "touch" or "touch"? "wipe" or "wipe"? The alternation of vowels in the roots of verbs in Russian has always been a problem not only for foreigners, but also for Russian speakers who dream of writing correctly. In fact, each such case should be considered individually: spelling often depends on the suffix "a", present or absent in the word, so this rule can be considered basic, but does not explain absolutely all difficult cases. Why, for example, "growth", but "grows up"? "Grow", but "grew"? "A" or "O"?
When is "A" spelled?
The letter "A" in words derived from the noun "growth" is written in the following cases:
- If the alternation of consonants in the root of the word leads to the formation of a new root: "rast". The presence of the letter "T"determines whether it is written in the word "A" or "O". That is: has grown, but will grow; has grown, but will grow.
- If the root of the word changes to "growing": grow, grown, grown.
Both cases are equally common and do not follow any intuitive algorithm. They are worth learning by heart.
When is "O" spelled?
The spelling of the letter "O" at the root of a word with a grammatical basis derived from the noun "growth" is easy to remember, because there is only one rule:
The letter "O" is written in words with the root "growing": grew up, grew up, grew up, grew up
Knowing this rule and the spelling of the letter "A", you can confidently answer the question of how it is written: "grows" or "grows". Since the root of the word in this case is "rast", contains the letter "T", it should be written like this: growing. This is the only correct option.
Exceptions to the rule
This rule, like, probably, any rule in the grammar of the Russian language, has a whole list of exceptions. It also needs to be learned by heart in order to always correctly determine the grammatical correct variant in dilemmas like "Growing or growing?" or "Growed or farmed?". These exceptions are:
- Height.
- Sprout.
- Rostov.
- Pawnbroker.
- Industry.
All forms of the listed words, as well as words derived from them, also fall under the category of exceptions. So, for example, from the word "industry" you can form the words "industry" and "sub-industry", which, contrary to the spelling rule of the vowel "O" in the root "grew", will be written through "A".
Another example of a group of words formed from exceptions is "sprout". From it you can form such frequently used nouns as "teenager", "sprout", "overgrowth" and many others. All of them, like the main exception, will be written with "O".
How easy is it to learn the rules?
Readers who are interested in writing correctly have probably already had a question for a long time: is it really necessary to stop and think, "grows" or "grows" every time before writing something? To their relief, no, you don't have to. Here are some ways to quickly remember the rules and automatically choose the right option:
- Make sample sentences with exceptions and words that obey the rules. At least one sentence for each rule will be enough, but at least three or four would be ideal.
- Search for confirmation of the rule in journalistic or fiction. At the same time, it is not at all necessary to look for some special examples, it is enough just to read your favorite book or news feed. Words with the root "rast / rasch / grew" are enoughpopular to be found in almost any field, in any genre.
- If you can't remember which root requires which vowel, you can pick up one simple example for each case and learn them. For example: grow, grow, grew. A simple associative series is much easier to remember than a rule.
Following these simple rules and advice, hardly anyone will ever confuse "growing" or "growing".
