spellling of adjectives

[hela]

Dear teachers,

I never know when an adjective ends in –ant or –ent. Or do they all end in –ent in English? If not, is there a rule for that?

Thank you in advance.
Hela

[Pete]

Originally Posted by hela

Dear teachers,

I never know when an adjective ends in –ant or –ent. Or do they all end in –ent in English? If not, is there a rule for that?

Thank you in advance.
Hela

I found a discussion of this subject here. In the long run, however, you just have to memorize them.

Many of these adjectives are based on earlier Latin verbs. Latin verbs that had infinitives ending in "are" had present participles ending in "ant". Latin verbs that had infinitives ending in "ere" had present participles ending in "ent". When these words were borrowed by the English language, often the endings went with them. As the reference above says, it probably isn't worth learning Latin if your only reason is to spell English words; just learn the spelling instead.

Examples:
- Latin stare (to stand) leads to distant and constant.
- Latin videre (to see) leads to evident and provident.