Formerly the silent _e_ was retained
in _moveable_; but now we write _movable,_ according to the rule.
Of course when the added syllable begins with a consonant, the silent
_e_ is not dropped, since dropping it would have the effect of
shortening the preceding vowel by making it stand before two consonants.
A few monosyllables ending in two vowels, one of which is silent _e,_
are exceptions: _duly, truly_; also _wholly_.
Also final _y_ is changed to _i_ when a syllable is added, unless that
added syllable begins with _i_ and two _i_'s would thus come together.
_I_ is a vowel never doubled. Th{u} is we have _citified,_
but _citifying_.
We have already seen that final consonants may be doubled under certain
circumstances when a syllable is added.
These are nearly all the changes in spelling that are possible when
words are formed by adding syllables; but changes in pronunciation and
vowel values are often affected, as we have seen in _nation_ (_a_ long)
and _national_ (_a_ short).
Prefixes. But words may be formed by prefixing syllables, or by combining
two or more words into one. Many of these formations were effected in the
Latin before the words were introduced into English; but we can study the
principles governing them and gain a key to the spelling of many English
words.
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