Interestingly, in case of some other words, the British variants use double letters while the American variants use single letters, for example, travelling, labelling. A phonological rule describes/explains this phenomenon. In British spellings, if a verb ends with the sound 'l' preceded by a vowel sound, then when any inflection has to be added to the verb that also begins with a vowel sound (like 'ing', 'ed'), the 'l' is doubled. Phew! Complex, but describes the phenomenon neatly. Similarly, there would be a rule that describes the 'benefited', 'benefitted' case also.
Interestingly, in case of some other words, the British variants use double letters while the American variants use single letters, for example, travelling, labelling. A phonological rule describes/explains this phenomenon. In British spellings, if a verb ends with the sound 'l' preceded by a vowel sound, then when any inflection has to be added to the verb that also begins with a vowel sound (like 'ing', 'ed'), the 'l' is doubled. Phew! Complex, but describes the phenomenon neatly. Similarly, there would be a rule that describes the 'benefited', 'benefitted' case also.
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