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Most rules of the English language have some irregularity [citation needed].

Forming the present participle isn't one of them: take the infinitive, and add the suffix -ing (in speech. In writing, it's a bit more complicated due to the irregularities of English orthography in general - but those irregularities are themselves regular, if that makes sense).

Why is this? Even "to be", the most irregular verb in English (with a whopping eight distinct forms, almost every one irregular), has a regular present participle.

No Name
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  • Because you need the -ing suffix to form a present participle. “The -ing of Modern English in its participial (adjectival) use comes from Middle English -inge, -ynge, supplanting the earlier -inde, -ende, -and, from the Old English present participle ending -ende.” https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/-ing – user 66974 Jan 23 '21 at 07:01
  • Related: https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/13860/origin-of-ing – user 66974 Jan 23 '21 at 07:10
  • @user66974 You also need the -s suffix to form the 3rd person singular. And yet, four verbs still form it irregularly - is, has, does and says (the last two only in pronunciation). There are no such forms for the present participle, even "being" is completely regular! – No Name Jan 23 '21 at 08:26
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    @user66974 The question appears to be "Why is there never any change in the 'prefix' part of the present participle?" It's not about -ing per se. – Andrew Leach Jan 23 '21 at 09:41
  • That's a very good question, and it is about the -ing verbal suffix, and the present participle it forms. It's one of the few inflections left in English, and it's the only regular one. All of the others have always been irregular, so it's not a matter of having lost all the regular inflections during the lingering death of English morphology. In fact, it's an odd linguistic phenomenon, and it doesn't have an explanation. – John Lawler Jan 23 '21 at 17:42
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    The Irish have an insoluble Question. The English have ... English. – Edwin Ashworth Jan 23 '21 at 19:20
  • Asking why a language's grammar, morphology, phonetics, or anything else is the way it is, in some ultimate sense, is futile. There will never be any answer other than convention. – Pound Hash Jan 29 '21 at 21:08

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