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This always drives me crazy. Aging or ageing. Both are right according to the dictionaries. But neither ever looks right to me, so I usually wind up looking them back up whenever I use it. A matter of preference, I guess. But I'm not sure I have a preference here. Interested in other opinions on this curdled word. 
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it's a tinny word, no matter how you spell it.
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As spellings, I prefer "ageing." But I wish I could avoid doing either.
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My preference is aging (the spelling, not the process), but until your post, WO'N, I never thought it strange. Now that you've called my attention to it, I'll never look at it the same way. (But I still prefer the no-e version.)
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enthusiast
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Generally, I avoid using it. If I can't avoid it I use the No E version.
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My preference is aging (the spelling, not the process)Ohmigawd--I hope so! Ha!
To me, there's nothing wrong with the spelling: aging.
G is soft before i as well as e, unless the g is doubled.
(All right, all right, MOSTLY. I know there are a few exceptions, but am unable to list them all, except the one where a word begins with g; for ex. ginkgo.)
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old hand
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You mean, it reminds you of the sound of rattling bones?
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old hand
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Yeah, and why not "milage" then, as it goes with age  ?
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I have always understood it to be a US/UK difference. Normally I avoid unnecessary E's where both spellings are valid: salable and milage rather than saleable and mileage; but in the case of aging (which is perfectly good by analogy with raging, paging, and managing) the visual effect of an Americanism is so strong that I have reluctantly gone back to ageing.
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Interesting, NicholasW...I never thought of the dropping of the "e" for the --ing suffix, in the case of aging/ageing, as being a US/UK variation until your mention of it. Is this the case in anyone else's experience? And why, Nicholas, does it stand out to you as an Americanism in this particular word and not the others where the "e" is dropped? And is there any early English rule (or tenet), perhaps, that states that one form should be favored over the other when both are acceptable...or outlines a preference for certain situations?
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No, I think it's only in this one word. We never write rageing or pageing; they're mistakes pure and simple. I don't know why ageing should have its E.
How odd, I've just checked Modern English Usage. Fowler discusses rules and exceptions under Mute E, and gives lists of examples, but nowhere mentions 'age'. So the rules make it 'aging', and his lack of mention of 'ageing' suggest to me it's a recent innovation. Anyway, it is now the almost universal British spelling.
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I gotta go with aging. Ageing just looks like a typical case of Brit vowel wastrelism.
However I believe I prefer mileage to milage; not sure about saleable/salable.
Well, looking at them whomped up right next to each other like that saleable looks better. Salable looks like it has something to do with salt and milage with grain grinding.
Dunno.
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Agreed on all three counts.
milage with grain grinding
The word for that is "millage", I believe, more typically associated with a tax (e.g, "millage rate")
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milage with grain grinding
The word for that is "millage"
Agreed, but, to me, milage looks more like a misspelled millage than it does a co-equal to mileage.
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I agree with you, faldage. "Salable" and "milage" are each awkward in that it isn't clear (as it would be with "saleable" and "mileage") that the first vowel is to be pronounced with a long sound.
BTW, the AWAD spellchecker accepts "mileage" but not "saleable".
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milage with grain grinding
Milage reminded me of silage.
the visual effect of an Americanism is so strong that I have reluctantly gone back to ageing.
Ni-cho-las, c'mere a minute, will ya?
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Odd...I can get Microsoft Word to accept ageing and aging in several different Enlgish varieties but cannot get it to accept milage in any.
I am taking a few minutes off at work (all right, ya got me, I'm just screwing around) so I don't have access to other than my office Websters. Can anybody find milage in their own dictionary.
I also prefer aging to ageing and Canadian English accepts both. I also agree that milage looks too much like millage for my taste and I always add the e.
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Come, let us conjugate together...Paging, waging, aging.You don't need no "e" in "aging".The "e" serves no function. Except in England where-maye God bless the goode Queene-it serves to keep the language as antiquated as they like it.
Lagging, dragging, sagging, bagging, fagging, and aggin. "Aggin" as in "Dang it Bubba,if you don't stop aggin on Junior you uns is fixing to fetch a flogging". Note: The second "g" in aggin is incumbent, a third "g" at the end would be redundant.You see, in Alabama, we are economical with our words and letters, we speake today the English language of tomorrow.
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Welcome, milum!
I disagree. The 'e' in ageing serves to mark it immediately as the correct prounciation based on recognition of the root word 'age'. There is otherwise more chance of the eye starting to interpret this group as analogous to words like 'again', a problem less likely with your other examples.
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Excellent maiden post, milum. Stick around, you'll love it here.
As far as I'm conecerned all thaet extera e in ageing does is make it look funney and, to quote the language maven* of the NYTimes (of whom I disagree with him a lot, but not on this matter), "If it looks funny, the hell with it."
*Ænigma says, of maven, [maverick].
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Well, you can't base spellings purely on whether they look right, but to me, "ageing" does look funny, though I can understand how it might add clarity. If you look at it wrong, it almost looks like you are trying to pronounce it with an "ei" vowel - a-g-ei-n-g - perhaps sounding like "agehng" or "agayng" (hard g)?  Here's one I'd like to know. When someone loses life, they are dying. When someone changes their hair color they are...dyeing?
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Francais, I learned it as dieing when someone losses life (also used when a comedian is extremely bad and nobody laughs)
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Might as well through this one onto the discussion while we're at it! If I pretended to have a clue here it would be dishonest... And I cannot tell a lye...because, then, I'd wind up with soap in my mouth!
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In reply to:
Well, you can't base spellings purely on whether they look right ...
I don't see that how a word looks has anything to do with spelling. Otherwise you might well have to accept "ghoti" as an acceptable spelling of "fish".
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you can't base spellings purely on whether they look right
You could back in the good old days when people generally spelled things right. Learning the body of English words by rote is nigh unto impossible but if you're used to seeing them spelled right then if they're spelled wrong they look funny. Sometimes I'll try a few versions until I get one that doesn't look funny. Some have been so badly abused lately that it's hard to tell sometimes. I've gotten so that its and it's both look wrong in all contexts.
Well, maybe not purely.
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RE: You could back in the good old days when people generally spelled things right.
can you give me a day? or date? or year? or decade? just when was it? and were things spelled right in all variants of english? or just one? you would so honor (or is honour?) me if you could.
the good out days are always mythical.. only the very old believe in them.. i didn't think you to be old faldage.. or are you just playing the fool?
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When were the good old days?
Perhaps I indulge, once more in FFV®. Allow me to be more specific. In the days when people who *published spelled words correctly.
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Milum,
Welcome! We need more of y'all's kynde around here.
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I learned it as dieing Truly, bel? I can't say that I have ever seen that spelling (of course, I really don't recall seeing "ageing" either). Perhaps I simply block out all spellings that don't look right to me.... But I think I would remember "dieing," since, along with taxes, it's one of life's certainties .
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M-W on line gives die/dying and dye/dyeing for losing life and recoloring respectively. No alternate spellings mentioned in either case. Search on dieing gives die/dying.
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