If you've ever typed "writting" and felt confident about it, you're not alone. The comparison of writting vs writing trips up writers of all levels, and the reason is surprisingly simple: the double consonant pattern is everywhere in English, so the wrong version feels right. It isn't. Only writing is the accepted spelling.
Which spelling is correct?
Writing is the only correct form. "Writting" does not appear in any standard English dictionary, including Merriam-Webster, Oxford, or Cambridge. It's a misspelling, full stop.
Writing functions as both a noun and a present participle:
- As a noun: "Her writing improved over the year."
- As a participle: "He was writing the report when she called."
In both cases, one t is correct. Two ts is never correct.
Why does "writting" feel so natural?
English has a doubling rule that applies when you add a suffix to a short verb. Words like sit, run, and hit double their final consonant before -ing: sitting, running, hitting. The pattern is so common that your brain applies it automatically.
The key condition for doubling is this: the base verb must end in a single consonant preceded by a single short vowel, and the stress must fall on the final syllable. "Run" fits perfectly. "Write" does not.
Write ends in a silent e, not a plain consonant. When you add -ing to a verb ending in silent e, you drop the e and add -ing directly. No doubling needed. So write becomes writing, just as make becomes making and take becomes taking.
The silent e rule and the doubling rule are two separate tracks. "Writting" is what happens when someone applies the doubling rule to a word that belongs on the other track.
A quick way to remember it
Think about the base verb: write. It has a long i sound. Long vowels in English are almost always spelled with that silent e at the end (write, bite, kite, quite). When that e drops, the vowel sound stays long because of the word's structure. You don't need to double the consonant to "protect" the long vowel. The vowel is already stable.
Short test: does the base verb end in a silent e? Drop the e, add -ing. Done. Writing, not writting.
Other words that follow the same pattern
Writing isn't alone. A cluster of common verbs drop their silent e before -ing without doubling the consonant:
- ride → riding
- drive → driving
- smile → smiling
- hope → hoping
- vote → voting
None of these double. "Ridding" is a real word, but it comes from rid, not ride. That's the kind of distinction worth noticing.
Common contexts where the error appears
The misspelling shows up most often in informal writing: social media posts, text messages, quick emails. Speed encourages muscle-memory errors, and "writting" is a classic one. It also creeps into academic drafts where the writer is focused on content and not proofreading.
Spell-checkers catch it reliably. Most modern word processors will flag "writting" with a red underline immediately. If you're working somewhere without autocorrect, such as a plain text editor or a handwritten note, the rule above is your safety net.
The confusion shares some DNA with other doubling errors in English. Just as people sometimes write greatful vs grateful and get tripped up by a plausible-sounding but wrong form, the writting/writing split happens because one version feels phonetically justified even though spelling rules say otherwise.
Related spelling questions worth knowing
If the doubling rule interests you, it's worth knowing that the same logic applies to a few other verb forms. "Written" (past participle of write) does have a double t, and for a different historical reason rooted in Old English. That double t in "written" is sometimes what plants the seed for "writting." But written and writing follow separate derivations. Don't let one bleed into the other.
The loser vs looser confusion works on a similar principle: a doubled letter exists in one form of the word, and writers incorrectly carry that doubling into a related form where it doesn't belong.
One more thing worth noting: "write" is an irregular verb. Its past tense is "wrote," not "writed." Its past participle is "written." These irregular forms don't follow the standard rules, which is part of why the whole family of write/wrote/written/writing attracts spelling errors. Knowing the full set helps keep each form straight.
The verdict
Writing is correct. Writting is a misspelling that will be flagged by every spell-checker and confuse every careful reader. The cause is a real and understandable one: the consonant-doubling pattern is deeply ingrained in English. But "write" ends in a silent e, so it follows the drop-the-e rule instead. One t, always.