“Occured” or “occurred”: which is correct?
The short answer
Occurred is the correct spelling. The word occur has the stress on the second syllable (cur), which ends with a single consonant r. According to the spelling rule, when adding the suffix ed, the final consonant is doubled because it is preceded by a stressed short vowel. This is why the correct spelling is occurred instead of occured.
Spelling error
Why people get it wrong
The word occurred is often misspelled as occured because people forget to double the r when adding the -ed suffix to the base verb occur. This mistake stems from the fact that many English words do not require doubling the consonant when forming the past tense.
Examples with occurred
- The event occurred yesterday.
- An unexpected error occurred during the operation.
- Many historical events occurred in the 20th century.
Quick check
The event yesterday.
Occurred is the correct spelling. The word occur has the stress on the second syllable (cur), which ends with a single consonant r. According to the spelling rule, when adding the suffix ed, the final consonant is doubled because it is preceded by a stressed short vowel. This is why the correct spelling is occurred instead of occured.
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