Definition commit in British English

Don’t write the trong>-edtrong> and trong>-ingtrong> forms of trong>committrong> with only one ‘t’. The correct spellings are trong>committrong>ted and trong>committrong>ting:

✗ His wife went mad and commited suicide.

✓ His wife went mad and committed suicide.

The reason why the t is doubled in the -ed and -ing forms is that the stress falls on the final syllable of the verb in its infinitive form: commit.

The same rule applies to other verbs ending in ‘t’ where the stress falls on the final syllable:

permit

permitted

permitting

admit

admitted

admitting

submit

submitted

submitting

When the stress does not fall on the final syllable, the trong>-edtrong> and trong>-ingtrong> forms are spelled with one ‘t’:

limit

limited

limiting

edit

edited

editing

prohibit

prohibited

prohibiting

Don’t spell commit with only one ‘m’:

✗ A crime is comitted because the perpetrators want to attract attention.

✓ A crime is committed because the perpetrators want to attract attention.