View source for Category:Quirk class Note 3. 10

This is not so much one of [[Quirk (1985)]]'s 7 classes of irregular verbs as the label of section 10 of Chapter 3. This is a note on the '''Treatment of ''-y''''' in the section on '''The spelling of regular verb inflections'''. The note provides for two exceptions to the rule where "the ''-y-'' remains where it follows a vowel letter: ''stay'' ~stayed'', ''alloy ~ alloys'', etc".

*These exceptions are ''[[pay (irregular verb)|pay ~ paid]]'', and ''[[Lay (irregular verb)|lay ~ laid]]'', in which the ''y'' changes to ''i'' after ''-a-''. Another seeming exception is [[say (irregular verb)|say]]: but Quirk allocates this to Class 3 F on the grounds that the the ''-s'' form ([[3rd person|3rd]] [[singular|sing.]] [[present tense|pres.]]) is pronounced irregularly (with the vowel of 'get', {{IPA|ɛ}} rather than the vowel of 'say' ({{IPA|eɪ}}.

Note ['''c'''] adds that the derivatives [[repay]], [[mislay]] and [[waylay]] behave as do 'pay' and 'lay'; but draws attention to confusion between the two verbs spelled '''relay'''. See [[relay (disambiguation)]]. (There is a much rarer ambiguity about '''[[repay (disambiguation|repay]]'''.) 
[[category:Quirk Irregular verbs]]
[[category:Quirk class Note 3]]