View source for Planed - planned

A common careless error - which simple spell-checkers cannot detect - is to type the wrong numbers of '-n-'s in these words.  Be clear. (The same applies to '''planning''' and '''planing''', and other derivatives.)

*'''Planed''' is the [[past tense]] and [[past participle]] of the [[verb]] 'to '''plane'''<nowiki>'</nowiki>. A '''[[plane]]''' is a tool that carpenters use.  It is a hand-tool used to make a wood surface flat and smooth.  It shaves thin curls of wood off the piece of wood on which it is being used.  There is a verb from this tool, 'to '''plane'''<nowiki>'</nowiki>: "the carpenter '''planed''' the table edge until it was smooth." 
**(The word 'plane' in modern times is more usually used as an [[abbreviation]] for 'aeroplane' [US: airplane].  This derives from its meaning in geometry, of 'a flat surface'.  It is a mistake, in academic English, to use '''plane''' as a verb in the sense of 'to fly', or 'to travel by aeroplane'.) 
**Boats can '''plane''' when they skim over the 'plane surface' of water by raising the hull, by hydrodynamic lift, out of its normal position floating <u>in</u> the water. '''Hydroplanes''' are control mechanisms to adjust the position of a vessel in the water. '''Aquaplaning''' is the phenomenon when the wheels of a road vehicle 'ride' on a thin film of water, and so lose contact with the road - hence much of their controllability.

Like the tool, and like the verb, both the flying machine and the flat surface are pronounced to rhyme with 'main', 'lane', 'pain' and 'rain' ({{IPA|pleɪn}}).

*'''Planned''' on the other hand is the [[past tense]] and [[participle|past participle]] of the verb 'to '''plan'''<nowiki>'</nowiki>.  This is pronounced to rhyme with 'man', 'can' and 'pan' ({{IPA|plæn}}, and '''planned''' rhymes with 'canned' and 'and' (/plænd/).  It means 'an outline of intentions', or 'the way proposed to do something'.  Good students should '''plan''' their essays.  No one ever <strike>planes</strike> an essay.

So, when you have finished, you have '''planned''' an essay with two '-n-'s.  You have not '''planed''' it, with half the number of '-n-'s.

The same applies to the two nouns '''planning''', which is what good students should do, and '''planing''', which I have never seen the best student try.

::You may also like to see an article on another common error, involving a [[homophone]], at [[Plain - plane|'''plain''' and '''plane''']].

[[category:spellchecker]]
[[category:typos]]
[[Category:Spelling pattern - doubled consonant]]