How to spell soften

hear itsof·ten/'sɔfən/verbSilent and tricky

What it means: To make something less hard or firm.

In a sentence: The warm sun will soften the snow.

The part people get wrong

Watch for an unstressed vowel that is hard to hear. Often misspelled as sofen or softan.

Same family: soft, softness, softer, softly, softening. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: “Soften” comes from Middle English, formed from “soft” plus the verb-ending “-en,” which means “to make or become.” English has several similar verbs like “shorten” (make short) and “widen” (make wide).

Patterns it uses: The unstressed vowel (schwa)

Try spelling it

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