Eli5 What determines when a word will have two of the same letters next to each other?

Question

Words like boot, feet, wall, Morrison, etc

In: 1

Answer 1

I assumed you meant when it becomes plural like gas and gasses (it is to prevent people assuming the e added is a silent e changing pronunciation of the word) of but looking at your examples…
Boot vs bot? The pronunciation would change. How would you show in English it is to be the long ‘o’ sound? When two different vowels are next to each other, the first vowel says it’s name and the other is silent (most of the time). So ‘boot’ and ‘boat’ and ‘bit’ are not pronounced the same. However, for your example ‘feet’, we do have ‘feat’ which denotes another meaning. Wall vs Wal? The two ‘L’s let you know it is a long ‘L’. How about ‘ball’ and ‘bal’? If I read the latter, I would assume it is pronounced like the first 3 letters of ‘balance’.