Why is it "wherever" instead of "whereever"?

The popular question words how, when, what, why, which and some more all have their accompanying word ending in -ever, like however and whatever.

It seems to me that the word wherever is somewhat inconsistent in this context, as it omits one e — either the last letter of where or the first letter of ever.

Is the spelling of wherever a simple exception, or is there a (probably not limited to these question words and the -ever ending) rule that can help me to figure out when to omit a vowel without googling for it?

Solution 1:

It is generally called the silent e rule:

Suffix addition: dropping silent e

• The silent e rule is more consistent than the doubling rule. The principle: since the silent e's "job" is to change a vowel sound, if there is another vowel to take its place, the e can go away.

• Therefore, if the suffix begins with a vowel, you drop the e.

• It doesn't matter how many syllables there are, or what the vowel coming before the silent e sounds like, or whether there are two consonants ("wasting" drops the e, too).

• There are some exceptions -- when you need to keep the e for some other purpose, such as making a c or g say /s/ or /j/, as in "courageous."

Source: www.resourceroom.net

Solution 2:

As a gross general rule of thumb, word final single 'e' gets deleted before suffixes beginning with vowels, especially grammatical suffixes. So we don't have:

• liveing
• liveed
• giveer
• blueish
• trueer
• trueest
• sizees

Instead we get:

• living
• lived
• giver
• bluish
• truest
• sizes

Wherever seems to fit this rule of thumb.

Hope this is helpful!