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There are no truly great rules for this. The explanation is historical: the differentiation lies in the Latin source word. There are actually three situations: -ent (Latin infinitive ends in -ere); -ant (Latin infinitive ends in -are); -ient (Latin infinitive ends in -ire). This rule holds well IF the word came into English early enough (before the 1500s?). The productive ending for non-Latin words and words entering English later is -ant. (coolant, sealant). Sometimes Romance words came in via other languages and get a productive -ant ending when the root Latin would predict an -ent.
I join you in frustration and in heavily relying on spell checkers.
Thanks for this question and this reply. I had formed a very tentative guess that "-ant" was for adjectives and "-ent" for nouns, but I wasn't at all convinced and even if it were true it would be largely useless since in English either can serve as the other pretty freely: The "defendant" is one who is defending, and "dependent clauses" were originally dependents...it just wasn't working for me. This doesn't work, either, in any practical sense—that is, knowing it doesn't help me predict how to spell any particular word, since I have no Latin to speak of—but at least it's believable.
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
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