Carries

How to spell carries

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce carries

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does carries mean?

1. verbHolds, supports, or moves something from one place to another; also used of bearing or sustaining something.

Carries in a sentence

• The new bridge carries heavy traffic without any strain.

• She always carries a spare charger in her bag.

Where does carries come from?

Language of origin: French

This is the third-person singular present form of 'carry', which English took from the Anglo-Norman and Old French verb 'carier', meaning to transport something in a wheeled vehicle. That verb traces back to the Latin 'carrum' or 'carrus', a word for a two-wheeled wagon that the Romans themselves had borrowed from a Celtic source, the same root that gives us 'car', 'carriage', and 'cargo'. When it entered English in the 1300s the sense broadened from hauling goods by cart to bearing or supporting anything at all, whether physically lifting it or figuratively shouldering a burden. The spelling trap lives entirely in the ending: because 'carry' ends in a consonant plus 'y', the 'y' switches to 'i' before the '-es', producing 'carries' rather than the wrong 'carrys'. Keeping the double 'r' from 'carry' and remembering that y-to-i rule is the whole battle.

How the word is built

• carr- (from carry: to transport)
• -ies (third-person singular present, y changing to i before -es)