Fake

[iwbus]

Why are things counterfeit and not counterfit? Where did the extra E come from?

[Ethel]

It's not an extra 'e'.


counterfeit:
[Middle English countrefeten, from contrefet, made in imitation, from Old French contrefait, past participle of contrefaire, to counterfeit : contre-, counter- + faire,

[southerngirl]

Trouble with English is that spelling is like it is because lots of our words come from different languages and the English are very good at taking a foreign word and plonking it into the language unchanged. This is why spelling sometimes doesn't seem to make sense. Other countries tend to take a word and form it into their own language's grammar and spelling. English is a Germanic language but has taken on French, Latin, Greek, Arabic, Indian etc and in later years, Inuit (eskimo, igloo, kayak) and even anorak (from the Aleutian islands). Once you know where a word has come from, you can understand why it is spelt the way it is.

[jno]

my dictionary says you can pronounce it counterfeet or counterfit.