Pronunciation of final “-ed”

Simple Past Tense

The final –ed ending has three different pronunciations: /t/, /d/, and /ed/

Final – ed is pronounced /t/ after all voiceless sounds. Voiceless sounds are made by

pushing air through your mouth; no sound comes from your throat.

Examples of voiceless sounds: “K”, “P”, “S”, “Ch”, “Sh”, “F”

• Look → looked → look/t/

• Clap → clapped → clap/t/

• Miss → missed → miss/t/

• Watch → watched → watch/t/

• Finish → finished → finish/t/

Final –ed is pronounced /d/ after voiced sounds. Voiced sounds come from your throat.

Touch your neck when you make a voiced sound, you can feel your voice box vibrate.

Examples of voiced sounds: “L”, “V”, “N”, “B” and all vowel sounds.

• Smell → smelled → smell/d/

• Save → saved → save/d/

• Clean → cleaned → clean/d/

• Rob → robbed → rob/d/

• Play → played → play/d/

Final –ed is pronounced /ed/ after “T”, and “D” sounds. The sound /ed/ adds a whole

syllable to a word.

Example: Looked  look/t/ = one syllable; Needed  need/ed/ = two syllables

• Decide → decided → decide/ed/

• Need → needed → need/ed/

• Want → wanted → want/ed/

• Invite → invited → invite/ed/

Pronunciation of –S, -ES

To make a noun plural, a final –s or –es is added to the noun, e.g. Friend → Friends

• Noun + s: Friends are important

• Noun + es: I like my classes

A final –s or –es is added to a present tense verb when the subject is a singular noun,

e.g. my father works at a bank. (My father is a singular noun)

• Verb + s: Mary works at the bank

• Verb + es: John watches birds

Final –s is pronounced /s/ after voiceless sounds, as in “T”, “P”, and “K”

• Seat → seats → seat/s/

• Rope → ropes → rope/s/

• Back → backs → back/s/

Final –s is pronounced /z/ after voiced sounds, as in “D”, “B”, “G” and “EE”

• Seed → seeds → seed/z/

• Robe → robes → robe/z/

• Bag → bags → bag/z/

• See → sees → see/z/

Final –s and –es are pronounced /ez/ after “SH,” “CH,” “S,” “Z,” and “GE,”, “DGE”.

The /ez/ ending adds a syllable.

• Dish → dishes → dish/ez/

• Catch → catches → catch/ez/

• Kiss → kisses → kiss/ez/

• Mix → mixes → mix/ez/

• Prize → prizes → prize/ez/

• Edge → edges → edge/ez/

Spelling: Final –s / -es

• Most words (verbs & nouns), add a final –s, e.g. sing → sings; song → songs

• Final –es is added to words ending with –SH, -CH, -S, -Z, and –X.

• wash → washes

• watch → watches

• class → classes

• buzz → buzzes

• box → boxes

For words ending in –y:

• if –y is preceded by vowel only –s is added,

• e.g. toy → toys; buy → buys

• If –y is preceded by a consonant, the –y is changed to –i and –es is added.

• e.g. baby → babies; cry → cries