|ĕd| or |әd|

I NEW CONCEPT. Today we will introduce the ed ending for verbs. This ending is used to indicate that some action or behavior has already happened, often referred to as the past tense. This ending is pronounced |ĕd| or |ǝd|, as in jolted and added, and adds an additional syllable to the root word. Verbs that end in a t or d take this ed ending. The ed ending can be pronounced with the short-vowel e sound |ĕd| or more often with an unaccented schwa, |əd|. (The schwa is pronounced similarly to the shortened short-vowel u sound of |ŭ| in circus.)

|d|

II LEARN the ed spelling pattern pronounced |d| that is added to words ending in n, m, or any voiced letter sound. The e in these ed ending words is silent. Examples of this pattern are cleaned and zoomed. Notice that this simple |d| sound for the ed ending applies to all root words ending in a voiced letter (one causing throat vibration when the letter is pronounced). Note also that this particular tacking on of ed does not add a new syllable to the root word (e.g., roared and jazzed).

|t|

III LEARN the ed spelling pattern applicable to root words whose last letter is voiceless (causes no throat vibration when pronounced). In these cases, ed says |t|. Consider the word cook. The k is voiceless (no vibration occurs in the vocal cords when the letter is pronounced). Adding ed makes it cooked, pronounced |kůkt|. To illustrate this point, try this experiment: touch your Adam’s apple and say the word jump. Notice that no vibration occurs when you pronounce the p. All you produce is a puff of air. Such voiceless letters to which ed is added (cooked, puffed, jumped) are going to have ed say |t|.

Review: ed

IV & V REVIEW the ed ending pronounced |ǝd|, |d|, or |t|, as in jolted and added, cleaned and zoomed, and cooked and jumped, respectively.

Some root words end with two consonants (such as ck, ff, ss, ll, ch, and sh) or with two consonant sounds (including the |ks| sound of x in fix). Normally, we double the final consonant of a short-vowel word when adding ed or –ing (as will be discussed more in the following lesson). This doubling is not practiced if the root word already ends in double consonants or double sounds.