Segmentals
5 -ed and -s/-‘s Endings
John M. Levis
- To understand how <ed> and <s/’s> grammatical suffixes are pronounced
- To understand why the pronunciation of these endings can affect intelligibility
- To explore how to teach the <ed> and <s/’s> endings
5.1 Pronouncing ed and s/’s morphemes
Segmentals are a key feature for intelligibility as are suprasegmentals. But some aspects of pronunciation teaching do not neatly fit into either segmental or suprasegmental categories. Among these are the <ed> and <s/’s> morpheme categories, both representing multiple morphemes with different grammatical meanings. Despite their differences in grammar, the <ed> endings each have identical pronunciations. The same is the case for <s/’s>. Mispronunciations of these different morphemes are important because the mispronunciations can confuse grammatical meanings in English. Each morpheme is pronounced with short endings and a long ending, which are determined by the final sound of the root word. The long endings result in the addition of a syllable (e.g., float+ed, fuse+s), and the short endings are marked by the addition of an extra consonant sound but not an extra syllable (e.g., laugh+ed, love+s). These short endings can result in consonant clusters that are difficult to pronounce for some learners, leading them to either not pronounce the grammatical endings or to insert a vowel where it should not be.
Mispronunciation of the <ed> and <s/’s> morphemes may also occur because the endings represent grammatical inflections that are not all acquired at the same rate or with the same ultimate success. In early studies of child language (Berko, 1958), the 3rd person -s morpheme was produced correctly less than 60% of the time by 1st-grade children (i.e., 6 years old), and the long endings for the plural and possessive morphemes were far less successfully acquired by 1st grade than the short endings. Similarly, the long endings for the -ed past forms were delayed in comparison to the production of the short forms. A study of adult language learners (Bailey et al., 1974) found that plural <s> was much more successfully learned than possessive and 3rd person singular present <s>.
This complex aspect of <ed> pronunciation can be difficult for L2 learners, including those with Spanish as an L1 (Davila, 2018) and Somali as an L1 (Koffi, 2010). Similarly, morphemes that indicate plural, possession, and 3rd person singular present tense verbs (all spelled with final <s/’s> or <es>) also have three different pronunciations depending on the final sounds of the root. The three pronunciations are explained in many grammar books and most published pronunciation materials, assuming that L2 learners need to pronounce all three endings accurately to be understood. This section of the book explains how the pronunciation of the <ed> and <s/’s> endings can be taught to learners who struggle with this aspect of English.
5.2 ed endings
The <ed> endings have been widely studied outside of pronunciation teaching. They reflect several meanings.
- past tense endings, as in: he walked, she smiled, they waited
- past participial endings, as in: They’ve reached the limit, She’s waited an hour already, He’s been married before
- participial adjectives, as in: a wrecked car, an unmarried woman, a respected authority
The <ed> endings in English have three pronunciations: one that is long (it has an inserted vowel and therefore adds a syllable to the root word) and two that are short (there is no inserted vowel, but rather an alveolar stop that tends to match the voicing of the preceding segment). This is how the <ed> endings are described in nearly all pronunciation and grammar books.
Long Ending for ed
- [əd] after [t] or [d] (e.g., waited , loaded , wanted , landed )
Short Endings for ed
- [t] after voiceless consonants (e.g., laughed , walked , clapped )
- [d] after voiced consonants and vowels (e.g., loved , rubbed , played )
The pronunciation of the <ed> endings depends upon the phonetic character of the preceding segment. If /t/ or /d/ precedes <ed>, the ending is pronounced [əd] (the “long” ending). If a sound other than /t/ or /d/ precedes, the <ed> ending is pronounced as /t/ or /d/ (the “short” ending) because its pronunciation assimilates in voicing to the previous sound. The voiceless stop /t/ follows voiceless consonants. After voiced consonants and vowels, speakers voice the following stop, pronouncing it [d].
Even though this three-way distinction is evident in words in isolation, there is strong evidence that a three-way distinction is not important for L2 pronunciation. There is evidence that distinguishing two pronunciations rather than three (Dickerson, 1990) is equally effective in pedagogy (Bruetten, Mouw & Perkins, 1986). This would mean that in communicating the meaning of the <ed> ending, it is sufficient to make a two-way distinction between the addition of an extra syllable ([əd]) and the addition of an extra sound ([t] or [d]). In other words, whether someone says exactly [t] or [d] when pronouncing the extra sound seems less important to listeners than whether the morpheme is present and signals the grammatical information.
Why is this the case? First, the <ed> endings represent morphological rather than phonological distinctions. Even though /t/ and /d/ represent phonemes in English, in the <ed> endings, they simply express the same grammatical meaning. Both are prone to deletion in certain linguistic environments (loved to talk, kicked the ball), and the [d] can devoice before silence or some voiceless sounds (the person I’ve always loved to talk to, followed five people).
Thus in correcting our students’ pronunciation, we are concerned primarily with the presence of the ending and the correct choice of the short or the long ending. The voicing differences of the two short endings are typically not important. (Note that some varieties of English even say dreamt and spelt rather than dreamed and spelled). In those few cases where it seems to make a difference (for example, “played” may sound like “plate” if the /d/ is devoiced), make sure that the students are either voicing that consonant fully or better, lengthening the preceding vowel to indicate that a voiced sound follows. (This is what actually happens phonetically in many cases.)
Another aspect of pronunciation for <ed> endings is that they often result in complex syllable codas, such as in laughed [ft], bridged [dʒd], and benched [ntʃt]. Like all complex syllable codas, deletion of the final [t] or [d] may occur in casual speech when followed by additional consonants (e.g., bridged the gap), but deletion of morpheme endings is more likely if a final [t] or [d] represents a phoneme, e.g., swift stop. We also know that <ed> endings do not always occur as the only clue to tense but that they also may occur with time adverbials such as yesterday of last week, which makes it easier for listeners to identify (Bell et al., 2015).
For intermediate and advanced students, illustrate the long and short endings together. (The outline below uses this approach.) For less advanced students, start with the short ending and practice that before introducing the long ending. Although most students find the long ending easier to pronounce than the short ending, they also tend to overuse the long ending, pronouncing /əd/ whenever they see the letters <ed>. In an attempt to counteract this tendency, we emphasize the short ending and teach it first before working on the long ending.
5.3 s/’s endings
The <s/’s> endings are also a commonly included feature in English pronunciation teaching materials. Like the <ed> endings, they reflect three different inflectional morphemes. As such, they communicate important grammatical information: the regular plural ending (e.g., hat/hats, seed/seeds, page/pages), the possessive marker (e.g., Jack’s, Ellen’s, Max’s), and the verbal inflection for 3rd person singular present tense (e.g., he walks, Jill goes, it washes).
We have only modest evidence of whether these morphemes are equally difficult for L2 learners. For example, Luk and Shirai’s (2009) review article found that plural endings were easier than possessives for Spanish speakers, but that speakers of Thai and Korean found possessive endings easier. Other evidence we have (especially from writing) is that the 3rd person verbal ending is very challenging. In writing, even advanced L2 learners can forget to use this -s ending consistently, suggesting that it will also be challenging in speech, in which online processing makes errors more likely.
The <s/’s> endings (they can also be spelled <es>), despite their distinct grammatical meanings, have the same three pronunciations that are phonologically conditioned.
- [əz] after sibilant sounds [s], [z], [ʒ], [dʒ], [tʃ], and [ʃ] (e.g., buses , loses , garages , washes , churches , judge’s )
- [s] after voiceless consonants (e.g., hits , caps , Jack’s )
- [z] after voiced consonants and vowels (e.g., dogs , loves , goes , Jim’s )
Like the <ed> endings (which also have three phonologically conditioned pronunciations), a three-way distinction does not appear to be very important in how the endings are pronounced. Instead, what seems to be important is a two-way distinction between the addition of an extra syllable ([əz]) and the addition of an extra sound ([s] or [z]). Whether someone says exactly [s] or [z] at the end of the word seems less important to listeners as long as one of these two sounds is present. Because the sounds reflect morphemes, not phonemes, this difference in language structure means that exact pronunciations are less important than signaling the meaning of the morpheme. In addition, because the difference between [s] and [z] is conditioned by the voicing of the previous segment (voiceless sounds continue to [s] and voiced sounds continue to [z]), the voicing or voicelessness of the ending has a redundant cue to what listeners hear.
5.4 Activities for ed endings
Description and Analysis
Exercise 5-1. Describing the <ed> endings
Directions: Use lists of words on the blackboard to help students discover that the choice of ending is predictable (long ending after /t/ and /d/, short ending elsewhere). Use words representing the various environments in which the endings occur. For example,
| SHORT [t] | SHORT [d] | LONG [əd] |
|---|---|---|
| picked | played | waited |
| wished | dreamed | rested |
| touched | grabbed | invited |
| missed | loved | added |
| laughed | refused | ended |
| dropped | warned | avoided |
“Look at the words with the short and long endings. Which spellings in the long ending words can tell you that ther will be an extra syllable?”
“Look at the short ending words. Do any of them end with a /t/ or /d/ sound?”
Discovery
“When the verb ends with the sound /t/ or the sound /d/, the <ed> ending is long. In all other cases, the <ed> ending is short”
Listening Discrimination
Exercise 5-2. Past or present?
Directions: Read aloud or play a recording of the sentences. Ask students to identify if the verb tense in the sentence is ‘past tense’ (that is, does it have <ed> or ‘present tense’ (that is, is there no <ed> ending).
| Phrase | Past/Present |
| I walk around the park every day. |
Present |
| They worked out of town. |
Past |
| We dance on the weekend. |
Present |
| I jogged on Monday. |
Past |
| I cook new meals once a week. |
Present |
| I traveled to France in the summer. |
Past |
| We arrived at midnight. |
Past |
| I play a game called squash. |
Present |
Exercise 5-3. Long or short endings
Directions: Read aloud or play a recording of each word. Ask students to identify if the verb tense in the word has a short ending (pronounced [t] or [d]) or a long ending (pronounced with an extra syllable, [əd]).
| Word | Short or Long? |
| wished | Short |
| looked | Short |
| shopped | Short |
| skated | Long |
| played | Short |
| requested | Long |
| watched | Short |
| deposited | Long |
| wanted | Long |
Controlled Production
Exercise 5-4. Repeat
Directions: Ask students to repeat the word, phrase, or sentence with the short ending after you, or to listen to the recording and repeat. Ask them to pay attention to how the ending of the <ed> ending is pronounced.
backed
failed
arrived
studied
played
worked
saved a lot
played a game
worked all night
crashed his car
laughed at her joke
watched a new show
She talked about her trip.
I called a friend last night.
We played a really fun game.
She smiled at him.
They studied until 11:00.
They answered all the questions.
Exercise 5-5. Repeat (mixed endings)
Directions: Ask students to repeat the word or phrase with the short or long ending after you or to listen to the recording and repeat. Ask them to pay attention to how the ending of the <ed> ending is pronounced.
needed
wanted
invited
counted
attended
needed some help
wanted to travel
followed
kicked
spelled
arrived
smiled
invited their friends
followed the car
laughed
failed
wished
worked
talked
worked and talked
arrived early
Exercise 5-6. Opposites
Directions: The teacher writes the words in the right column on a whiteboard or a piece of paper for the students to see. (Make sure the students understand each word.) Then the teacher reads each word in the left column and asks students to identify the word that has an opposite meaning.
| Cue word | Board word |
|---|---|
| loved | exercised |
| ended | succeeded |
| agreed | hated |
| left | arrived |
| subtracted | laughed |
| frowned | heated |
| cooled | smiled |
| played | worked |
| failed | started |
| rested | disagreed |
| cried | added |
Exercise 5-7. Reading (mixed endings)
Directions: Have students identify the <ed> endings in the reading about Keith making bread at home. They should decide how each <ed> ending is pronounced (with a short ending or a long ending.). Then they should read the passage aloud. For a class, the teacher can ask the students to read particular sentences.
(1) Keith decided to make some bread. (2) He looked up a good recipe online, watched some YouTube videos, and then copied the recipe. (3) He followed the directions carefully. (4) First, he measured the flower and poured the milk into the bowl. (5) Then he mixed the milk and flour until it was ready to be kneaded. (6) Then he floured his hands and kneaded the dough. (7) After he finished that, he turned on the oven, placed the dough in the oven, and waited for it to rise. (8) When the dough had doubled in size, he removed it from the oven, punched it down, and allowed it to rise again. (9) He then punched it down again, and it was ready to be baked. (10) When enough time had passed, Keith removed the bread from the oven, buttered it, and invited his friends to try some.
Exercise 5-8. Changing sentences to past tense
Directions: The teacher reads the sentences in the present tense. The student changes each sentence so that it is in past tense, with an <ed> ending. (Note: The past tense sentences are provided so the teacher can easily monitor if the student said the sentence correctly.)
Example: John walks around the park. → John walked around the park.
Teacher
John waits for the bus in the morning.
The bus arrives at 9:00.
John checks his phone as he rides.
He studies at the library with friends.
He attends his first class at 11.
He picks up lunch at a food truck.
He visits his teacher’s office hours.
He returns home around 6.
He cooks dinner and watches a show on TV.
Student
John waited for the bus in the morning.
The bus arrived at 9:00.
John checked his phone as he rides.
He studied at the library with friends.
He attended his first class at 11.
He picked up lunch at a food truck.
He visited his teacher’s office hours.
He returned home around 6.
He cooked dinner and watched a show on TV.
Guided / Communicative Production
Exercise 5-9. Questions
Directions: The teacher asks different students questions about what they have done. The student answers in a complete sentence using “I’ve never ____” or “Yes, I’ve _____” (add information). Tell the truth. Alternative: Have students ask each other the questions in pairs.
Have you ever:
- shopped at a really nice mall?
- visited California?
- traveled on a cruise?
- watched a soccer match in person?
- cheated on an assignment for a class?
- attended a live opera performance?
- competed in a tennis or golf tournament?
- played on a sports team?
- mailed a physical letter to someone?
Question 5-10. Narrating a story
Directions: Ask students to tell a story about something surprising that happened to them in the past month. Start with the words, “One day last month… or One day last week… or Yesterday”
5.5. Activities for s/’s endings
Most activities for the <s/’s> endings are related to awareness raising and to controlled production. This section also includes some listening discrimination exercises and some guided activities.
Description and Analysis
Exercise 5-11. Describing the <s/’s> endings.
Directions: Read or play a recording of the words in each column. Ask students to pay attention to the <s> endings for each word and to describe how the <s> ending is pronounced. In Column A, the <s> endings are all short endings, and in Column B, they are all long endings (with an extra vowel sound before the final <s>).
| A | B |
|---|---|
| stops | relaxes |
| sleeps | loses |
| writes | washes |
| speaks | misses |
| reads | changes |
| walks | buzzes |
| runs | watches |
| rests | dances |
- Listen to each column’s ending sounds. How are they different?
- How are the root words spelled in B?
- What are the pronunciations for the different -s endings?
Listening Discrimination
Exercise 5-12. Short and long <s/’s> endings
Directions: The teacher reads each word aloud and asks students to identify if the word has a short or long ending. (Note: The answers are given to the teacher so that it is easy to give feedback.)
Examples: chart (short), houses (long)
| Word | Short or long? |
|---|---|
| roses | long |
| colleges | long |
| shoes | short |
| oranges | long |
| glasses | long |
| papers | short |
| tables | short |
| cups | short |
Exercise 5-13. Short <s/’s> ending?
Directions: The teacher reads or plays each word. The students identify whether the <s> ending is short (Yes) or long (No). Answer Yes or No
Examples: teachers (yes), roses (no)
| Word | Short? Yes or No |
|---|---|
| dishes | No |
| classes | No |
| keys | Yes |
| apples | Yes |
| windows | Yes |
| sentences | No |
| buses | No |
| nouns | Yes |
Exercise 5-14. Yes or No?
Directions: The teacher reads each phrase containing an <s> ending. Students identify whether the <s/’s> ending has a long ending (with an extra syllable) by answering “Yes” (a long ending) or “No” (not a long ending).
Examples: teaches a class (Yes), learns a lot (No)
| Phrase | Long ending? |
|---|---|
| watches the bird | Yes |
| comfy chairs | No |
| library books | No |
| boxes of junk | Yes |
| stop for buses | Yes |
| newer lightbulbs | No |
| small counties | No |
| catches a cold | Yes |
| broken dishes | Yes |
| red and pink roses | Yes |
Controlled Production
Exercise 5-15. Repeat the words with <s/’s> endings
Directions: Students repeat the words in columns A and B after the teacher or the recording. Althernative: Students read the words aloud.
| Short | Long |
|---|---|
| sees | dozes |
| students | classes |
| books | boxes |
| tables | faces |
| plays | oranges |
| trees | quizzes |
| apples | revises |
Exercise 5-16. Appropriate Response
Directions: The teacher says each of the foods and asks student(s) to tell whether they like the food or not. Students should answer “I like __________” or “I don’t like __________” (Tell the truth). Extension: Ask students why they like or don’t like particular foods.
- Beans and legumes
- Peaches
- Apples
- Oranges
- Onions
- Sandwiches
- Potatoes
- Mushrooms
- Hamburgers
- Pizzas
- French Fries
- Chocolate Chip cookies
Exercise 5-17. Sentence completion
Directions: The words should be written on the board in two columns. Ask students to create a sentence using a word from Column 1, the correct form of the verb BE, and an adjective from Column 2. Tell them that their sentences should make sense.
Example: Most of my classes are kind of boring.
| Column 1 | Column 2 |
|---|---|
| classes | pretty |
| nurses | clean |
| glasses | expensive |
| houses | old |
| roses | late |
| buses | boring |
| quizzes | new |
| boxes | easy |
| oranges | nice |
| watches | big |
| courses | interesting |
Exercise 5-18. Singulars and Plurals
Directions: The teacher reads each sentence in the Singular column. Students change the sentence so that the subject of each sentence is plural, not singular. (Note: This type of exercise usually requires that the <s> ending of the verb becomes an <s> ending on the subject.)
Example: The book reads like a story. The books read like a story.
| Singular | Plural |
|---|---|
| The chair needs to be fixed. | The chairs need to be fixed. |
| The key’s on my desk. | The keys are on my desk. |
| The picture’s quite nice. | The pictures are quite nice. |
| The student’s in the classroom. | The students are in the classroom. |
| The teacher’s not here yet. | The teachers are not here yet. |
| The card’s in my wallet. | The cards are in my wallet. |
| The car’s not in the garage. | The cars are not in the garage. |
| The new road’s almost finished. | The new roads are almost finished. |
Exercise 5-19. Phrase Reading (From W. B. Dickerson)
Directions: Students should read each line aloud. One word in each phrase has a short ending and one has a long ending. The “and” in each phrase should sound more like “un” (without the [d] sound).
opens and closes
throws and catches
porches and lawns
teaches and learns
doctors and nurses
apples and oranges
cartons and cases
eyes and noses
raises and lowers
words and phrases
washes and dries
rags and riches
judges and juries
chapters and verses
memorizes and repeats
pushes and pulls
hits and misses
bushes and trees
colleges and universities
diseases and cures
peaches and pears
bags and boxes
faces and hands
rises and falls
notes and messages
shirts and dresses
nephews and nieces
checks and balances
pages and lines
parts and pieces
Extension of Exercise 5-19: Create sentences with the phrases. Read the sentences aloud.
Example: There are lots of bags and boxes in the basement.
We have to practice the pronunciation of words and phrases in this class.
Guided Production
Exercise 5-20. If Sentences
Directions: Put the grammatical frame on the whiteboard. Ask students to create an “if” sentence following the exThey should make sure to say an -s ending on the main verbs. Then they should finish the sentence with a sentence of their own by choosing an appropriate second phrase to go with the one in the “if” clause.
If a student ________________________, he/she/they___________________.
Example:
want to write better; take a writing class
If a student wants to write better, she should take a writing class.
| First phrase | Second phrase |
|---|---|
| want to know the meaning of a word | exchange it for the right one |
| buy the wrong textbook | look for it on the computer |
| have no clean clothes to wear | watch TV |
| run out of money | do laundry |
| need to find information in the library | apologize as soon as possible |
| want cheap entertainment | watch the news |
| make a teacher angry | call their family |
| want to know what today’s news is | look it up in a dictionary |
| need to lose some weight | exercise at the gym |
| break a roommate’s stuff | buy something to replace it |
Exercise 5-21. Narrating a daily routine
Kate is a mom with 5 kids. She also takes classes at the university. Because she is very organized, everyday she does the same things because it helps to have a schedule for her and the rest of the family.
Directions: Using the information below, describe Kate’s daily schedule to another student.
| Time | Task |
|---|---|
| 5 am | get up, take a shower, get dressed, make tea |
| 6 am | wake kids up, get them started |
| 6:30 am | get food out for breakfast |
| 7 am | get kids ready for school, check their bags |
| 7:30 am | have breakfast with her husband |
| 8 am | get ready to go to school |
| 2 pm | go home |
| 3 pm | greet her kids when they return from school |
| 4 pm | make sure they are doing their homework |
| 6 pm | get everyone to help with dinner and then clean up |
5.6 References
Bailey, N., Madden, C., & Krashen, S. D. (1974). Is there a “natural sequence” in adult second language learning? Language Learning, 24(2), 235-243. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-1770.1974.tb00505.x
Bell, P., Trofimovich, P., & Collins, L. (2015). Kick the ball or kicked the ball? Perception of the past morpheme–ed by second language learners. Canadian Modern Language Review, 71(1), 26-51. https://doi.org/10.3138/cmlr.2075
Berko, J. (1958). The child’s learning of English morphology. Word, 14(2-3), 150-177. https://doi.org/10.1080/00437956.1958.11659661
Brutten, S. R., Mouw, J. T., & Perkins, K. (1986). The effects of language group, proficiency level, and instruction on ESL subjects’ control of the {D} and {Z} morphemes. TESOL Quarterly, 20(3), 553-559. https://doi.org/10.2307/3586301
Davila, A. M. (2018). Pronunciation acquisition of the inflectional morpheme–ed in English by Nicaraguan Spanish speakers. Open Science Journal, 3(1), 1-22. https://doi.org/10.23954/osj.v3i1.1516
Dickerson, W. B. (1990). Morphology via orthography: A visual approach to oral decisions. Applied Linguistics, 11(3), 238-252. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/11.3.238
Koffi, E. (2010). The pronunciation of -ED in coda clusters in Somali-accented English. In J. Levis & K. LeVelle (Eds.), Proceedings of the 1st Pronunciation in Second Language Learning and Teaching Conference, Iowa State University, Sept. 2009. (pp. 119-134), Ames, IA: Iowa State University.
Luk, Z. P. S., & Shirai, Y. (2009). Is the acquisition order of grammatical morphemes impervious to L1 knowledge? Evidence from the acquisition of plural ‐s, articles, and possessive ’s. Language Learning, 59(4), 721-754. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9922.2009.00524.x