A Question From A Parent Answered: All About Suffix -ed

I’m going to respond to a question posed by a parent recently on a Facebook Group. Parents and teachers repeatedly pose this same question concerning the sounds and spellings of suffix -ed. All stakeholders (children, parents, teachers) need to understand that the English language is a ‘morphophonemic language’. What’s that??? It’s a pretty long word, made up of 3 parts, which all carry meaning:

Morph: meaning ‘form or change’ originally from Greek word roots

Phoneme: meaning the smallest unit of sound in a language, from the Greek root ‘phon’ meaning ‘sound’

-ic: an adjective suffix, referring to “having the characteristics of” as in the word ‘parasitic’, which means having to do with a ‘parasite’. Do note that <ic> does not always function as a suffix. For example, words such as ‘frantic’ or ‘fantastic’ do not have base words and therefore the <ic> does not function as an adjective in these words. If you are unsure, you can find information about a word’s origin here at etymonline.com.

Our rich English language is ‘morphophonemic’ because words are composed and  based upon the combinations of sounds, letter patterns and meanings. The meanings of the words often have to do with original word origins, and the spelling patterns of these words remain intact even if the pronunciations sometimes vary. Our current Standard American English has evolved and continues to evolve from a rich history of multiple written and oral languages.

SO, TODAY’S QUESTION FROM A PARENT IS:

MY RESPONSE:

It all comes down to morphology–the study of word parts/meanings inclusive of bases and affixes. A word base refers to the main part of the word, in other words, also termed the ‘kernel’, which can stand alone and bear meaning or have an affix(es) added to it. Affix is the term used to refer to either prefixes (parts added at the beginnings of words) or suffixes (parts added to the ends of words).

Not only do the bases bear meaning, but the prefixes and suffixes bear meaning as well. 

Let me provide some information about the suffix <-ed> today to answer this parent’s question: 

Has the parent talked about what the suffix <-ed> means? It actually has two usages in English:

As one is likely aware, the suffix <-ed>  refers to the ‘past tense’ and is typically placed at the end of a verb. This is referred to as an inflectional ending; inflectional refers to the tense or time of an action. It tells the listener or the reader that the action has already occurred.

Suffix <-ed> also can serve as a derivational ending; derivational endings serve to signify a part of speech (function of the word in a sentence). In this case, suffix <-ed> is an adjective marker as in the phrases:  ‘circled figure’, ‘satisfied customer’, ‘four-legged animal’, ‘left-handed compliment’, ‘crooked road’, etc. 

Now for the 3 different pronunciations or phonemes associated with <-ed>:

• /ĕd/ – when the base word of a verb ends in /d/  or /t/ as in ‘hunted’ or ‘handed’. One will also hear this sound at the end of some adjective words such as ‘crooked’ or ‘4-legged’ (note these adjective words have bases ending in /k/ or /g/–this is a pattern as well. Do note that this pronunciation will create an additional syllable since it contains a vowel. Be aware that these rules are not absolute. Words such as ‘blessed’ or ‘cursed’ can sometimes be spoken in two distinct syllables dependent on dialect.
• /d/  – when the base word of either a verb or adjective usage ends in a voiced consonant or digraph-2 letters making 1 sound, or any vowel sound since all vowels are voiced (b, d, g, j, l, m, n, qu, r, v, w, y, z, th as in ‘bathe’, vowels) in words as in ‘sobbed’, ‘called’, ‘curved’, or ‘played’.
• /t/ – when the base word of either a verb or adjective usage ends in an unvoiced consonant or digraph-2 letters making 1 sound (c, f, h, k, p, s, ch, sh, wh, th, ph) in words as in ‘huffed’, ‘sipped’, or ‘missed’.

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Getting back to the parent’s question, if the child spells the word ‘find’ as <fined>, it would actually refer to someone who has broken the law and had to pay a ‘fine’. Many children overgeneralize the pronunciation of ‘fined’ as /find/../id/ if they do not realize the 3 pronunciations of the suffix -ed.

WHAT IS THE PUNCHLINE HERE? 

Explain to your children/students the reasons why words are spelled the way they are spelled, especially paying close attention to both prefixes and suffixes

I will provide answers to other parent questions in future posts.

I don’t know about you, but my own kids LOVED to help cook, set the table, make place cards, centerpieces, talking about their individual thankfulness, etc.—put them to work and see if you can improve their literacy skills at the same time (Thanksgiving vocabulary, oral language skills through recipes, family stories, books about Thanksgiving–I could go on and on). My little granddaughter is only 16 months old now, but for sure she will be with us in the kitchen and at the table listening and learning.

I wish you all a meaningful get-together(s) full of health, joy, and hope with your friends and family. Enjoy your young ones–enjoy their laughter and delight in the simple things!! See you in December!  

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