The Mysterious Sounds of Suffix -ed

Edited for CCS by Ms. Toni Lynn Barto

To answer that you need to know what a root or base word is!

Simply put, a root or a base word is a regular word that has a core meaning.

A suffix is a letter or a group of letters added to the end of a word to change how the word is used.

What is a suffix?

How does it change a base word? It changes it to the past tense.

Read these words to find out what sound it makes in each word.

shadowedbrutalizedsaunteredhoisted

What do you know about –ed?

Take a look at these words to see if you can figure out a pattern for sounds for suffix -ed.

melted burned banded

kissed smelled asked

peeled grilled filmed

seeded drafted licked

Suffix –ed makes these sounds:

◦ /d/ after a voiced sound

◦ /t/ after an unvoiced (or voiceless) sound

◦ /ed/ after the letter t or d

voiced=vibrates your vocal cords◦ /l/, /m/, /n/,/b/◦ thrilled, trimmed, pinned, rubbed

unvoiced, or voiceless=does not vibrate your vocal cords at all or very much ◦ /s/, /k/, /p/, /f/◦ kissed, asked, limped, golfed

Voiced/Unvoiced! What does that mean?

Prizes if you can remember!!!

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Now! What happens when you have a base or root word that ends in a silent ‘e’?

And…you want to add suffix ed?

??????????????????????????????????

What is that RULE again?

E’s Dropping Rule! Commonly, you drop the final silent “e” on

a word when adding a vowel suffix. The suffix –ed is a vowel suffix. Therefore, you will typically drop the final silent “e” on a base word.

Drop the “e” if the suffix starts with a vowel (ed, able, ing, etc.)Keep the “e” if the suffix starts with a consonant (s, ness, less, etc.)

You are not adding a “d”! Many people think that you are just adding

a “d” to the word to make it past tense.

Example: bottle + d = bottled

While it may look like this is what is happening, the truth is that “d” is not a suffix. The suffix being added is –ed.

What happens is the silent “e” drops out, and suffix –ed is attached.

-s, -ed, -ing Often, these three suffixes attach to the same base

words. Can you add each suffix to the following base words? How would you spell each of them? Try it on a piece of scratch paper.

Hint: On words that end in “y”…add -es instead of just –s when you spell it.

bike, wobble, manipulate, steer, deny, charge, hurry, copy, migrate