ESL Lesson Plan

for “-ed” ending
SpeechPeek.com
Lesson Plan: “-ed” ending
from SpeechPeek.com

In order to form the past tense of regular verbs, “-ed” is added to the end
of the verb. This “-ed” ending has 3 different pronunciations in the English
language: [t], [d], and [Id].

This Lesson Plan Includes:

• 20-Minute Lesson Plan

o Class Instruction

o In-Class Exercises

• Verbal Homework

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Class Instruction (5- 10 minutes)
I start the lesson by explaining the different pronunciations of the “-ed” ending:

In order to form the past tense of regular verbs, “-ed” is added to the end of the
verb. This “-ed” ending has 3 different pronunciations in the English language: [t],
[d], and [Id].

I then go over examples of the different endings:

1) The “-ed” ending sounds like [t], as in “marked”, if the last sound in the present tense
verb is voiceless. In the example, “marked”, the last sound in the present tense form of
the verb, “mark”, is [k], which is voiceless, so the “-ed” ending here sounds like [t]. The
voiceless sounds are [k], [p], [f], [s], [sh] and [tch].

Ex: licked, stopped, laughed, hissed, wished, watched

2) The “-ed” ending sounds like [d], as in “lived”, if the last sound in the present tense verb
is voiced. In the example, “lived”, the last sound in the present tense form of the verb,
“live”, is [v], which is voiced, so the “-ed” ending here sounds like [d]. The voiced sounds
are [b], [g], [l], [m], [n], [r], [v], [th], and all vowels.

Ex: ebbed, hugged, stalled, hummed, stained, barred, starved, loathed, weighed,
freed, showed

3) The “-ed” ending sounds like [Id], as in “waited”, if the last sound in the present tense
verb is [t] or [d]. In the example, “waited”, the last sound in the present tense form of the
verb, “wait”, is [t], so the “-ed” ending here sounds like [Id].

Ex: voted, landed, muted, ended

Students typically had problems with Rule #1 – when the “-ed” ending was supposed to
sound like [t]. Instead of pronouncing the “-ed” sound as [t], many students pronounced it
as [Id]. For example, they pronounced “wished” as [wishId] instead of [wisht] and “barked”
as [barkId] instead of [barkt].

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I corrected them by separating the “-ed” ending from the verb. I would say the present
tense form of the verb first, then I would say the “ed” ending sound separately, having the
students repeat. For example, for “wished”, I would first say “wish”, then [t]. I would then
say the sounds faster together until the student was able to say [wisht].

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In-Class Exercises (10-15 minutes)
After the instructional part of the lesson, I then give my students time in class to practice
what they just learned. I like to give them exercises to do in pairs, and also as a large
group. I’ve found that variety helps keep them interested.

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Verbal Homework
For homework, I would assign a Speechpeek.com lesson that reinforces the lesson above
and allows me to review each individual students' progress.

Students love Speechpeek, because they can practice without classroom embarrassment,
and I can provide personalized feedback to each of my students.

Sample SpeechPeek Lesson

1. Eun Ah wished that she didn’t have such a big headache.

2. Our airplane landed safely.
3. Choah carefully planned a surprise party for her best friend.
4. I didn’t know that Hwa Soo hated Indian food.
5. Jay cooked a delicious dinner for his family last night.
6. Yun-Mi spilled some milk when she poured it into her cup.
7. The ice in my drink melted quickly because of the hot weather.
8. The cat hissed loudly when the dog barked suddenly.
9. The child lied to his mom because he didn’t want to get in trouble.
10. Last night, we ate steak and mashed potatoes, then we ordered dessert.

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