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 outsid