Regular Past Tense -ed
Practice adding the regular past tense /t/ /d/ /ɪd/ morpheme to action verbs.
Session summary (SOAP)
Stays on this screen. Nothing is saved or sent.
Mark a card Correct, Correct with cue or Incorrect and the summary writes itself here.
How to run it
Sort by sound, not by spelling. Say the three groups aloud and ask what the base verbs have in common — the /t/ group all end in a voiceless sound, the /d/ group in a voiced one, and the syllable group all end in a /t/ or /d/ already. Naming that turns twelve facts into one rule the ear can check. Eight minutes covers the twelve.
Cueing ladder
Start at the top. Add support one step at a time.
- IndependentPresent the item and wait 5 seconds of quiet before helping.Log as correct
- HintStress the part of the sentence that changes, or point to the word ending.Log as cued
- Sentence starterSay the first half of the sentence and let the student finish it.Log as cued
- ModelSay the correct form in the whole sentence; the student repeats it.Log as cued
Adjust it
Give a sentence starter every time, and do fewer cards.
Ask for a new sentence of the student's own with the same form, with no card to lean on.
Matching IEP goal
Given sentence cards, Student will produce the target grammatical form in sentences in 8 of 10 opportunities across 3 consecutive sessions, given no more than an indirect cue.
Send it home through the parent portal →About this activity
Twelve verbs grouped by how the -ed actually sounds: walk, jump, wash and cook take a /t/; play, clean, call and open take a /d/; want, paint, plant and wait add a whole syllable. One spelling, three pronunciations — and students who have been taught -ed as a single ending find this genuinely confusing rather than obvious.
What to listen for
Listen for an added syllable where none belongs. Walk-ed rather than walkt is the characteristic over-regularisation, and it usually appears in students who have been taught the spelling before the sound. Watch the /ɪd/ group, which is the only one that adds a syllable and is the group students most often get right by accident.
Carrying it home
Past tense comes up whenever a child is asked what they did. Recasting rather than correcting — oh, you walked there — supplies the correct form in a real sentence and does not stop the story.
What's in this activity
- walk → walked (/t/)
- jump → jumped (/t/)
- wash → washed (/t/)
- cook → cooked (/t/)
- play → played (/d/)
- clean → cleaned (/d/)
- call → called (/d/)
- open → opened (/d/)
- want → wanted (/ɪd/)
- paint → painted (/ɪd/)
- plant → planted (/ɪd/)
- wait → waited (/ɪd/)
Questions
- What ages is this for?
- Kindergarten through third, and older students learning English as an additional language.
- Is it free?
- Yes, all twelve verbs play with no account.
- Why does -ed sound different in different words?
- It assimilates to the sound before it. After a voiceless sound it is a /t/, after a voiced sound a /d/, and after a /t/ or /d/ it adds a syllable — one spelling, three pronunciations.
Use this board with your caseload
With a free account, every correct, cued and incorrect mark is saved to the student and scored against their IEP goal, with the data written up for you. Assign it as home practice through the parent portal.
Track progress freeFree for SLPs. No card, no trial clock.