This week, just a few rules and strategies to help learners.
The Suffix ‘ed’
The suffix ‘ed’ can make three different sounds /t/, /d/ and /id/. The new reader has to work out which sound the letters ‘ed’ are making after the root word in order to say the word correctly. Below are some ways to help work out how to pronounce the suffix. To be able to understand these ways, you will need to be able to identify voiced and unvoiced sounds, so if you are unsure, look at the page headed ‘alphabet’ and look under the features of vowels and consonants. The unvoiced consonants in the alphabet are c, f, k, p, s and t and therefore the rest of the consonants are all voiced.
The suffix ‘ed’ is pronounced /id/ when the consonant before (it at the end of the root word) is a ‘d’ or ‘t’ e.g. added, batted.
The suffix ‘ed’ makes a /t/ sound (which is an unvoiced phoneme) when it follows an unvoiced consonant except for ‘t’ e.g. hopped, huffed, kicked, missed.
Finally, the suffix ‘ed’ makes a /d/ sound (which is a voiced phoneme itself) when it follows a voiced consonant, apart from the letter ‘d’ e.g. begged, robbed, yelled.
So to sum up, the rule is that after an unvoiced phoneme, the ‘ed’ is pronounced /t/, after a voiced phoneme, the ‘ed’ is pronounced /d/ unless the final letter of the root word is a ‘t’ or a ‘d’, in which case the ‘ed’ is pronounced /id/.
This Nessy video explains when to add ‘ed’ onto a word. Where the video mentions adding the ‘ed’ onto a ‘real’ word, it is referring to the ‘root’ word. It is advisable to add the ‘ed’ onto an alphabetical code poster under the sounds /t/ and /d/ so the learner is reminded if they hear a /t/ or a /d/ at the end of a word, they need to distinguish if the sound is part of the root word and is represented by the letter ‘t’ or ‘d’ or if the sound is a suffix and made by the letters ‘ed’.
Teaching to read and spell tricky word ‘one’
Teaching the reading and spelling of Tricky Words are detailed on the page ‘Tricky Words’ (Common Exception Words). However, it is difficult to map out the word ‘one’. The best way to teach this word is to refer to the words ‘alone’ and ‘lonely’ because in these words the word ‘one’ is pronounced as it was originally and how you would expect it to be , so in these words the sound buttons can be used under the word, identifying the split digraph o-e. The meaning of alone and lonely can be connected to the word one to explain easier how the pronunciation of the word has changed over time, but still uses the same spelling. Meanings and origins of words can be found on https://www.etymonline.com/ which can help learners understand unusual spellings.
Happy New Year everyone and I hope 2022 is kind to you all. PJ 🙂
Help your child learn to read, write and spell 