Past Tense
In English the past tense is written by adding ‘-ED’ to the end of regular base words. However, the way this ending is pronounced varies from /d/ to /t/ to /id/. Children who need literacy support often need this to be taught explicitly. Check they can ‘hear’ the difference between these endings. The Word Pack indicates which sound can be heard at the end of each word.
How to add -ED to a base word
In English there are four different ways of adding -ED to a base word. We can simply ‘stick’ it on, we may need to ‘double’ the consonant to protect a short vowel, we may need to ‘cut’ off the extra ‘e’ if we are adding it to a base word that already ends with an ‘e’ or we may need to ‘switch’ the final ‘y’ to an ‘i’ before adding the -ed. Initially it can really help to actually do these things, get scissors, glue, pens and work out how to add the ‘ed’ to the base words.
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This pack has been designed to help children focus solely on how the base-word joins to the affix. They can be printed back to back so that children can self check their answers.
These words are designed so that children can cut, stick, double and switch practically, using scissors, pens and glue to add the suffix to the base word.