Pronouncing -s and -ed endings
Why the -s in cats, dogs and buses and the -ed in worked, played and wanted each have three pronunciations, and how to choose the right one.
When it matters
Two endings appear in almost every English sentence. The first is -s: plural nouns (cats), verbs after he, she and it (works), the possessive 's (Tom's) and the short forms of is and has (it's, he's). The second is -ed, the regular past (worked). Each ending has three pronunciations. A wrong choice rarely stops communication, but an extra syllable in walked or a missing ending in works makes your English harder to follow. In listening, you also need to catch the short /t/ or /d/ at the end of a verb to know that someone is talking about the past.
How it works
Everything depends on one idea: voiced and voiceless sounds. Put your fingers on your throat and say /v/, then /f/. With /v/ you feel a vibration; with /f/ you feel nothing. /v/ is voiced, /f/ is voiceless. All vowels are voiced. The ending simply copies the voice of the sound before it, because that is easier to say.
The -s ending:
| Last sound of the word | Ending | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| voiceless /p/, /t/, /k/, /f/, /θ/ | /s/ | stops, cats, books, laughs, months |
| any vowel or voiced consonant | /z/ | plays, trees, dogs, lives, calls |
| hissing sound /s/, /z/, /ʃ/, /tʃ/, /dʒ/ | /ɪz/, an extra syllable | buses, sizes, washes, watches, pages |
The -ed ending:
| Last sound of the word | Ending | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| voiceless, except /t/: /p/, /k/, /f/, /s/, /ʃ/, /tʃ/ | /t/ | stopped, worked, laughed, missed, washed, watched |
| any vowel or voiced consonant, except /d/ | /d/ | played, lived, called, cleaned, opened |
| /t/ or /d/ | /ɪd/, an extra syllable | wanted, started, needed, decided |
The extra syllable only appears where it is needed. After a hissing sound, another /s/ or /z/ would disappear, so English adds /ɪ/ before it: bus /bʌs/ becomes buses /ˈbʌsɪz/. After /t/ or /d/, another /t/ or /d/ would disappear, so want /wɒnt/ becomes wanted /ˈwɒntɪd/. Everywhere else the ending is only a consonant, and the word keeps the same number of syllables: work and worked both have one.
Listen to the sound, not the letter. Laugh is spelt with gh but ends in /f/, so it gives laughs /lɑːfs/ and laughed /lɑːft/. Like ends in a silent e, but the last sound is /k/, so liked is /laɪkt/, one syllable. Fix ends in /ks/, a voiceless sound, so fixed is /fɪkst/, while fixes /ˈfɪksɪz/ takes the extra syllable because /s/ is a hissing sound.
Two common verbs change their vowel as well: says /sez/ and does /dʌz/. In American English the extra vowel is often closer to /ə/: /ˈwɒntəd/, /ˈbʌsəz/. Both are fine.
Practice words
The -s ending:
| Word | Sound | Compare with |
|---|---|---|
| cats | /kæts/ | dogs /dɒɡz/ |
| books | /bʊks/ | trees /triːz/ |
| works | /wɜːks/ | plays /pleɪz/ |
| months | /mʌnθs/ | lives /lɪvz/ |
| buses | /ˈbʌsɪz/ | sizes /ˈsaɪzɪz/ |
| watches | /ˈwɒtʃɪz/ | pages /ˈpeɪdʒɪz/ |
The -ed ending:
| Word | Sound | Compare with |
|---|---|---|
| walked | /wɔːkt/ | wanted /ˈwɒntɪd/ |
| looked | /lʊkt/ | needed /ˈniːdɪd/ |
| stopped | /stɒpt/ | started /ˈstɑːtɪd/ |
| played | /pleɪd/ | decided /dɪˈsaɪdɪd/ |
| cleaned | /kliːnd/ | opened /ˈəʊpənd/ |
| passed | /pɑːst/ | past /pɑːst/, the same sound |
| missed | /mɪst/ | mist /mɪst/, the same sound |
| guessed | /ɡest/ | guest /ɡest/, the same sound |
The last three pairs show how short the ending is: a past verb can sound exactly like a noun.
Common mistakes
- ✗ /ˈwɔːkɪd/, /ˈlʊkɪd/, /ˈlaɪkɪd/
✓ /wɔːkt/, /lʊkt/, /laɪkt/
The written -ed looks like a syllable, and Ukrainian and Russian spelling teaches you to read every letter. In English it is a syllable only after /t/ or /d/. - ✗ /dɒks/, /pleɪt/ for dogs, played
✓ /dɒɡz/, /pleɪd/
Russian devoices consonants at the end of a word, so сад sounds like сат, and the habit turns /z/ into /s/ and /d/ into /t/; played then sounds like plate. Ukrainian keeps final consonants voiced (сад, дуб), and that habit helps here. Make the vowel before the voiced ending a little longer. - ✗ Yesterday I watch a film. She work in a bank.
✓ Yesterday I watched /wɒtʃt/ a film. She works /wɜːks/ in a bank.
In fast speech learners often drop the ending because the group of consonants is hard to say. Practise the clusters slowly: /tʃt/, /ks/, /pt/. - ✗ /ˈbʊkɪz/, /ˈkætɪz/
✓ /bʊks/, /kæts/
The extra syllable /ɪz/ belongs only after hissing sounds. After other consonants the ending is a single /s/ or /z/. - ✗ two /bʌs/, three /ˈpeɪdʒ/
✓ two /ˈbʌsɪz/, three /ˈpeɪdʒɪz/
After a hissing sound, a plain /s/ is lost in the word, so the plural disappears. Here the extra syllable is what carries the meaning.
Try it
- How is the ending pronounced: stopped?
- How is the ending pronounced: needed?
- How is the ending pronounced: played?
- How is the ending pronounced: watches?
- How is the ending pronounced: books?
- How many syllables does liked have?