Verb Endings in -ed and -t - DailyWritingTips

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Verb Endings in -ed and -t Posted: 05 Feb 2014 08:35 PM PST While irregular verbs are often a focus of grammatical errors, regular verbs are a frequent source of spelling errors. Most regular verbs form their past tense by adding -ed to the base: accept/accepted. A few regular verbs form the past tense with a -t ending: build/built. Some spelling errors result from the fact that the -ed ending may be pronounced in one of three ways: /ed/ complimented /d/ loved /t/ equipped A common spelling error occurs with words that end with the sound /t/, but are spelled with –ed. For example, wrecked, might be misspelled as “wreckt.” Some of verbs that end with the sound /t/ do spell the sound with -t. bend/bent feel/felt keep/kept leave/left lend/lent lose/lost mean/meant send/sent sleep/slept spend/spent weep/wept Some verbs that end with the /t/ sound may be spelled with either -ed or -t. The -t ending for these verbs is more common in British spelling. burned, burnt dreamed, dreamt kneeled, knelt leaped, leapt leaned, leant learned, learnt smelled, smelt spelled, spelt spilled, spilt spoiled, spoilt Most American speakers would probably consider leapt, leant, learnt, smelt, and spelt out-and-out misspellings. Burnt,dreamt, knelt, spilt, and spoilt, however, do occur in U.S. speech and writing.