Spelling Words Ending in -ed

We add -ed to the end of regular verbs to make the past simple and past participle forms. There are some spelling rules to follow when adding -ed to verbs.

Words ending in ‘y’

There are two rules for words ending in ‘y’.

  1. Words with an /iː/ sound or an /аɪ/ sound

The words see and study end with an /iː/ sound.

The words buy and cry end with an /аɪ/ sound.

If the word ends with an /iː/ or /аɪ/ sound, you remove the ‘y’ and add -ied.

verbverbed
studystudied
carrycarried

Words ending in ‘y’ with an /iː/ sound

verbverbed
crycried
trytried

Words ending in ‘y’ with an /аɪ/ sound

We use special symbols to show different sounds. They are called the [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English]phonetic alphabet[/url].
  1. Other sounds

For all other words ending in ‘y’, we just add -ed.

verbverbed
playplayed
enjoyenjoyed

Words ending in ‘y’

Words ending in ’e’

For words endind in ’e’ we just add -d.

verbverbed
loveloved
smilesmiled

Words ending in ’e’

Words that need a double letter

For some words you need to double the last letter before you add -ed. These words have a special pattern. The last three letters of the word have the pattern consonant-vowel-consonant (c-v-c).

Vowels are the letters a, e, i, o, u. All other letters are consonants.

The word skip follows this pattern.

skip
cvc
verbverbed
skipskipped
admitadmitted

Words with a c-v-c pattern

Exceptions

There are some exceptions to doubling the last letter of c-v-c words.

  1. If the word ends in ‘w’, ‘x’, or ‘z’ just add -ed.
verbverbed
towtowed
boxboxed

Words with a c-v-c pattern ending in ‘w’, ‘x’, or ‘z’

  1. If the word has two syllables, and the stress is on the first syllable, we just add -ed.

An example is the word visit.

verbverbed
visitvisited

Words with a c-v-c pattern with a stressed first syllable

These spelling rules only work for regular verbs. Have a look at the irregular verb tables to see how to spell irregular verbs.