What does "s" tell us about?

The ending "s: is very special. It shows that there is more than one object, for example, two cats, four pens, five books.

There are two ways of saying the ending "s." It depends on the final consonant before it. We say /s/ if there is a voiceless sound as in words "cups," "hats," "books."

We pronounce /z/ if "s" follows the voiced consonants and the vowels as in "words," "bugs," and "games," "gloves," "bees."

Sometimes the ending that we use for the plural is "es." These letters make the sound /iz/, as in the word "boxes."

How do we know when to use "s" or "es"? We use "es" after one of these hissing sounds: dresses, peaches, wishes, buses, ages.

Let’s have some practice! This activity focuses on words ending with "s" and "es." Students need to say the words shown in the pictures and sort them out into three sets. The first one will be for the words that end with the /s/ sound, the second one for the /z/ sound, and the third set is for words that take the final /iz/ sound. You may print out our cards or make them yourself by writing down the words.

What does "ed" mean?

When you want to tell a story about something that has already happened, you can use "ed" at the end of the words that denote actions. For example, I liked his new car. The verbs that receive the "ed" ending are called regular ones. These are the words visited, looked, played, listened, walked, and others.

Words ending with "ed" make three different sounds at the end. We say /t/ if there is a voiceless sound before it, as in words "worked," "helped," "cooked."

There is always the /d/ sound after voiced consonants and vowels, for example, "moved," "listened," "opened," "played."

Does the word end with "t" or "d"? Then the ending “ed” will sound like /id/, as in "started," "wanted," "added," "acted."

Roll it!

Are you ready to have some fun? Ask kids to make paper dice and write down regular verbs on them. Do you remember which ones are regular? The verbs that require the "ed" ending. Children take turns rolling the dice and adding "ed" to the base word. Ask kids to write down new words in three columns. The first column is for the /t/ sound, the second one for /d/, and the last one is for /id/.

What does "ing" mean?

Adding "ing" to a word means that the action is happening right now. If the verb ends with one or two consonants, we add the "ing" as in "drinking," "walking," "singing."

When the word ends with a consonant and the vowel "e," we remove the vowel before "ing," for example, dance-dancing, move-moving, write-writing.

Are you ready for one more phonics fact about "ing"? If the verb ends with a short vowel and one consonant, we double the consonant before adding "ing." For example, run-running, swim-swimming, sit-sitting.

Act it out!

To play the game, make flashcards with various action verbs, for example, sing, dance, run, skip, walk, cook, etc. Kids choose a flashcard and show actions. Other children need to guess the verb by asking questions: Are you singing? Are you dancing? After saying all these questions, students write down the verbs with "ing" and spell them.

We hope you found this lesson helpful, and inflectional endings will become a breeze for your kids. We have prepared a lot of learning materials for teachers, parents, and students. Find them on our website and keep on practicing with us!