Of course, Son 2 was about 3 years old when we had that conversation. Almost all new verbs invented or introduced into English take the regular -ed past tense form, e.g. The good news is that this tricky class of irregular past tense words is pretty much closed for new business. Trod, strove, slew/slayed, smote and rent can wait till he needs them!Ħ. We should start with the most frequent irregular words. The “fix” is to teach Son 2 the irregular words and to make sure he hears us saying them and uses them enough to remember them. Pop quiz readers: what is the correct past tense form of each of the following words: tread, strive, slay, smite and rend?ĥ. As Steven Pinker says in the Language Instinct, the same thing happens in adults with lower frequency, less well-remembered irregular forms. If Son 2 doesn’t know the special “irregular” word, or can’t remember it, it’s natural for him to apply the add-the-ed rule. Most of these words are ancient, and each of the past tense forms of the words has to be rote learned to “block” the default “ed” rule.Ĥ. ![]() Unfortunately, there are a couple of hundred words – including some really common ones for little boys like held, broke, went, fell, threw, and taught – where the basic rule doesn’t apply. By 3 years of age, most kids have picked up this basic rule and it’s common for children to apply the words to all verbs at some stage of their language development (for those of you who are technically-minded, overgeneralisation past-tense use often occurs in what is known as Brown’s Stage III, which occurs at around 30-36 months for typically-developing children).ģ. In modern English, most past tense verbs are made by adding “ed” to the present tense verb (e.g. We even have a name for it: “overgeneralistion”.Ģ. ![]() Our son’s errors are not unusual for a 3 year old. (How I imagine my wife and I looked as we discussed verbs in irregular past tense form.)Īs I strode to Son 1’s room to retrieve the ruined rocket, this is roughly what I told her:ġ.
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