Adding “ed” to every past tense verb — anyone else’s 3.5 year old doing this?

[Anonymous]

I’m not worried about it — just wondering if anyone else’s kid does this. She adds “ed” to everything, even if it’s not right. For example, she said: “They already maded the birthday cake!”

[Anonymous]

My 5-year-old still asks about the day she was “borned.” She gets most of the rest of her verbs correct.

[Anonymous]

Totally. Cracks me up. The English language can be so arbitrary and I enjoy watching their little brains try to make sense of it.

[Anonymous]

It's REALLY common. It's a good sign, because it means they are picking up the rule, even if they haven't learned all of the exceptions.

[Anonymous]

So cute.

[Anonymous]

Yes! My almost 4 year old is just getting over this. We just correct and say the correct word.

[Anonymous]

This is normal. First we learn the patterns, then we learn the exceptions.

[Anonymous]

Yes my 4yo does this and I hope she never stops bc it’s adorable af

[Anonymous]

That means she understands the rule for regular verbs.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Yeah it is pretty cute. We don’t correct her on some of her mispronunciations because they’re also adorable and we know she’ll grow out of them.

Example: drawing is drawling. “Mommy, can I do some drawling?”

[Anonymous]

We did start correcting. Not sure on whether we should. Dd was developing a lisp and we worked hard on it in a nice, fun way. She started saying words right very quickly. Still does when we correct her. “Lellow” to yellow and “grill” to girl

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We did start correcting. Not sure on whether we should. Dd was developing a lisp and we worked hard on it in a nice, fun way. She started saying words right very quickly. Still does when we correct her. “Lellow” to yellow and “grill” to girl

Sigh. It was a sad day in our house when lellow became yellow.

Ed on all past tense words is typical.

[Anonymous]

Speech and language pathologist here. Yes, adding -ed to past tense verbs is 100% normal! It’s called overgeneralization, and it slowly disappears as your child grows older. There are some irregular verbs that most children master by three (hit); but some that aren’t even typically mastered until age eight, such as sent, shook, and built.

[Anonymous]

Very normal.

"We walked to the store and buyed the doll" shows that she has recognized the way that English created past tense verbs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Speech and language pathologist here. Yes, adding -ed to past tense verbs is 100% normal! It’s called overgeneralization, and it slowly disappears as your child grows older. There are some irregular verbs that most children master by three (hit); but some that aren’t even typically mastered until age eight, such as sent, shook, and built.

OP here. Thanks! Very interesting. Yeah, my daughter will say “I builded a big tower!”