-t Suffix

I often choose our spelling words based on mistakes I find in the childrens' rough drafts, but sometimes an error inspires an SWI investigation instead!

Today I edited a paper that spelled "asked" as "askt." We went over the word sum together (ask + ed ---> asked) but it also got me thinking.

When is < -t > the correct suffix?

So this morning for SWI we did an investigation to see what words the children could think of, and discover whether we could find any patterns.

sleep / slept

keep / kept

weep / wept

sweep / swept

creep / crept

kneel / knelt

mean / meant

leap / leapt

deal / dealt

dream / dreamt

learn / learnt

smell / smelt

spell / spelt

spoil / spoilt

We did notice that for most of these words, the initial vowel sound is long and then it changes to short when the base is shortened and < -t > is added. Also, for all of these words -- except learn, smell, spell, and spoil -- that initial vowel sound is a long e.

We realized that when this suffix is added to a word with the < ea > digraph, the < ea > spelling is preserved.

We also recognized that < -ed > is becoming a more acceptable suffix for all of these words except sleep and keep (for ee) and mean (for ea).

Now the children want to keep track of the publication dates on books that are using the newer form, so we can see when this cultural shift happened. (Besides old books, I do find some of these spellings are more common in British English.) And why are those few specific words resisting the change?

Examples:

Winter poem by Judith Nicholls
crept

A Considerable Speck poem by Robert Frost
smelt, dealt, crept, swept, slept

found in Poetry of Earth edited by Adrienne Adams, p.23

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