It is so hard.
Right now G is trying to learn when to put an "-s" on the end of words versus "-ed". It is not easy.
I run.
She runs
Jerry runs.
They run.
I ran.
She ran.
Jerry ran.
They ran.
I will run.
She will run.
Jerry will run.
They will run.
Most words use "-ed" to show past tense.
I help.
She helps
Jerry helps.
They help.
I helped.
She helped.
Jerry helped.
They helped.
I will help.
She will help.
Jerry will help.
They will help.
Is it any wonder that some deaf people write with conflicting verb use? It's taught in 1st grade and they haven't had the benefit of hearing it for 6 years prior to being given rules to guide what they know intuitively because it sounds right.
Os the subject of S or Z sound we're trying to come up with rules that are less esoteric than "use Z sound after voiced consonants." We know:
-se says Z
-es says Z
-ss says S
-ce says S
-s after voiced consonants (B, G, D, M, N, V, W, L, R) says Z
-s after unvoiced consonants (P, C, K, T, F) says S
And I thought verb tense agreement was hard.
3 comments:
You're totally writing morphophonological rules, there. :)
(-es is also Z b/c the vowel is voiced. And the vowel is inserted in between sibilants... so churches and fishes and garages and masses and buzzes, but pants and boffs and fifths.
But that's mainly to do with the 3rd person and plural -s morphemes.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!
Thank you.
You could try and have him read, especially chapter books with dialog. Though the trouble there is it puts most of the description in past tense and the dialog mostly in present. But I think it could help with the exposure issue. I'm not sure if this can work in English, but in Arabic most people get around these problems by putting the verb first and then they don't have to inflect it. Since even native speakers don't know the inflections until they get to college level. It's crazy.
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