We Will Die There at Eight (The Importance of Word Endings in English)

Uncompleted bridges are unsatisfying because they don’t take you where you intended to go, and they can potentially be dangerous as well. Uncompleted words lead to miscommunication. One very important step in communicating successfully in English is to make sure that you are pronouncing all word endings. In English, word endings are extremely important because many of our words begin with the same sound but end differently. If you omit the ending sound, your listener will hear and understand a different word than what you intended to say.

The title of this article illustrates my point. “We will die there at eight” says to the listeners that if they go to this particular meeting spot at 8 o’clock, loss of life will occur. What the speaker actually intended to say was, “We will dine there at eight.” A much more appealing proposition, don’t you think?

Here’s another example: If you intend to say, “I love my life!” but you omit the /f/ ending from the last word, you have communicated something entirely different. “I love my lie!” communicates to the listener that you told a fib, and you really think it was fabulous!

Omitting ‘s’ and -ed endings from words communicates something else to your listener. It makes you sound as if you are not aware of proper grammar. For instance, if you say, “I bought us 3 ticket to the concert,” your listeners will assume that you are unaware that a plural form should have been used for “ticket” because they did not hear the /s/ ending on that word. Likewise, if you say, “They move here last week,” your listeners will think you do not know that “move” should have been past tense–“moved”–because they did not hear the /d/ at the end of that word.

So, to communicate your message accurately, and also to avoid giving your listener the impression that you are unaware of proper English grammar, make sure you pronounce those word endings! Check out Pronunciation Pro if you would like to learn more about communicating clearly in English. It's what we're all about!