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Glite Dictionary
past-tense morpheme

past-tense morpheme

7.7
An ending or small change to a verb that shows it happened before now
  • noun
  • /pæst tɛns ˈmɔrfim/
  • Specialized
translation icon : morfema de pasado
  • In the word 'walked', the past-tense morpheme is 'ed'.

Examples

  • In English, the 'past-tense morpheme' '-ed' is added to indicate that the action happened in the past.

  • Some languages use an internal vowel change as a past-tense morpheme.

  • In English, the '-ed' ending in 'walked' is a past-tense morpheme.

  • The word 'talked' contains the past-tense morpheme '-ed'.

  • The past-tense morpheme in English is typically 'ed'.

  • The verb 'jumped' includes the 'past-tense morpheme' that shows it occurred before now.

  • When forming past tense verbs, some languages adopt an internal change as a 'past-tense morpheme'.

Synonyms

-ed
vspast-tense morpheme
  • Specialized
1.0

Added to a regular verb to show the action happened in the past

is a general marker indicating past tense for verbs, not only regular forms

Surface Forms

past-tense morpheme singular
past-tense morphemes plural

Morphology

past-tense + morpheme

The phrase is fully compositional: 'past-tense' specifies the temporal value and 'morpheme' denotes a minimal unit of meaning, so together they literally mean a morpheme that marks past time. This concept is morphologically and cross-linguistically common (many languages have a past-tense marker), so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words will readily understand the term.

Etymology

Past-tense morpheme means a small part of a word that shows an action happened before. Imagine adding -ed like a little stamp to a verb — talk becomes talked — and that stamp tells you the action is 'past' or 'already done'.