The Wug Test – Part 2

How do you know if it’s in the past?

*Moderate   *Not messy   *30 minutes

What is a Wug Test?

Language is full of patterns. Without even being aware of it, we follow a set of rules which allow us to understand each other when we speak. In the field of linguistics, wug tests are used to find these patterns. A wug test uses made-up creatures (a wug is one such made-up creature) to figure out what some of the rules are that people follow when they speak that they probably don’t even know they follow.

One of the areas where we follow specific rules is with verbs. Verbs are actions, things that are done. When a verb is in present tense, it means that it is happening now. When a verb is in past tense, it is referring to something that happened at some point in the past.

For example, “The children are jogging” is present tense while “The children jogged” is past tense.

In English spelling we usually add an -ed to a word when we want to say that it was done in the past. But even though it is usually spelled this way, does that -ed always make the same sound when it is pronounced in different words?

Materials:

Directions

  • Print out the tally sheet and the wug test pdfs (listed in the materials above)
  • Have 2-4 participants take the test by answering the questions
  • Pay close attention to what they say when they fill in the blanks
  • Use the tally sheet to record their answers

Pay especially close attention to the verb ending of the word and record your participants’ answers on the tally sheet.

How do your participants know when they should use -t, -d, or -id? Even though they have never seen these words before, they follow certain rules to decide which ending they should use. Try to figure out the pattern. After you have given this your best shot, click on the How it Works sheet below for an explanation about what is going on here. See the Key Words list if there are any terms you don’t understand.

Discovery questions

Before the experiment:

What is a verb?

    • Something you can do (for example: walk, talk, drink, eat, etc.)

 

What is the difference between present and past tense?

    • Present tense is something being done right now in the present (I walk). Past tense is something that already happened sometime in the past (I walked).

 

What is the past tense verb ending in English?

    • The past tense verb ending is spelled -ed. It is what we add to most verbs to make it mean that something happened in the past.

 

What are the ways that this past tense ending -ed can actually be pronounced?

    • There are three
      • -t as in walked
      • -d as in bragged
      • -id as in toasted

 

What is the difference between voiced and voiceless sounds?

    • Voiced sounds make your vocal cords move when you say them.  Voiceless sounds do not. If you put your hand on your throat (like in the picture below) you can feel the vibration of your vocal cords when you make a voiced sound but not when you make a voiceless sound. Try it with a b (voiced) vs. a p (voiceless) sound.

    • All vowels are voiced.


After the experiment:

Why aren’t all the endings the same even though they are all spelled with an -ed?

How do people know which sound they should make if they have never heard these words before?

 

Key Words 

Consonants

All the sounds that are not vowels

Linguistics

The scientific study of how language works

Morpheme

The smallest unit of language that contains meaning. This can be a whole word like walk or just one or two letters like the -ed in walked which makes the word past tense

Present Tense vs. Past Tense

When a verb is in the present tense it means something that is happening now (for example, “I am playing.”) When a verb is in the past tense it means something that happened sometime in the past (for example, “I played.”)

Verb

An action (to walk, to talk, to play, etc.)

Voiced vs. Voiceless Sounds

Voiced sounds make your vocal cords vibrate (e.g. g) while voiceless sounds do not (e.g. k)

Vowels

a, e, i, o, u

Wug Test

Wug tests use made-up creatures to help us figure out which grammar rules we follow when forming words

 

“The Wug Test – Verbs” by Rose Fisher

 

Reference

Gleason, J. B. (1958). The Wug Test. Larchwood Press.