-ed²

Also ‑t.

Forming the past tense and past participles of regular (weak) verbs.

Old English ‑ed, ‑ad, ‑od.

Examples from a large group include addressed, behaved, cheated, defeated, ironed, judged, lived, sorted, and toasted. Some verbs instead use ‑t, either after certain consonants (crept, sent) or when there is an internal change of vowel (felt, slept).

Many past participles in ‑ed can also be used as adjectives: excited, certified, collapsed, devoted, measured, moisturized, organized, pierced, scrambled, soiled, typed, wounded. The sense is not always exactly that of the verb: accomplished, highly trained or skilled in a particular activity, comes from accomplish, to achieve or complete something successfully.

A number of verbs have forms in both ‑ed and ‑t (dwelled, dwelt; kneeled, knelt; leaped, leapt; spelled, spelt). As a broad rule, the ‑t forms are more common in British English and the ‑ed ones in American English, though the ‑ed forms are increasingly found also in British English. When the past participles are used as adjectives, the forms in ‑t are preferred (burnt toast, spilt milk, spoilt child).