Idioms with 'hand', and -ed endings

Idioms with 'hand'. The poem gives us lend a hand: to help someone. Here is the family:

• get out of hand: become hard to control ('The argument got out of hand');
• try your hand at something: try it for the first time ('She tried her hand at pottery');
• give someone a free hand: let them do something their own way ('The director gave her a free hand with the design');
• give someone a big hand: clap for them;
• work hand in hand: work closely together;
• have your hands full: be very busy.

Careful: 'lend a hand' is helping, but 'give a big hand' is clapping. Nearly the same words, very different jobs.

Saying -ed endings. The -ed ending has three sounds. It depends on the sound just before it:

• after a t or d sound → /id/, an extra syllable: waited, heeded, guided;
• after a voiced sound (your throat buzzes) → /d/: offered, whispered, paused ('pawzd');
• after a voiceless sound (p, k, s, sh) → /t/: hoped ('hopt'), washed ('washt').

One special case: -ed adjectives before a noun often take /id/. That is why the poem's 'ragged' and 'aged' (an aged woman) have two syllables each.