27 March 2020

How to Pronounce -ed in English

There are three ways to pronounce the final -ed of regular verbs in the simple past tense. This pronunciation is determined by the final sound* of the verb in the infinitive: Is it a voiced consonant, an unvoiced consonant, or a vowel sound?



  1. For verbs ending in d and t the final -ed is pronounced /Id/ as in the final two letters of the word did. Note that here the -e is not silent and this final -ed sound adds another syllable to the end of the verb.

  2. After unvoiced sounds such as/ p, k, f, sʃ  ,θ/ the final -ed is pronounced like /t/ as in the word cat. Note that the -e remains silent.

  3. After voiced consonants such as /bð , g, v, zʒ, dʒ , m, n, ŋ, l, r/ the final -ed sound is pronounced like /d/ as in good. Note that the -e remains silent. The final -ed is also pronounced like the d in good after all vowel sounds (the -e remains silent too).
This chart may help you remember the rules above.


Click here to see some examples and listen to the past tense verbs.
Now you are ready to do these listening activities (1, 2, 3).

*If you need to revise the phonemic symbols in English, click here.





4 comments:

Chiew said...

Hi Mª Jesús,

Students usually enjoy the game I have to practice these sounds: http://acliltoclimb.blogspot.com/2009/10/pronunciation-of-regular-past-simple.html
There are also downloadable phonetic crosswords: click on Sounds of English on the left to see the links on the drop down list. I can also create online versions of these if there is demand.
Cheers!
Chiew

María Jesús Balán said...

Hi Chiew,
I find your games very useful and fun. I'm sure my students will love them.
Thanks a lot.

Jack said...

This article also has examples of the three different sounds.

Past Simple Pronunciation Recordings

Thanks for the game link.

Unknown said...

Right pronunciation is the best way to learn English in a better way. Thanks for sharing this nice method with us. Students can also go for English quiz and practice test too.http://english.wifistudy.com/

 
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