Pronunciation of “-ED”
When we have regular past-tense verbs, they typically end in “-ed”
There are 3 different sounds for “-ed”
But, how do you know which sound a word makes?
The final sound will largely depend on the last
sound of the verb.
* Place your fingertips on the front of your neck, and pronounce the
following words. What do you feel on your fingers when you say the
underlined sound?
vow | fake (vvv | fff)
zebra | snake (zzz | sss)
 When we pronounce voiced sounds, our vocal chords vibrate when
we say those sounds. [v] [z].
 When we pronounce voiceless sounds, our vocal chords do not
vibrate. [f] [s]. No vibration.
[t] final sound
Verbs ending in voiceless sounds [p, k, f, s, ʃ, tʃ] cause the “-ed”
ending to be pronounced as the voiceless [t] (with no vocal chord
vibration).
[p]
“He popped a balloon.” [papt]
[k]
“They talked a lot” [takt]
[f]
“I laughed at the movie.” [læft]
[s]
“She kissed her child good-bye.” [kIst]
[ʃ] “sh”: “We brushed our teeth.” [bruʃt]
[tʃ] “ch”: “I reached the end of the road.” [riytʃt]
[d] final sound
Verbs ending in the voiced sounds [b, g, v, z, ʒ, dʒ, m, n, ŋ, r, l] cause the “ed” ending to be pronounced as a voiced [d].
[b]
[g]
[v]
[z]
[dʒ]
[m]
[n]
[ŋ]
[r]
[l]
“She grabbed her coat and ran away.” [grabd]
“He begged her to stay.” [bɛgd]
“They loved it.” [luvd]
“He raised his hand.” [reyzd]
“They managed the issue quickly.” [ mænɪdʒd]
“She claimed the prize.” [kleymd]
“They banned smoking in public spaces.” [bænd]
“She banged on the door.” [bæŋd]
“The waitress cleared the table.” [kliyrd]
“I rolled up the paper.” [rowld]
[ɪd] final sound
Verbs ending in the sounds [t] or [d] will cause the “-ed” ending of a
verb to be pronounced as the syllable [əd] or [ɪd].
[t]
[t]
[d]
[d]
“I visited the Empire State Building.” [vɪzɪtəd]
“She edited the report.” [ɛdɪtɪd]
“We ended the game early.” [ɛndɪd]
“the chef breaded the chicken.” [brɛdɪd]
Why are these rules important?
Connected Speech [c+v]
These “-ed” pronunciation rules are particularly important,
because in English we connect our speech when we have a word
that:
• ends in a consonant; and
• is followed by a word that begins with a vowel.
In this case, the way you say the verb’s “-ed” ending will be heard loudly and
clearly.
For Example:
“He walked away” [walkt] –> “He walk taway” [hiy WAWK
təWEY]
“She turned around.”
Cont…
…Cont.
H- deletion
The same rule of connected speech [c+v] occurs when h-deletion causes
us to delete the “h” sound at the beginning of a word.
“We raised her expectations” [reyzd] –> “We raizd her expectations” –>
“We raizdər expectations”
Pronunciation Quiz
Smacked
 /t/
 /d/
 /ɪd/
Smacked
 /t/
 /d/
 /ɪd/
Landed
 /t/
 /d/
 /ɪd/
Landed
 /t/
 /d/
 /ɪd/
Informed
 /t/
 /d/
 /ɪd/
Informed
 /t/
 /d/
 /ɪd/
Mixed
 /t/
 /d/
 /ɪd/
Mixed
 /t/
 /d/
 /ɪd/
Rocked
 /t/
 /d/
 /ɪd/
Rocked
 /t/
 /d/
 /ɪd/
waited
 /t/
 /d/
 /ɪd/
waited
 /t/
 /d/
 /ɪd/
Skipped
 /t/
 /d/
 /ɪd/
Skipped
 /t/
 /d/
 /ɪd/
Scrubbed
 /t/
 /d/
 /ɪd/
Scrubbed
 /t/
 /d/
 /ɪd/
Cried
 /t/
 /d/
 /ɪd/
Cried
 /t/
 /d/
 /ɪd/
Wanted
 /t/
 /d/
 /ɪd/
Wanted
 /t/
 /d/
 /ɪd/
Learned
 /t/
 /d/
 /ɪd/
Learned
 /t/
 /d/
 /ɪd/
haunted
 /t/
 /d/
 /ɪd/
haunted
 /t/
 /d/
 /ɪd/
rented
 /t/
 /d/
 /ɪd/
rented
 /t/
 /d/
 /ɪd/
Killed
 /t/
 /d/
 /ɪd/
Killed
 /t/
 /d/
 /ɪd/
Laughed
 /t/
 /d/
 /ɪd/
Laughed
 /t/
 /d/
 /ɪd/
Helped
 /t/
 /d/
 /ɪd/
Helped
 /t/
 /d/
 /ɪd/
Shouted
 /t/
 /d/
 /ɪd/
Shouted
 /t/
 /d/
 /ɪd/