Pronunciation Rules
The -ed regular past tense ending is pronounced in one of these three
ways:
1. –ed is pronounced /Id/ when the simple present tense form ends
in either a /d/ or /t/ sound. Examples: want – wanted, paint –
painted, end – ended, guide – guided
2. –ed is pronounced /d/ when the simple present tense form ends
in a voiced sound, as with the following final sounds: a, b, e, g,
i, j, l, m, n, o, r, u, v, w, y, z
Examples: relay – relayed, grab – grabbed, free – freed,
bag – bagged, cry – cried, judge – judged, call – called,
roam – roamed, own – owned, row – rowed, cover –
covered, plow – plowed, live – lived, quiz – quizzed
3. –ed is pronounced /t/ when the simple present tense form ends
in an unvoiced sound, as with the following letters: ch, f, k, p, s,
sh, x
Examples: patch – patched, laugh – laughed, like – liked,
ask – asked, cook – cooked, stop – stopped, kiss – kissed,
fish – fished, fix – fixed
Doubling Consonants
Words with one syllable
Verbs and adjectives that end in vowel + consonant (e.g. to stop,
to plan, to thin) double the consonant before adding an ending.
Examples: stop – stopped, plan – planned, thin – thinned, rub
- rubbed
Words with more than one syllable
1. For verbs that end in vowel + consonant (e.g. prefer, permit,
regret), we double the consonant when the final syllable is
stressed.
Examples: prefer – preferred, permit – permitted,
regret – regretted
2. When the final syllable is not stressed, we do not double the final
consonant.
Examples: visit – visited, remember – remembered,
happen - happened
Prepared by Diane Tehrani