"-ed" pronunciation

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 soundVerbs 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 soundVerbs 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] “She grabbed her coat and ran away.” [grabd][g] “He begged her to stay.” [bɛgd][v] “They loved it.” [luvd][z] “He raised his hand.” [reyzd][dʒ] “They managed the issue quickly.” [ ][m] “She claimed the prize.” [kleymd][n] “They banned smoking in public spaces.” [bænd][ŋ] “She banged on the door.” [bæŋd][r] “The waitress cleared the table.” [kliyrd][l] “I rolled up the paper.” [rowld]

mænɪdʒd

[ɪd] final soundVerbs 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] “I visited the Empire State Building.” [vɪzɪtəd][t] “She edited the report.” [ɛdɪtɪd][d] “We ended the game early.” [ɛndɪd][d] “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.

“He walked away” [walkt] –> “He walk taway” [hiy WAWK təWEY]

“She turned around.”

For Example:

Cont…

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.

…Cont.

H- deletion

“We raised her expectations” [reyzd] –> “We raizd her expectations” –>

“We raizdər expectations”

Pronunciation Quiz

/t/ /d/ /ɪd/

Smacked

/t/ /d/ /ɪd/

Landed

/t/ /d/ /ɪd/

Informed

/t/ /d/ /ɪd/

Mixed

/t/ /d/ /ɪd/

Rocked

/t/ /d/ /ɪd/

waited

/t/ /d/ /ɪd/

Skipped

/t/ /d/ /ɪd/

Scrubbed

/t/ /d/ /ɪd/

Cried

/t/ /d/ /ɪd/

Wanted

/t/ /d/ /ɪd/

Learned

/t/ /d/ /ɪd/

haunted

/t/ /d/ /ɪd/

rented

/t/ /d/ /ɪd/

Killed

/t/ /d/ /ɪd/

Laughed

/t/ /d/ /ɪd/

Helped

/t/ /d/ /ɪd/

Shouted

"-ed" pronunciation

Education