LESSON 1A:Pronunciation of -ed [t], [d], [Id]

Past tense verbs with an -ed ending are pronounced in three different ways:

[t]
[d] or
[Id].

1) [t] final sound

Verbs ending in voiceless sounds [p, k, θ, f, s, ʃ, tʃ] cause the “-ed” ending to be pronounced as the voiceless [t] (with no vocal chord vibration).

Listen to your teacher and repeat:

[p] “He popped a balloon.” [papt]
[k] “They talked a lot” [takt]
[θ] “th”: “She frothed a cup of milk” [frawθt]
[f] “I laughed at the movie.” [læft]
[s] “She kissed a frog.” [kIst]
[ʃ] “sh”: “We brushed it off.” [bruʃt]
[tʃ] “ch”: “I reached around for it.” [riytʃt]


2) [d] final sound

Verbs ending in the voiced sounds [b, g, ð, v, z, ʒ, dʒ, m, n, ŋ, r, l] cause the “-ed” ending to be pronounced as a voiced [d].

Listen to your teacher and repeat:

[b] “It bobbed up and down.” [babd]
[g] “He begged her to stay.” [bɛgd]
[ð] “She breathed loudly.” [briyðd]
[v] “They loved it.” [luvd]
[z] “We raised her expectations.” [reyzd]
[dʒ] “They bridged the gap.” [brIdʒd]
[m] “I claimed it was mine.” [kleymd]
[n] “They banned new members.” [bænd]
[ŋ] “She banged into the chair.” [bæŋd]
[r] “He cleared it up.” [kliyrd]
[l] “I rolled up the paper.” [rowld]

3) [əd] or [ɪd] final sound

Listen to your teacher and repeat:

[t] “I visited the Empire State Building.” [vɪzɪtəd]
[t] “She edited the research paper.” [ɛdɪtɪd]
[d] “We ended the game early.” [ɛndɪd]
[d] “He breaded the chicken.” [brɛdɪd]


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].