[t], [d] or [Id]? | “-ed” Past Tense
[t], [d] or [Id]? | “-ed” Past Tense
English Pronunciation Lesson
Introduction
You may have noticed that in English, past tense verbs with an -ed ending are pronounced in three different ways:
[t]
[d]; or
[ɪd].
Examples
if I say the past tense verb “walked“, as in, “I walked away”, what is the last sound that you hear in the verb?
“walked” [wɑkt]
1) The -ed verb ending sounds like a [t],
“walked” [wɑkt]
even though it ends in the letter “d”.
What do you hear when I say:
“smelled“, as in, “it smelled bad.”
2) The -ed verb ending sounds like a [d]:
“smelled” [smɛld]
And when I say, “visited”, as in “I visited New York City”, how did I pronounce that “-ed” ending?
3) The -ed verb ending sounds like [ɪd]:
“visited” [vizitid].
This lesson teaches you the three rules that explain the differences in past tense verb “-ed” pronunciation.
But don’t be surprised if most Americans can’t explain these rules to you! The truth is, Americans make these changes in sound without even noticing.
Intro | Why the Sound Changes
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 cords vibrate when we say those sounds.
[v] [z]
Did you feel the vibration?
→ When we pronounce voiceless sounds, our vocal cords do not vibrate.
[f] [s]
No vibration.
This vibration or lack of vibration then carries forward to the following sound in the word.
Therefore, this vibration or lack of vibration explains why we pronounce the past tense of verbs in three voiced or voiceless ways:
[t]
[d]; or
[ɪd].
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 cord vibration).
Listen and Repeat
[p] “He popped a balloon.” [pɑpt]
[k] “They talked a lot” [tɑkt]
[θ] “th”: “She frothed a cup of milk” [frɑwθt]
[f] “I laughed at the movie.” [læft]
[s] “She kissed a frog.” [kɪst]
[ʃ] “sh”: “We brushed it off.” [brʌʃt]
[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 and Repeat
[b] “It bobbed up and down.” [bɑbd]
[g] “He begged her to stay.” [bɛgd]
[ð] “She breathed loudly.” [briyðd]
[v] “They loved it.” [lʌvd]
[z] “We raised her expectations.” [reyzd]
[dʒ] “They bridged the gap.” [brɪdʒd]
[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
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].
Listen 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]
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.
Example
“He walked away.” [hiy wɑkt əWEY] → “He walkedaway” [hiy wɑk təWEY]
Did you hear that [t] in “walked” [wɑkt] clearly?
(See the lessons on Connected Speech & Linking for more practice and explanation).
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.
Example
“We raised her expectations” [reyzd hɚr] → “We raised’er expectations” [reyzdɚr]
We deleted the “h” in “her”, then connected the speech from “raised” and “her”, which became [reyzdɚr].
(Check out the lesson on H-Deletion for more practice and explanation).
ElementalEnglish.com is your resource for free English language and pronunciation lessons, 無料オンライン英語教材, 免费在线英文课程, 免費在線英文課程, मुफ़्त ऑनलाइन अंग्रेज़ी, آنلائن مفت میں انگریزی سیکھئے, Kostenloser Englisch-Unterricht Online, Język angielski online, Học tiếng anh miễn phí, Libreng Pag-aaral ng Wikang Ingles sa Internet, Libreng Pag-aaral ng Wikang Ingles Online, دروس في اللغة الانجليزية على الانترنت مجانا, American English pronunciation, アメリカ英語の発音, 纯正美语发音, 純正美語發音, अमरीकी अंग्रेज़ी, امریکی انگریزی کا تلفّظ سیکھئے, Amerikanisches Englisch Aussprache, wymowa język angielski, Học tiếng anh miễn phí, Wastong Pagbigkas ng American English sa Internet, astong Pagbigkas ng, تعلم اللهجة الامريكية على الانترنت, American English Online
