Hi guys! I'm Luke and today we're gonna talk about how to pronounce the -ed
sound in regular past tense verbs. We're going to talk about how to make the
three different -ed sounds when using verbs in the past tense. This is an area
of English pronunciation that many students, even advanced students, find
quite difficult. So there are three different pronunciations we use for the
-ed they are /t/ /d/ and /Id/. Let's first look
at the /d/ end in sound. Listen for the /d/ ending sound in these past tense verbs.
called cleaned loved. So did you hear a soft /d/
sound at the end of these words. Even though these words are spelled with an -ed
they do not end with an /Id/ sound. Instead they end with the /d/ sound. So
what's the rule? How can you know when to use the duh sound for past tense verbs?
Well let's first look at these words without the -ed, in their infinitive form.
They are pronounced call clean and love. The final sound of these words are
consonants. The final sound in call is /l/ in clean is /n/ and in love is /v/
and these are voiced consonant sounds. English has voiced and unvoiced
consonants. To make a voiced consonant you have to use your vocal cords so when
I say the sound in the word love I'm using my vocal cords and when I touch my
throat I can feel it vibrating and the same is for /n/ and /l/. so the rule is that
when a verb ends in a voiced consonant sound then the past tense
-ed is pronounced as /d/. called cleaned loved. There is one more rule you
should know for the final sound for past tense verbs. So look at the word play what's
the last sound in play right it is /eI/ and /eI/ is a vowel sound. So the second rule is
that verbs that end in a vowel also take the /d/ sound when they are used in the
regular past tense. Now let's look at the /t/ ending sound.
So a few examples are walked helped washed and danced. Can you hear the /t/
at the end of these words? Again even though these words are spelled with an -ed
They are pronounced wither /t/ sound. So why do we use the /t/ for
these words? Well let's find out. How do we say these words in their infinitive
form- without a ed? Well it's like this walk help wash and dance. What we need to
pay attention to is how these words end. What's the last sound in these words
walk /k/ help /p/ wash /sh/ and dance /s/. These are all all unvoiced consonant sounds. So
we don't use our vocal cords to make an unvoiced sound. If you touch your throat
and say these words /k/ /p/ /sh/ and /s/ you can't feel any vibration in your throat.
So regular verbs that end in an unvoiced sound take the /t/ for the past tense
-ed. walked helped washed danced. The last pronunciation for the -ed sound is
/Id/ /Id/. For example wanted started needed ended. these are verbs which in their
infinitive form end in a /t/ or /d/ sound. So the rule is simple, if a verb
ends in a /t/ or /d/, the past tense -ed is pronounced as /Id/. So these are
the three ways of pronouncing the past tense
-ed sounds. The next time you're having trouble trying to decide
how to pronounce an -ed sound, you can use these rules to help you. Thanks
for watching and I'll see you next time! :)