A Simple Rule for Past Tense -ed Pronunciation

Source and credits for http://www.travelteachtravel.blogspot.com/ an interesting weblog I really recommend you visit there.


Don't worry traveling folk, Travel Teach Travel is not about to turn into a how to teach and learn English website. I just wanted to help Carlos at Tour Guide, and the easiest way for me to do this is to write a post here and then share it with him.

Carlos has posted a video of an on-line English teacher reading out a very long list of simple past tense words and modeling the correct pronunciation for each word. I don't know if you've ever tried to learn another language, but there is enough to remember without memorizing great lists when you could just learn a simple rule. So here it is:

Add /ɪd/ if the base word (infinitive) ends in /t/ or /d/

This means you make the /ɪd/ sound at the end of these words. For example: 
waited, created, mated are pronounced waitid, creatid, matid
boarded, raided, waded are pronounced boardid, raidid, wadid

That's it! That is all you need to remember.

Of course there are more rules that cover the other -ed ending sounds /t/ and /d/. The pronunciation of these is easier as they flow with the word, so learning the rules isn't as important.

Add  /t/ if the base word ends in a soft (voiceless) sound.
Some examples are: 
stopped, pricked, laughed, hissed, fished are pronounced stoppt, prickt, laught, hisst, fisht

Add /d/ if the base word ends in a hard (voiced) sound.
Some examples are: 
bobbed, tugged, moved, opened, rolled, sawed are pronounced bobbd, tuggd, movd, opend, rolld, sawd


So,
- soft end sounds = use the soft /t/ sound
- hard end sounds = use the hard /d/ sound
- if the base word already ends in a /t/ or /d/ then use the /id/ sound

Easy as that :)