Pronunciation of ED

In English there are many words that end in ED

There are Regular verbs in the past tense: wanted helped called

There are Regular past participles: needed looked cleaned

And they’re also many adjectives that end in ED: infected relaxed closed

The question is, how do we pronounce the ED ending of these verbs

There are 3 ways to pronounce them:

 /ɪd/ the ED ending sounds like a /id/

 /t/ the Ed ending sounds like a /t/
 /d/ the ED ending sounds like a /d/

So why do you pronounce the ED at the end of words in three different ways?

First we need to learn about the difference between voiced sounds and voiceless sounds in
English.

Voiced

A voiced sound means that it uses the vocal cords and it produces a humming sound or a
vibrations here in your throat. To prove this put your fingers on your throat here and pronounce
the letter L or the letter N.

You notice there’s a vibration here in this part of your neck. This is because it is a voiced sound.

Voiceless

A voiceless sound, sometimes called an unvoiced sound, is when there’s no vibration here and the
sound comes from your mouth. For example, if we pronounce the letter P or T. The sound comes
from the front of your mouth. Other example the SH, where does it come from? It comes from
your mouth, it doesn’t produces a vibration in your throat. So it is a voiceless sound.

Now we know the difference between voiced and voiceless sounds, we can look at the following
rules about the correct pronunciation of ED in English.

If the last letter of the word ends in a T or D, like want or need, the ED is pronounced as an /ɪd/
wanted needed. This /ɪd/ adds and extra syllable to the word. Want, one syllable, wanted, two
syllables, need, one syllable, needed, two syllables.

If the last letter of the word ends in a voiceless sound like the P in help or the SS in kiss, then the
ED is pronounced as a /t/ sound, so help becomes helped. It is important to know that we do not
add an extra syllable for example it is helpt which is one syllable not helpet with 2 syllables.

They all end in a /t/ sound

If the last letter of the word ends in a voiced sound like the L in call or the V in love, then the ED is
pronounced as a /d/ sound. So call becomes called. Again it is important to remember that we
don’t add an extra syllable. It’s like if we remove the E from called like call-d, one syllable and not
call- ed which is 2 syllables and incorrect.

Also, when a word ends in a vowel sound, we use the voiced D or the /d/ sound. For example play
ends I an Ay sound so play becomes played, free becomes freed.

So let’s look at some examples sentences.

I waited for two hours. Wait ends in a T so it pronounce with an /ɪd/ sound.

She kissed her baby. Kiss ends in a SS so we pronounce with a /t/ sound. .

It rained last night. Rain ends in a N so we pronounce with a /d/ sound.

Exceptions

The following -ed words used as adjectives are pronounced with /ɪd/:

 aged
 dogged
 ragged
 blessed
 learned
 wicked
 crooked
 naked
 wretched

So we say:

 an aged man /ɪd/
 a blessed nuisance /ɪd/
 a dogged persistence /ɪd/
 a learned professor - the professor, who was truly learned /ɪd/
 a wretched beggar - the beggar was wretched /ɪd/

But when used as real verbs (past simple and past participle), the normal rules apply and we say:

 he aged quickly /d/
 he blessed me /t/
 they dogged him /d/
 he has learned well /d/ or /t/

Questions:

1. What are the 3 cases that we can find words that end in ED?
2. What examples can you give of 3rd case?
3. What differences are there between voiced sound and voiceless sound?
4. Which situation exemplifies the use of /ɪd/ sound?
5. What is an alternative to pronounce the adjectives that are exceptions?
Respuestas

1. There are regular verbs in the past tense, regular past participles and adjectives that end
in ED.
2. Infected, relaxed and closed.
3. A voiced sound means that it uses the vocal cords and it produces a vibrations in the
throat. And a voiceless sound is when there’s no vibration here and the sound comes from
your mouth.
4. Only when the word ends or the sound ends in a T or in a D.
5. When we use a word as an adjective it pronounced always with /ɪd/ and if we use this
adjective as a verb we apply the normal rules of the word’s ending.