PRONUNCIATION – the ED sound

PRONUNCIATION – the ED sound

There are three different ways to pronounce the ‘ED’ ending of regular verbs in the simple past tense: / t/ , / d / or / id /. The pronunciation depends on the sound at the end of the infinitive of the main verb and whether it is voiced or not. A voiced sound is one that vibrates in your throat when you say it.

T – For verbs ending in a voiceless sound (sounds made in the mouth, not the throat) we add a T sound when adding ED.

• ask – asked (askt);
• kiss – kissed (kist);
• relax – relaxed (relakst)

D – For verbs ending in a voiced sound (sounds made in the voicebox, vibrating the throat) we add a D sound when adding ED.

• call – called (calld);
• love – loved (lovd);
• earn – earned (earnd)

ID – For verbs ending in T or D, we cannot add the same sound again so we add ID and a syllable when adding ED.

• want – wanted (wantid);
• need – needed (needid);