ED pronunciation - Live-English.net

A Video Summary About ED pronunciation in English

The pronunciation of ED endings is quite problematic for a lot of non-native speakers and words that contain these endings occur frequently in the English language. For example, regular past tense verbs, regular past participles; used in present and past perfect and passive forms, and even in adjectives.

There are THREE ways to pronounce the ED ending, and it all depends on the letter that comes before the ED.

1. /ID/

The ED ending is pronounced as /id/ only when the letter before the ED is a /T/ or a /D/
Example: WANT ——- wanTed———–/wantid/
Example: DECIDE——-deciDed———–/decidid/
It is also important to note that in this group, the word is actually made longer as an extra syllable is added when pronouncing the ED ending.

2. /t/

The ED ending is pronounced as /t/ when the letter before the ED is VOICELESS
Example: WORK ——————worKed ————–/workT/
Other voiceless letters include, P, SH, X ,CH, S, G (as in change)

3. /d/

The ED ending is pronounced as a /d/ when the letter before the ED is VOICED
Example: LISTEN—————–listeNed————-/lisenD/
Other voiced letters include V, R, L, M, Z, G (as in belong)
This group also includes vowels and letters that sound like a vowel, such as /w/ and /y/.

Exercises about ED pronunciation in English:

Exercise 1: Decide if the following letters are VOICED or VOICELESS
Exercise 2: Place the following words in the correct pronunciation group
Exercise 3: Read the story and decide how the verbs should be pronounced