Pronunciation of ‘ed’ Endings

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Pronunciation of ‘ed’ endings

What’s the correct pronunciation of ‘ed’ endings on past forms of regular verbs?  This is an area that causes many problems for students, and it’s a very important aspect of pronunciation. 

These ‘ed’ endings form the past simple and past participle of all regular verbs.  And in any oral exam from A2 level onwards, you’ll have to talk about the past.  Many of the questions in the Aptis Speaking Test are about your past experiences. 

You also need to describe pictures and situations, and many adjectives also end in ‘ed’.  So it’s worth spending some time practising how to pronounce these endings, especially as there are three ways to pronounce them: /t/, /d/ and /ɪd/. These are phonemes. We use them to represent sounds, and we write them between diagonal lines called /slashes/. (To find out more about phonemes, sound and pronunciation, go to the fantastic OUP phonemic chart.)

The temptation for most students is to always pronounce every syllable.  For example, to say /lʊked/ for ‘looked’, instead of the correct way: /lʊkt/. 

So how do you know what the pronunciation of ‘ed’ endings is?  Is it /t/, /d/ or /ɪd/? 

Fortunately there are rules to help with this!  Read the explanation in the table below and study the examples.  Say the words out loud, don’t just read silently.  Try to really hear and enunciate the different endings.  With your fingers touching your throat, try to feel a vibration with some sounds.

PRONUNCIATION OF ‘ed’ ENDINGS

As we said, there are three ways to pronounce the ‘ed’ endings on the past forms of regular verbs.  The pronunciation depends on the final sound – not letter – of the verb in the infinitive.  For example, divorce ends in the letter ‘e’, but the final sound is ‘s’.   

Now put your fingers lightly on your throat, listen to the recordings, and repeat the infinitives and past ‘ed’ endings after the speaker. You can pause the recording after each verb.

/t/ ending (unvoiced: no vibration)

/t/ ending

• divorce – divorced /t/
  kiss – kissed /t/
  wash – washed /t/
  watch – watched /t/
  work – worked /t/
  stop – stopped /t/
  surf – surfed /t/
  laugh /la:f/  laughed /t/

There’s no vibration when you say the final sounds of these words, so they are followed by the unvoiced sound /t/ for the ‘ed’ ending.

/d/ ending (voiced: with vibration)

• marry – married /d/
  seem – seemed /d/
  stay – stayed /d/
  arrive – arrived /d/
  listen – listened /d/
  change – changed /d/
  rob – robbed /d/
  buzz – buzzed /d/

There is a vibration when you say the final sounds of these words, so they are followed by the voiced sound /d/ for the ‘ed’ ending.

Notice that the verb marry ends in the long vowel sound /i:/, very like the double ‘e’ in free.  Touch your throat again. When you say /i:/, you feel a vibration.  In fact, all vowel sounds are voiced; they vibrate when you say them. 

/ɪd/ ending (if the infinitive ends with the sound /t/ or /d/)

• separate separated /ɪd/ 
  need – needed /ɪd/
  decide – decided /ɪd/
  want – wanted /ɪd/
  intend – intended /ɪd/
  lift – lifted /ɪd/
  test – tested /ɪd/
  adapt – adapted /ɪd/

Remember this rule!

The most important of these three rules is in this column. If you remember that you only pronounce ‘ed’ /ɪd/ when the last sound (not letter) of the infinitive is already /t/ or /d/, your pronunciation will improve a lot!

Now do this exercise on the pronunciation of ‘ed’ endings

Based on the examples above, try to decide what endings these verbs have in the past form.  Is it /t/, /d/ or /ɪd/?  (Answers at the bottom of the page.)

look, jump, land, play, add, push, mend, hate, fill, miss, believe, avoid, drop, visit, snow, like, love, crowd, dance, walk, record, rain, study, hug, cough /kɒf/, pull, end

Don’t forget to put your fingers lightly on your throat, and try to feel when there’s a vibration.

Top tip!

Try to fix an example of each ‘ed’ ending in your mind.  For example, did you notice that the three adjectives we use to describe marital status each have a different pronunciation?  Look:

divorced /t/,  married /d/,  separated /ɪd/

So if you remember those three words, it will help you remember the rules!

Make sure you also practise your ‘s’ endings.

And for more pronunciation practice, we recommend the excellent ‘English in Use’ series.

Answers to the pronunciation of ‘ed’ endings practice:

/t/

looked

jumped

pushed

missed

dropped

liked

danced

walked

coughed

/d/

played

filled

believed

snowed

loved

rained

studied

hugged

pulled

/ɪd/

landed

hated

visited

added

mended

avoided

crowded

recorded

ended