Pronouncing Past Tense Verbs

Pronouncing Past Tense Verbs

When writing English, we add the ending –ed to form the past tense of regular verbs. That’s easy to remember! However when you are speaking English, the --ed ending can have three different pronunciations:

1. Use a T sound to pronounce the past tense when a word ends in one of these (unvoiced) sounds: P, F, K, S, SH, TH, CH.

Examples: talk--talked (T), wish--wished (T), watch--watched (T).

2. Use the D sound to pronounce the past tense when a word ends in one of these (voiced) sounds: B, M, N, J, L, NG, G, R, V, THH, Z and all vowel sounds.

Examples: rob--robbed(D), fill--filled(D), agree--agreed(D).

3. Use the syllable I D sound to pronounce the past tense of a word that ends with a T or D sound.

Examples: need--needed (ID), want--wanted(ID)

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