How to pronounce the “-ed” ending of past simple / past

participle in English regular verbs. (Part 2)

First of all, and as this is something very important, if anybody has problems to
understand this message in English, please let me know and I’ll send it in
Spanish.

As I suppose that some of you have already seen, in Module 3 of both the
“Guía” and Burlington, we have to deal with what, for many students, is one of
the biggest difficulties when it comes to English pronunciation: the pronunciation
of the “ed” ending of the past simple and past participle of English regular verbs.

I’m not going to say that it’s not difficult, but it’s not as difficult as many students
think. As I have already said in previous messages, English pronunciation is a
question of practicing, practicing and practicing. As this explanation is mainly
aimed to those of you who can not attend class, it needs a quite long and
thorough explanation.

You will have probably seen in the section of “Additional Material” another
document called “How to pronounce the “-ed” ending of past simple / past
participle in English regular verbs” and which includes phonemic symbols.

First I would recommend you to open the document “ed pronunciation” and if
possible to print it and read it, or simply have a look at it, before going on with
this message. Take your time.

Now that you have, apparently, read the document, you will see, although some
of you probably knew it beforehand, that there are three ways of pronouncing
this “ed” ending, depending on the LAST SOUND, not the LAST LETTER of the
infinitive of the verb. For example, “decide” ends in an “e”, but its last sound is a
“d”, in the same way as “live” also ends in an “e”, but its last sound is a “v”.

The easiest ending to pronounce is when the last sound of the verb is either
“d” or “t”. In this case, this “ed” ending is pronounced /id/ ADDING an
additional syllable to the infinitive. For example “end” has one syllable and
“ended” has two syllables; “present” has two syllables and “presented” has
three syllables. As on that document you have other examples of verbs ending
in a “d” or “t” sound, I think this is quite easy to understand and even to
pronounce, so I’m not going to spend more time on it.

The real difficulty comes with the other two pronunciations: /d/ and /t/. Why is it
so difficult? The main reason is that in our language (Spanish), we are not used
to pronounce words which contain a “v” followed by a “d”, or a “p” followed by a
“t”, and we tend to include a vowel “e” between the two consonant sounds,
adding one syllable, which is incorrect. As I have said in previous messages,
you can speak with a Spanish accent but mispronunciation is unacceptable.
Let’s continue with when to pronounce this “ed” as a /d/. If the last sound of
the infinitive is a vowel, as in “play”,“ enjoy” or “remember”, or a voiced
consonant (consonante sonora) except “d”, we pronounce it as a /d/, ADDING
ONLY that /d/ sound but WITHOUT ADDING an additional syllable, without
including that “e” vowel as I said above. What we must add is only that “d”
sound. I admit that some verbs are more difficult to pronounce than others. For
example, it’s easier to pronounce “listened” than “managed” or “lived” because
in Spanish, we do have some words in which an “n” is followed by a “d”), but we
will never find a word with a “g” or a “v” followed by a “d”. Remember: try to
pronounce it adding only the /d/ sound and not adding another syllable. Both
“listen” and “listened” have two syllables and both “live” and “lived” have one
syllable.

Finally, when do we pronounce this “ed” as a /t/? If the last sound of the
infinitive is an unvoiced consonant (consonante sorda) except “t”, we pronounce
it as /t/, ADDING ONLY that /t/ sound but WITHOUT ADDING an additional
syllable, without including that “e” vowel. As I already said above, some verbs
are more difficult to pronounce than others. For example, it’s easier to
pronounce “stopped” than “watched” as in Spanish we have some words with a
“p” followed by a “t”, but we will never have a word with a “ch” sound followed by
a “t”, as in “watched”. “Asked” is especially difficult because we have to
pronounce three consonants /s/, /k/ and /t/ without pronouncing any vowel
between the consonants. Again, remember: try to pronounce it adding only the
/t/ sound and not adding another syllable. Both “stop” and “stopped” have one
syllables and both “escape” and “escaped” have two syllables.

I know that some of you are thinking: how do I know if a consonant is voiced or
unvoiced? (¿Cómo se si es una consonante Sonora o sorda?) FORGET about
voiced or unvoiced consonants. If you really want to know the difference
between voiced and unvoiced consonants, I’ll tell you in another message but
you don’t need it. What I have told you above the theory, or what we should call
the phonological theory. Now we are going to practice.

Try to pronounce the word “lived”. Is it easier for you to pronounce a /d/ or a /t/
after the /v/? You’ll see that it’s easier to pronounce a /d/. You have to make a
real effort to pronounce a /t/ after a /v/, and you will probably end up
pronouncing “lift” instead of “lived”, because by pronouncing the /d/ as a /t/ you’ll
end up pronouncing the “v” as an “f”. Give it a try.

Now, try to pronounce the word “stopped”. Is it easier for you to pronounce a /d/
or a /t/ after the /p/? You’ll see that it’s easier to pronounce a /t/. In the same
way you’ll have to make a real effort to pronounce a /d/ after a /p/, and you will
probably end up pronouncing something like “stobd” instead of “stopped”,
because by pronouncing the /t/ as a /d/ you’ll end up pronouncing the “p” as a
“b”. Try to do it.

What you have to do is try to speak and pronounce in the easiest and most
natural way.
Another thing that you should have in mind is that in normal speech, sometimes
you won’t hear that /d/ or /t/ sound of the “ed” ending. In a sentence like “I talked
to my mother yesterday”, if the speaker speaks slowly pronouncing word by
word, you will hear the last /t/ sound of “talked” and the first /t/ sound of “to. But
in normal speech at normal speed, you will not hear that last /t/ sound of
“talked” as it will merge (fusionar) with the first /t/ sound of “to”. The same
applies to the sentence “Last week I used the book you gave me”. If the
speaker pronounces word by word slowly you’ll here the last /d/ sound of “used”
and the first “almost” /d/ sound of “the”, but if you say it quickly, that /d/ sound of
“used” will merge with the “almost” /d/ sound of “the”. So, sometimes you’ll only
know that someone is using the Past Simple by the context and by hearing
words like, yesterday, last year, in 2006, etc.

Finally, to wind up (acabar) this explanation I insist again on what I have said
before: add one syllable when the last sound of the verb is “d” or “t”, but add
only one sound and not one syllable in the rest of the cases.

Although in the Burlington material that we are using you can hear and practice
how to pronounce this “ed” ending, I would recommend visiting the web page
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/radio/specials/1413_gramcha
llenge26/, which is a very useful page full of exercises, resources and
examples. You’ll find a “listening” from a programme in which you will here
different people, with different accents, practicing this “ed” pronunciation and a
“tape-script” with the verbs used in the listening.

If you still have any doubts, or if somebody has difficulties understanding this
message and would like me to write it in Spanish, please let me know.

Regards
Esteban Castellanos
Subcoordinador