THE PRONUNCIATION OF –ED

The past simple tense and past participle of all regular verbs end in -ed.

For example:

INFINITIVE PAST PAST PARTICIPLE

need needed needed
work worked worked
enjoy enjoyed enjoyed

In addition, many adjectives are made from the past participle and so end

in -ed. For example:

I like painted furniture.

The literary-based movie was the one which won most of the awards.

They got a satisfied look because of their project.

The question is, how do we pronounce the -ed? The answer is, in 3 ways:

 /ɪd/

 /t/

 /d/

1
 If the infinitive ends in one infinitive example pronounce
of these sounds verb* with -ed the -ed as

/t/ lift lifted

/d/ end ended
/ɪd/
/p/ help helped
/f/ laugh laughed
/s/ fix fixed
/ʃ/ crash crashed
/ʧ/ watch watched /t/
/k/ like liked

unvoiced

/y/ play played

/w/ allow allowed
/b/ describe described
/v/ live lived
/z/ realize realized
/l/ call called
/m/ hum hummed
/n/ join joined /d/
/g/ wag wagged
/dʒ/ dodge dodged
voiced /r/ appear appeared

(all other consonant

sounds including
the vowels at the
end of the verbs)

*Note that it is the sound that is important, not the letter or spelling. For example, fax ends in
the letter x but the sound /s/; like ends in the letter e but the sound /k/.