How To Pronounce '-ED' Verb Endings


source: Oxford Online English     2015年2月9日
See the full lesson: http://www.oxfordonlineenglish.com/vi...
In this lesson, you can learn more about the pronunciation of past verbs and '-ed' endings. Past simple verbs often end in '-ed', but this ending is not pronounced in the same way every time. For example, in the verbs:

- planned
- asked
- decided

The '-ed' ending is pronounced differently in each case.

- planned — the -ed ending is pronounced with a /d/ sound, like the 'd' in 'dog'
- asked — the -ed ending is pronounced with a /t/ sound, like the 't' in 'time'
- decided — the -ed ending is pronounced with an /ɪd/ sound, like the 'id' in 'did'

The pronunciation of the '-ed' ending depends on the sound before it. If the sound before the '-ed' ending is a VOICED consonant sound, like /b/, /v/ or /m/, the '-ed' ending is pronounced with a /d/ sound. For example, in 'planned', the sound before the '-ed' ending is /n/, which is a voiced consonant sound. That's why the '-ed' ending in 'planned' is pronounced with a /d/ sound.

If the sound before the '-ed' ending is an UNVOICED consonant sound, like /p/, /k/ or /s/, then the '-ed' ending is pronounced with a /t/ sound. For example, in 'asked', the sound before the '-ed' ending is /k/, which is an unvoiced consonant sound. That's why the '-ed' ending in 'asked' is pronounced with a /t/ sound.

If you're not sure about the difference between voiced and unvoiced sounds, you can learn more in the video. It's not so easy to explain in writing! For reference, here's a list of voiced and unvoiced consonant sounds:

Voiced consonants: /b/ /d*/ /g/ /ð/ /v/ /l/ /r/ /z/ /dʒ/ /ʒ/ /m/ /n/ /ŋ/

Unvoiced consonants: /p/ /t*/ /k/ /s/ /ʃ/ /tʃ/ /θ/ /f/

Finally, if the sound before the '-ed' ending is /d/ or /t/, the '-ed' ending is pronounced /ɪd/. This is the easiest rule to remember.