847 - How To Pronounce Past Verbs ED

Have you worked on your English yet today? Have you studied a lot? Have you ever wanted to improve your pronunciation? Work > worked, study > studied, Want > wanted. Let’s dive in!
Today we’re gonna clear up that mystery. I’m talking about the pronunciation of -ed in past tense verbs. Believe it or not, there are three different ways to pronounce -ed, and once you know the rules, it actually makes a lot of sense. And do do this, we need to divide the verbs into three groups. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let me ask you something. Have you worked on your
English yet today? Have you studied a lot? Have you
ever wanted to improve your pronunciation? Work? Worked, study, studied,

(00:22):
want wanted? Let's dive in.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
Welcome to another Happy English podcast, coming to you from
New York City. And here's your English teacher, Michael.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
All right, thank you John, and thanks everyone. It's Michael
here from Happy English and I help people speak English better.
And this is Happy English Podcast Episode eight forty seven,
How to pronounce past verbs eed. Thank you, thank you

(01:00):
so much for joining me for another episode of the
Happy English Podcast. Let me ask you something. Have you
ever wondered why we say wanted with an ED sound
in an extra syllable at the end, and we pronounce
studied with a D sound at the end, but worked

(01:23):
as like a T sound at the end. Well, today
we're going to clear up that mystery. I'm talking about
the pronunciation of ed in past tense verbs. Believe it
or not, there are three different ways to pronounce the
ED ending, and once you know the rules, it actually

(01:48):
makes a lot of sense. And to do this we
need to divide the verbs into three groups. In the
first group of verbs, the ed has just a T
sound like worked, I worked all day. This happens when

(02:09):
a verb like work ends in a voiceless sound. That's
a sound where your vocal chords don't vibrate. These are
sounds like p, K, S, F or. Here are some examples.

(02:31):
Laugh becomes laughed, watch becomes watched, drop becomes dropped, and
pick becomes picked. So like, there's no extra syllable here,

(02:51):
just a strong T sound at the end. Now, in
the next group of verbs, that ED ending has a
soft D sound like played the dog played with the ball.
This happens when the verb ends in a voiced sound.

(03:16):
That's when your vocal chords do vibrate. You pronounce ed
as a D. These are sounds like B, G, v, L, M, N,
r Z or vowel sounds. Here are some verbs that

(03:36):
fit this group. Call becomes called, play becomes played, clean
becomes cleaned, beg becomes begged, and study becomes studied. I

(03:58):
know that last one is a bit tricky because of
the Y at the end, but the sound is voiced,
so it's just D no extra syllable. Okay. The third
and final group is easy to remember. If a verb
ends in the sounds T or D like in want

(04:24):
or need. That's when you have to add an extra syllable,
so want becomes wanted, need becomes needed, Invite becomes invited,
Decide becomes decided. This is the only set of verbs

(04:49):
where there is an extra syllable. You can hear the
extra beat at the end want, wanted, need needed. The
verbs in the other two groups don't have an extra syllable.
So how can you remember all of this? Well, here's

(05:13):
my trick. First, ask yourself does the verb end in
a T or a D sound? If yes, use the
id with an extra syllable wanted needed. If the verb
doesn't end in a T or a D sound, listen

(05:34):
to the last sound of the verb. If it's voiceless
like p kf used T, laughed, watched, If it's voiced
like b G, vowels m and used the D sound played, studied,

(05:58):
and don't look at the spelling instead focus on the
sound at the end. Okay, three simple rules, one tricky
verb ending. But once you know the sound rules, English
pronunciation gets a lot easier. And remember pronunciation is half

(06:20):
listening and half doing, So why not listen to this
podcast again to get these sounds of English in your
head and if you need any particular English pronunciation help,
you can always ask my AI tutor. It's a great
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(06:42):
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(07:05):
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(07:25):
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dot com and choose podcast lesson eight forty seven. Remember,

(07:49):
learning another language is not easy, but it's not impossible,
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Speaker 2 (07:58):
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