Words ending in "-ed"
The letters "ed" appear at the ends of lots of English words--regular verbs in the past tense, sometimes adjectives, and some past participles, it should be easy to pronounce these letters, right?
Well, actually, there are three different ways to say them--and each way depends (usually) on the last letter in the word to which they are attached.
In my blog, "Pronouncing Plurals," we saw that English has voiced sounds (that are produced with the vocal chords) and unvoiced sounds (that are produced from just your mouth area.)
ID: If the last sound is "d" or "t", the attached "ed" will sound like "id" or "uhd" (using the schwa sound). You'll also notice that when a "t" comes between two vowel sounds, it's generally pronounced like "d."
needed (NEE duhd)
hated (HAY duhd)
dated (DAY duhd)
seated (SEE duhd)
D: When the last sound of the word is voiced (using noise to make it) the "ed" will sound like "d". For example, "played" sounds like "playd" (pleɪd) and "earned" sounds like "urnd" (ɜrnd).If the end of the infinitive form of the verb is voiced, the ending is pronounced "d."
played (playd)
earned (urnd)
lived (lihvd)
chilled (chihld)
enjoyed (ehn JOYD)
tried (traid)
T: When the last sound of the word is unvoiced (using only air to make it) the following "ed" will sound like "t".
shopped (shahpt)
picked (pihkt)
wished (wihsht)
crunched (kruhncht)
However (naturally) there are exceptions to these rules, especially when words ending in "ed" are used as adjectives, For example:
a blessed (BLEH suhd) nuisance (vs. he blessed (blehst) me)
a learned man (LUR nuhd) (vs. she learned (lurnd) quickly)
a dogged persistence (DAH guhd) (vs. he dogged (dahgd) her)
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