Pronunciation of ED ๐Ÿ‘‰ Called /d/ Helped /t/ Wanted /id/

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pronunciation of ed

Many students of English as a Second Language have trouble with the pronunciation of โ€“ed when itโ€™s used to form the past tense or the past participle of a regular verb, such as asked, landed or explored.

Letโ€™s quickly revise their structures:
V1 ย  ย  ย  +ย  ย  ed ย  ย  = ย  ย  ย  ย  V2 ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  orย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  V3
verb base ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  past simpleย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  past participle

Example:
Past Simple ย  ย  ย  play + ed = played. ย  Anaย played tennis yesterday afternoon.
Past Participle ย  ย play + ed = played. ย  Ana has played tennis many times.

Note that if the base verb ends in โ€œeโ€ย we only have to add โ€œdโ€ย to form the past form.ย Example:ย  like + d = liked

The pronunciation of โ€“ed follows these rules:
If the regular base verbโ€™s last sound is:

1. ย  ย  k, s, ch, sh, th, p, f(gh)โ€ฆ then โ€“ed is pronouncedย  /t/
Example:ย  lick-ed is pronounced lick-/t/
ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย watch-ed is pronounced watch-/t
ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย laugh-ed is pronounced laugh-/t/

2. ย  ย  t, d โ€ฆโ€ฆโ€ฆโ€ฆโ€ฆโ€ฆโ€ฆโ€ฆโ€ฆโ€ฆโ€ฆthen โ€“ed is pronouncedย  /id/
ย  ย  ย  ย  ย Example: wait-ed is pronounced wait-/id/
ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย land-ed is pronounced land-/id/ย 

3. ย  ย  everything else โ€ฆโ€ฆโ€ฆโ€ฆthen โ€“ed is pronounced /d/
ย  ย  ย  ย  Example:ย  play-ed is pronounced play-/d/
ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย answer-ed is pronounced answer-/d/
ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย close-ed is pronounced close-/d/ย  Note that the last sound in close is a z!

There are a few irregular verbs whose past simple form end in โ€“ed and follow the same pronunciation rules as for regular verbs, e.g. sew sewed (sew/d/) sewn; show showed (show/d/) shown.

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