Many students have difficulties with the -ED ending of regular verbs. The objective of this article is to clarify how to pronounce past simple and past participle correctly.

GENERAL REVISION

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

base verb
(1)

past simple
(2)

past participle
(3)

work

worked

worked

In addition, many adjectives are made from the past participle and so end in -ed. For example: I like painted furniture (represented in a painting); He likes naked paintings (completely unclothed); He was a wicked old man (morally bad).

PRONUNCIATION OF -ED

We can pronounce the -ED form of the past simple and past participle in THREE different ways: /id/ or /t/ or /d/
The chart below can help you to understand the differences.

If the base verb ends in
one of these sounds:

Example base verb (*):

Example
with -ed:

Pronounce
the -ed:

Extra syllable?

UNVOICED

/t/

want

wanted

/id/

yes

VOICED

/d/

end

ended

UNVOICED

/p/

hope

hoped

/t/

no

/f/

laugh

laughed

/s/

fax

faxed

/S/

wash

washed

/tS/

watch

watched

/k/

like

liked

VOICED

all other sounds,
for example...

play

played

/d/

allow

allowed

beg

begged

(*) 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/.

EXCEPTIONS

Please, remember that the following adjectives ending in -ED are always pronounced with /id/:

AGED

BLESSED

CROOKED

RAGGED

WICKED

WRETCHED