How to pronounce words ending in –ed

English words that end in –ed are pronounced in three different ways:

• ‘id’ like in painted
• ‘duh’ like in played
• ‘te’ like in hoped

-id sounding words

If the verb has a ‘d’ or ‘t’ sound before ‘ed’, the end of the word is pronounced ‘id’. But be careful, it’s the sound of the last letter you need to consider. For example, decide is pronounced ‘decid-id’ even though the word ends in ‘e’ because the final sound is ‘duh’.

The following words all end with an ‘-id’ sound:

decided (decide-id) wanted (wan-tid) ended (en-did) admitted (admi-tid)    recommended (recommend-id) suggested (suggest-id) parted (par-tid) hated (hay-tid) intended (inten-did) started (star-tid)

-te sounding words

If the word before ‘-ed’ ends in the sounds ‘p’, ‘f’, ‘s’, ‘ch’, ‘sh’ or ‘k’ then the word has a ‘te’ sound.

The following words all end with an ‘te’ sound:

‘p’ – stopped (stop-te) ‘f’ – laughed (laf-te) ‘s’ – promised (promis-te) ‘ch’ – watched (watch-te) ‘sh’ – finished (finish-te) ‘k’ – walked (walk-te)

-duh sounding words

For all other words not covered by the two rules described above the ‘-ed’ is pronounced with a ‘duh’ sound.

The following words all end with a ‘duh’ sound: For example:

allowed (allow-duh) cried (cri-duh) enjoyed (enjoy-duh) cleaned (clean-duh) imagined (imagine-duh) pleased (please-duh)

Practice: decide how you would say the following words:

batted   fished    visited    lifted    ripped    tiled    veiled    fitted   matched    milked    dived   

ANSWERS

Batt-id   fish-te    visit-id    lift-id   ripp-te    til-duh    veil-duh    fit-id    match-te    milk-te    div-duh