Pronouncing Past Tense of Regular Verbs

What are the rules for pronuncing the ending "ed" in the past tense of regular verbs?

This is a wonderful question.

So many people struggle with this and I am glad that you brought this up. I'm sure Charles will have some great advice on this.

Look for his responce soon!

- Diana

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Comments for Pronouncing Past Tense of Regular Verbs

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Feb 24, 2010

Regular Past Tense Verb Pronunciation
by: MissLindZAnne

There are three different sounds that you can make when pronouncing regular past tense verbs: "ed", "t", and "d".

Here are the basic rules:

1) If base verb ends in T or D (example: rent, end, etc.) it makes the "id" sound.
~spelled like: rented, ended
~sounds like: rent.id, end.id

2)If the base verb ends in S, X, Z, K, P, CH, or SH (example: dress, fix, chip, watch, etc.) it makes the "t" sound.
~spelled like: dressed, fixed, chipped, watched
~sounds like: drest, fixt, chipt, watcht

3) If the base verb ends in any other letter (dare, open, delivered, etc.) it makes the "d" sound.
~spelled like: dared, opened, delivered
~sounds like: d.air.d, o.pen.d, de.liv.er.d

NOTE: If there is a silent "e" at the end of the word, you consider the letter before it.
Example: smoke = smOkt
The "e" in smoke is silent so you use the rule for the base verb ending in K.

Super post! Thanks MissLindZAnne! -Diana

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