As we know in the past tense regular verbs end with ED:
- work-worked
- dance-danced
Although sometimes it’s not clear how to pronounce this suffix.
Many students tend to pronounce -ED as ‘eed’ or ‘eet’. So, ‘worked’ sounds like ‘workeet’.
In reality, it’s pronounced as ‘ɪd’ only after T or D.
- ‘guided’ – /gaɪdɪd/
- ‘knitted’ /nɪtɪd/
In other cases, there’s no ‘ɪ’ and only ‘t’ or ‘d’ are pronounced.
1. If there’s a voiced sound before -ED, it’s pronounced as /d/.
- play → played /pleɪd/
- clean /kliːn/ → cleaned / kliːnd/
- call /kɑːl/ → called /kɑːld/
2. If there’s a voiceless sound before -ED, it’s pronounced as /t/.
- stop /stɑːp/ → stopped /stɑːpt/
- work /wɜrk/ → worked /wɜrkt/
Voiceless sounds are ch, f, k, p, s, sh, t, and th (as in ‘think’).
All the rest are voiced, including ng (as in ring), s (as in ‘cars’), th (as in ‘this’) and vowels (a, e, i, o, u).
Here’s a tutorial from pronunciation coach Hadar Shemesh, so you can listen to how to pronounce the words.
Hope it helps. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.
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Resources:
Britannica: phonetics
Britannica: Pronunciation of -ed Endings on Verbs
Grammarly: What are Vowels
