How do you pronounce "ed" in past tense?

Question

How do you pronounce the "ed" sound in past tense? I'm not sure but when I watch TV, it looks like sometimes people pronounce it as "d" sound but sometimes as "t" sound. Are there any rules regarding how to pronounce it? Please explain in details. I want to learn how to speak proper English. Thanks.

PS. English is my second language.

From Chancelikely:

"If the sound before the 'ed' is a vowel, it seems to be pronounced [d]. "

Can you or anyone please give examples? Thanks.

Answer 1

Yes there is a sort of rule. The 'd' sound appears along with the voiced thingy-thingy.. sorry I don't remember what it is called.. but in this category are b, v, n, g, etc.. it is when you can feel your vocal cord vibrating.. and the 't' sound appear along with the voiceless thingy-thingy like s, p, f, k, etc as refugiotrans has mentioned... it is when your vocal cord vibrates less intensely.

I agree with Chancelikely's example of laugh - ending with the 'f' sound - so laughed will sound /laft/ -sorry for the not so correct phonetic transcription - with 't' sound; and love - ending with the 'v' sound - so, you hear 'd' sound.

Sometimes the 'ed' needs to be said as is as in regulate - regulated.

I hope this helps.

Ta

Answer 2

Most words that end in "ed" end with a d-sound.
Some words that end in "ed" end with a t-sound.
A few end with "ed" being pronounced as "ed."

I'm from Pennsylvania, USA. Here's how I pronounce the past tense of each of the 100 most common English verbs (except the ones in the top 100 that don't end in -ed):

agreed: d-sound
allowed: d-sound
answered: d-sound
asked: t-sound
believed: d-sound
borrowed: d-sound
called: d-sound
carried: d-sound
changed: d-sound
closed: d-sound
decided: "ed"
explained: d-sound
filled: d-sound
finished: t-sound
followed: d-sound
happened: d-sound
helped: t-sound
learned: d-sound
liked: t-sound
listened: d-sound
lived: d-sound
looked: d-sound
moved: d-sound
needed: "ed"
opened: d-sound
payed: d-sound
played: d-sound
promised: t-sound
remembered: d-sound
seemed: d-sound
showed: d-sound
started: "ed"
stopped: t-sound
studied: d-sound
suggested: "ed"
talked: t-sound
traveled: d-sound
tried: d-sound
turned: d-sound
used: d-sound
waited: "ed"
walked: t-sound
wanted: "ed"
watched: t-sound
worked: t-sound
worried: d-sound

Answer 3

I think it has to do with whether or not the previous sound is voiced or voiceless. For example, 'bagged' is pronounced [bagd] but 'backed' is pronounced [bakt].

f/v: laughed [laft] loved [luvd]

't' and 'd' are special cases: In American English, we use a 'tap' that's sort of halfway in between for both the 't' sound in the word and for the 'ed' at the end: 'batted' sounds like [baduhd] to my ears.

If the sound before the 'ed' is a vowel, it seems to be pronounced [d].

Examples: played, slowed both end in a [d] sound.

Answer 4

English is screwed up, and I'm sorry I can't help more. It depends on the word.

For example the word helped is pronounced like helpt

and the word mowed is pronouced with the "d" sound.

Other times you don't add "ed" to the end at all... the past tense of throw is threw. and the past tense of catch is caught (pronounced like cot)

Answer 5

The "ed" ending is more likely to be pronounced like "t" when it follows certain sounds, like ch, f, k, m, p, s, or x.

Examples:

scorched
goofed
talked
dreamed (the British even write it dreamt)
helped
passed
taxed

Answer 6

It's typically pronounced as a soft "t" because it's hard to pronounced a "d" sound after some letters. laf-uh-duh sounds kind of strange.

laughed - laf't

But in some cases, as in the word "filled," it's pronounced as a "d."

Answer 7

you will would desire to bypass the previous participle direction, i replaced into crushed She had crushed to a bloody pulp. He has crushed me for the final 8 video games. She beat me stupid. No such difficulty as "beated" inspite of the shown fact that that confident might make English less demanding