Hadar Shemesh breaks down the three ways to pronounce -ed in English: /t/ after voiceless consonants like walked, /d/ after vowels or voiced consonants like played, and /ɪd/ after t or d sounds like needed. Non-native speakers often drop the final d, which changes meaning.
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What do these 3 words have in common? Needed, stayed, and worked. All 3 have the -ed suffix. However, all of them were pronounced differently. One suffix, 3 different pronunciations. How do we know the difference? Let's talk about it. Before we get started, hi, my name is Hadar. I am a non-native speaker of English. I had to figure all of this out myself, and now I'm processing it and teaching that to you. I'm a speech and pronunciation coach, and if you want to follow me on social media, definitely check out all of these channels for daily content. You can also check out my website at hadarshemesh.com for a ton of free resources and additional lessons. All right, let's get started. So the -ed suffix, the first thing that I want you to know is that it's not ed. English is not a phonetic language, but the interesting thing is what happens to the vowel before the D. So when the -ed suffix appears after a T or a D, it is pronounced as id, a lax I and a D, id, or a schwa and a D, ud, ud. For example, need, needed, need, needed. She needed some help with the dishes. She needed some help with the dishes. Easy, right? End, ended. The meeting ended around 5. The meeting ended, ended, ended around 5. Decide, decided. He decided to stay home tonight. He decided. The D becomes very light here. The last D of the word decide before the next vowel. Decided. Decided. He decided to stay home tonight. Wait, waited. Here the T becomes a flap T. I waited for the bus for 25 minutes. I waited for the bus for 25 minutes. Invite, invited. They invited us to dinner. They invited us to dinner. Visit, visited. We visited my grandma on Sunday. We visited my grandma on Sunday. Part, parted. Here as well, a flap T because it appears after an R vowel. So it's like when the T is between 2 vowels, it starts sounding like a R sound. Parted, parted. We parted ways. Card, to card someone, to ask someone for their ID, to card someone. Carded. I got carded when I ordered a Bloody Mary. True story. I got carded when I ordered a Bloody Mary. Now here's something interesting to note. When the T appears after an N, for example in the verb want, then when I add the -ed suffix, technically it's wanted. But when the T appears after an N and it's unstressed, we often drop the T. Wanted. Wanted. I wanted to call you earlier. I wanted to call you earlier. Now, after a vowel, the -ed is pronounced just as a D. Play, played. Easy. You just add a D. Played. We played cards all night. We played cards all night. Now, if you tend to drop sounds at the end of words— Spanish speakers, I'm speaking to you— then what happens is that it might sound like you're making a grammar mistake when you're actually making a pronunciation omission. You're just eliminating sounds. We play cards last night. We play cards— no, played. You have to get to that D sound. We played cards all night. I mean, you will still be understood, but the thing is that you need to be aware of it, and then you can choose whatever you want to do. Okay, deal? We played cards all night. Enjoy, enjoyed. We enjoyed the concert a lot. Right? So the D here becomes a little challenging where the TH appears after. We enjoyed the concert. Enjoyed the. Enjoyed the. I pronounce the D. If you drop it, we enjoy the concert a lot. It sounds like you are— it's happening right now, or it doesn't sound like the past tense. We enjoyed the concert a lot. Call. Now here it ends with a consonant, a voiced consonant where you activate the vocal cords. Call. Called. Add a D. Okay, this again could be tricky for people who drop sounds at the end if you don't have that in your first language. Call, called. She called me twice this morning. Called me, not she call me twice, because then I don't hear the indication of the past tense. She called me, called me, called me twice this morning. Love, loved. I loved that restaurant. Great. Clean, cleaned. He cleaned the whole kitchen. I was so proud of him. He cleaned the whole kitchen. Move, moved. They moved to a new apartment. Moved to. So the D and the T connect, but it's still like I still hear both. Moved To. They moved to a new apartment. They moved to a new apartment. Close. Closed. Z. If you don't pronounce the Z sound here, it's going to sound like close, like I'm sitting close to you. Close, the verb. Closed. Z. Z. I closed the window because it was cold. Yeah, I know, I put the TH right after. Let's do it. We can do it. I closed the— I closed the window because it was cold. If it's hard for you to pronounce clusters, just pronounce one— pronounce them one by one. Keep it soft so it's easy to transition between them, and just do it again and again and again until you train your tongue. The problem is not that it's hard to do it in the mouth, it's just that the brain doesn't think it's necessary. If you don't have clusters in your first language, the brain is like, no, this is not, not correct. I'm going to drop some sounds to make it easier, but it then it becomes a little less clear. Now the most interesting part, the -ed suffix. And if you're not paying attention, then make sure you now pay attention because it's important. The -ed suffix, when it appears after a voiceless consonant, p, k, t, then it becomes a t. Just a T, no vowel before. Walk, voiceless consonant. It's not wog, I'm not adding sound. Walk, walked, not woked, not wogged, walked. Okay, and if you have seen some of my videos, you know that usually when the T appears at the end of words, it is held. Walked. It's not fully pronounced. I walked to work today. I walked to work today. Watch. Watched. We watched a movie last night. We watched a movie. We watched a movie. We watched a movie last night. Work. Worked. Not worked. Worked. Don't add another syllable there. If you add a vowel, that's like you're adding another syllable. It's going to be confusing because people are expecting to hear one syllable for this word. Work. Worked. She worked late again. Worked late again. She worked late again. She worked late again. Wash. Washed. I washed the car this morning. TTH. I washed The stick the tongue out, put it on your teeth for the T. Wash the car prepared for the TH. I washed the car this morning. Laugh laughed F F. I mean, it's an A U G H spelling, but it's just laugh laughed F F. They laughed at his joke. They laughed at his joke. Ask, asked. I love how it sounds. Skt, skt. Not askid, askid. I hear it a lot. Asked. He asked a lot of questions. He soft pronunciation. Allow the tongue to move between the sounds. Skt, skt, skt, skt, skt. He asked a lot of questions. He asked a lot of questions. Miss, missed, missed. I missed the train. I missed him. I missed it. I missed the train. All right, that's it. I hope you have a little bit more clarity around the -ed suffix. And remember, when it's after a T or a D, it's pronounced as id or ud. When it's after a vowel like stay, It's just a D. Stayed. Or a voiced consonant. Call. Called. When it's after a voiceless consonant, it's a T. Worked. I'm going to put a list to what voiced consonants are and voiceless consonants are in the description, so if you still have a little bit of confusion around there, then definitely check it out. It will make it easier for you. Practice it with this video several times. It's not enough just to watch it once. You need to watch it again, practice along with me to get it into your body, to get it into your mouth. Think of it as a pronunciation workout you can do every few days. If you want more of these pronunciation workouts and pronunciations of common words in real life, check all the other videos that I have in the description. Thank you so, so much. Have a beautiful, beautiful rest of the day, and I'll see you next week in the next video. Bye!
