Endings of words that use the suffix -ed are pronounced in 3 different ways in English – as an added –t or –d sound, or as an extra syllable, -id. It is actually quite easy to spot the difference between these different pronunciations, as this short explanation, with exercises, should demonstrate.
-ed endings with -t or –d sounds
Words usually ending with the following sounds add a –t sound when you add –ed:
K, S, Ch, Sh, F, P, Th
Examples include click – clicked (pronounced clickt), march – marched (pronounced marcht), stop – stopped (stopt).
Most words ending with other sounds add a –d sounds:
A, B, E, G, H, I , J, L, M, N, O, Q, R, U, V, W, X, Y, Z
Examples include earn – earned (pronounced earnd), turn – turned (turnd).
It is not really necessary to learn these lists, however, as the –t or –d sound should come quite naturally – when you try to say marched – marchd, it is likely to sound like marcht.
There is also some flexibility here, as is shown by the existence of some alternative spellings of verbs, such as learned and learnt, burned and burnt and earned and earnt – all of which have been used as acceptable alternative spellings (and pronunciations) in English.
-ed endings with the –id sound
The –ed ending adds an extra syllable to words when it is pronounced –id, which is actually more generally an unpronounced sound – the schwa. This pronunciation is used when –ed is added to words ending with either a –t or –d sound:
D, T
For example, land – landed (pronounced landid) and wait – waited (waitid).
This essentially means what you need to remember is D or T ending words add a syllable with –ed, other words simply add the d or t sound.
Exceptions to the rule
A number of words that fit into the –d pattern of pronunciation are actually pronounced with the extra syllable, -id form. These need to be learned separately.
- aged
- blessed
- crooked
- dogged
- learned
- naked
- ragged
- wicked
- wretched
It’s worth noting that some of these words can be pronounced in two forms – with an added –d sound or an added syllable, -id. Sometimes, the pronunciation can change the meaning. For example, learned, pronounced learnd is used as the past, or past participle, of to learn (I learned a new word today.), while learned, pronounced learnid (an extra syllable) is used as an adjective to mean educated.
Any questions, please let me know in the comments – otherwise check back here for updated articles, as I will follow this explanation with a few exercises to practice this understanding.
Related
SENATI SENATIon November 4, 2018 at 21:55
Are those the only exceptions to the rule?
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Phil Williamson November 6, 2018 at 12:52
Hi Senati, I’m afraid not – though these are some common examples, there are likely to be more. However, other exceptions will not be very commonly used words.
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jayscopes1on June 5, 2019 at 05:07
I like it. It would make a good extended lesson to understand what otehr exceptions there might be for ED sounded endings…ESL teacher
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Phil Williamson June 5, 2019 at 16:59
Thanks. If memory serves I think I went with the most common exceptions here but beyond these ones the verbs are probably less useful; though yes there would certainly be more to be said about the exceptions and why we use them.
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Bhate D.P.on December 6, 2018 at 06:29
How to pronounce the word ‘crooked’ used in the name of the famous San Francisco street? Is it crookd or crookid?
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Phil Williamson December 6, 2018 at 06:56
Typically ‘crookid’ for the common meanings. Though there is one specific meaning when we refer to something being held in position bent to the side and up (usually a finger or neck), then it’s pronounced crookd.
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Howardon January 24, 2019 at 15:42
Are there differences between UK and US English regarding the /id/ pronunciation of -ed? Schwa and short u are very close, if not identical. So for instance a word like busted, -ed would be pronounced /id/, not /ud/. (i’m leaving the breves off, but all short vowels between //s.)
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Phil Williamson January 24, 2019 at 16:07
Hi Howard, yes I’m sure you’d find different pronunciations depending on regions though I couldn’t say exactly the patterns myself, as I’m afraid pronunciation is not really a specialism of mine. You’re right though, the schwa is very close to the short u, and depending on how someone enunciates it might sound like /id/ or /ud/.
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Gilbert Filberon January 26, 2023 at 14:36
What does the suffix -ed mean when it’s not referring to past tense?
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Phil Williamson February 3, 2023 at 09:29
Sorry for the slow response; it would mostly denote the past tense, so something done or resultant from the past. Do you have any specific examples that aren’t formed like past verbs?
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Joeon October 30, 2023 at 08:40
For words ending with /s/ sound (whether it is actually spelt with an ‘s’ or a ‘soft c’) the rule is supposedly to pronounce the -ed part as /t/, right?
Yet I have found that it’s all over the place depending on who you ask.
• used ➜ /d/ or /t/ ?
• danced ➜ /d/ or /t/ ?
• placed ➜ /d/ or /t/ ?
• kissed ➜ /d/ or /t/ ?Reply
Phil Williamson November 8, 2023 at 09:19
Hi Joe, sorry for the slow response I didn’t get a notification for this. I’m not too familiar with that as a rule but yes, I think you’ll have an issue there that it will depend on who you ask, different people might pronounce them differently so I don’t think it can fairly be said that it’s always the same. Personally, I think it does come out sounding like a t more often than not, but it’s quite a subtle difference.
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