Hi, I'm Rob and welcome to another Woodward English video. Today we're going to learn about
the correct pronunciation of ED at the end of words in English. In English there are many words that end in –ED There are regular verbs in the past tense for example: wanted, helped, called. There are regular past participles needed, looked, cleaned and they're also many adjectives that end in ED for example infected, relaxed, closed. Did you notice how the ED was pronounced in
three different ways? How is the ED pronounced in the first column? wanted, needed, infected The ED sounds like /id/ wanted, needed, infected How is the ED pronounced in the second column? helped, looked, relaxed the ED sounds like a T or a /t/ sound helped, looked, relaxed How is the ED pronounced in the third column? called, cleaned, closed The ED sounds like a D or /d/ called, cleaned, closed So why do you pronounce the ED at the end of words in three different ways? Well first we need to learn about the difference between voiced sounds and voiceless sounds in English. A VOICED sound means that it uses the vocal cords and it produces a humming sound or
a vibration here in your throat. Put your fingers on your throat here and pronounce the letter L You notice there's a vibration here
in this part of your neck. This is because it is a voiced sound. A voiceless sound, sometimes called an unvoiced sound, is when there's no vibration here and the sound comes from your mouth. For example, if we pronounce the letter P Where does this sound come from? It comes from the front of your mouth. It doesn't come from here ... /p/ ... no it doesn't sound good. /p/ from the front of your mouth Now try this with the other letters and you'll feel the difference between a voiced sound and an unvoiced sound. For example .../sh/ the SH sound .../sh/ ... Where does it come from? It comes from your mouth. It doesn't come from here, it comes from your mouth. So it is a voiceless sound. How about F .../f/... the F sound .../f/... Where does the sound come from? Does it come here? .../f/... No, it comes from your mouth again. So it is a voiceless sound. How about the N sound the .../n/... /n/... sound. You notice it vibrates a little here .../n/... So N, the .../n/... sound is a voiced sound. And the .../z/... sound the Z the .../z/... or the S sometimes .../z/... It comes from here so it is a voiced sound. Now we know the difference between
voiced and voiceless sounds, we can now look at the following rules about the correct pronunciation of ED in English If the last letter of the word ends in a T or D, like WANT or NEED then the ED is pronounced as an .../id/... sound wanted, needed The .../id/... or the ED adds an extra syllable to the word. want (one syllable), wanted (two syllables) need (one syllable), needed (two syllables) So if the word ends in D or T then you add the .../id/... sound to the end. If the last letter of the word ends in a voiceless sound like the P in help Then the ED is pronounced as a .../t/... sound so help becomes helped It is important to know that we do not
add an extra syllable With the word help he say helped which is one syllable and not "help-ed", two syllables that doesn't sound good Let's go through the list and pay
attention to the sound of the ED ending. helped, looked, sniffed, laughed the GH here is pronounced like an F so it is laughed washed, watched, kissed, danced, fixed They all end in a .../t/... sound If the last letter of the word ends in a voiced sound like the L in call then the ED is pronounced as a .../d/... sound. So call becomes called Again it is important to remember that
we do not add an extra syllable, no. So the word call, we say called (one syllable) and not "call-ed" which is
two syllables and incorrect. Let's go through the list and pay
attention to the sound of the ED ending. called, cleaned, offered, damaged, loved used... here the S sounds like a .../z/... sound used, amazed, rubbed They all end in a D sound a .../d/... sound Also, when a word ends in a vowel sound, we use the voiced D or the .../d/... pronunciation for ED play ends in a AY sound so play becomes played free becomes freed, try becomes tried, follow becomes followed, continue becomes continued So let's look at some example sentences. Listen to the pronunciation of the words ending in ED. I waited for two hours. She kissed her baby. It rained last night. Now, if you said /rain-t/ instead of /rain-d/ people will understand you if you pronounce it with a /t/ ending instead of a /d/ ending. But if you say /rain-id/ with 2 syllables instead of /rain-d/ with one syllable, then people will normally NOT understand you It seems like a small insignificant thing but it is the difference between people understanding you or people having no idea what you're saying. So remember it's important that the .../id/... sound with the extra syllable is only after words ending in T or D I hope this lesson helped you If you enjoyed this video, remember to click the Like button down the bottom and share with your friends. Have an awesome day!
