Past tense of regular verbs pronunciation

Let's see and hear how to pronounce the past tense of regular verbs correctly.

As you can probably guess from your experience, it all depends on the last consonant sound of the infinitive.

1. Voiceless sound → /-t/

When we pronounce a voiceless consonant, the throat does not vibrate. The voiceless consonant sounds are for example /p/, /f/, /k/, /s/, /ʃ/, /tʃ/, /θ/. When the infinitive ends in one of these sounds, the –ed ending sounds like /t/. The sound t blends with the previous consonant, no extra syllable is added.

2. Voiced sound → /-d/

As opposite to voiceless consonant, there are voiced consonants. These include /b/, /v/, /g/, /z/, /ʒ/, /dʒ/, /ð/, /m/, /l/. All vowels are voiced sounds, too. If the infinitive ends in a voiced sound, the –ed ending sounds like /d/. The sound /d/ again blends with the previous consonant, so we don't need an extra syllable.

3. Sounds /t/ or /d/ → /-ɪd/

If the infinitive of a regular verb ends in the voiceless /t/ or in the voiced /d/ sound,  we add an extra syllable /ɪd/ to make the past form.