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Ramon Herdocia Umaña

Teaching pronunciation of regular past tense verbs in English can be challenging for ESL students, as the "-ed" ending is pronounced in three different ways: as /id/ for verbs ending in /t/ or /d/ sounds, as /t/ for verbs with unvoiced final sounds, and as /d/ for verbs with voiced final sounds. The document provides tips for teaching students to distinguish these three pronunciations of the "-ed" ending through drills and memorization of rules around voiced and unvoiced final sounds, while noting exceptions for some past participles used as adjectives.

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Ana Guiselle Herdocia Umaña
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134 views3 pages

Ramon Herdocia Umaña

Teaching pronunciation of regular past tense verbs in English can be challenging for ESL students, as the "-ed" ending is pronounced in three different ways: as /id/ for verbs ending in /t/ or /d/ sounds, as /t/ for verbs with unvoiced final sounds, and as /d/ for verbs with voiced final sounds. The document provides tips for teaching students to distinguish these three pronunciations of the "-ed" ending through drills and memorization of rules around voiced and unvoiced final sounds, while noting exceptions for some past participles used as adjectives.

Uploaded by

Ana Guiselle Herdocia Umaña
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Ramon Herdocia Umaña.

Past verb pronunciation

Teaching English past tense pronunciation is probably one of the more challenging
parts of teaching the Simple Past to ESL students. It's certainly one of the more
difficult things for students studying English to master. However, with a few simple
pronunciation tips, ESL teachers can effectively design lesson plans and ESL
learners can master pronunciation of the challenging "-ed" endings of Past Tense
verbs and past participles.

When teaching English past tense pronunciation for regular Simple Past verbs,
ESL and EFL students have to first be taught to add "-ed" to the end of the base
form of the verb. This is easy enough for forming and spelling regular past tense
verbs; the problem with pronunciation arises because students are often taught (or
observe) that the "-ed" ending adds another syllable to the word. And then they
always add another syllable to the past tense of the verb. For example, "worked" is
erroneously pronounced "work/id/" with two syllables, instead of just one, "work/t/."

A second syllable with the "-ed" ending is only necessary when the last sound (not
the last letter) is a /t/ or /d/, for example, "wanted," "decided," "needed," or "invited."
The last sound for the words "want" and "invite" is /t/. The last sound for the words
"decide" and "need" is /d/. These two sounds require that the added -ed ending be
pronounced with an additional syllable.

Three Different Pronunciations for Words Ending with "-ed"

For English past tense pronunciation of regular verbs, the "-ed" ending has the
following three distinct pronunciations:

/id/

/t/

/d/

Teaching English Past Tense Pronunciation— /id/ Endings

Deciding when to use the /id/ pronunciation is pretty simple. The English as a
Second Language student just needs to remember that this Past Tense ending is
only used for verbs ending with a /t/ or /d/ sound, as discussed above.

The learner also needs to know that this is the only ending that is pronounced with
an additional syllable.
Examples of /id/ Endings for Past Tense Verbs

"want" becomes "wanted" and is pronounced "want/id/" (two syllables)

"need" becomes "needed" and is pronounced "need/id/" (two syllables)

"decide" becomes "decided" and is pronounced "decide/id/" (three syllables)

"dedicate" becomes "dedicated" and is pronounced "dedicate/id/" (four syllables)

Teaching English Past Tense Pronunciation— /t/ and /d/ Endings

A lesson plan teaching ESL students how to differentiate between past tense verbs
with a /t/ ending and a /d/ ending is a bit more difficult. Many students will think that
it is just a matter of memorizing which letters at the end of the word (the base form
of the verb) take a /t/ and which take a /d/. This strategy will work for many verbs,
but not all.

The better pronunciation rule is to teach ESL students how to distinguish between
voiced and unvoiced sounds. The "-ed" ending of unvoiced sounds takes on a /t/.
Voiced sounds take on a /d/.

Examples of /t/ Endings for Past Tense Verbs

"laugh" becomes "laughed" and is pronounced "laugh/t/" (one syllable)

"walk" becomes "walked" and is pronounced "walk/t/" (one syllable)

"kiss" becomes "kissed" and is pronounced "kiss/t/" (one syllable)

"finish" becomes "finished" and is pronounced "finish/t/" (two syllables)

Examples of /d/ Endings for Past Tense Verbs

"clean" becomes "cleaned" and is pronounced "clean/d/" (one syllable)

"dream" becomes "dreamed" and is pronounced "dream/d/" (one syllable; note that
"dreamt" is the British English version of the past tense of "dream")

"save" becomes "saved" and is pronounced "save/d/" (one syllable)

"enjoy" becomes "enjoyed" and is pronounced "enjoy/d/" (two syllables)

"marry" becomes "married" and is pronounced "marry/d/" (two syllables)


A lesson plan teaching English past tense pronunciation can mostly involve drills to
help the student choose the correct ending and also to hear the differences
between "-ed" endings.

You can also give the student a list of the endings that take /t/ or /d/ sounds. ESL
students often feel more comfortable memorizing such a list, but as I mentioned
above, memorization will not work for all situations.

While a list will help with a lot of verbs, it's better to have the back-up rule on the
voiced or unvoiced -ed ending that the ESL student can always rely on for correct
English past tense pronunciation.

Exceptions to the "-ed" Endings Rules

OK. It's English so you know that there are going to be exceptions! If you are
teaching your students pronunciation of the past participles of some verbs that are
being used as adjectives, then a second syllable will be added even if the base
form does not end in a /t/ or /d/ sound, and the "-ed" ending will be pronounced
as /id/.

Common past participles used as adjectives with an additional syllable are: aged,
blessed, crooked, dogged, learned, ragged, and wretched.

Fortunately, this exceptions doesn't apply to teaching pronunciation of English past


tense verbs, just past participles when they are used as adjectives.

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