Understanding and Teaching the Pronunciation of English.pdf

CHAPTER 6

Pronunciation of Some Word

Endings

Word endings

In English, some grammatical word endings are pronounced
in more than one way, depending on the sound that comes
before them. In this chapter we’re only going to talk about
the sounds of these endings, not their spelling. We can’t
always predict the pronunciation of an ending by looking at
the spelling of the word. We have to think about the sounds
that are around it. (There is a separate and independent set of
rules about changes in the spelling of words when these
endings are added. To read about these, look at Chapter 15,
“Spelling, Sounds, and Phonics.”) First, let’s look at the
pronunciation of the endings -ed and -s.

Pronunciation of -ed endings

The -ed ending is added to regular verbs to show the past

tense and past participle forms.

The -ed ending can be pronounced in three ways:

• If the base verb ends in /t/ or /d/, we add an extra
  syllable: /əd/ or /ɪd/.


• If the verb ends in any voiced sound except /d/, we add a
  voiced ending: /d/. We add just one sound, not an extra
  syllable.


• If the verb ends in any voiceless sound except /t/, we add
  a voiceless ending: /t/. Again, we add just one sound, not
  an extra syllable.

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6.1 PRONUNCIATION OF 6.1 PRONUNCIATION OF 6.1 PRONUNCIATION OF -ED-ED-ED ENDINGS ENDINGS ENDINGS

If the word ends in

one of these sounds

The -ed ending is

pronounced like this Examples

/t/, /d/ /əd/ or /ɪd/ chatted, waited, added, needed

Any voiced sound

besides those listed

above

/d/

cried, viewed, moved,

robbed, buzzed,

judged

Any voiceless sound

besides those listed

above

/t/

stopped, walked,

passed, laughed,

washed, matched