Understanding and Teaching the Pronunciation of English.pdf

It’s sometimes hard to hear the di"erence
between the voiced and voiceless endings /z/
and /s/ or /d/ and /t/. This is because voiced
obstruents (obstruents are stops, fricatives,
and affricates) are usually not very strongly
voiced at the ends of words. This can make it
hard to hear the di"erence between voiced and
voiceless sounds. Also, as we learned in Chapter
4, voiced and voiceless stops are both often unreleased at
the ends of words, so they sound very similar. For the
purpose of teaching the pronunciation of these word endings,
it’s less important for students to di"erentiate between the
voiced and voiceless endings than between the “extra
syllable” and “no extra syllable” endings.

Some adjectives that end in -ed

We’ve just looked at the pronunciation of the past tense/past
participle verb ending -ed. We know that past participles are
often used as adjectives: tired, surprised, broken. For these
past participles-turned-adjectives that end in -ed, the verb
form is pronounced according to the regular rules:

We learned some new words. /lɚnd/
The priest blessed the people. /blɛst/
You haven’t aged a bit. /eyʤd/

But for a few of them, the related adjective is

pronounced with an extra syllable, /əd/ or /ɪd/:

a learned professor /ˈlɚnəd/

blessed freedom /ˈblɛsəd/

my aged grandparents /ˈeyʤəd/

This extra-syllable pronunciation only happens

with a very limited group of words, often old-

fashioned, formal, or poetic sounding words. Not all verb/

adjective pairs ending in -ed are pronounced di"erently. For

example, tired, surprised, bored, and many others are

pronounced the same whether they’re verbs or adjectives.

There are also some adjectives ending in -ed that do not

come from past participles of verbs. They often have the form

67

6.3 Pronunciation of -s and

-ed Endings

6.4 PRONUNCIATION OF VERBS AND

ADJECTIVES ENDING IN -ED

6.4 PRONUNCIATION OF VERBS AND

ADJECTIVES ENDING IN -ED

6.4 PRONUNCIATION OF VERBS AND

ADJECTIVES ENDING IN -ED

6.4 PRONUNCIATION OF VERBS AND

ADJECTIVES ENDING IN -ED

Pronounced differently

(These and very few others)

Pronounced differently

(These and very few others)

Pronounced the same

(These and many others)

Pronounced the same

(These and many others)

Verbs Adjectives Verbs Adjectives

blessed

learned

aged

beloved

dogged

blessed

learned

aged

beloved

dogged

tired

surprised

bored

confused

worried

tired

surprised

bored

confused

worried