Get It RIGHT! | How To Nail -ED Endings—Speaking English

Speaking English is tricky. But if you can nail one of the most common past tense forms your spoken English will quickly sound more natural.

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Video Transcript:

Have you ever noticed how the past tense Ed ending can disappear in spoken English? What?  

Yeah. Let’s look at an example the word ‘looked’. The Ed which has three different pronunciations is a t sound here. T, looked. 

But sometimes we drop the t- sound between two consonants. So, in the common phrase ‘looked for’, there might be no t- sound at all. Then it sounds just like the present tense.  

That we analyze and look for patterns in what our leaders did.  

Did you hear a T? I didn’t. Let’s watch on slow motion then maybe we’ll catch a T.  

That we analyze and look for patterns in what our leaders did.  

No. In conversational English those Ts are sometimes dropped.  

Let’s look at another example. Where is the T?  

If you haven’t looked for a job within some period of time.  

Nope, didn’t hear it. Let’s try slow motion.  

If you haven’t looked for a job within some period of time.  

This T also dropped.  

Today we’re pulling together three videos on this confusing topic. The three different pronunciations of the Ed ending.  

I’m Rachel and I’ve been teaching the American accent here on YouTube for over 15 years. Check out Rachelsenglish.com/free for my free course: The Top 3 Ways to Master the American Accent. Let’s get started with the Ed endings.  

If you know the three pronunciations or have a guess put them in the comments below.  

There are three rules. The first one is: If the sound before the Ed ending is unvoiced then the Ed ending becomes a T. Worked, for example. The k sound is unvoiced, k. That means only air makes the sound not a vibration of the vocal cords. Kk. So for an unvoiced ending the Ed is also unvoiced, Tt, tt. The T sound is unvoiced. Worked. Worked.  

You probably learned that, worked and you learned that pronunciation with that true T. Okay, let’s go to Youglish where we can hear some Americans saying this word worked with that tt, T sound following the rules of pronunciation. We’re going to do a search on the phrase ‘worked for’, worked for in American English.  

So, then one of the two adults who work for the program said— 

Worked for the program. Wait, I didn’t hear that. Did you?  

I didn’t hear ‘worked for the program’ I didn’t hear that T, tt,tt, tt. I heard work for the program. Let’s listen again.  

So then one of the two adults who worked for the program said— 

Let’s try it in slow motion. If we slow it down here, do we hear the T?   

Two adults who work for the program said— 

Work for the— 

There’s no T. It sounds like the present tense ‘work for’. ‘I work for them.’ But it’s past tense and we know that because she’s telling a story about something that happened to her in the past. Alright, well, let’s listen to another one. Are we hearing the T in worked?  

My dad worked.  

Okay there he said ‘worked’. Let’s listen to that in a full sentence.  

You know it uh, he worked for Chrysler and— 

Oh no, when he put the word in the sentence, he dropped the T again. What’s going on? Well, in American English, it’s pretty common to drop a T when it comes between two consonants. This happens for example, in the word ‘exactly’. Most Americans won’t say that T, exactly. They’ll say ‘exactly’, dropping the T sound, or in the phrase ‘just because’, most Americans will drop that t because it comes between two consonants and will say ‘just because’, just be-, right from the S to the B with no T.  

So, this can happen with these Ed endings. As we go through all the rules for Ed endings in this video, we’re going to look at not just the rules but what actually happens when Americans speak so you’re getting effective accent training.  

So rule one was: Unvoiced ending, Ed is pronounced like a T, tt. Rule two: If the ending of the word in the infinitive is voiced, the Ed ending will also be voiced which is a D.  

Let’s go to Youglish to find some examples. We’ll look at the phrase ‘opened the’.  

I showed up and Cathy, his secretary opened the door and I walked back— 

Oh no, it happened again. Opened the door became open the door, with no D sound even though it was in the past tense, even though in English it would absolutely be written with that Ed ending. Let’s listen in slow motion.  

Secretary opened the door and I walked back,  

opened the door,  

Nope, no D. We’ll talk more about this D later but for now, let’s go and look at the third rule for Ed endings.  

If the final sound is D or T, the Ed ending adds not just an extra sound like tt or dd, but an extra syllable. You can think of this as being I as in sit or schwa plus D, and it said very quickly, It’s unstressed. So, need becomes needed. That last syllable always unstressed, said quickly, needed, id, id, id, needed.  

So we’re learning these three rules: worked, opened and needed. And we’re also learning how these endings might change when part of a sentence.  

Let’s go into more detail about rule one Ed is T, tt after an unvoiced sound. These are all of the unvoiced sounds in American English but we’ve already said that t goes with rule three, also there are no words that end in the H sound. Plenty of words that end in the letter but none that end in the sound that I know of, so for our ending sound for rule one we have ch, f, k, p, s, sh, and h].  

For all of the words in this category, if the Ed word is at the end of the sentence you will pronounce that T. How did you get there? I walked. Walked. With a light release of the T sound.  

For all of the words in this category if the Ed word is linking into a word that begins with a vowel or diphthong, you will lightly release the T into that word connecting the two words for example, ‘walked a lot’. Walked a lot, walked a, [t], the T linking into the schwa. But, if the next word begins with a consonant, many times a native speaker will drop the T sound.  

Let’s look at each of the possibilities. We’ll start with a CH like in the word ‘watched’ in the phrase ‘I watched the best movie last night.’ I watched the best, watched the best, I watched the best movie last night. Now let’s play me saying that phrase in slow motion, you won’t hear a T.  

I watched the best movie last night. 

To fully pronounce the T, it would sound like this:  

watched the, watched the, I watched the best movie last night. I watched the best movie last night.  

And that’s just not as natural as:  

I watched the best movie last night.  

Dropping the T. Now do you have to drop the T? Will Every American always drop the T between two consonants?  

No, I’m sorry. This is one of the things where sometimes Americans will do it and sometimes they won’t but just knowing about it is going to help you understand what’s happening in American English conversation. And you’re going to hear a lot of examples in this video that will help you feel more comfortable dropping the tea in these Ed ending words so that you can sound more natural too. We’re going to go to Youglish and we’re going to listen to two people saying the phrase ‘watched the’. The first time you’ll hear a T dropped, no T at all and then not.  

You know, when I when I watched the original trilogy, I thought it was the story of Luke.  

Watch the original. I didn’t hear a T there. Let’s listen in slow motion.  

You know when I watched the original trilogy, I— 

Okay, no T. Here’s an example though where there’s a clear T in the phrase ‘watched the’  

Utter lack of leadership that I watched the NFL fail— 

Watched the. So this one can go either way. The thing you don’t want to do is drop the T but then not connect it to the next word, you do want it connect them. You can only get by with dropping that T if you connect.  

But even when we say this T, remember it’s not tt, watched. It’s got less energy than that watched, tt, tt, watched the. A very light T.  

Next, the unvoiced sound F let’s link it into a vowel. Stuffed it, stuffed it, stuffed it. Light true T connecting.  

Let’s look at ‘stuffed the’ where the next sound is a consonant.  

I stuff the blanket into the bag. Stuff the. I went to Youglish and I heard both pronunciations. With the light T released and then also dropped. Let’s listen to some. Here it’s dropped.  

So I rented the biggest Lincoln made, and I stuffed the bowls in the trunk. 

I stuffed the— 

And here it is lightly pronounced.  

I’m not sure uh if you guys stuffed the box.  

Stuffed the— 

The K sound like in kicked. I kicked it. Linking into a vowel, we do a light T release. Kicked it, tt, tt, tt.  

When the next sound is a consonant like ‘kicked the’, ‘I kicked the ball.’ This can go either way. Here’s an example where it’s dropped.  

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, the last book in the trilogy.  

Kick the— 

And here’s one where it’s not dropped.  

While we kicked the can down the road.  

kicked the— 

But I want to say I listened to about 50 samples on Youglish of ‘kicked the’ and I only found one or two where the T was pronounced. Also in these 50 samples I found a lot of them were in the phrase ‘kick the can down the road.’ This is an idiom that means to deal with a problem or make a decision later.  

For example, let’s say my car broke down. It’s an old car and I probably need to buy a new one but I don’t know what to get and I don’t have a lot of money, so I kicked the can down the road and just got this one fixed. I know eventually I’ll have to face the problem and replace the car but for now I’m going to kick the can down the road.  

Next, P like in the word ‘hoped’. Hoped. I hoped it would get better. Hoped it. Tt, tt, tt. Light release of the T linking into a vowel. Let’s look at ‘hoped that’. Now the t is between two consonants and that sound might get dropped in spoken English. I found quite a few examples of both dropped and pronounced. Here’s one where it’s dropped:  

I had hoped that that word might enter— 

I hope that— 

And here’s one where it’s not dropped:  

I hoped that my mom would just take care of it for me.  

I hoped that— 

Sometimes I sense my students panic when there are two ways to do something. Are there cases where it’s right and cases where it’s wrong? Not really. Both dropped and pronounced T will work. But my students don’t have to want to make a decision in the moment. Sometimes that’s stressful so just pick. In general, you’ll pronounce it lightly or you won’t. I think for a lot of my students dropping it makes it a little easier makes linking easier, you’ll hear native speakers do both but you find the one that’s right for you.  

You know as I think of it, there is one more point we need to discuss for all of these rule one Ed endings when a word ends in a T sound which all of these do and it’s followed by you or your that T can be turned into a CH. For example, ‘helped you’ can become ‘helped you’, ‘helped you’. Does that sound familiar? Helped you, helped you. Let’s listen to an example.  

What shift in your thinking has helped you?  

helped you?  

Helped you? Helped you? Ch, ch, ch. So you can hear this CH for any of these words. For example, ‘missed’ which you’ll study next. ‘Missed your’ can become missed your, missed your. Let’s listen to an example.  

Perhaps missed your own life’s mission.  

Missed your— 

Missed your. Okay, let’s look at the S sound like in the word ‘missed’. If the next sound is a vowel or diff thong you’ll hear the T linking in like in the phrase ‘missed it’, tt, tt, tt. Or if it’s at the end of the sentence, you’ll hear the T. You’ll be missed. Missed, but followed by a consonant let’s look at the example ‘missed the’, missed the. Now when I just said those two words together it was really natural for me to drop that T. Missed the. That’s what I want to do. Missed the, missed that. When I search for missed the on Yougish, almost all had the dropped T. So it actually just sounds like the present tense, miss the. Let’s go to Youglish. You tell me if you hear the T.  

Everybody missed the boat that way.  

Did you hear the T for the past tense? Listen again.  

Everybody missed the boat that way.  

Missed the— 

No, it’s not there. Dropped T here is so natural. Now, here’s one where we will hear the T.  

And yet, it kind of missed the boat.  

missed the– 

In both of these cases we heard the idiom ‘to miss the boat’. It means to miss your chance to do something, to miss an opportunity. For example, my mom invited me on a trip but I took too long to decide if I wanted to go and she invited someone else. I missed the boat I decided I really wanted to go so I was bummed about it.  Let’s use the word ‘push’. Followed by a vowel or diphthong, you will hear the T linking in pushed a, pushed a, pushed a, tt, tt, tt. Pushed a. He pushed a kid at school but followed by a consonant like in pushed the. If I say that fast in a sentence, ‘He pushed the wrong button.’ I will probably drop that T. I just listened to Youglish and almost everyone there dropped the T in pushed the. Maybe 90%. Here’s an example.

When he pushed the Civil Rights uh, bills through— 

pushed the— 

And here’s one where he does say the T. Pushed the. 

which is pushed the debt-to-GDP ratio higher.  

pushed the— 

Let’s look at the unvoiced TH like in the word ‘unearthed’.  

If followed by a vowel or diphthong, you’ll hear a light T, we unearthed another clue. Unearthed another, tt, tt, tt.  

To unearth means to dig something out of the Earth but it also means to discover something. Something that had been hidden, lost, or kept secret. For example, I unearthed a secret from my father’s past. If followed by a constant, it can be dropped.  

I listened to a lot of examples and most of the time it was dropped. Here’s one.  

had unearth the tomb of King Tutankhamun.  

unearthed the— 

And here’s one where it wasn’t dropped.  

Evans had basically unearthed the record room— 

Unearthed the– 

So my conclusion with Ed endings rule one is this: When it links into a word that begins with another consonant, it’s most common to drop the T which then sounds just like the present tense. But don’t worry about that, everyone will know what you mean because of the context. Because you’re speaking about something that happened in the past.  

Now, let’s have you train with some of these rule one cases with a dropped T to make that feel more comfortable. First, you’ll hear a phrase then you’ll hear just the two-word link. Miss my, miss my in slow motion two times, repeat the second time. It’s important not to just learn something but to actually train it speak out loud get used to it.  

So then one of the two adults who work for the program said– to work for— 

You know uh, he worked for Chrysler and he— 

worked for–   

I watched the best movie last night.  

watched the— 

You know when I when I watched the original trilogy, I thought it was the story of Luke.  

watched the— 

So I rented the biggest Lincoln made and I stuffed the bowls in the trunk,  

I stuffed the— 

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, the last book in the trilogy.  

kicked the— 

I had hoped that that word might enter— 

I hope that— 

Everybody missed the boat that way.  

Missed the— 

When he pushed the civil rights uh, bills through— 

pushed the— 

had unearthed the tomb of King Tutankhamun.  

unearthed the— 

I’ve actually kicked the tires on most,  

kicked the— 

he skipped the 50th anniversary party in 1987,  

he skipped the— 

It helped that Tome had brought in a talented chef.  

help that— 

That has pushed for bills of rights around the country— 

Pushed for— 

Do you plan on paying for the legal fees of this older gentleman in North Carolina who sucker punched the protester?  

Punched the— 

I also discovered that as I kind of sniffed the air around Lake Charles— 

sniffed the— 

I tossed the newspaper into the back seat— 

tossed the— 

You know, we went through all the rules for the Ed endings but we really only got to talk about rule one in depth.  

Rule two: The last sound in the infinitive is a voiced sound. What is a voiced sound? All vowels and diphthongs are voiced and some consonants. First, we’ll talk about vowels and diphthongs. For example, the word agree ends in the E vowel. Agree. Past tense would be agreed. With the D sound. Agreed. Now you probably learned that D is pronounced d, a stop of air voicing the vocal cords, dd, dd, dd and then a release. Agreed. But we actually have a couple of different pronunciations that we’ll use for these rule two Ed endings.  

Let’s look at the phrase ‘I agreed it would be a good idea.’ Agreed it, agreed it. Agreed [flap] agreed it. That’s a flap of the tongue, it’s not a stop of air, it’s actually just like the flap T if you’re familiar with that sound. The D between vowel or diphthong sounds is a quick single flap of the tongue against the roof of the mouth. Agreed it, agreed it [flap], agreed it.  

So anytime with these Ed endings that you have the sounds of a vowel or diphthong D and then a vowel or diphthong, it’s a flap. Agreed it.  

Light about. Light, light about, light about, light about.  

What if the next word doesn’t begin with a vowel or diphthong but rather a consonant? Let’s take a look at the example agreed with. I agreed with you. I agreed with you. It’s not a fully pronounced D because there’s no release. That would be this:  

I agreed with you. I agreed with you. Agreed with, agreed with. We don’t do that, we don’t do that release when the next word begins with a consonant, we make the noise in the vocal cords but we don’t release it, we go right into the next sound. In this case, W. Agreed with, agreed with agreed, it’s the sound but there’s not a stop and release we just carry that voice d right into the W. Agreed with, agreed with. We like to make English really smooth and that’s why in these cases stop consonants are not fully pronounced. Let’s look at a few more examples where we have a vowel or diphthong then the D and then the next word begins with a consonant.  

He sued the company. Sued the, sued the. Do you hear that D in the vocal cords? He sued the company. Plowed through. Plowed, plowed through.  

Weighed my options. Weighed my, weighted my, weighed my options. Now let’s look at a few more examples, you tell me how the Ed ending should be pronounced. Flapped or unreleased?  

The next word begins with a consonant sound so this D is unreleased. Toyed with. Toyed with, toyed with. Let’s go to Youglish for an example.  

And I even toyed with calling the movie Liberty for a little while. toyed with— 

Toyed with. Can you say that now? Really easily with that unreleased D sound toyed with, toyed with.  

What about this one? Is the D flapped or unreleased? Reviewed a. Reviewed a. That’s usually going to be a flap because the D comes between two vowel or diphthong sounds. Reviewed a, reviewed a. Let’s go to Youglish for an example.  

It’s what people said when they came from abroad, reviewed a place– 

Reviewed a— 

One more, what about this one? Booed by. The next word begins with a consonant so that will be an unreleased D. Booed by. Vibrating the vocal cords, making the D sound but not releasing. Booed by. Let’s look at an example.  

I got booed by 20,000 people for those that don’t know in 

Booed by– 

So for rule two, we looked at vowel and diphthongs plus Ed. What about all the consonants that are voiced? That’s still rule two and things start to get a little more complicated.  

We’ll look at each of these voiced consonant endings. Let’s start with R like in the word fired.  

He was fired last week. Fired last, fired last. Not d, a release, that would be fired last, fired last, but it’s fired last. That unreleased D sound in the vocal cords before the next consonant.  

If the next word begins with a vowel or diphthong, the D will be flapped but only because of the R. The rule for flapping is a D or T will be flapped between two sounds that are vowels and diphthongs or if the first sound the sound before is an r and the sound after is a vowel or diphthong like in the word party or hardy, those are both flaps because of the r-d-t diphthong pattern. Party, hardy. So when we have an ending R infinitive plus the D sound plus the word that begins with the vowel or diphthong, that D will be flapped. It’s not like this for any of these other voiced consonants it’s just because of the R.  

He was fired on Monday. Fired on [flap] single flap of the tongue. Fired on.  

And I should say for any of these rule two words if the next word is you or your, a native speaker might turn that d into a j sound. We do this with any word that ends in a d when the next word begins with you or your like in the phrase ‘would you’. Would jj, jj, jj, J sound. Would you. Would you do that for me?  

J, J. So all of these words in rule two do end in a D sound therefore you might hear this happen. Let’s take fired you, fired you as an example. Fired you.  

You know they fired you and you were you were you know poor for two years, 

Fired you–  

Fired you, fired you, J J, with that J sound. 

How about G? Another voiced consonant like in the word beg, begged, she begged all the time. When the next word begins with a vowel or diphthong, you will release that D into the next word, begged all the time. Do, do, do, begged all, begged all the time. But when the next sound is a consonant, it gets more complicated. Honestly, there are three ways you might hear it. First, dropped. I begged for a dog when I was a little kid. Begged for, begged for. I dropped it there. Or you might hear that unreleased D sound in the vocal cords I begged for a dog. Begged for a dog, begged for a dog. Or you might even hear a light release, I begged for a dog, begged, light release, I begged for a dog. Let me show you what I mean, we’ll go to Youglish.  

Now in this one, I hear the D in the vocal cords but not released, beg for, begged for.  

That he begged for quarters in the park across the street.  

Begged for quarters— 

In this next one, I don’t really hear any D. I think it’s dropped.  

The rebels beg for food at homes along the way.  

Begged for food– 

And now an example where the D is lightly released.  

I like begged for an interview,  

Begged for an interview— 

Like I said in my rule one video, try not to get stressed out about there being more than one option. if it’s easier for you to always lightly release your D, that’s okay. As you get more used to English and you’re around a lot of native speakers or if you’re doing a lot of imitating you may find that you start dropping the D sound more naturally. What we’re doing here is looking at all the different possibilities and pronunciations of what you’ll hear when speaking with Americans.  

When a word ends in the J sound like in ‘changed’, I just listened to a bunch of examples of changed. Let’s listen to a few.  

Life changed pretty rapidly for the worst.  

changed pretty— 

Little by little things changed— 

Changed— 

So all those had the released D, changed but it can definitely be dropped too. Let’s look at a common phrase changed my mind. Changed my. It’s fairly common to drop the Ed ending there. The more common a phrase is, the more likely we’ll do some sort of reduction there. And that’s what I found often happens here.  

‘I changed my mind’ becomes ‘I change my mind.’ I listen to a lot of phrases and the D was almost always dropped. So it just sounds like the present tense. Change my mind. Even though  it’s past tense. Here are some examples.  

But I have changed my mind about stress.  

Change my mind. When I listen in slow motion I don’t hear any kind of D.  

It’s changed my mind— 

Here a few more with that dropped D.  

Kind of still feel like a loser because I changed my mind.  

Yes.  

I changed my mind— 

Uh I’ve changed my mind a number of times after hearing the oral argument.  

I’ve changed my mind— 

God appears to Schleyer and says I changed my mind about that confounded speech thing.  

change my mind— 

What about a word where the last sound in the affinitive is the L like in the word drill? When it’s followed by a word that begins with a vowel or diphthong release the D into that word to link it. Drilled into, drilled into. Let’s look at some examples where the next word begins with a consonant.  

Each hole has been drilled to fit a certain nut shape.  

Drilled to fit— 

Drilled to. The D made in the vocal cords drilled to, it’s not released we just go right into the T sound. If I released it, it would be drilled to, drilled to, but it’s drilled to, drilled to. Listen again.  

Each hole has been drilled to fit a certain nut shape.  

drilled to fit— 

Another example.  

We have all these drilled but uncompleted wells 

drilled but– 

Drilled but, drilled but. I did hear the D released lightly. Drilled but.  

This next one was tricky for me, I had to really slow it down to hear if there is an unreleased to D or not, I think there is.  

There’s more rig more holes being drilled, we’re starting to see some more sales tax come in.  

Drilled, we’re star— 

The most common pronunciation I was hearing in various situations was an unreleased D.  

Now we’ll cover our three nasal consonants: M, N and NG.  

For M we’ll look at the word bummed. That means disappointed. We often use it with out. I’m so bummed out. Now in that case because the next word begins with a diphthong, we link with the D. Doubt, doubt, bummed out, bummed out. I’m so bummed out. Let’s listen to an example of that one.  

It was about a full day of just like being down and bummed out.  

Bummed out— 

Dout, dout, bummed out.  

Now we’ll hear two examples where bummed is followed by a consonant. First it’s dropped and that’s more common and then you’ll hear it where it’s released.  

See, she’s probably just bummed that she’s not in the center of attention.  

Bummed that–  

Bummed that. I didn’t hear that D at all. That D was dropped. Here it’s released.  

And so we were bummed for a couple of days until— 

Bummed for a couple— 

Bummed for, bummer for, D D D. A Light release of the D.  

You know I haven’t been talking about much when these Ed ending words are at the end of a thought group. There it will usually be a light release. Let’s look at an example.  

So I was bummed.  

so I was bummed.  

Bummed. Light release. That’s a fun word isn’t it? I’m feeling bummed, I’m kind of bummed out, or you can use it as a noun, It’s a bummer. Oh shoot, my favorite restaurant is closed today I wanted to eat there. That’s a bummer.  N is kind of special. N can make a T silent. Do you know this rule? When T comes after an N, it’s not uncommon to drop that T like in the word internet or interview. When D comes after an n and before another consonant, it’s pretty common to drop like in ‘grand piano’. So it’s really common to drop the D sound in these Ed endings when the sound in the infinitive, the final sound was n and the next word begins with a consonant. Let’s look at several examples. These are all with the word signed.

The contracts that we signed with virtual employee State very clearly— 

we signed with—  

The result was that he had only signed 10% of his paintings. 

Signed 10— 

Of all the different laws of the country put it on one document signed by an EO, 

Signed by an– 

All with a dropped D. Now, we’ll look at drained, also all dropped Ds here.  

You know the political philosophers have sort of drained the life out of them to some extent.  

Drained the life— 

We see what we’ve done is we’ve drained the water down in this Basin.  

Drained the water— 

The American Soldier has drained deep the chalice of courage. drained deep–   

And as always when the next word begins with a vowel or diphthong, we’ll use the released D to link in. Like in this example.  

I signed into law the global food Security Act.  

I signed into law– 

Signed into. Into [flap] with that D sound linking. At the end of a sentence we’ll probably release that D.  

What about NG? Well we don’t have many words here. A lot of those NG ending verbs are not regular like, ring, rang, sing, sang, but we do have the word long, longed. The noun is longing and this means to yearn for. To have a strong desire for. I longed for my mother’s attention or I longed for my newborn baby when I was at work or I longed to be taken seriously. This is often followed by for which of course begins with a consonant. The Ed ending can be dropped but also this is an emotional word and it will sometimes be more stressed.  

I longed for acceptance. And in these cases, the D will probably we be lightly released. We’ll hear two examples, first where it’s dropped and then when it’s not.  

Spanish soledad, which longed for them long for them.  

longed for them. 

The Limited technical approaches that were available I I I longed for the advantages of a microorganism.  

Longed for— 

Let’s move on to the voiced th. This is another sound that’s not very common in Ed ending words. We have smoothed, bathed. These words will most often be followed by a word that begins with a vowel like smoothed out or smoothed over or bathed in. We’ll lightly release the D into that next sound. But when the next sound is a consonant it’s much easier to drop the Ed ending to connect. Here are three examples dropping the Ed ending with the word smoothed.  

You might say well maybe things just smoothed themselves out. 

smoothed themselves–   

The other thing we did is that we smoothed the profile.  

Smoothed the– 

And smoothed things out so I’m waiting— 

smoothed things out— 

The V sound like in moved his car. Moved his, moved his. There I dropped the H in his, that’s a common reduction and so the D linked into the I sound because that’s a vowel. Moved his, dis, dis, I moved his car. At the end of a sentence we’ll probably release that D. He moved. He moved. But when the next sound is a consonant, you’ll hear both dropped and lightly released. Here, two examples. In the first, the D is released. Moved me. In the second example, it’s dropped.  

That insight is what moved me to write my book “The True American.”  

moved me— 

Before she moved back to Mexico.  

moved back— 

Words were the infinitive ends in Z like ‘buzzed’, the rules are the same. Released D and into a vowel or diphthong like in buzzed about.  

Which is one of the most buzzed about companies in education today.  

buzzed about— 

Buzzed about means really talked about. There’s a lot of interest about something. At the end of a thought group it will likely be released like here.  

And she buzzed.  

Buzzed.  

And when the next word begins with a consonant, you’ll have either dropped or lightly released ending. Here’s an example where it’s released.  

My phone buzzed with a text message telling me— 

Buzzed–   

And where the Ed ending is completely dropped.  

Oh, my husband came home a little buzzed last night.  

Buzzed last last.  

We have one more sound here for rule two and it’s the Zh sound. It’s not at all common to have a verb that ends with Zh plus Ed but we do have barraged. Barraged means to bombard, aggressively throw something at someone and it might not mean physically throw. You can barrage someone with words or someone can feel barraged with emails, they just keep getting too many emails. They can’t keep up. This word is usually followed by with or by but you might hear barraged us, followed by a vowel so you’ll link with the D. They barraged us with phone calls, dus, dus, dus, barraged us, barraged us. At the end of a sentence, I’ll lightly release it. I was completely barraged. But followed by a consonant it will likely be dropped,  

We’re barraged by it everywhere we go, we’re barraged by paper.  

we’re barraged by it–   

Or lightly released.  

I was just barraged with questions. 

Barraged– 

Whew! That is a lot for rule two isn’t it? The pronunciations of the Ed ending depend on the sounds before and after. And the more you study and watch examples on Youglish or TED talks the more you’ll get used to how Americans pronounce the Ed endings and you’ll be able to smooth out your own speech and sound natural.  

Now let’s have you train some of these rule two cases with a dropped D to make that feel more comfortable for you. First you’ll hear a phrase then you’ll hear just the two-word link in slow motion twice three times, repeat the third time. It’s important to not just learn something but to actually train it. To speak out loud to get used to it.  

I got booed by 20,000 people for those that don’t know in 2012. Begged for food–   

But I changed my mind about stress.  

changed my mind— 

Kind of still feel like a loser because I changed my mind. Yes.  

I changed my mind— 

Uh i’ I’ve changed my mind a number of times after hearing the oral argument.  

I’ve changed my mind— 

God Appears to Schlayer and says I changed my mind about that confounded speech thing.  

I changed my mind–   

See, she’s probably just bummed that she’s not in the center of attention.  

Bummed that she’s— 

The contracts that we signed with virtual employee stay very clearly— 

We signed with– 

The result was that he had only signed 10% of his paintings. 

Signed– 

Of all the different laws of the country put it on one document signed by an EO that empowered the Department of Homeland Security. 

Signed by an– 

You know the political philosphers who sort of drained the life out of him to some extent.  

drained the life— 

we see what we’ve done is we’ve drained the water down in this basin.  

drained the water– 

The American Soldier has drained deep the chalice of courage.  

Drained deep– 

You might say, “Well, maybe things just smooth themselves out.”  

smooth themselves— 

The other thing we did is that we smoothed the profile.  

We smoothed the– 

And you figured things out a little bit and smoothed things out so I’m waiting,  

smoothed things out smooth out— 

Before she moved back to Mexico.  

Moved back– 

Oh, my husband came home a little buzzed last night. 

Buzzed last night.  

We’re barraged by it, everywhere we go we’re barraged by paper.  

we’re barraged by it– 

I plugged the probe into my phone,  

Plugged the–  

They came in, did the staged reading.  

did the staged reading.  

We actually enrolled the company,  

we enrolled the company–   

Of course, he blamed the Press.  

he blamed the— 

It is now day two and I’ve strained the broth.  

strained the— 

I strained the potatoes, 

I strained–  

Do you feel you were wronged by Conference USA not being able to host in the final year?  

wronged by— 

They solved the problem they have called cash flow.  

They solved the– 

I did not expect rule two to take this long.  

What happens to the T in wanted? or parted?  

The Ed endings in American English are absolutely crazy. We have rules but we don’t always follow them. Today we’re going over rule three for the Ed ending verbs. Don’t worry if you missed one or two, you will not be lost here. These are the words where the Ed ending adds not just an extra sound but a full extra syllable. We’re going to make sure that you know how to integrate them smoothly and perfectly into your speech so you sound natural speaking in the past tense in American English.  

We did a deep dive on rule one. Final sounds in the affinitive is unvoiced T, like in walked. We did a deep dive on rule two, final sound in the infinitive is voiced, the Ed becomes d, a D sound like in seemed.  

Now we have one more rule and it’s short. There are only two sounds involved. The last sound in the infinitive is T or D. Then the Ed ending is not just an extra sound but an extra syllable. Need, a one- syllable word becomes needed, a two syllable word. Correct, a two syllable word becomes corrected, a three syllable word. This ending syllable is always unstressed. Today we’ll go deep on rule three: What exactly does it mean, what are all the cases and how can you use this to sound more natural and relaxed speaking English. With this extra syllable we have the I sound or you can think of it as the schwa plus D. The ending D will always be a flap sound when it links into a word that begins with a vowel or diphthong. For example, end it up. End it [flap] up, end it up, ended up. A quick flap of the tongue for that Ed ending. Let’s look at another example. Acted on becomes acted on. Acted [flap] on, acted on. That flap of the tongue. At the end of a thought group or when the next word begins with a consonant, that will usually be an unreleased D. That means we make a sound in the vocal cords for the D but we don’t release it, D, it’s just dd. For example, ‘it ended’. End of my thought group I didn’t release the D, it ended. That vibrating of the vocal cords for that voiced sound. Ended.  

Now, if it links into a word that begins with a consonant, we’ll also make that unreleased sound. Ended my. Ended my. So it’s not ended my. Ended, ended. We don’t release it. It’s ended my, ended my, ended my. Releasing the D, ended my, ended my is just a little bit extra. We don’t want to make that much of the D so we vibrate the vocal cords but then go on to the next sound. 

Now, if the next word is you or your, you might hear the ending become a jJ sound. Ender Ended your, ended your. Great. But now let’s look at some cases that affect the T or D at the end of the infinitive. So not the Ed ending but the T at the end of the word ‘heat’. For example, heated does not equal heated because the rule for the t is that if it comes between two vowel or diphthong sounds, it’s a flap T. So it’s not t heated. That’s a true T, it’s heated [flap] heated, heated. So any word where there’s a vowel or diphthong plus T and then an ed ending, that’s a flap T. Heated, dated, noted, weighted, [flap]. All flap T’s.  

The flap T rule also applies when the sound before was an R. So R plus t plus vowel or diphthong is a flap T. That means all the RT Ed ending words have a flap T like parted. Part, part [flap] parted, parted. Alerted [flap], alert [flap], alerted.  

And this is also true for the D. A D between vowels or after an R before a vowel or diphthong is a flap. So for example in the word boarded, board [flap], that D at the end of the infinitive is a flap. Boarded, worded, worded.  

What would it sound like if it wasn’t a flap but a real D with a stop and the release D? That would sound like this worded, worded, worded. It’s too much D we make a flap. Worded, graded, flap sound.  

Let’s look at another case. The sound before the T of the word in the infinitive is an N. We might drop that that T. We do that in the N combination sometimes like in the word interview. It’s very common to drop that T. So let’s look at the word want. Past tense with the Ed ending, wanted. But it’s actually very common to drop the T sound in that word and it becomes wanted, wanted. This pronunciation is more common than the pronunciation with the T. Let’s go to Youglish for examples.  

And I got into it because I wanted to help people feel better. Wanted to— 

You had something you wanted to accomplish,  

you wanted— 

Wanted. Each one with no T sound at all. Isn’t this interesting? It’s the T at the end of want that puts this into rule three because the final sound is the T but we don’t even say that. This is true also of the word counted. You’ll often hear that T dropped, counted.  

Depending on how you counted it between 30 and 60 mobile engineers.  

You counted it— 

The votes hadn’t been counted,  

Counted— 

There will definitely be cases where you hear the T in counted but often not. Pointed, is another word where usually the T will be dropped. I pointed out the mistake. Pointed out. Pointed out. No T.  

What about the word ‘planted’ becoming ‘plan-ed’? Now I listened to a bunch of examples, there it does seem to be more common to actually say the T sound than to drop it, planted, but even that one can go either way. Planted or plan-ed.  

What about n d plus Ed ending? We never drop that D. Ended. If we dropped it, it would be ended. And that would sound very strange to us. So ended, ended, bonded, we don’t drop the D.  

In the other ending clusters, we do say the t or d, for example, the PT ending prompt or interrupt. We do say that T when we add on the Ed. Prompted, interrupted, tt, tt, tt. A light true T. Acted, lifted, folded, we say the D and fold. Folded, did, folded. And those are the cases for rule three.  

Wow, when you add up all these videos we’ve been talking about Ed endings for well over 30 minutes. Things just aren’t as simple as they seem. Now let’s test your memory for the main three rules. Is the Ed ending a T sound, a D sound or an extra syllable? Here’s your first word word. Is it agred, agreed or agreed? The final sound on the word when it’s in the infinitive is a vowel that’s voiced so it’s rule three, a D sound. Agreed.  

What about this word? Is it bombed, bombed, or bombed?  

The last sound is voiced, it’s not a T or a D, therefore it’s rule two, a D sound, bombed.  

What about this word? Is it talked, talked, or talked?  

The last sound of the word in the infinitive is unvoiced. Therefore the ending is unvoiced, T, talked.  

Now let’s listen to a bunch of examples for rule three Ed endings. Some of them will have a dropped T some of them will have a flap. Get used to simplifying and linking these words into the next words.  

First you’ll hear a phrase then you’ll hear just the two-word link like counted my in slow motion several times, repeat the last time, the third time. Repeat that slow motion link. It’s important not to just learn something but to actually train it, to speak out loud, to get used to it.  

And I got into it because I wanted to help people feel better.  

I wanted to–  

You had something you wanted to accomplish, 

you wanted— 

Depending on how you counted it between 30 and 60 mobile Engineers,  

you counted it– 

The votes hadn’t been counted, 

Counted– 

I think that the landscape has changed from when I started  

When I started– 

She rented a room for a summer and she said, “Edith Knox wore pants.” 

She rented– 

They are then able to choose whether they would to view the most noted,  

most noted— 

I think overwhelmingly like 87% of people sided with the coalition. You know they, they get it.  

People sided with–   

which guided a lot of my decisions.
Guided a lot–  

Now you could prepare a lecture on how to pronounce Ed endings. What do you think? Confusing? Simple? Keep your learning going now with this video and don’t forget to subscribe with notifications on, I love being your English teacher. That’s it and thanks so much for using Rachel’s English. 

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