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For the teacher: Once you read over the lesson below, I am including a PDF with twenty sentences, pronunciation exercises (fill in the blanks and pronounce the -ed ending) for you to download. The teacher can review the sentences with the students, have the students do the exercises in groups of three or four, or have the students do the exercises individually, then check their answers with other students in groups of three or four.
Exercises for the student. Fill in the blanks. Regular verb pronunciation with —ed endings.
Here is the PDF with fill in the blank the exercises. It can be downloaded and printed. Exercise sheets PDF.
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-ed Ending Pronunciation Exercises
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Here is the PDF with the answers for the exercises. It can be downloaded and printed. Answer sheet PDF.
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-ed Ending Answers PDF
Main Verbs and Helping Verbs
Before we focus on pronouncing the -ed endings of regular verbs in the simple past, let’s take a brief look at main verbs and helping verbs in English.
Every main verb in English has three principal parts:
The Base Form: walk, eat
The ING: walking, eating
And The Participle: walked, eaten
There are twenty helping verbs in English. These twenty helping verbs are divided into four families.
Do, does, and did.
Can, shall, will, must, may, might, would, could, and should.
Am, are, is, was, and were.
Have, has, and had.
Helping verbs give the principal parts of the main verb their person and tense. Every sentence in English has a helping verb in it. Most sentences in English have two verbs in them, the main verb and the helping verb that is helping it.
Do, does, and did help the base form (walk, eat) in the simple present and the simple past. She doesn’t eat pizza every day. I do like to walk. We did walk a mile.
Can, will, shall, must, might, may, could, would, and should help the base form (walk, eat) in the future and conditional tenses. I can walk. She will walk. Shall we walk? I must walk, you might walk, and she may walk. I could walk if you would walk; in fact, we all should walk.
Am, are, is, was, and were help the ING in the active (walking, eating) and they help the Participle in the passive (was walked, is eaten). I am eating what they are eating. She was walking home when it began to rain. The pie was eaten quickly by the children.
Am, are, is, was, and were are also the only helping verbs that can stand alone. Think of an algebra equation. I = the teacher. You = the student. We = together. I am the teacher. You are the student. We are together.
Have, has, and had help the Participle in the perfect tenses (have walked, had eaten). She had walked a mile before I did. They have eaten the pizza.
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The Simple Past
There is one helping verb that helps the simple past. That helping verb is did. Did helps the base form.
Main verbs can be regular or irregular.
The principal parts of the irregular verb to eat are eat, eating, and eaten. In the simple past the helping verb did helps the base form eat. Eat, not eaten, is the principal part used in the simple past.
Yes: The cat ate (did eat) breakfast.
No: The cat didn’t eat breakfast.
Yes/No Question: Did the cat eat breakfast?
For Certain: Yes, the cat did eat breakfast.
The principal parts of the regular verb to walk are walk, walking, and walked. In the simple past the helping verb did helps the base form walk. Walk, not walked, is the principal part used in the simple past.
Yes: I walked (did walk) to work this morning.
No: I didn’t walk to work this morning.
Yes/No Question: Did you walk to work this morning?
For Certain: Yes, I did. I did walk to work this morning.
In the No Sentence and the Yes/No Question the helping verb did is always seen. The helping verb says, “No,” and it asks the question. In the Yes Sentence in the simple past did usually hides behind the main verb, ate or walked. Remember that did is always seen in the negative sentence, the question, and in the yes sentence when it is emphatic, insistent and wants to be certain.
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Some English Rules
English grammar is consistent. The rules are 100%. For example, every main verb has three principal parts. Twenty helping verbs help these principal parts by giving them their person and their place in time. These rules never change and are easy to understand.
What can be difficult to understand are the rules for pronouncing English. The verb to read, for example, is spelled the same in the present and the past, but it is not pronounced the same. The same is true with pronouncing the -ed endings of regular verbs in the simple past. There are three ways to pronounce the -ed ending. Look at the three ways below.
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Group 1 ……………………………………………………/t/
After voiceless sounds ……………………………..asked
(p, k, f, s, t, sh, ch) ……………………………………kissed
the —ed ending is pronounced /t/. ….. . …..stopped
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Group 2 ……………………………………………………/d/
After voiced sounds …………………………………robbed
(b, g, v, z, m, n, r or a vowel ) ……………. ………planned
the —ed ending is pronounced /d/. …. .. …. …played
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Group 3 ……………………………………………………/id/
After the letters t and d …………………………..planted
the —ed ending is pronounced /id/ …….. …..wanted
and a second syllable is added. …………………needed
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Pronouncing the -ed Ending
Look at the Youtube video below. The teacher describes very well how to pronounce the -ed endings of regular verbs in the simple past. Watch and listen:
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How to pronounce the three -ed Endings of Regular Verbs in English
If you form the verb in your throat, it ends with a /d/ sound. Every verb with a vowel sound at the end is pronounced with a /d/sound. Played, complained, lied, cried are pronounced with a /d/ sound at the end.
If you form the verb at yours lips, it gets a /t/ sound. Kissed, missed, pushed, talked all get the /t/ sound at the end.
If the verb ends with the letter t or d, it gets an (id) sound. Decided, trusted, hunted, wanted all end in a d or t and get the /id/ sound, and a second syllable is added.
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Again: Here are the PDFs. Exercises for the student. Fill in the blanks. Regular verb pronunciation with —ed endings.
Here is the PDF with fill in the blank the exercises. It can be downloaded and printed. Exercise sheets PDF.
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-ed Ending Pronunciation Exercises
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Here is the PDF with the answers for the exercises. It can be downloaded and printed. Answer sheet PDF.
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-ed Ending Answers PDF
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Instructions.
Read each sentence in the simple past. Look at the regular verb. Does it have a /t/ or /d/ or /id/ sound at the end? Say it. If you form the verb in your throat, it ends with a /d/ sound. If you form the verb at yours lips, it gets a /t/ sound. If the verb ends with the letter t or d, it gets an (id) sound. Write the verb in the simple past in the blank and pronounce it correctly as you write it. Pronounce it again before going on to the next sentence. The first three sentences are examples. Do the other sentences by yourself, and then review them with your classmates.
/t/ /d/ or /id/ ending
1. Benny was a good student. The teacher ________________ (like) Benny.
2. Benny _________________ (want) to learn.
3. In fact, Benny _________________ (love) to work.
4. The teacher often _________________ (ask) the class questions.
5. Benny always ________________________ (answer) correctly.
6. He ________________________ (remember) everything.
7. He never _________________ (talk) out of turn.
8. Some students _________________ (dislike) Benny.
9. They _________________ (decide) to get him in trouble.
10. They _________________ (roll) a piece of paper into a ball.
11. They _________________ (aim) and threw it at the teacher.
12. The ball _________________ (land) on the teacher’s head.
13. They _________________ (laugh) when they saw it.
14. “Who did that?” the teacher _________________ (shout).
15. All the students _________________ (point) at Benny.
16. But the teacher _________________ (trust) Benny.
17. The teacher _________________ (punish) the students. He _________________ (hate) to do it, but he _________________ (want) them to learn their lesson.
18. This was how the story _________________ (end).
19. The teacher _________________ (allow) Benny to leave class early.
20. The other students _________________ (stay) and _________________ (finish) their work.
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Remember
If we say, “I walked a mile yesterday,” what we are really saying is: “I did walk a mile yesterday.” Usually in the yes sentence the helping verb did stays hidden unless we want to make a point and be for certain. Yes, the cat did eat breakfast (did seen). Yes, I did walk to work this morning (did seen). The cat ate breakfast (did hidden). I walked to work this morning (did hidden).
Learning English: Main Verbs
Thinking about the future in English with a lesson plan