How to Pronounce -ed Endings

A very common pronunciation mistake that many students make is how to pronounce ‘-ed’ endings.

How would you pronounce the following words?

1. Worked
2. Planned
3. Started

Did you know that all of the ‘-ed’ endings pronounce differently in these examples?

Voiceless Sounds vs. Voiced Sounds

In order to pronounce ‘-ed’ properly, you need to understand the difference between voiceless sounds and voiced sounds. A voiced sound uses your vocal chords, or “voice”. A voiceless sound does not use your vocal chords so it will sound like a whisper. If you want to feel the difference, place your hand on your throat while you are pronouncing the letter. If you feel a vibration, you are using your vocal chords. If there is no vibration, it is a voiceless sound.

Say “pat” out loud.

Now, say “bat” out loud.

To pronounce p and b, we must touch both our lips together. Our mouths move in the same way for both letters. The difference is that when you pronounce b, you should use your voice. When you pronounce p, you do not use your voice. Put your hand against your throat and only pronounce the first sound without any vowels. You should feel the difference.

Some other pairs are f and v, g and k, t and d, and more.

-Ed Endings

Take a look at the examples from the beginning of the article. Look at the letter immediately before the ‘-ed’ ending.

1. Work
2. Plan
3. Start

If the letter before -ed is voiceless, like in example 1, the -ed ending sounds like ‘t’, which is also a voiceless sound.
1. Worked = t
For example 2, the letter before -ed is voiced, so the -ed ending sounds like ‘d’, which is also a voiced sound.
2. Planned = d
Every time a word ends in t or d, we need to add a vowel sound so the pronunciation will be ‘id’.
3. Started = id

Extra Examples of ‘-ed’ Endings