You may have noticed that in English, past tense verbs with an -ed ending are pronounced

in three different ways:

[t]
[d] or
[Id].
For example, if I say the past tense verb walked, as in, I walked away, what is the last
sound that you hear in the verb?
Walked [wakt]
1) The -ed verb ending sounds like a [t], Walked [wakt], even though it ends in the letter d.

What do you hear when I say:

smelled, as in, it smelled bad.
2) The -ed verb ending sounds like a [d]: smelled [smeld]

And when I say, visited, as in I visited New York City, how did I pronounce that -ed
ending?
[Id] [vizitid].
3) The -ed verb ending sounds like [d], [vizitid].

Intro | Why the Sound Changes

Place your fingertips on the front of your neck, and pronounce the following words. What do
you feel on your fingers when you say the underlined sound?
vow | fake (vvv | fff)
zebra | snake (zzz | sss)
> When we pronounce voiced sounds, our vocal chords vibrate when we say those
sounds. [v] [z]. Did you feel the vibration?
> When we pronounce voiceless sounds, our vocal chords do not vibrate. [f] [s]. No
vibration.
This vibration or lack of vibration then carries forward to the following sound in the word.
Therefore, this vibration or lack of vibration explains why we pronounce the past tense of
verbs in three voiced orvoiceless ways: [t], [d] or [Id].

1) [t] final sound

Verbs ending in voiceless sounds [p, k, , f, s, , t] cause the -ed ending to be
pronounced as the voiceless [t] (with no vocal chord vibration).
Listen and Repeat
[p] He popped a balloon. [papt]
[k] They talked a lot [takt]
[] th: She frothed a cup of milk [frawt]
[f] I laughed at the movie. [lft]
[s] She kissed a frog. [kIst]
[] sh: We brushed it off. [brut]
[t] ch: I reached around for it. [riytt]
2) [d] final sound
Verbs ending in the voiced sounds [b, g, , v, z, , d, m, n, , r, l] cause the -ed ending
to be pronounced as a voiced [d].
Listen and Repeat
[b] It bobbed up and down. [babd]
[g] He begged her to stay. [bgd]
[] She breathed loudly. [briyd]
[v] They loved it. [luvd]
[z] We raised her expectations. [reyzd]
[d] They bridged the gap. [brIdd]
[m] I claimed it was mine. [kleymd]
[n] They banned new members. [bnd]
[] She banged into the chair. [bd]
[r] He cleared it up. [kliyrd]
[l] I rolled up the paper. [rowld]

3) [d] or [d] final sound

Verbs ending in the sounds [t] or [d] will cause the -ed ending of a verb to
be pronounced as the syllable[d] or [d].

Listen and Repeat

[t] I visited the Empire State Building. [vztd]

[t] She edited the research paper. [dtd]
[d] We ended the game early. [ndd]
[d] He breaded the chicken. [brdd]