The Ed Sound Regular Verbs

I learned painting last week.

How do I pronounce the “ed” sound for regular verbs? This is a common question for students learning English. There are three main ways to pronounce the “ed” sound, which we will cover in this lesson. The three sounds are “id“, “t” and “d“. Do not confuse regular verbs in the past simple and past participle with adjectives. There are times when the verbs and ad Look at the following:

• I learned French last year. (learned in the simple past with the d sound)
• He is a learned man due to studying for many years. (learned as an adjective with the id sound)
• Jenny blessed her little brother. (blessed in the simple past with the d sound)
• It was a blessed Friday (blessed as an adjective with the id sound)

Look at the end sound for the base regular verb to determine the sound to make when the end is added. Look at the IPA to determine the sound. Here is a chart showing the sounds to look for and the sounds that they make:

End Sound	Base Verb	Ed	Sound	Voiced	Extra Syllable
/t/	Act	Acted	/Id/	Voiced	Yes
/d/	Astound	Astounded	/Id/	Unvoiced	Yes
/p/	Escape	Escaped	/t/	Unvoiced	No
/f/	Laugh	Laughed	/t/	Unvoiced	No
/s/	Mix	Mixed	/t/	Unvoiced	No
/S/	Push	Pushed	/t/	Unvoiced	No
/tS/	Scratch	Scratched	/t/	Unvoiced	No
/k/	Poke	Poked	/t/	Unvoiced	No
All other sounds	Chew	Chewed	/d/	Voiced	No
	Beg	Begged	/d/	Voiced	No

If you need to understand how to determine the sounds, just refer to the IPA. For example, if I want to know the sound like makes, I can find the sound here. Do not forget to select the IPA, showing “/laɪk/”. Use this method to determine the proper sound when the ed is added.

Do not forget about adjectives that are pronounced with the “Id” sound. Here are a few more examples:

• The blessed man had everything he needed.
• Jane is an aged woman.