ED ENDINGS (3/3) American English Accent Training: PERFECT PRONUNCIATION

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  

3 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.

Don't forget, if you like this  video or you learned something new,  

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We did a deep dive on rule one.  Final sounds in the infinitive  

is unvoiced, tt-- like in walked.  We did a deep dive on rule two.  

Final sound in the infinitive is voiced. The  ED becomes dd-- 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 IH  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:  

ended up—

Ended up, ende-rarara-- ended up, a quick flap  of the tongue for that ED ending. Let's look at  

another example: acted on—becomes: acted on,  acted 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. Ddd-- That  means we make a sound in the vocal cords for the D  

but we don't release it, dd-- it's  just dd-- for example: it ended.  

End of my thought group, I didn't  release the d. It ended. Ddd---  

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, just a little bit extra. We don't want to  

make that much of the D so we vibrate the vocal  chords but then go on to the next sound. Now if  

the next word is you or you're, you might hear the  ending become a J sound. 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. Heat, id, 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 tt--heated, that's  a true T, it's heated, dadadada-- 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. Dadadada-- 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: pardon, par-da-- par-dada--  

pardon. Pardon. Alerted  dadada-- alertuh-- 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’ boar-- dadadada--  

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 the stop and the release? Ddd-- 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 T. We do that in  

the NT 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.

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.

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  planted? 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 planted.

What about ND 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.  

Ted, ted, ted. A light true T. Acted. Lifted.  Folded. We say the D in fold. Folded. Ded. 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. Is it agreet, agreed,  or agree-ed? 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 bombet, bombed, or  

bomb-ed? 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  talket, talked, or talk-ed?  

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 3,  

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.

Now you could prepare a lecture  on how to pronounce ED endings.  

There are so many details involved, aren't  there? The playlist for all three of these  

videos is here for your reference. You  may find that you want to watch them  

several times to really get all the  rules and pronunciations into your brain.

Thanks so much for sticking with me.  Be sure to check out this video next.  

Also, check out my online courses at Rachel’s  English academy. You'll become a more confident  

English speaker. I make new videos every Tuesday,  be sure to come back next week to watch more,  

I love being your English teacher. That's it  and thanks so much for using Rachel’s English.