Pronouncing Regular Past Tense Verbs

To review, we all know that to form the written regular past tense we must do the following.

If the verb ends in “e” add “d”
Live = Lived

If the verb ends in a consonant + “y” change the “y” to “i” and then add “ed”
Cry = Cried

If the verbs ends in a vowel and a consonant (except) “w” or “y”) then double the consonant and add “ed”
Stop = Stopped

For all other ending add “ed”
Fill = Filled

However, the sound made when we pronounce the regular past tense is not just “d”.
A lot of English learners don’t realise that there are three distinct sounds used in English for regular past tense verbs, and they are “d”, “id” and “t”.

Listened has the “d” sound at the end

Boasted has the “id” sound at the end

Laughed has the “t” sound at the end

To find out which regular past tense verbs have which sound at the end is best done by learning English with a professional native speaker English teacher!

Learn more English for free at www.smartlanguagesolutions.com and click free stuff!