It’s exam time!

Hello everybody and happy December!

It’s that time of the year again, and I don’t mean Christmas!

Pronunciation (-ed )

Hey guys!

How are you doing? In Euroschool we couldn’t be happier!!! We have been awarded with the Achievement Award 2016!!!

Do you know what that means? Well, in case you missed it last year, this is an award given by Cambridge English to the best Exam Preparation Centres. We are top notch! 🙂 And the best part is that it is not us saying it: it’s Cambridge! So before getting hands on with pronunciation we want to thank YOU: this wouldn’t have been possible without all your effort to pass.

Here’s the award:

PRONUNCIATION:

-ed pronunciation is usually an issue to students of all levels so, today’s post is going to be dedicated to helping you with this matter.

The first thing you need to understand is that the pronunciation of these endings is going to depend on the last sound of the word without the suffix. (If you are not familiar with the phonetic chart, check out this link: https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/phonemic-chart )

For example:

“Watch” is pronounced /wɒtʃ/ and its last sound is /ʃ/. This means that when adding the -ed suffix it will sound like this: /wɒtʃt/. You can see that a /t/ sound has been added at the end.

“Love” is pronounced /lov/ and its last sound is /v/. So in the past and past participle forms it will sound like this: /lovd/. Here, a /d/ sound has been added.

“Lift” is pronounced just as it is written: /lift/, with a final /t/ sound,  and in its -ed form is pronounced /liftid/

/t/, /d/ or /id/?

As mentioned above that will depend on the last sound of the word which  we know is sometimes difficult to identify. However, we have made this chart in which we categorise those sounds depending on the pronunciation of the -ed suffix.

(Please note that these are not phonemic symbols but an approximation of how they sound when we pronounce them)

/t/	/d/	/id/
/p/ /k/ /f/ /s/ /sh/ /tch/ /ks/	/b/ /g/ /v/ /z/ /dj/ /m/ /n/ /r/ /l/	/t/ /d/

This chart works not only for verbs but for any other word with -ed ending.

I know that phonetics are not very popular amongst Spanish students but I really encourage you to learn them! Your teacher at Euroschool can help you! Meanwhile, if you want to start digging around on your own, here is a great video to get started:

YouTube – British Council Phonemic Chart

As students, we usually think that our pronunciation has to be spot on and that we should know how to pronounce every word. We tend to put a lot of pressure on ourselves! Well, maybe the following video will help you to be a bit more relaxed about it!

Check it out! It’s just hilarious! 😆

<a href="http://www.slideshare.net/EuroschoolOfEnglish/slideshelf“>http://www.slideshare.net/EuroschoolOfEnglish/slideshelf

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