Pronunciation

PAST PARTICIPLES

As you should already know, the Past Participle (P.Pt.) is one of the four invariable forms of each and every English verb, apart from the Infinitive, the Gerund and the Past Simple form. They are used to form the perfect tenses and they can also function as adjectives in given contexts.

The most common way to form the Past Participle is by adding –ed to the verb, which is the way in which regular verbs form their Past Simple and Past Participle forms. Take, for instance, the verb move.

            MOVE

            Infinitive form: MOVE

            Past Simple and Past Participle forms: MOVED

In context

            If we have a child, we will have to move to a bigger house. (Infinitive)

            It’s been more than one year since we moved here. (Past Simple)

            We have moved more than three times in less than two years. (Past Participle)

Although all regular verbs follow the same rule to form their Past Simple and Past Participle forms, the way those participles are pronounced are completely different. To learn how each verb forms its participles, we will have a look at this outline, where we will find out that there are three ways of pronouncing the –ed:

            /Id/

          /t/

          /d/

Bear in mind that these symbols are the phonetic representation of the letters and not the letters themselves.

However, as it always happens in English, there are some exceptions. As we have studied before, Past Participles can act as adjectives, and when they do, some of them will be pronounced as if they were ended in /Id/ when, as real verbs, they are pronounced as if they ended in a different way. These are the exceptions:

Aged

Dogged

Ragged

Blessed

Learned

Wicked

Crooked

Naked

Wretched

BIBLIOGRAPHY CONSULTED

https://www.englishclub.com/pronunciation/-ed.htm

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