English Pronunciation Tips. Pronounce ‘ed’ correctly and more!

English Pronunciation Tips. Pronounce ‘ed’ Correctly And More!

English pronunciation can be tricky at times so I thought I would clear up some confusion with a few pronunciation tips this week.

English Pronunciation Tip 1- When does /c/ say /s/?

Now this one is a nice one because it doesn’t have any exceptions for a change! So when does /c/ say the /s/ sound?

When /c/ is followed by an e, i, or y it says /s/.  It doesn’t matter what position the /c/ takes in a word, this still happens.   Some examples of this are:-  chance, cent, cycle, receipt, facet, cyst, cinema, racing, cynical, accent, conceptual.

English Pronunciation Tip 2- When does /g/ say /dʒ/?

This one isn’t ‘so nice’  because there are some exceptions, but most of the time it plays fair! We can always blame the fact that England was invaded so many times for the exceptions. So when does /g/ say /dʒ/ or ‘j’?

When /g/ is followed by an e, i, or y it says /dʒ/, most of the time. Some examples of this are:- edge, ginger, page, giant, gym (gymnasium), gentle, general, cogitate, archaeology, gyrate, etymology.

Two of the most common exceptions are – girl and get.

English Pronunciation Tip 3 – When does ‘es’ say ‘əz’ ?

Firstly, the schwa sound /ə/ is pronounced like a very quickly, pronounced short /u/ sound.

The ‘es’ at the end of of a word is pronounced  ‘əz’ when ‘es’ comes after the following letters or sounds:-  s, z, ch, sh, j, and si (this is pronounced /zh/ as in vision).

Some examples of this are:- passes, beaches, faces ( the /c/ says the /s/ sound – see tip 1), noses, washes, packages ( the /g/ says ‘j’ in this word – see tip number 2), mazes, entourages ( the /g/ can be said as a  dʒ or zh here),  ranges, roses.

English Pronunciation Tip 4- How do I pronounce ‘ed’ at the end of verbs?

Ok so here’s the rule:-

Firstly, you need to know that ‘ed’ most commonly says /əd /. In some parts of the U.S. it can say  /əd/ or /Id/.  The next most common thing ‘ed’ says is /d/, and it says /t/ the least.

-When ‘ed’ says /əd/ at the end of a verb-  when a verb ends in a /t/ or /d/ sound the ‘ed’ says /əd/.   Some examples are :- wanted, rated, needed, coded, warranted, featured, paraded.

-When ‘ed’ says /d/at the end of a verb-  when a verb ends in a vowel or voiced consonant, the ‘ed’ is pronounced as /d/.    Some examples are:- snowed, moved, bobbed, played, wagged, amazed, blamed, fanned, pulled, paired, plugged, sued.

-When ‘ed’ says /t/ at the end of a verb-  when a verb ends in an unvoiced consonant, the ‘ed’ is pronounced as /t/.   Some examples are:- hopped, packed, puffed, dressed, laughed.

Of course  just to remind you- you need to practise this in your everyday life situations so it becomes automatic.

Best wishes,

Esther