Unit 27. Pete Played, Rita Rested.
Syllables: Adding Past Tense Endings
Unit 27; Part A
The verb play /pleι/ has one syllable and the past tense played /pleιd/ also has only one syllable. Usually the -ed ending is just a consonant sound (C), not another syllable; the letter E is silent. So, for example, smiled /smaιld/ rhymes with child /t∫aιld/, even though child does not have a letter E before the D. Listen to the rhymes. Notice that -ed rhymes with either /t/ or /d/. | ||
He looked round first, And then reversed. The car that passed Was going fast. It hit the side. The driver cried. He never guessed, He'd pass the test. | |
Unit 27; Part B
If the infinitive of the verb ends with the sounds /t/ or /d/, -ed or -d is a new syllable; the lerter E is pronounced as a vowel sound. For example: hate /heιt/- one syllable hated /heιtιd/ = two syllables | |||||
Listen and compare the sentences on the left and right below.
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Unit 27; Part C
Past tense endings tell you if the sentence is present or past. Listen to the difference.
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Note: If it is difficult to say the -ed ending in words like cooked, imagine that the -ed is joined to the word after. For example say cooked all the food like this: cook tall the food. Note: If the word after the past tense verb begins with a consonant, you may not hear the -ed, e.g. cooked dinner, walked through. |
Exercises
| Unit 26 Unit 27 Unit 28 | |