Past tense verb pronunciation is one thing that native English speakers don’t have to think about. For our newcomers, they must be explicitly taught past tense verb pronunciation.
Your students’ confidence reading aloud will sky-rocket 🚀 once they are introduced to the rules surrounding past tense verb pronunciation. When introduced in chunks, it can be very digestible, and the students will be grateful you taught them. It’s one of my favorite things to teach, and for those students who really care about correct pronunciation, it’s one of their favorite things to learn.
How to Teach Past Tense Verbs to Your Students:
But first, my shameless plug: I have a product on TPT with all the materials I use to make sure students have the opportunity to learn this. It’s only $4.99. Check it out!
Past Tense Verbs Ending with a /d/ sound
Many past tense English verbs simply end with the /d/ sound, as in the word “played.” The /d/ sound is voiced. This means there is a vibration in your throat when you say it. Have your students place their hand on their throats and pronounce the /d/ sound. Do they feel the vibration? Great! When verbs end with any letter that is voiced (causes vibrations) in their throats, they will add the voiced /d/ ending to the verb in the past tense.
Examples:
“Appear” (r is voiced) becomes “appeared” with the voiced /d/ sound.
“Save” (v is voiced) becomes “saved” with the voiced /d/ sound.
“Explain” (n is voiced) becomes “explained” with the voiced /d/ sound.
The point here is a verb with a voiced ending adds the voiced /d/ sound in the past tense!
Another way to teach whether a letter sound is voiced or voiceless is to have students cover their ears. Voiceless letter sounds will be quiet, and voiced letter sounds are REALLY loud. Try it! Say the /t/ sound while covering your ears. Now say the /d/ sound. Quite the difference!
Past Tense Verbs Ending with a /t/ sound
Some past tense English verbs end with a /t/ sound. The letter /t/ sound is voiceless, which means there is no vibration in your throat when you say it. Have students place their hand on their throat and pronounce the /t/ sound. Here’s the secret: Past tense verbs that end with a voiceless sound, use the voiceless /t/ sound! That’s it!
SO… any words that end with a /k/, /s/, /sh/, /ch/, /f/, /x/, or /p/ sound (These are all voiceless!) use the voiceless /t/ sound in the past tense.
Instead of having students memorize this list of letter sounds, teach them to recognize which letters are voiceless. This is much easier for students.
. Examples:
“Kiss” (/s/ is voiceless) becomes “kissed” with the voiceless /t/ sound.
“Search” (/ch/ is voiceless) becomes “searched” with the voiceless /t/ sound.
“Pop” (/p/ is voiceless) becomes “popped” with the voiceless /t/ sound.
“Laugh” (/f/ is voiceless) becomes “laughed” with the voiceless /t/ sound.
“Push” (/sh/ is voiceless) becomes “pushed” with the voiceless /t/ sound.
Past Tense Verbs with an Extra Syllable
The final rule is that if a verb ends with a /d/ sound or /t/ sound, you will add a syllable to the past tense pronunciation.
Examples:
“Need” ends with a /d/ sound. Students will add a syllable. I break down the word like this on the board: nee / ded
“Start” ends with a /t/ sound. Students will add a syllable.
The word is pronounced: star / ted
And that’s it! Repetition helps with remembering these rules, but I think the lightbulb moment comes when students realize that a voiceless verb ending has a voiceless /t/ sound in the past tense, and a voiced verb ending has a voiced /d/ sound in past tense. Additionally, it’s really beneficial for students to see verbs with the extra syllable endings broken down into pronunciation pieces.
My intermediate past tense pronunciation unit teaches students everything they need to know to successfully pronounce past tense verbs. It chunks up the material into 16 different 20 minute lessons, so you can start or end classes with this unit. Find it here, and please consider subscribing to my mailing list for more ESL tips and tricks.
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