# Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?

*learned, alleged,*and

*wicked*

Did you ever notice that there are two different ways to pronounce the last syllable of words like *beloved* or *alleged*?

The suffix *-ed* is the way we mark the past participle of many verbs. It always formerly was pronounced as a full syllable. We still hear that full *-ed* in some words, for phonetic reasons, when a word ends in *-ted* or *-ded*, such as *wanted* and *tasted* or *ended* and *divided*.

Over the centuries, that fully pronounced syllable was reduced to a single sound, /t/ or /d/, in many verbs. In an example of English trimming a sound for efficiency, we no longer hear a vowel in the last syllable of such words, just the /t/ or /d/ as the final sound. There is a phonetic rule we unconsciously follow for this subtle distinction: when the next-to-last syllable of a word ending in *-ed* is voiced—pronounced with the vocal cords engaged—the *-ed* is pronounced as a /d/. But when the next-to-last syllable is unvoiced, the *-ed* is pronounced as /t/.

To hear the difference, say the words *buzzed* (ends in a /d/ sound) and *bussed* (ends in a /t/ sound) out loud. If you touch your throat and pronounce the letter /s/ and then the letter /z/, you will feel the difference as you hear it. Voicing is the difference between other consonants as well, like /f/ and /v/ and /p/ and /b/.

We hear /t/ in words like these:


hoped, talked, stopped, jumped, relaxed

We hear /d/ in words like these:


agreed, enjoyed, lived, webbed, snowed

This reduction of sound is also shown in the spelling (without the *e*) of some verbs with a monosyllabic past tense form, such as *sold, bled, bought, leapt, fought*. There are a few that are spelled both ways, sometimes in British variants like *spelt* (for *spelled*) and *spilt* (for *spilled*).

Some adjectives were formed from past participles before the sound of the *-ed* suffix was reduced, and they retain the older pronunciation with a full syllable for *-ed* in some contexts:


blessed, learned, aged

These have an archaic or formal character. The addition of the final syllable gives a more official sound to *marked* and *alleged*.

Adjectives are sometimes used as nouns in English, and when *-ed* adjectives are used this way, the final syllable is pronounced and they similarly convey a formal tone, as in “dearly beloved.”

The *-ed* suffix also creates adjectives out of nouns, which is how words like *talented, wooded, wretched, diseased, bigoted, crooked* and *honeyed* were formed. Many of these are seen as the second part of a description, like *long-eared, brown-haired, saber-toothed*, and *blue-eyed*.

Finally, some of these words didn’t begin as either a verb or a noun—they were always adjectives in our language, like *wicked*. And that’s the *naked* truth.