Several of the students that I work with in my accent reduction coaching program have trouble hearing the ed that comes at the end of past tense verbs. One reason why they are having this problems is that ed does not always sound like /ed/. Sometimes ed sounds like /d/ and sometimes it sounds like /t/.
The other reason the word final ed can be difficult to hear is because native English speakers link words together so that the /d/ & /t/ sounds become part of the following word. That means that:
passed out sounds like pass dout
looked over sounds like look dover
talked about sounds like talk tabout
laughed at sounds like laugh tat
Click here to read more about this on my post called How to pronounce ed in American English.
Tags: Accent Reduction for Chinese Speakers, Accent Reduction Techniques, american english consonants, American English Pronunciation, learn american accent, linking, spanish speakers
