Pronunciation of "ED" Endings in Verbs

4. Pronunciation of the ED ending
The ending ed is usually not pronounced as a separate syllable. For instance, in each of the following examples, both the bare infinitive and the past participle consist of one syllable. For example:

Bare Infinitive	Past Participle
puff	puffed
work	worked
miss	missed
watch	watched

However, when the ending ed is added to verbs which end in d or t, the ed ending of the past participle is pronounced as a separate syllable. The reason for this is that the sounds of d and t are so similar to the sound of the ed ending, that the ending must be pronounced as a separate syllable in order to be heard clearly.

In each of the following examples, the bare infinitive consists of one syllable; whereas the past participle consists of two syllables. For example:

Bare Infinitive	Past Participle
add	added
land	landed
hunt	hunted
wait	waited

Similarly, when d is added to verbs ending in a silent e preceded by d or t, the final ed of the past participle is pronounced as a separate syllable. In each of the following examples, the bare infinitive consists of one syllable; whereas the past participle consists of two syllables. For example:

Bare Infinitive	Past Participle
fade	faded
glide	glided
cite	cited
note	noted

Exercise 5
Keeping in mind that the ending ed forms a separate syllable only when it follows the letter d or t, indicate the number of syllables in each of the following past participles. Read each of the the past participles aloud. For example:
      __ pained
      1 pained

      __ painted
      2 painted