Pronunciation of the regular past

Verbs in the regular past always end with a -d in their spelling, but the pronunciation of the past ending is not always the same:

play/played I d /

The most common spelling characteristic of the regular past is that -ed is added to the base form of the verb: opened, knocked, stayed, etc. Except in the cases noted below, this -ed is not pronounced as if it were an extra syllable, so opened is pronounced: / Bupsnd /, knocked: / nokt/, stayed: /steid/, etc.

arrive/arrived Id/

Verbs which end in the following sounds have their past endings pronounced Id I: Ibl rubbed; Igl tugged; / d$ / managed; III filled; Iml dimmed; Inl listened; vowel + /r/ stirred; Ivl loved; Izl seized. The -ed ending is not pronounced as an extra syllable.

work/worked I t/

Verbs which end in the following sounds have their past endings

pronounced Itl: Ik I packed; Is/ passed; ItfI watched; IJI washed;

/f/ laughed; Ipl tipped. The -ed ending is not pronounced as an extra

syllable.

dream/dreamed Id Ior dreamt Itl

A few verbs function as both regular and irregular and may have their past forms spelt -ed or -t pronounced Id/ or Itl: e.g. burn, dream, lean, learn, smell, spell, spill, spoil [> App 40].

post/posted I id /

Verbs which end in the sounds Itl or Id/ have their past endings pronounced /id/: posted, added. The -ed ending is pronounced as an extra syllable added to the base form of the verb.

Spelling of the regular past

The regular past always ends in -d:

Arrive/arrived

Verbs ending in -e add -d: e.g. phone/phoned, smile/smiled- This rule applies equally to agree, die, lie, etc.

Wait/waited

Verbs not ending in -e add -ed: e.g. ask/asked, clean/cleaned, follow/followed, video/videoed

Stop/stopped

Verbs spelt with a single vowel letter followed by a single consonant letter double the consonant: beg/begged, rub/rubbed

Occur/occurred

In two-syllable verbs the final consonant is doubled when the last syllable contains a single vowel letter followed by a single consonant letter and is stressed: pre'fer/preferred, re'ferlreferred- Compare: 'benefit/benefited, 'differ/differed and 'profit/profited which are stressed on their first syllables and which therefore do not double their