asked the man and
ask the man?
It's really hard for me to differentiate between their respective pronunciations. Sometimes I thought I heard 'ask de man' in the first case. More often, though, I cannot readily tell which is being said. I think native speakers must have a way of telling which is being pronounced, as the adding of 'ed' marks an important grammatical meaning. So, would anyone please help me with this? I'd be extremely grateful. Thanks.
