About pronunciation

[alan]

Do the words "passed" and "past" pronounce the same ?

Is that the past tense of many words with "ed" read as "st" sound?

Offhand,i can think of some words:

asked,follwed,played,communicated,practised,raised ,ended,cried,etc.

Are the above-mentioned words all ended with "st" sound or "ed" sound ?

Ambiguously,i remember that English native speakers end the word "ended" with "ed" sound,but "passed" with "st" sound.

I am sorry that if u cant catch what i mentioned...(since i really feel difficult to express it..)

I would be extremely grateful if someone can explain this to me ... as it really confused me to death... I,as a chinese,somehow feel a little bit frustrated as i am so weak in the pronunciation area

thank you ,i am looking forward to the replies. :o

[blacknomi]

Regular past-tense formation rule: The past-tense morpheme '-ed' has three different allomorphs, such as [t] [d] and [Id]

1. help. look, kiss, wish ==> [t]
Those ended with a voiceless sound(except for 't' and 'd'), read as helpt

2. love, cuddle, kill, lie ==> [d]
Those ended with a voiced sound, read as loved, killd

3. state, wound ==> [Id]
Those ended with a voiced sound, read as statId, woundId

Does that help?

[alan]

Originally Posted by blacknomi

Regular past-tense formation rule: The past-tense morpheme '-ed' has three different allomorphs, such as [t] [d] and [Id]

1. help. look, kiss, wish ==> [t]
Those ended with a voiceless sound(except for 't' and 'd'), read as helpt

2. love, cuddle, kill, lie ==> [d]
Those ended with a voiced sound, read as loved, killd

3. state, wound ==> [Id]
Those ended with a voiced sound, read as statId, woundId

Does that help?

First,i am really glad to get ur reply ^^

hmm...however...i still dont understand how to distinguish if the word is ended with voiced or voiceless..

[alan]

A 'voiced' sound is one pronounced while the breath passes over and reverberates on the vocal chords, while a 'voiceless' sound lacks that feature.

It's rather difficult for me to understand this sentence, can you teach me in a much more simple way???

[blacknomi]

Try:
cab b is voiced.
cap p is voiceless. Without voice.

Does it help? :)

[alan]

=.="""
i am still confused about it ><"
perhaps i am too stupid...

[Francois]

ssssssss is voiceless
zzzzzzzz is voiced

You notice the vocal chords are vibrating in the second case? Apart from that this is the same sound.

FRC

[alan]

hmm....i think i get a better view of them~i am so happy about your helps,including blacknomi and francois

so,can u show me some distinct examples to illustrate this idea

[alan]

how can i distinguish between voiced and voiceless immediately when i come across them ???

is there any easier approach for me to identify them instantly ? or just read them once to identify ?

thanks

[blacknomi]

http://ajaja.paradoxinc.org/Basic/Phonetics/Voices.html