After the recent election in Edo State, certain words like vote, count, collate, and cast were frequently used in discussions. One common grammatical error observed is the use of ‘casted’ instead of ‘cast’ when referring to past tense. The irregular verb ‘cast’ does not take -ed in the past tense form.
While words like voted, counted, and collated are well-known, their pronunciation of the -ed ending is often overlooked. For example, ‘voted’ should be pronounced as ‘votID’, following a specific pattern.
Not all words ending in -ed are pronounced with an -ED sound. They can be categorized into three groups based on their spellings, each with a distinct pronunciation.
First Category: Words like ‘halted’ are pronounced as haltID if the base word ends in t/te, d:
Halt – halted: haltID
Wait – waited: waitID
Vote – voted: votID
Count – counted: countID
Mend – mended: mendID
Raid – raided: raidID
Blend – blended: blendID
Second Category: Words like ‘tasked’ are pronounced with a ‘T’ sound if the word ends in k, s, ch, sh, p, or f:
Task – tasked: taskT
Ask – asked: askT
Wash – washed: washT
Tap – tapped: tapT
Boom – boomD
Third Category: Words like ‘boomed’ are pronounced with a ‘D’ sound in other verbs:
Boom – boomed: boomD
Imagine – imagined: imaginD
Declare – declared: declareD
Play – played: paiD