WHEN YOU MUST PRONOUNCE "D" AS "T" AND "E" AS "I"

By Abdul Azeez Sulaiman

 

Many times, some languages give us the opportunity to hazard a guess about the pronunciation of a word from its spelling due to the existing relationship between the language spelling system and its standard pronunciation system. It is however unfortunate to note that why this is obtainable in some languages, It's inconceivable in English grammar. In other words, the pronunciation of a word in English is not heavily based on its spelling because of some irregularities.

For this, we are going to explore the pronunciation tips that are under the phonological aspect of English grammar.

 First of all, let me direct you to this pertinent question. Imagine a friend of yours during conversation pronounces the word that ends with the letter "D" as "T", just as we have in 'clapped'.

Would you think he has made a grammatical blunder by doing this?

 Similarly, what if he wants to say "wanted" and he pronounces it as 'wantid'? Would you deem it as something illogical, grammatically too? Nevertheless, both instances are correct grammatically as far as phonetics and phonology are concerned.

 The reason for this is that, normally, English consonants vary their paradigm of classification in variant ways. Among them is the area of its voice density either being voiced or voiceless. So this makes us have the category of the voiced ones and the voiceless ones. Take, for example, In stop. Alphabets like "K", "P" and "T" are voiceless alphabets, while their counterparts which are "G", "D" and others are regarded as voiced ones.

 On the voiceless ones, their voicelessness is what prone them to change in pronunciation. This is because when they are used to end a word that falls under the verb category and also has the inflection of "ed" there will be a little difference between their pronunciation and spelling. In other words, when all aforementioned alphabets that fall under voiceless end a word that is used as a verb and subsequently that verb falls in the position of past tense, the pronunciation of such words would not be based on how it is spelled.

For instance, see this sentence: "He clapped for her yesterday."

Obviously, the word 'clapped' is a verb that ends with p. After that, the word still has the audacity to accommodate the inflection of ed. So for this, the last d must be pronounced as t, not d.

See this also!

"He slapped him."

The word 'slapped' is a verb in past tense and ends with the letter "p" hence the "D" must be pronounced as "T" and has this transcription /slæpt/.

Similarly, see this that ends with k

"Abdul Azeez kicked a bucket."

The word 'kicked' is a verb in the past tense. Not only that, but it also ends with "K" and has the inflection of "ed" that changes the verb from present to past tense. Hence the "D" must be pronounced as "T"

 Meanwhile, "I worked on my farm yesterday".

'Worked' is a verb in past tense so the "D" is pronounced as "T"

 

Hope you have grabbed it right?

If so, let's take a further step to the last alphabet which is ī

See these words

"Ade greeted the man but he didn't reply".

'Greet-ed' is a verb in past tense mode and ends with "T" that is part of a voiceless consonant, so the last vowel letter will not be pronounced as "e" as in "bed" rather as "I" as in "hit".

The same also goes for wanted. The "e" will be pronounced as "I" and have this transcription

/ˈwɒntʰɪd/.

 

So to wrap it up, whenever you see a word that ends with k or t and that word is used as a verb especially if the verb can be in past tense position, the word must not be pronounced the way it is spelled similarly if you see a verb that ends with T and is in a past tense position, the "E" must be pronounced as "I".

 

Thank you and see you next time.