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I believe a verb that ends with "v" sound when changes into past tense will be pronounced as d, i.e: involved, believed ...

However, when listening to natives, I heard the -ed in these pronounced as t. Is that just my ear problem?

Here is a link to the pronunciation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erwaIEWru5I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPVlufBj2ZQ

Dat
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  • I hear the ending D in both youtube clips. More likely that we go the other way, saying budder for butter, and eddimology for etymology. Not sure how the 'v' sound affects how we pronounce the past tense. – Yosef Baskin Mar 02 '17 at 20:07

2 Answers2

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In phonetics, [t] is used to transcribe a "voiceless" consonant phone and [d] is used to transcribe a "voiced" consonant phone.

For English speakers, the difference between the pronunciation of the phonemes /t/ and /d/ at the end of a word is not just a matter of phonetic voicing of the consonant ([t] vs. [d]). The difference between /t/ and /d/ shows up in the length of the preceding vowel. Vowels in syllables ending in phonemically voiceless consonants are shorter than vowels in syllables ending in phonemically voiced consonants. So e.g. "believed" is pronounced with a longer [i] sound than the word "briefed".

Because of effects like this, English speakers hear a difference between words ending in /d/ and words ending in /t/, even when words ending in /d/ are pronounced with a phonetically voiceless consonant sound that you might hear as [t].

A related question: Are "whores" and "horse" homophones?

herisson
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  • Thanks for clearing that up. Takes me back to that one time I asked for the book "The Dig" in an American bookstore and drew some bewildered looks. Back then I had thought that I made the g too hard (German here, we tend to do that), but your comment cleared up that I probably also made the i too short. – Cerno May 06 '19 at 11:31
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If final or followed by a non-dental consonant the ending is pronounced with a /t/ sound.

I believed. I believed him.

If it is followed by a vowel it is pronounced with a /d/ sound.

I believed it. I believed 'em.

If it is followed by a dental consonant (d, t, th) it becomes a glottal stop.

I believed Tony. I believed them.

Chris M
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  • Where, in your above examples, is "believed" followed by a verb? – Hot Licks Mar 02 '17 at 04:19
  • I believed it and I believed 'em – Chris M Mar 02 '17 at 04:26
  • "it" and "'em" aren't verbs. – Hot Licks Mar 02 '17 at 04:27
  • I know, it's late, sorry! I've modified my answer. – Chris M Mar 02 '17 at 04:28
  • ok, thanks very much. at first it's confusing but after you edited the post it makes much more sense. However, I still don't understand what a glottal stop is. btw, isn't it interesting that teachers always tell you to speak in a way but in real life it is much different. – Dat Mar 02 '17 at 04:45
  • A glottal stop is a slight pause between syllables during speech when a consonant isn't pronounced fully or at all. For instance, people with a Cockney accent don't pronounce the t's in the words butter or better, they substitute them with a slight stoppage. – Chris M Mar 02 '17 at 06:01
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    There is definitely no glottal stop before a dental – the /d/ just merges with it to yield a geminate dental. That does often entail the glottis closing, but it is not a glottal stop, which is a glottal closure with no other defining constriction in the vocal tract. I also perceive no significant difference between following vowels and consonants. Your point can be simplified and made more accurate thus: if a voiced sound follows (V or C), the /d/ remains voiced; if an unvoiced sound follows (including nothing), the /d/ is more likely to assimilate and become unvoiced as well. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Mar 05 '19 at 08:35