Words and sounds : triphthongs, « have » / « has » and « ed » endings

🔊 La maîtresse lit pour toi

Say these three words out loud, slowly, and listen to your own mouth: “boy”, then “hour”, then “cooked”. In boy, your mouth travels once. In hour, it travels twice — and it is still one syllable. And in cooked, the three letters at the end, -ked, come out as two sounds, with no vowel at all between them: nothing you can see on the page tells you that. English writes one thing and says another, constantly. So how many sounds are really in a syllable, and what happens at the end of a word?

🎓في نهاية هذا الدرس ستكون قادرا على:

تعريف الصوت الثلاثيّ (⁦the triphthong⁩) وتمييزه من الصوت المزدوج
التعرّف على الأصوات الثلاثيّة الخمسة في الإنجليزيّة ونطقها في مقطع واحد
نطق لاحقة ⁦-ed⁩ بنطقها الصحيح من ثلاثة : ⁦/t/ · /d/ · /ɪd/⁩
معرفة أنّ ⁦-ed⁩ لا تكون مقطعا مستقلّا إلّا بعد ⁦/t/⁩ أو ⁦/d/⁩
تمييز النطق القويّ والنطق الضعيف لـ⁦have⁩ و⁦has⁩ في السياق

🔑يفترض هذا الدرس أنّك تتقن:

الفرق بين الحرف المكتوب والصوت المنطوق
الصوت المزدوج (⁦the diphthong⁩) : حركتان في مقطع واحد
معنى المقطع (⁦the syllable⁩) وكيف تعدّ مقاطع كلمة
أبجديّة الرموز الصوتيّة : ما بين ⁦/ /⁩ صوت، لا حرف

Part one — Triphthongs

القسم الأوّل : الأصوات الثلاثيّة. اضغط زرّ الاستماع أعلى الصفحة : هذا الدرس لا يُفهم بالعين وحدها.

⛔ Do not read this lesson silently. Use the listening button at the top of the page, then say every word out loud after it. In this lesson the sound is the content — and your own mouth is the only instrument that can check your answers.

⛔ لا تقرأ هذا الدرس في صمت. استمع إلى كلّ كلمة، ثمّ أعد نطقها بصوت مرتفع. الصوت هو مادّة الدرس، لا زينته.

Presentation

The fire in the tower burned for an hour, and the player watched it from the lower road. fire ⟹ /aɪə/ · tower ⟹ /aʊə/ · hour ⟹ /aʊə/ · player ⟹ /eɪə/ · lower ⟹ /əʊə/

A triphthong is a combination of three vowel sounds inside one syllable: the tongue starts on the first, glides to the second, and finishes on a third — and it never stops on the way. ⭐ Every triphthong is built the same way: a diphthong you already know, plus the small colourless sound /ə/ at the end. /aɪ/ + /ə/ ⟹ /aɪə/ · /aʊ/ + /ə/ ⟹ /aʊə/ · /eɪ/ + /ə/ ⟹ /eɪə/ · /ɔɪ/ + /ə/ ⟹ /ɔɪə/ · /əʊ/ + /ə/ ⟹ /əʊə/ ⭐ There are five triphthongs in English, and that is the whole list.

The five triphthongs, with three words each

/aɪə/ — fire · tired · science
/aʊə/ — hour · flower · tower
/eɪə/ — player · layer · greyer
/ɔɪə/ — loyal · royal · employer
/əʊə/ — lower · slower · mower

Spelling will not help you here either, and that is the point. Look at hour and our: different spellings, the same triphthong /aʊə/ — and the h of hour is not pronounced at all. Look at fire, liar, higher: three spellings, one sound, /aɪə/. ⚠️ And beware of the opposite trap: a word can have three vowel letters and only two sounds. In beautiful, the letters eau are three, but the sound is /juː/. ⟹ A triphthong is counted in sounds, never in letters.

لاحظ : ⁦hour⁩ تُكتب بحرف ساكن في أوّلها ولا يُنطق، و⁦our⁩ تُكتب بغيره وتحمل الصوت نفسه. الكتابة لا تدلّ على الصوت.

Practice — which triphthong do you hear?

Say each word out loud, slowly, then write its symbol. a. flower b. tired c. royal d. slower e. layer f. science g. employer h. our

Answers

a. flower ⟹ /aʊə/ · b. tired ⟹ /aɪə/ · c. royal ⟹ /ɔɪə/ · d. slower ⟹ /əʊə/
e. layer ⟹ /eɪə/ · f. science ⟹ /aɪə/ · g. employer ⟹ /ɔɪə/ · h. our ⟹ /aʊə/

Eight words, five triphthongs, and each one used at least once. If you hesitated on science, say it very slowly: /saɪəns/ — your mouth moves from /a/ to /ɪ/ to /ə/ before /ns/. ⟹ The fastest way to find a triphthong is to say the word very slowly: the three positions of your mouth become impossible to miss.

Part two — What you hear at the end of a word

القسم الثاني : ما تسمعه في آخر الكلمة — لاحقة ⁦-ed⁩، ثمّ ⁦have⁩ و⁦has⁩.

The ending -ed is written one way and pronounced three ways. The sound just before it decides, and nothing else. ① /ɪd/ — an extra syllable — when the verb already ends in the sound /t/ or /d/. roast ⟹ roasted /ˈrəʊstɪd/ ② /t/ — no extra syllable — after a voiceless sound: /k/, /p/, /s/, /f/, /ʃ/, /tʃ/. cook ⟹ cooked /kʊkt/ ③ /d/ — no extra syllable — after a voiced sound: a vowel, or /l/, /m/, /n/, /b/, /ɡ/, /v/, /z/. boil ⟹ boiled /bɔɪld/ · fry ⟹ fried /fraɪd/ ⛔ Only case ① adds a syllable. In the other two, cooked and boiled stay one syllable — exactly as long as cook and boil.

⛔ The trap, and you can test it on yourself with one hand. Put your fingers on your throat and say the last sound of the verb, alone and long: kkk for cook, lll for boil. — Nothing vibrates ⟹ the sound is voiceless ⟹ the ending is /t/: cooked, washed, stopped. — Something vibrates ⟹ the sound is voiced ⟹ the ending is /d/: boiled, grilled, steamed. — The verb already ends in /t/ or /d/ ⟹ you cannot say two of them in a row, so English inserts a vowel: roasted, wanted, needed. ⚠️ Saying cook-ed in two syllables is the single most audible mistake a learner makes, and it happens on every past tense of every sentence.

⛔ الفخّ الأكبر : لا تنطق ⁦-ed⁩ مقطعا مستقلّا في كلّ فعل. ⁦cooked⁩ مقطع واحد لا مقطعان. ضع يدك على حنجرتك : إن اهتزّت مع الصوت الأخير فالنطق ⁦/d/⁩، وإلّا فـ⁦/t/⁩.

⚠️ Count sounds, not letters — again. The letter before -ed does not decide anything; the sound does. In fried, the letter before the ending is i, and what you hear before it is the vowel /aɪ/ — a voiced sound, so the ending is /d/. In washed, the letters before the ending are s-h, which look like two sounds and are only one, /ʃ/ — voiceless, so the ending is /t/. ⟹ Say the verb without the ending, stop on the last sound, and listen. That is the whole method.

🔊 And the same word can have two pronunciations: “have” and “has”. The strong form — when the word is the main verb, or when it ends the sentence. You hear it in full: /hæv/ and /hæz/. “I have a book.” · “Yes, I have.” The weak form — when it is only an auxiliary, in front of a past participle. It shrinks and the /h/ often disappears: /həv/ or /əv/, /həz/ or /əz/. “I have finished.” · “She has arrived.” ⛔ This is why listening goes wrong. In speech, I have finished sounds almost like I've finished — and I've is /aɪv/, one syllable. ⟹ When you listen for a present perfect, do not wait for a clear have: wait for the past participle at the end, and work backwards.

⁦have⁩ و⁦has⁩ لهما نطقان : قويّ حين تكونان فعلا أصليّا أو في آخر الجملة، وضعيف حين تكونان مساعدا قبل اسم المفعول.

Practice — how do you pronounce the ending?

Part A. Add -ed to each verb to make an adjective, then say which of the three endings you hear. a. to cook (food) b. to boil (eggs) c. to fry (potatoes) d. to steam (rice) e. to roast (peanuts) f. to grill (lamb) Part B. In which of these sentences is have or has said in its strong form? g. I have a bicycle. h. I have bought a bicycle. i. Yes, I have. j. She has just arrived.

Answers

Verb	The ending you hear	Why
to cook ⟹ cooked food	a t	the last sound of cook is voiceless
to boil ⟹ boiled eggs	a d	the last sound of boil is voiced
to fry ⟹ fried potatoes	a d	the last sound is a vowel, and vowels are voiced
to steam ⟹ steamed rice	a d	the last sound of steam is voiced
to roast ⟹ roasted peanuts	an extra syllable, id	roast already ends in the sound t
to grill ⟹ grilled lamb	a d	the last sound of grill is voiced

In phonetic symbols: cooked /kʊkt/ · boiled /bɔɪld/ · fried /fraɪd/ · steamed /stiːmd/ · roasted /ˈrəʊstɪd/ · grilled /ɡrɪld/. ⟹ Five of the six words are one syllable long, exactly like the verb they come from. Only roasted has grown.

Part B. The strong form is in g (“I have a bicycle” — have is the main verb) and in i (Yes, I have — it ends the sentence). In h and j, have and has are only auxiliaries in front of bought and arrived: they are said weakly, and in ordinary speech you will barely hear them at all.

At the BEM, pronunciation is not read aloud by an examiner — but it is tested on paper, and the -ed ending is its favourite question: “classify these verbs in the table according to the pronunciation of the final -ed”, with three columns. Keep these ready: /ɪd/ only after t and d ; /t/ after a voiceless sound, /d/ after a voiced one ; and the last SOUND decides, never the last letter. ⛔ The mistake examiners see every year: putting fried in the /ɪd/ column because it is spelt with a d before the ending.

Two lessons in one, and the same law behind both: English is counted in sounds, not in letters. Inside a syllable, a vowel can travel three times — that is a triphthong, and there are only five of them. At the end of a word, two letters can come out as one sound: -ed is /t/ after a voiceless sound, /d/ after a voiced one, and only becomes a syllable of its own, /ɪd/, after t and d. Listen, put your hand on your throat, and repeat out loud — nothing on this page can be learnt with the eyes.

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