Proper Pronunciation Guide
read
[rid] present tense
[rɛd] past tense
Tips:
- In the first pronunciation, which is for the present tense, be sure to pronounce the vowel /i/ very distinctly as a long, tense vowel sound.
- In the second pronunciation, which is for the past tense and past participle, be sure to pronounce the vowel as the shorter, lower, lax vowel /ɛ/.
- In both pronunciations be sure to voice the final consonant /d/ sufficiently so that it does not sound like /d̚t/.
Practice Sentences:
| She reads to her children every night at bedtime. | |
| Ed read the newspaper while he was on the train. | |
| I've read this magazine many times. |
Notes:
- The past tense [rɛd] is a homophone with the color “red.” Lead and led are similar to this word in pronunciation and spelling, except that the past is spelled with only the letter “e”—”led.”
- While homophones are two, or more, words that are pronounced the same but are spelled differently, such as “bear” (the animal) and “bare” (uncovered) or “red” and “read” (past tense), homographs are two, or more, words that are spelled the same but have different pronunciations and, of course, different meanings, such as “minute” (60 seconds) and “minute” [mɑ͜i `njut] (very, very small), or “bass” [be͜is] (low-pitched instrument or singing voice) and “bass” [bæs] (the fish), or “there,” “their,” “they’re.” So “read” (present) and “read” (past) are examples of homographs despite being different tenses of the same irregular verb, “read.”