Life in the 1500's,'Ed' Pronunciation

Home Up Life in the 1500's,'Ed' Pronunciation English Writing

History, Vocabulary, and Pronunciation Practice.  You will find interesting vocabulary and history, as well as help in pronouncing ed endings.  Mispronouncing Ed endings is is a consistent error among Brazilian English Speakers.

As you read through this exercise, make sure you pronounce all the ed endings correctly!  Circle the words where the ed ending is pronounced as a separate syllable.  Ed endings are in red!  If you don’t know or remember the rule skip to the end and read it before you begin.

Portuguese equivalents for words with square brackets with letters inside [i] will be found next to the corresponding letter at the end of the document.

  1. The next time you are washing your hands and complain because the water temperature isn't just how you like it, think about how things used to be. Here are some facts about the1500s:
  2.   Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May, and still smelled pretty good by June. However, they were starting to smell, so brides carried a bouquet[i] of flowers to hide the body odor. Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting married.
  3.    Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children. Last of all the babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it. Hence the saying, “Don't throw the Baby out with the Bath water.” (don’t throw out the good with the bad)
  4.    Houses had thatched roofs[ii]-thick[iii] straw[iv]-piled high, with no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof.  When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof. Hence the saying  "It's raining cats and dogs." (It’s raining very hard, or pouring rain)
  5.    There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That's how canopy beds[v] came into existence.
  6.    The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt. Hence the saying, Dirt poor. The wealthy had slate[vi] floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they added more thresh until, when you opened the door, it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entranceway. Hence the saying a thresh hold.
  7.  (Getting quite an education, aren't you?)
  8. In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle[vii] that always hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew[viii] for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while.  Hence the rhyme, "Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old".
  9.    Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon[ix] to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man could, “bring home the bacon”.  They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and “chew the fat[x]”.(pleasant conversation with friends)
  10.    Those with money had plates made of pewter[xi]. Food with high acid content caused some of the lead[xii] to leach[xiii] onto the food, causing lead poisoning death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous[xiv].
  11.    Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or the upper crust.  Thus the wealthy were “The Upper Crust”.
  12.    Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. The combination would sometimes knock the imbibers out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial. They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up. Hence the custom of “holding a wake”.
  13.    England is old and small and the local folks started running out of places to bury[xv] people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a bone-house, and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, 1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive. So they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the graveyard shift.) to listen for the bell; thus, someone could be “saved by the bell[xvi] “ or was considered a “dead ringer”.  (looks exactly like another person)
  14.   And that's the truth...Now, whoever said History was boring! ! !

If you don’t remember the rule here it is:

Ed is only pronounced as a separate syllable at the end of the word if the simple form of the verb (without the ed ending) ends with a /t/ or /d/ sound, examples decided (decide), wanted (want) In which case it sounds like:          / id / decide id    want  id

Otherwise it remains part of the last syllable and has the sound of t or d:

a.  / t I if the simple form of the verb ends with the voiceless sounds* /f/, /k/, /p/, /s/, /ch/, /sh/.  stopped sounds like  stopt   

b. /d/. if the simple form of the verb ends with the voiced sounds /b/, /g/, /j/, /m/, /n/ /ng/ /r/ /th/, /v/, /z/, or with a vowel.   earned (earn)  sounds like earnd


[i] buquê

[ii] telhado

[iii] grosso

[iv] palha

[v] cama de pálio

[vi] ardósia

[vii] chaleira

[viii] carne ensopada com legumes, guisado

[ix] toicinho defumado

[x] gordura

[xi] (peltre-Port.) Any of numerous silver-gray alloys of tin with various amounts of antimony, copper, and sometimes lead, used widely for fine kitchen utensils and tableware.

[xii] chumbo- (Port) One of the elements, a metal, poisonous, in the past used in water pipes, paints, and other items in alloys, caused many health problems and deaths. symbol Pb:

[xiii] lixiviar

[xiv] venenoso, tóxico

[xv] enterrar

[xvi] sino

 

Home Life in the 1500's,'Ed' Pronunciation English Writing