Of course you must pronounce it. If you don't do it properly, no one will understand you. It has to do with the sound the verb ends in. You can pronounce it like /t/, /d/ or /id/. Take a look at this rules ... A. The final sound is pronounced [t] after the following voiceless consonants: 1. [p] hop ⇒ hopped 2. [k] work ⇒ worked 3. [f] laugh ⇒ laughed stuff ⇒ stuffed 4. [s] miss ⇒ missed 5. [ʃ] wash ⇒ washed 6. [ʧ] watch ⇒ watched B. The final sound is pronounced [d] after the following voiced consonants: 1. [b] scrub ⇒ scrubbed 2. [g] hug ⇒ hugged 3. [v] live ⇒ lived 4. [z] surprise ⇒ surprised 5. [ʒ] massage ⇒ massaged 6. [ʤ] change ⇒ changed 7. [m] rhyme ⇒ rhymed 8. [n] return ⇒ returned 9. [ŋ] bang ⇒ banged 10. [l] call ⇒ called 11. [r] appear ⇒ appeared 12. [ð] bathe ⇒ bathed C. The final sound is pronounced [d] after ALL vowel sounds: agree ⇒ agreed play ⇒ played die ⇒ died enjoy ⇒ enjoyed D. The final sound is pronounced [Id] after the following sounds: 1. [t] start ⇒ started 2. [d] decide ⇒ decided & the final sound [Id] adds an extra syllable Regards. ´ María.

There are 3 basic endings of past tense sounds: ed, id and t. You have to nail them or no one understands you. Asians mumble the endings. I am often confused when my wife talks. I killed a man, soft ed. I backed my car up, hard t. You think of some id endings. I can't think of any.

Arthur, some native speakers drop the '-ed' in some situations. For example, I might say "I stop doing it a lot time ago". Most native speakers don't realize they do this. But for you, as an English learner, you should always pronounce it correctly.

Hi Arthur, yes you need to pronounce the endings. Definitely. When you wrote, "However, I do hear people pronounce (past tense verbs) without the (ed) sound," the fact is, you heard poor or lazy pronunciation. Be wary of things like this. ;)

Yes, we do and we should skip the ed sound when we want to make it's easier to say, known as a kind of elision. For example: - seemed not to - looked back - asked paul to But as a non-native english speaker, you, a nd i too, need learn how to say the ed sound properly and fully first.