Влияние на фрикативните съгласни върху сандхиалната елизия на маркера за минало време в английския език

The article presents an experimental study of the influence of the voiceless fricatives [s, f, S] on the sandhi elision of [t] in the past tense of English regular verbs. The results of the experiment show that such elision is very frequent. In most of the cases (over 80%) the past tense marker is elided and the pronunciation of the past tense verb form is homonymous with that of the present tense form. Since such elision affects the perception of the past tense by Bulgarian learners, the experimental results should be taken into account when teaching English to Bulgarians.