Frankies...I just made that up. Never heard anyone refer to francophones that way, but I think it's cute. Then again, I suppose to wouldn't like to be called a cute darkie. Anyway...

I like to help French people perfect their English if they ask for the help or otherwise indicate that my intervention would not be poorly received. A member of my team has done just this. But I can't help him. Here's the thing: he always pronounces the final "-ed" of verbs in the past tense as a separate syllable even though this isn't always done. For example, "fixed" is considered (AFAIK) one syllable, as is "talked", but "started" has two syllables. What's the rule about that? If the verb ends in a "t", then it's two syllables, otherwise it's one? For the record, he says "fix ed". He needs a simple rule. If you know what it is, please let me know.