Differentiate between past and present just by pronunciation when word is followed by d- or similiar sound


How can we distinguish, for example, these two sentences just by listening to the pronunciation?





  1. They first kill the trees.




  2. They first killed the trees.





When pronouncing kill the trees, we have one [d] that is for the. When pronouncing killed the trees, we have two [d] that is for killed and the.


Native speakers pronounce both sentences so that we just hear one [d], so we don't know the tense by pronunciation in these cases. Am I right?


Is there any special stress or extension of a sound that signals the difference between them?




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