Work on your pronunciation! The better your pronunciation, the more people take you seriously. If someone has to struggle to understand you the message you are trying to get across will be lost. On this page and in subsequent posts we will be looking at problematic vowel sounds and confusion over spelling and sound, at intonation, at…well….at much much more. Read on!
THE IR PLUS CONSONANT SPELLING (first, third, bird etc)
Ecoutez y Repetez was one of the few things I remember about learning French at school. I was in the remidial group (more about that elsewhere) and a lot of the kids could n´t even read and write in English let alone in a foreign tongue so the teachers approach was repeating the sounds of French. It was good fun stomping round the room shouting out strange sounds. I never learnt to read or write French but I can still say the odd phrase or sing Frere Jaques in perfect Parisienne!
Listen and repeat. The challenge with English is the same as with French: The spelling does not easily reflect the sound, but all is not lost because there are patterns of spellings where the pronunciation is quite consistent with the spelling, for example the ir spelling. If you pronounce the letters i and r like in Spanish, you will make the wrong sound and confuse people:
first should not sound like fist!
The ir spelling should make the sound like the vowel in her or were, and it is not necessary to sound the r.
Listen to the examples on the recordings and write down what you hear. Then practice reading them aloud, the more often, the better.
PAST TENSE OF REGULAR VERBS:
To pronounce the end of a regular verb in the past tense you have to add the sounds t or d or id
The sound we add depends on the spelling at the end of the word:
First practice pronouncing the verbs on their own, first the present tense and then the past tense:
miss – missed mist
kill – killed kild
| 1. | 2. | 3. |
| /t/ | /d/ | /id/ |
| miss | move | need |
| race | kill | start |
| bake | play | decide |
| talk | hug | participate |
| help | pull | land |
| cross | borrow | applaud |
| finish | change | explode |
| Watch back | Close bag | Want wait |
The verbs in column two end with a voiced sound, in other words you can´t whisper the last sound, you have to make a sound with your throat or lips.
The verbs in the first column end with sounds where you don´t use your vocal chords but you make the sounds by expelling air, so these verbs can be whispered.
If you contrast back and bag you will see the different sounds. The only change in the two verbs is the last sound. Examples:
The shop assitant bagged bagd the apples
They backed bakt the candidate
So, you can´t whisper bagged in the first example because you have to use your voice to make the final sound.
Now practice reading the words within a sentence. You have to join the end of the verb to the next word, don´t pause.
If the word after the past tense verb is a vowel you have to link the end of the past tense verb to the vowel:
I helped a friend helptafreind
If the last sound of the past tense is the same as the first sound of the next word, just pronounce the letter once, so:
I help Tom (present tense)
sounds the same as:
I helped Tom (past tense) helptom
If the last sound of the past tense is followed by a different consonant sound you can pronounce both the end of the verb and the first sound of the next word:
I helped Mary helptmary
But, don´t try to hard to pronounce both sounds, in other words don´t pause between the end of the past tense and the start of the next word:
(present tense) I help Mary
sounds very similar to
(past tense) I helped Mary
If you link the sounds together
1. She baked a lemon cake.
2. She baked three cakes
3. He helped an old lady to cross the road
4. He helped himself helptimself (Note, we don´t pronounce the h in him or her !)
5. I watched a great film last night.
6. She watched the film too.
7. The girl hugged her teddy bear (see note on number 4)
8. He hugged Sara
9. The plane landed on time
10. The plane landed late
11. I wanted a /wantida/ rest so I went to bed.
12. They wanted more wine
Put the following verbs into columns 1, 2 or 3.
Push, promise, climb, wait, try, live, work, fix, earn, film, invite, kick, look, nod, travel, print, end.
Write an example for each of these sentences and read them aloud.
WORDS ENDING WITH -ION SUFFIX
The last syllable of these words is a weak sound. You should not try to produce a weak sound because if you do it will sound too strong. Instead, really emphasise the strongest syllable. Make the strong syllable louder and longer.
con DIT ion
The strong syllable is DIT. The first and last syllables are weak sounding
Note that the t in these words sounds like sh in she
The -ion suffix is usually pronounced as one syllable:
act-ion (Two syllable word)
Occasionally it is pronounced as two syllables:
u-ni-on (three syllable word)
Listen to the pronunciation of the following words on the recording and repeat them. Repeat the examples. Write down the numbered examples. Check with myself to see if you have written them down correctly.
Con DI tion – STAT -ion – ACT ion – OPT ion – FU- sion – MOT -ion – VER- sion – MILL ion – CHAM -pion – o-PIN -i- on
TASK TWO: Listen to these words in sentences. There are twelve numbered sentences. Listen to each sentence, repeat it a few times, and then write down the words. You can check with me to see if you have heard the sentences correctly.
e.g.
1. In good condition
2. Which station —-/—/—/from?
3. ………./ stations
4.
5.
and so on.
PRONUNCIATION OF WORDS WITH EA SPELLING
The following sentence contains nine words with the ea spelling and each one has a different sound
The beautiful bear had an early meal of steak and wheat bread then got nausea and had a heart attack.
But don´t worry some of those words (steak and heart) contain very unusual pronunciations and most ea words fall into two or three main pronunciation groups.
Here are a few tips before we start looking at the different sounds ea can make
1. The two sounds are never pronounced separately like in the Spanish “Seat” car brand.
2. A few of these words have the same spelling but different pronunciations and meanings., and some words have two alternative pronunciations (e.g year) Here they are:
a. read ee and read e
b lead ee and lead e
c. breathe ee and breath e
d. dream ee and dreamt e
e. hear (like in “see a…”) and heard (like in her)
f. break ei and breakfast e
g. tear (like in “See a..”) and tear (like in “Where a..”)
h. year (like in “See a..”) and year (like in her)
3. There are a few words coming from other languages which have unusual pronunciations:
nausea ee/a/ – from Greek
Bureau(like in “Go”) – from French
4. Heart is the only word where ea sounds like are
5. Fewof the ea words are pronounced like in say ei – The three most common are:
steak, great and break
6. Very few of the ea words have the same pronunciation as in you. Beauty is one example.
So, that leaves only five or six main pronunciation groups for ea words!
Check the posts for the rest of the ea spelling sounds!
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