Tag: Pronunciation

B1 -Intermediate

Pronunciation is possibly one of the most problematic aspects of the English language for non-native speakers. The way words are pronounced is often notoriously different from how they’re spelled.

The words in this video, many of which are regularly used, are also often mispronounced.

Discussion Questions:

1. Why is it important to pronounce words correctly? What are some possible consequences of badly mispronounced English?
2. Which words did you mispronounce? Were you surprised by how they’re supposed to sound?
3. Going forward, what are some steps you can take to improve your pronunciation of English words?

Let’s twist those tongues!

Let’s have fun while practicing your pronunciation. Here is an entertaining poem that shows the absurdities of English pronunciation.

I take it you already know

Of tough and bough and cough and dough

Others may stumble, but not you

On hiccough, thorough, laugh, and through.

And cork and work and card and ward

And font and front and word and sword

Well done! And now if you wish, perhaps

To learn of less familiar traps.

Beware of heard, a dreadful word

That looks like beard and sounds like bird.

And dead: it’s said like bed, not  bead–

For goodness sakes don’t call it deed.

Watch out for meat and great and threat,

They rhyme with suite and straight and debt.

A moth is not a moth in mother,

Nor both in bother, broth in brother.

And here is not a match for there,

And dear and fear for bear and pear.

And then there’s dose and rose and lose–

Just look them up–and goose and choose,

And do and go, then thwart and cart.

Come, come, I’ve hardly made a start!

A dreadful language? Man alive!

I’d mastered it when I was five.

Practice,Practice,Practice!

Discussion Questions:

1.What problems do you have with pronunciation?

2.What areas of pronunciation are you working on at the moment?

3.Can you easily pronounce all of the sounds in English?

4.How can you improve your pronunciation

4.Try some tongue twister activities.

A silent letter is the letter in a word that is left not pronounced. Did you know that about 60% of English words has silent letter in them?

Go over this list of silent letters and few sample words. Make sure to practice pronouncing each word.

SILENT LETTERS FROM A TO Z

A – artistically, logically, musically, romantically, stoically

B – comb, climb, debt, plumber, tomb, subtle, dumb, bomb, doubt, , numb, subpoena, thumb, womb

C – acquire, acquit, blackguard, Connecticut, czar, muscle, scissors, victual

CH – yacht

D – handkerchief, Wednesday (commonly said Wens-day), sandwich, edge, bridge

E – plaque. vegetable (veg’tab’I), bridge, clothes. When on the end of a word, it changes the pronunciation of the word, but the -e is silent.

F – halfpenny

G – align, alight, champagne, diaphragm, gnash, gnaw, high, light,reign, though

GH – right, drought, eight, weigh

H – choir, hour, honour, honest, herb, rhyme, rhythm, thyme, Thailand

I – business, parliament

J – (NONE)

K – blackguard

KN -words, the k is silent: know, knot, knee, knife, knight, knock.

L – calm, folk, salmon, almond, talk, walk, could, should, would, folk, half, calf

M – mnemonic

N – autumn, chimney, column, damn, damn, government, solemn

O– colonel, sophomore, opossum

P – corps, coup, cupboard, pneumonia, psalm, raspberry, receipt, coup

Q – (NONE)

R – butter, finger, surprise

S – aisle, island, debris, isle, patios, viscount

T – beret, Chevrolet, depot, listen, whistle, wrestle, trestle, mortgage, apostle

(When talking fast, the t is very lightly pronounced in words like Christmas, mountain and little)

TH – asthma, isthmus, north, Easter

W – who, whole, write, wrong, two, sword, wrist, answer

X – faux

Y – (NONE)

Z – rendezvous

g – sign, gnat, gnu, foreign

ACTIVITY: 

1. Practice reading the words in the list above with your Phone English teachers.
2. Come up with your own list of words with silent letters from A to Z. Then practice pronouncing the words.
3. Use the listed words in sentences to practice your pronunciation and sentence construction.

Past Tense Verbs with /-ed/ ending such as “talked”, “banned” and “awaited” are pronounced in three different ways.

Please refer to the video below to find out the reasons why /-ed/ is pronounced either as /t/, /d/ or /id/ in past tense verb endings.