how to improve your pronunciation at meten(1)

8/14/2019 How to Improve Your Pronunciation at METEN(1)

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How to improveyour pronunciationat METEN

By David Turnbull


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1. Introduction

Welcome: Learning a foreign language is one of the most difficult yetmost rewarding experiences of your life.Although at times, learning a language is frustrating, but it is well worth the effortin the end.

A brief introduction of myself. My name is David Turnbull, my nationality is Britishand I come from England. I have been teaching in Asia for over 10 years and Ilove my job teaching students in China and many parts of Asia. From myexperience with Chinese students their pronunciation is far from perfect, but their grammar is reasonably good. The feedback I get from the students is that theydont practice enough to improve their pronunciation in an English environment.Chinese students are consensus about pronunciation and grammar. So how canthey improve their pronunciation? Move to America or England perhaps? Well notmany students can afford this option, so here is a much cheaper solution;Watch English TV programs to improve your listening skills and try to think inEnglish to train your mind instead of translating from English to Chinese and thento English. This will take a lot of practice and time to achieve your desired goal tobe a good English speaker.Secondly my book is I believe aimed to improve your English pronunciation. Toimprove your English pronunciation you must first understand how the nativespeaker sounds with stress and intonation. This book is based on how tounderstand the rules so that you will have a good idea of the sounds. The books

easy to follow guide should help you to improve your pronunciation. Please enjoy!


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2. Understanding Syllables.

To understand word stress, it helps to understand syllables .Every word is made from syllables.Each word has one, two, three or more syllables .

There are many two-syllable words in English whose meaning and classchange with a change in stress. The word present , for example is a two-syllable word. If we stress the first syllable, it is a noun (gift) or anadjective (opposite of absent). But if we stress the second syllable, itbecomes a verb (to offer).

More examples: the words export , import , contract and object can allbe nouns or verbs depending on whether the stress is on the first or second syllable.


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3. Rules of Word Stress. There are two very simple rules about word stress:

One word has only one stress. (One word cannot have two stresses. If you hear two stresses, you hear two words. Two stresses cannot be oneword. It is true that there can be a "secondary" stress in some words. Buta secondary stress is much smaller than the main [primary] stress, and isonly used in long words.)Rule exampleMost 2-syllable nouns PRES ent, EXport, CHIna, TA ble

Most 2-syllable adjectives PRES ent, SLEN der, CLEV er, HAP py

Rule exampleMost 2-syllable verbs to pre SENT , to ex PORT , to de CIDE , to be GIN

Rule exampleWords ending in -cy-ty-phy and gy. de MOcracy, dependa BIlity,

pho TO graphy, ge OL ogy.

Words ending in alCRI tical, geo LOG ical


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4. We can only stress vowels, not consonants.

There are some, rather complicated, rules that can help youunderstand where to put the stress. But do not rely on them too much,because there are many exceptions. It is better to try to "feel" themusic of the language and to add the stress naturally.

Apart from the vowel qualities and consonant qualities, stresses play avery important role in conveying the meaning of a sentence in English.

Chinese is a tone language while English is a highly stressed

language. Word number of syllablesDog dog 1Quiet qui-et 2Expensive ex-pen-sive 3Interesting in-ter-est-ing 4

Unexceptional un-ex-cep-tion-al 5


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6. Exercise:Say these words with the stressed syllables (in bold) more prominent. Tryto stress them by lengthening the vowel. Try NOT to exaggerate the pitchdifference.

two syllables - de. sign, a. bout, af. ter,three syllables - va. nil. la, Ca. na.da, graf. fi. tifour syllables - in.dif .fe.rent, A.ri.zo .na, a. vai .la.ble,five syllables - u .ni. ver .si.ty , ca .fe. te .ri.a, la. bo .ra. to .ry,

** Some native speakers (particularly British) pronounces this wordla. bo .ra.t(o)ry (three syllables).


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7.

All words of more than one syllable have what is called word stress. This

means that at least one of the syllables isl o n g e r and louder than the other syllables.In the following examples, stressed syllables are in capital letters:

Column A Column B Column CPHO tograph pho TO graphy photo GRA phicPEN cil com MITtee volun TEERMANchester so CIety infor MAtion

In many cases, word stress must simply be learned as new vocabulary isacquired.

However, there are several rules for word stress which can make iteasier to deal with.


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10.4. Divide before the consonant before an "-le" syllable.

When you have a word that has the old-style spelling in which the "-le"sounds like "-el", divide before the consonant before the "-le".For example: "a/ble", "fum/ble", "rub/ble" "mum/ble" and "this/tle" .

The only exception to this are "ckle" words like "tick/le" .

5. Divide off any compound words, prefixes, suffixes and rootswhich have vowel sounds.

Split off the parts of compound words like "sports/car" and "house/boat".Divide off prefixes such at "un/happy", "pre/paid", or "re/write".Also divide off suffixes as in the words "farm/er", "teach/er", "hope/less" and " care/ful".

In the word "stop/ping", the suffix is actually "-ping" because this wordfollows the rule that when you add "-ing" to a word with one syllable, you

double the last consonant and add the "-ing".


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11. Stress Patterns

Example:

1. Sing a song .2. Id love to.

3. Ive heard of it.

4. I want to know .

5. She asked me to go.


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12. Phonetic symbols for English

Consonants: p pen, copy, happen b back, baby, job t. tea, tight, buttond day, ladder, odd k key, clock, school g get, giggle, ghost

t church, match, natured .. judge, age, soldier f. fat, coffee, rough, photoV............................ view, heavy, move

.. thing, author, path .. this,

other, smooth s ............................... soon, cease, sister z .. zero, music, roses, buzz

.. ship, sure, national ..

pleasure, vision h

. hot, whole, ahead m more, hammer, sum


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13.

.. ring, anger, thanks, sung

l . light, valley, feel r right, wrong, sorry, arrange j use, beauty, few w . wet, one, when, queen

.. (glottal stop) department, football

Vowels: .. kit, bid, hymn, minute

e . dress, bed, head, many trap, bad

. lot, odd, wash. strut, mud, love, blood foot, good, put

I .. fleece, sea, machine e.. face, day, break a.. price, high, try


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14. ......................................... choice, boy

u .. goose, two,blue, group .. goat, show, no a .. mouth, now

near, here, weary e ..

square. fair, various ..................................... start, father

. thought, law, north, war . poor, jury,

cure . nurse, stir, learn, refer about, common, standard

I . happy,radiate. Glorious u thank you, influence, situation

n suddenly, cottonl . middle, metal


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15. How to make some of the most important sounds.

These activities have someexercises that you can use topractice these sounds.

First, here is a picture of the inside of your mouth and the importantarticulators , the parts of your mouth that help you to make the sounds.Your lips, teeth, tongue, nose, and roof of your mouth are all importantfor pronunciation. The epiglottis is also important. That is the thing that

you use to hold your breath and to swallow. It closes your windpipe so theair cannot come out.We make the sound in "heed" (/i/) with our tongue very close to the topof our mouth. We also spread our lips so it looks like we are smiling.


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16. When we make the sound in "hid" (/I/), we don't look as much like we aresmiling, and our tongues are lower in our mouths. Here is a picture of our mouths so that you can compare where the tongue is for these two

sounds. /i/ sounds: /I/ sounds:

Meat mitt

sheep ship leak lick
http://www.soundsofenglish.org/pronunciation/realsounds/meat.rmhttp://www.soundsofenglish.org/pronunciation/realsounds/mitt.rmhttp://www.soundsofenglish.org/pronunciation/realsounds/sheep.rmhttp://www.soundsofenglish.org/pronunciation/realsounds/ship.rmhttp://www.soundsofenglish.org/pronunciation/realsounds/leak.rmhttp://www.soundsofenglish.org/pronunciation/realsounds/lick.rmhttp://www.soundsofenglish.org/pronunciation/realsounds/lick.rmhttp://www.soundsofenglish.org/pronunciation/realsounds/leak.rmhttp://www.soundsofenglish.org/pronunciation/realsounds/ship.rmhttp://www.soundsofenglish.org/pronunciation/realsounds/sheep.rmhttp://www.soundsofenglish.org/pronunciation/realsounds/mitt.rmhttp://www.soundsofenglish.org/pronunciation/realsounds/meat.rm


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17.

We make the sound in "head" with our mouth open wider than for /i/ or /I/

and our tongues not as close to the top of our mouths.

The sound in "hate" is actually a diphthong , which means it is acombination of the sounds /e/ and /I/. You can feel your tongue moving

closer to the roof of your mouth when you say it.

"head" sounds: "hate" sounds: Head hate

Shepherd shape Leg lake

Met mate
http://i.htm/http://i.htm/http://www.soundsofenglish.org/pronunciation/realsounds/head.rmhttp://www.soundsofenglish.org/pronunciation/realsounds/hate.rmhttp://www.soundsofenglish.org/pronunciation/realsounds/shepherd.rmhttp://www.soundsofenglish.org/pronunciation/sounds/shape.auhttp://www.soundsofenglish.org/pronunciation/realsounds/leg.rmhttp://www.soundsofenglish.org/pronunciation/realsounds/lake.rmhttp://www.soundsofenglish.org/pronunciation/realsounds/met.rmhttp://www.soundsofenglish.org/pronunciation/realsounds/mate.rmhttp://www.soundsofenglish.org/pronunciation/realsounds/mate.rmhttp://www.soundsofenglish.org/pronunciation/realsounds/met.rmhttp://www.soundsofenglish.org/pronunciation/realsounds/lake.rmhttp://www.soundsofenglish.org/pronunciation/realsounds/leg.rmhttp://www.soundsofenglish.org/pronunciation/sounds/shape.auhttp://www.soundsofenglish.org/pronunciation/realsounds/shepherd.rmhttp://www.soundsofenglish.org/pronunciation/realsounds/hate.rmhttp://www.soundsofenglish.org/pronunciation/realsounds/head.rmhttp://i.htm/http://i.htm/


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18.

We make the sound in "hot" (/a/) with our mouth open the widest.

Pretend you are going to the doctor and saying "ahhhhhhhh".See how open your mouth is and how far back your tongue is.The sound in "hat" is made with your mouth open not as wide and thesound is not as far back in your throat. Pretend someone is choking you.The sound you will make is this "hat" vowel.

"hat" sounds: "hot" sounds:

hat hot lack lock mat Mott's sap sop
http://www.soundsofenglish.org/pronunciation/realsounds/hat.rmhttp://www.soundsofenglish.org/pronunciation/realsounds/hot.rmhttp://www.soundsofenglish.org/pronunciation/realsounds/lack.rmhttp://www.soundsofenglish.org/pronunciation/realsounds/lock.rmhttp://www.soundsofenglish.org/pronunciation/realsounds/mat.rmhttp://www.soundsofenglish.org/pronunciation/realsounds/motts.rmhttp://www.soundsofenglish.org/pronunciation/realsounds/sap.rmhttp://www.soundsofenglish.org/pronunciation/realsounds/sop.rmhttp://www.soundsofenglish.org/pronunciation/realsounds/sop.rmhttp://www.soundsofenglish.org/pronunciation/realsounds/sap.rmhttp://www.soundsofenglish.org/pronunciation/realsounds/motts.rmhttp://www.soundsofenglish.org/pronunciation/realsounds/mat.rmhttp://www.soundsofenglish.org/pronunciation/realsounds/lock.rmhttp://www.soundsofenglish.org/pronunciation/realsounds/lack.rmhttp://www.soundsofenglish.org/pronunciation/realsounds/hot.rmhttp://www.soundsofenglish.org/pronunciation/realsounds/hat.rm


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19.

We make the sound in "hoot" (/u/) with our really rounded. Sing "ooh,baby, baby" or pretend you are going to kiss someone.

"hoot" sounds: "hood" sounds:

who'd hood pool pull

Luke : look
http://www.soundsofenglish.org/pronunciation/realsounds/whod.rmhttp://www.soundsofenglish.org/pronunciation/realsounds/hood.rmhttp://www.soundsofenglish.org/pronunciation/realsounds/pool.rmhttp://www.soundsofenglish.org/pronunciation/sounds/pull.auhttp://www.soundsofenglish.org/pronunciation/realsounds/luke.rmhttp://www.soundsofenglish.org/pronunciation/realsounds/look.rmhttp://www.soundsofenglish.org/pronunciation/realsounds/look.rmhttp://www.soundsofenglish.org/pronunciation/realsounds/luke.rmhttp://www.soundsofenglish.org/pronunciation/sounds/pull.auhttp://www.soundsofenglish.org/pronunciation/realsounds/pool.rmhttp://www.soundsofenglish.org/pronunciation/realsounds/hood.rmhttp://www.soundsofenglish.org/pronunciation/realsounds/whod.rm


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20. The vowel sound in hoed is called a diphthong . This means it is actually

two vowel sounds that slur together. As you say the sound, your mouthwill get more closed and your lips will get more round. At the end of thissound, you will be making the same vowel sounds as in /u/ , and your lips

should not be as round as they as when you say "hoot".

"hoed" sounds: "hoot" sounds: Moat mute Hoed who'd

Local Luke soap soup
http://www.soundsofenglish.org/pronunciation/u.htmhttp://www.soundsofenglish.org/pronunciation/realsounds/moat.rmhttp://www.soundsofenglish.org/pronunciation/realsounds/mute.rmhttp://www.soundsofenglish.org/pronunciation/realsounds/hoed.rmhttp://www.soundsofenglish.org/pronunciation/realsounds/whod.rmhttp://www.soundsofenglish.org/pronunciation/realsounds/local.rmhttp://www.soundsofenglish.org/pronunciation/realsounds/luke.rmhttp://www.soundsofenglish.org/pronunciation/realsounds/soap.rmhttp://www.soundsofenglish.org/pronunciation/realsounds/soap.rmhttp://www.soundsofenglish.org/pronunciation/realsounds/luke.rmhttp://www.soundsofenglish.org/pronunciation/realsounds/local.rmhttp://www.soundsofenglish.org/pronunciation/realsounds/whod.rmhttp://www.soundsofenglish.org/pronunciation/realsounds/hoed.rmhttp://www.soundsofenglish.org/pronunciation/realsounds/mute.rmhttp://www.soundsofenglish.org/pronunciation/realsounds/moat.rmhttp://www.soundsofenglish.org/pronunciation/u.htm


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21. Compound words. I. Compound Nouns:

Listen to the following compound nouns. Can you hear the word stress?In each of these examples, the first part of the compound gets the stress.

2. Noun+Noun Compounds (2-word compound nouns)air conditioner , computer programmer , nail polish , French fry ,Geiger counter , doctor's office .

Similar to the rule for compound nouns, the first part of the compound--here, the first word--gets the stress. (Note: If the "unstressed" part of the

noun+noun compound is more than one syllable, it will have some wordstress. However, the first part of the compound will get even more

stress.)


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22.3. Phrasal Verbs versus Compound Nouns derived from phrasals

Phrasal verbs (a.k.a. two-word or two-part verbs) are generallymade up of a verb and preposition. For many of these, correct wordstress is especially important as they have compound nouncounterparts. In the following examples, the words on the left arephrasal verbs.

The words here are nouns.let down, (letdown), shut out, (shutout) print out (printout) turn off (turnoff) take over (takeover)In phrasal verbs, the preposition gets the word stress.

If they have a noun counterpart, however, it gets the stress on thefirst part.


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24.

The following page is a list of 68 groups of homophones, contains onlythe most common homophones, using relatively well-known words.They are only headwords. No inflections (such as third person singular

"s" or noun plurals) are included.

The word homophone is made from two combining forms: homo-

(from the Greek word "homos", meaning "same-phone (from the Greek word "phone", meaning "voice" or "sound

You will see many other English words using one or other of thesecombining forms.

What does homophone mean?


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27.NB: In a few cases, a third homophone, although possible, has not been includedfor simplicity. Different varieties and accents of English may produce variations in

some of these pronunciations. The homophones listed here are based on BritishEnglish.

wherewear

weekweak

weighway

weightwait

wastewaist

towtoe

twotooto

theretheir

taletail

sweetsuite

steelsteal

stationerystationary

starestair

sunson

sumsome

soulsole

sureshore

sowsosew

sitesight

seemseam


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28. Phonics Rules

The vowels are "a,e,i,o, and u"; also sometimes "y" & "w". This alsoincludes the diphthongs "oi,oy,ou,ow,au,aw, oo" and many others.The consonants are all the other letters which stop or limit the flowof air from the throat in speech. They are:"b,c,d,f,g,h,j,k,l,m,n,p,qu,r,s,t,v,w,x,y,z,ch,sh,th,ph,wh, ng, and gh".

1. Sometimes the rules don't work. There are many exceptions in English because of the vastness of the language and the many languages from which it has borrowed.The rules do work however, in the majority of the words.

2. Every syllable in every word must have a vowel. English is a "vocal" language; Every word must have a vowel.

3. "C" followed by "e, i or y" usually has the soft sound of "s".Examples: "cyst", "central", and "city".

4. "G" followed by "e, i or y" usually has the soft sound of "j".Example: "gem", "gym", and "gist".


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29.5. When 2 consonants are joined together and form one new sound,they are a consonant digraph. They count as one sound and one letter and are never separated. Examples: "ch,sh,th,ph and wh".

6. When a syllable ends in a consonant and has only one vowel,that vowel is short. Examples: "fat, bed, fish, spot, luck".

7. When a syllable ends in a silent "e", the silent "e" is a signal thatthe vowel in front of it is long. Examples: "make, gene, kite, rope, and

use".8. When a syllable has 2 vowels together, the first vowel is usuallylong and the second is silent. Examples: "pain, eat, boat, res/cue, say,grow". NOTE: Diphthongs don't follow this rule; In a diphthong, thevowels blend together to create a single new sound. The diphthongs are:"oi,oy,ou,ow,au,aw, oo" and many others.

9. When a syllable ends in any vowel and is the only vowel, thatvowel is usually long. Examples: "pa/per, me, I, o/pen, u/nit, and my".

10. When a vowel is followed by an "r" in the same syllable, thatvowel is "r-controlled". It is not long nor short. "R-controlled "er,ir,and

ur" often sound the same (like "er"). Examples: "term, sir, fir, fur, far, for,su/gar, or/der".


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32. Linking Words.

When we say a sentence in English, we join or "link" words to eachother. Because of this linking, the words in a sentence do not alwayssound the same as when we say them individually. Linking is veryimportant in English. If you recognize and use linking, two things willhappen:

You will understand other people more easilyother people will understand you more easilyThere are basically two types of linking:

Consonant > VowelWe link words ending with a consonant sound to words beginning with avowel sound

Vowel > VowelWe link words ending with a vowel sound to words beginning with a

vowel sound


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33. Understanding Vowels & Consonants for Linking.

To understand linking, it isimportant to know thedifference between vowelsounds and consonantsounds. Here is a table of English vowels and

consonants:

The table shows the letters that are vowels andconsonants. But the importantthing in linking is the sound ,not the letter. Often the letter and the sound are the same,

but not always.

i

aVowels

zy

wvtsml

hgf consonants


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34. Sentence stress

Sentence stress is the music of spoken English. Like word stress ,sentence stress can help you to understand spoken English, especiallywhen spoken fast.Sentence stress is what gives English its rhythm or "beat". Youremember that word stress is accent on one syllable within a word .Sentence stress is accent on certain words within a sentence .Most sentences have two types of word:

content wordsstructure (form) words

Content words are the key words of a sentence. They are the importantwords that carry the meaning or sense.

Structure words are not very important words. They are small, simplewords that make the sentence correct grammatically. They give thesentence its correct form or "structure".

If you remove the structure words from a sentence, you will probably stillunderstand the sentence.
http://www.englishclub.com/pronunciation/word-stress.htmhttp://www.englishclub.com/pronunciation/word-stress.htm


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37.. example.

In our sentence, there is 1 syllable between SELL and CAR and 3syllables between CAR and GONE. But the time (t ) between SELL andCAR and between CAR and GONE is the same. We maintain aconstant beat on the stressed words. To do this, we say "my" moreslowly , and "because I've" more quickly . We change the speed of thesmall structure words so that the rhythm of the key content words staysthe same.

syllables 1 3 1 2

EnglandtogoneIvebecause car my sellyouWill

beatt1 beat t1 beatt1 beat t1


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38. examples.

For example, the word "pay" endswith

the consonant letter "y and thevowel sound "a

Here are some examples:

oyBegins with thesound

huBegins with theletter

honestuniform

ooends with thesound

whEnds with theletter.

Knowthrough


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39. Linking Consonant to Vowel. When a word ends in aconsonant sound, we oftenmove the consonant sound tothe beginning of the next word if it starts with a vowel sound.For example, in the phrase "turn

off":

Remember that it's the sound that matters. In the nextexample, "have" ends with:

the letter "e" (vowel)the sound "v" (consonant)So we link "have" to the nextword "a" which begins with avowel sound:

noff tur We say it like this:

off turnWe write it like this:

Ca-ni-ha-va-bi-to-fegg?We say like this:

Can I have a bit of egg?We write like this:


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40. Linking Vowel to Vowel

When one word ends with a vowel

sound and the next word begins with avowel sound, we link the words with asort of W or Y sound.If our lips are round at the end of thefirst word, we insert a W sound:

If our lips are wide at the end of the firstword, we insert a Y sound:

do Wallso Wiwho Wistoo WoftenWe say like this:o

do allso iwho istoo oftenWe write like this:ooi

she Yaskedthe Yendi YamMay YisWe say like this:- -

she askedthe endI amMay isWe write like this:ooi


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41. Practice this song.

The Beatles BlackbirdBlackbird singing in the dead of nightTake these broken wings and learn to flyAll your lifeYou were only waiting for this moment to ariseBlackbird singing in the dead of night

Take these sunken eyes and learn to seeAll your lifeYou were only waiting for this moment to be freeBlackbird fly, blackbird flyInto the light of the dark black nightBlackbird fly, blackbird flyInto the light of the dark black nightYou were only waiting for this moment to arise

You were only waiting for this moment to arise


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42. Practice this song.Queen - We Will Rock You:Buddy youre a boy make a big noisePlayin in the street gonna be a big man some dayYou got mud on your faceYou big disgraceKickin your can all over the placeWe will we will rock youWe will we will rock you

Buddy youre a young man hard manShoutin in the street gonna take on the world some dayYou got blood on your faceYou big disgraceWavin your banner all over the placeWe will we will rock you

We will we will rock youBuddy youre an old man poor manPleadin with your eyes gonna make you some peace some dayYou got mud on your faceYou big disgraceSomebody better put you back in your place

We will we will rock you


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