65: Uh-oh! The glottal stop in place of /t/

What is a glottal stop and when do Americans use it?

Transcript

Hi everyone, and welcome back to Seattle Learning Academy's American English Pronunciation Podcast. My name is Mandy, and this is our 65th episode.

I apologize that this podcast is late. Sadly, my grandmother passed away last week, and I traveled to Wisconsin to see my family. Grandma Dorothy, her lovely smile and big laugh will be greatly missed by all.

Before I start talking about the t sound today, I want to mention a couple of other things. First, if you haven't been to the forums yet, you should go and check them out. They are free to join and you can post any question about pronunciation or English in general. You can also leave comments and suggestions there. A lot of interesting questions have been asked in the past few weeks. Go ahead and take a look!

Also, I'm looking for iTunes reviews again. Nobody cares if you make a grammar error in a review; people just want to know what you think. If you are too shy to write a review, you can now just click the stars and give your opinion that way. It's really a nice way to help me out and show your support for this podcast. Next time you open iTunes to download all your new podcasts, go to this show's page and offer your opinion.

Now, on to the letter t.

Let's explore the third kind of trouble this seemingly simple letter creates. We've already talked about the t being pronounced as a d sound when it follows a vowel or an r sound and comes before a vowel, r sound, or l sound. Then we explored how the t is usually not pronounced at all when the t comes between an n sound and a vowel, r sound or l sound. This happens in the word identity. Go to episodes 61 and 63 for more information about those t sound rules.

Vowels, the r sound, l sound, and n sound are not finished causing us to adjust the t sound yet, though. And now we can add the m sound to the mix of troublemakers as well. Welcome to the glottal stop. The glottal stop is the sound in the middle of the word uh-uh. It is kind of a non-sound sound. I can't create a glottal stop by itself; it needs sounds around it or it doesn't sound like anything at all. Listen to uh-oh. Uh-oh. Do you hear that stop in the middle? Uh-oh.

A glottal stop occurs when the vocal folds are briefly closed. This can be a very difficult action to force because the vocal folds are way down in our throats. It is also really difficult to feel a glottal stop when it happens. When I teach the glottal stop in class, I work up to creating words.

Say the word oh-oh. Can you do it? Uh-oh.

Now try replacing the oh with an n sound. It will sound like uh-n. Can you do that? uh-n.

Now add a b sound to the beginning of the word. Button. Can you do that? Button.

That is how we say the word button, b-u-t-t-o-n. Now, I want to also note that I am not adding any vowel between the glottal stop and the n sound, even though there is an o spelled there. That is called a syllabic n, and I'm not going to get into it today, although there was a question about it on the forums if you want to know more.

A few of my students can learn the glottal stop almost immediately, and they find they can apply it whenever they want. Most of my students, however, need to practice quite a bit with an activity like we just did before they can do it. A very few of my students come to me already using a glottal stop like we commonly do in the United States, and most of those people never knew they were doing it. I haven't noticed any patterns between languages that naturally do this, ones that learn it easily, and ones that have a very hard time. It seems to be very individualistic.

Lets do the activity again.

Say uh-oh.

Replace the oh with an n sound, uh-n

Now add a b to the beginning, button.

Now you've got the word button. Button.

The glottal stop is also the sound I am saying in the word partner, gotten, and written. The glottal stop will happen when the t comes after a vowel or r sound, and before an n sound or an m sound.

I have to admit, If you learn in the same way as I do, just hearing all of these details in a podcast is not really all that helpful. I need to see it in order to remember which sounds cause a d sound, omission of the t sound, or a glottal stop. If you are the same way, go to the transcripts for this page and click the link to the t sound rules. There are very simple diagrams to help you see the difference between all of these circumstances. If you are a subscriber, you can link to the exercises and have additional audio practice.

Unfortunately, most dictionaries still do not show the glottal stop in their phonetic transcriptions. I actually find this quite surprising, because the audio on the Merriam Webster site clearly uses the glottal stop in my example words above. The transcription, that's the place where they show you how to pronounce the word, still shows a t sound, however. I've linked to these words from the transcripts as well, so you can hear someone other than me demonstrate the glottal stop.

Let me repeat the rules for the glottal stop again, then we'll practice a bit. The glottal stop occurs in place of a t sound when the t follows a vowel or r sound and comes before an n sound or m sound.

Repeat these examples after me.

button
partner
written
treatment
forgotten

So how important is the glottal stop for pronunciation? I'd say it depends on where you live and how you are using English. If you live in North America, I think it's a good idea to give this a lot of practice. I say that because this is the t sound substitution that is the most used, and it would sound severely odd to hear a native speaker always say a t sound in place of the glottal stop. Omission of the t sound or substituting a d sound is much more about personal preference, but the glottal stop isn't. Sorry.

If you live anywhere else that uses English as a native language, you need to listen to see if the dialect around you does this. Americans and British, for instance, have completely different rules surrounding the t sound.

If you only use English for international business meetings and many of the other speakers are also non-native speakers, this can be a pretty low priority for you. You want to assess the level of English of the others you are speaking to and decide if it is appropriate for you or not.

Let's go back and practice those words one more time.

button
partner
written
treatment
forgotten

If you are now saying to yourself, wow, why has nobody told me this before!?! Please, go to iTunes and leave a nice review or star rating for me and the support staff at Pronuncian. We really appreciate it.

This content is in both the first and second pronunciation book, and Pronuncain subscribers get additional audio practice for these rules. You can financially support the site and get more practice by going to Pronuncian's products page and purchasing a book or signing up for a subscription.

You can also go to the forums and let us know if you like this kind of content or not. I produce these podcasts for you, so you might as well tell me what you want to learn about.

That's all for today. Thanks for listening everyone.

This has been a Seattle Learning Academy digital publication. SLA is where the world comes to learn.

Bye-bye.

63: When Americans drop the /t/ (with audio from The Incredibles)

When do Americans omit the /t/? This audio from the movie "The Incredibles" will help you understand.

Clip from opening scene of "The Incredibles"

INTERVIEWER: So, Mr. Incredible...do you have a secret identity?
MR. INCREDIBLE: Every superhero has a secret identity. I don't know a single one who doesn't. Who wants the pressure of being super all the time?
ELASTIGIRL: Of course I have a secret identity. Can you see me in this at the supermarket? Come on. Who'd wanna go shopping as Elastigirl, y'know what I mean?
FROZONE: Superladies, they're always trying to tell you their secret identity. Think it'll strengthen the relationship or something like that.

Transcript

Hi everyone, and welcome back to Seattle Learning Academy's American English Pronunciation Podcast. My name is Mandy, and this is our 63rd episode.

Two weeks ago I talked about when North Americans say a quick d sound in place of a t sound, as in the word little. I want to emphasize again that dictionaries usually don't show this alternative pronunciation, and I want to make sure you know it is an alternative, and not necessary to learn to do. Because it isn't absolutely necessary, few textbooks teach about it. But it will help you sound more casual. Let's repeat the rules for the t as a quick d sound.

Americans substitute a d sound for a t sound when the t follows a vowel or an r sound, and comes before a vowel, r sound, schwa+r, or l sound. Think about it like this, vowels, r's and l's will mess up a t sound.

Common examples are:

little
water
meeting

Today I'm going to tell you about when the t sound gets completely omitted, like when the word printer is said as printer. There are a few things that make this harder to notice and hear. First, when a t sound is the final sound of a word, it gets linked into the sound that follows it, which makes it hard to hear. Go to episode 52, linking from the -ed ending if you'd like a review of that concept. Secondly, when t is the final sound of a word and not getting linked to another sound, it is not fully aspirated, meaning we don't have as big of a puff of air when we release the stop, so it is harder to hear. But all of that is not what I'm talking about today. I'm not talking about making the sound smaller by linking it or not aspirating it, I'm talking about not saying it as all, especially in the middle of a word.

Americans do this to differing amounts. It really is a personal preference. But I very rarely hear a person who says all of their t sounds.

Remember how vowels, r's and l's mess up the t and can make it into a d sound? Well, if an n sound comes before the t, and the t is then followed by any of those sounds, the t sound might not be said at all. The place my students are usually able to notice this first are in the words winter and printer. Now, I intentionally said the t's that time.

I'll say both of those words with a t sound, and without, so you can hear the difference.

winter (t)
winter (no t)
printer (t)
printer (no t)

Remember, the rule is that the t needs to follow an n, and come before a vowel, r sound or l sound. Here are some more examples. I'll say them all both ways, because if I only say it without the t sound, you may not even recognize the word without context. I'll leave time for you to repeat after me.

center
wanted
percentage
identity

It is that final word, identity, that I am doing this podcast for. It isn't that the word idenity is all that important, it isn't really that high frequency of a word, but I'm doing it so I can play a little audio clip from Disney-Pixar's movie, The Incredibles. I have never, ever, found an audio clip that so perfectly demonstrates my point in so little time.

This is the opening scene from The Incredibles. Three superheroes are being interviewed, and all are asked if they have a secret identity. As in, do they disguise themselves when they are performing superhero work? Four different characters: an interviewer, Mr. Incredible, Elastigirl, and Frozone all have the opportunity to say that phrase "secret identity" within about 30 seconds.

Let's look closely at that phrase. First, the word "secret" ends in a t sound, in the phrase secret identity, it is followed by the long i sound because it links to the word "identity" Because the t of secret is then surrounded by vowels, it changes to a quick d sound. Listen closely.

secret identity

Did you hear it?

secret identity

Now let's look at the word identity. There are two t's in that word, if I pronounce them both, it would sound like identity. But few people would say it that way. They would not say the first t at all because it is between an n and a vowel sound. The second t is between vowel sounds, and so it turns into a quick d sound.

I'll first say the phrase with all the t's as perfect t's, then as they are normally said

secret identity
secret identity

In the clip I'm going to play, you'll hear three of the four characters say the phrase in the altered t sounds. Only one character doesn't do it the same, and even that character only says one of the three t's as a perfect t sound.

Listen closely, and don't worry, I'm going to play the clip twice.

INTERVIEWER: So, Mr. Incredible...do you have a secret identity?
MR. INCREDIBLE: Every superhero has a secret identity. I don't know a single one who doesn't. Who wants the pressure of being super all the time?
ELASTIGIRL: Of course I have a secret identity. Can you see me in this at the supermarket? Come on. Who'd wanna go shopping as Elastigirl, y'know what I mean?
FROZONE: Superladies, they're always trying to tell you their secret identity. Think it'll strengthen the relationship or something like that.

Did you hear it? Could you hear which character said the phrase differently than the other three? It was Frozone, the last speaker, He said "secret identity". I could only speculate why he altered two of the t's and kept the third as a perfect t, so I'm not going to say why he did that. Here's the clip again:

INTERVIEWER: So, Mr. Incredible...do you have a secret identity?
MR. INCREDIBLE: Every superhero has a secret identity. I don't know a single one who doesn't. Who wants the pressure of being super all the time?
ELASTIGIRL: Of course I have a secret identity. Can you see me in this at the supermarket? Come on. Who'd wanna go shopping as Elastigirl, y'know what I mean?
FROZONE: Superladies, they're always trying to tell you their secret identity. Think it'll strengthen the relationship or something like that.

I want you to hear the difference and be able to understand native speakers when they don't use perfect t's, and, only if you want to, learn to alter your t's as well. I'll play the clip one more time at the very end of the show, as well as put the audio up along on with the transcripts for this show, so you can listen again and again and again while you learn to hear these sounds.

Also, this is a really weird thing, but few Americans know they omit t's. If I went up to ten people and asked them to say the word "printer" they would say "printer" with a perfect t sound, probably all ten would say it as "printer." However, if I asked them another question, one where I expected the word "printer" to be in their answer, but not the focus of their answer, almost every one of them would say "printer". Believe me, I've done it. I've tried this with a lot of different words. It is my strange way of learning more about English while having fun with it.

Next week I'm planning to publish the next video podcast, and then, the following week, do a podcast about when t turns into a glottal stop. A glottal stop is the sound in the middle of uh-oh, or the first sound of a cough. A glottal stop is kind of a non-sound sound.

The transcripts for this show also include the transcripts for the scene we just listened to. So, if you're not sure what they were saying, just go to Pronuncian.com. There are also free lessons on Pronuncian.com to help you understand this material even better. And this content is in both my first and second book, since it deals with individual sounds as well as linked sounds. You can learn more while helping support this site by visiting www.pronuncian.com and buying something, or by subscribing! We rely on your purchases and subscriptions to keep the podcast coming every week, and we certainly appreciate the support.

I also want to thank the people who posted on the forums about the t as d sound. I truly appreciate the dialog that has been happening there. The forums are free and there for everyone's use, so go check them out as well.

That's all for today. Thanks for listening everyone.

This has been a Seattle Learning Academy digital publication. SLA is where the world comes to learn.

Bye-bye.

61: The American /t/ as a quick /d/

Why does 'water' sound like 'wadder'?

Transcript

Hi everyone, and welcome back to Seattle Learning Academy's American English Pronunciation Podcast. My name is Mandy, and this is our 61st episode.

Ah, it feels good to be finished with version 1 of Rhythm and Intonation. It feels nice that everything is slowly getting back to normal around Seattle Learning Academy.

I'm really excited about today's show about the t sound being replaced by a d sound by native speakers in the United States. I've been waiting and waiting to talk about the strange things the t sound does, but it was pretty far down the list of episodes I thought were important. I'm deciding to do it now because there have been two recent forum posts about this topic, and both of the topics were started by Brazilians. However, this issue is important for lots of languages, not just Portuguese. This issue was first brought to my attention when I was teaching a corporate class earlier this year and two Spanish speakers came up to me on a break and asked my why they were both hearing an r sound in the middle of the word water. "An r sound?" I asked. "Yes," they answered. "In the middle of the word?" "Yes," they answered. This seemed very strange to me, so I asked them what their native language was, and they both said it was Spanish. I asked them to say the word, which they both pronounced "water." I asked them if they here an r sound when they say the word, and they both said, "no". Then I pronounced the word "water" two different acceptable ways, and asked them which way they heard an r sound. I had my answer as to why they were hearing an r sound in the middle of the word water, and it all has to do with what linguists call an alveolar tap, and what I call a "quick d sound".

If you've been listening to these podcasts for a while, and have heard the podcasts about the r sound, I warned you all of tapping your r's. (tapped r sound). That tapped r sound is the same sound Americans make when we substitute a quick d sound for the t sound, and is a common sound in both Spanish and Portuguese, as well as numerous other languages. Since most non-native speakers don't substitute the quick d sound for the t sound, your r sound and t sound are perceived as very different sounds, which they are. Now, that was a long story about why Spanish and Portuguese speakers are hearing an r sound when they think they should be hearing a t sound or a d sound. Today I want to teach you about when Americans use a quick d sound in place of a t sound. And I have a forum post about the r issue that I hope you'll go to and tell me if you do or don't hear an r sound when I say a quick d sound. I'm still curious about it, and I just think it's pretty neat.

So, when do Americans substitute a quick d sound for the t sound. This is the beginning of some somewhat complicated formulas I'm going to give you. The quick d sound isn't the only thing we say instead of the t sound, we have two other options as well, which I'm going to get to in the next few weeks.

For today, when do Americans substitute a quick d sound for a t sound?

Americans substitute a d sound for a t sound (are you ready?) when the t sound follows a vowel or an r sound, and comes before a vowel, r sound, schwa+r, or l sound. Think about it like this, vowels, r's and l's will mess up a t sound. Here, I'll repeat the rule again. Americans substitute a d sound for a t sound when the t sound follows a vowel or an r sound, and comes before a vowel, r sound, schwa+r, or l sound.

Let's look at our example of the word water. The t in the middle of that word is following an aw sound, and comes before a schwa+r, so American will substitute a quick d sound for the t sound. I'll say the word with a proper t sound, then with a quick d sound.

water (t)
water (d)

I'll say them both again.

proper t sound: water
quick d sound: water

Notice that I said a "proper t sound". The dictionary shows a t sound for this word, and it is absolutely okay to continue to say a t sound in that word. However, it is not the way most native-English speaking Americans will say it. In fact, Americans who always say a proper t sound will sound a little odd to other native speakers. Only when the word is being stressed for emphasis, is it more likely that the t sound will be said properly.

Listen to a few more words that are generally pronounced with a quick d sound in place of a t sound.

turtle
bottom
native
battery
artificial

Here's another thing about this rule. It isn't just when the t is in the middle of a word that it can change to a d sound. Marcelo, when he first mentioned the r sound issue in the forums, gave three great examples of the same thing happening when the t is the last sound of a word. He gave the examples: "it_is" "without_it", and "that_again". All of those t's fall between vowels because the next word in the examples begins with a vowel sound. This will cause the t sound to shift to a quick d sound, even when it spans across words.

I have students in Seattle who have lived here from as little as a few weeks to as long as many decades. I will mention that this is a subtle aspect of English that seems like people who live here longer do pick up intuitively. But everyone mentions that the quick d sound substitution caused trouble with listening comprehension when they first moved here. During these podcasts, I try to not speak in an overly formal fashion because I want you to hear more natural speech, and I intentionally say the t sound as the majority of other speakers do.

Unfortunately, every rule of English has an exception, and the t as d rule has one as well. If the t is the first sound of a stressed syllable, it will remain a t sound. I've seen a lot of pronunciation material that says that a double t in the middle of a word will be pronounced as a d sound. Well, it isn't true if the double t begins a stressed syllable. An example it the word attach. The stressed syllable is the "tach" part of the word, so the t sound stays as a t sound, attach. I wouldn't say addach. Can you hear the difference? Attach, addach.

Here are some more words that seem as if they may have the t pronounced as a quick d sound, but don't, because the t is the first sound of a stressed syllable. Listen carefully to hear the t sound in the following words.

determine
italic
interpret
attendance

Oh, this episode had a lot of explanations and a lot of rules. Here is the rule again for when the letter t will get pronounced as a quick d sound: Americans substitute a d sound for a t sound when the t sound follows a vowel or an r sound, and comes before a vowel, r sound, schwa+r, or l sound.

Let's practice. Repeat these words after me. All of them have the t replaced by a quick d sound.

turtle
bottom
native
battery
artificial

Now, please go to the forums and let me know what language you speak, and tell me if you hear an r sound in these words or not. A lot of languages have an alveolar tap, and so I wonder how many of you hear it as an r sound.

This information is available in both my first and second book, since it happens within words, as well as with linked words. Your purchase of either of those books supports production of this podcast, and is greatly appreciated. Subscribers also have additional listening practice for this and the other t sound substitutions, which I will get to in the coming weeks.

Next week will hopefully be the return of the video podcasts! Yay! Like I said, I'm happy the book is finished, and I can get back to my regular schedule again.

That's all for today. Thanks for listening everyone.

This has been a Seattle Learning Academy digital publication. SLA is where the world comes to learn.

Bye-bye.

#60 Tag questions aren't really questions, are they?

Pitch boundaries are the clue to knowing what someone is really asking when they ask a tag question.

Transcript

Hi everyone, and welcome back to Seattle Learning Academy's American English Pronunciation Podcast. My name is Mandy, and this is our 60th episode.

For the first time in over a year, I missed publishing a podcast last week, and I apologize for that. I had a lot of work to do to get my new book, Rhythm and Intonation of American English finished, including all the final audio recording. It is now complete, and if you pre-ordered an ebook, you should have already received your email for the download link. If you ordered a physical copy, you'll probably be seeing it in the mail this week if you live in the United States, and probably next week if you live outside the United States. If you want to order your copy of the book, you can do it at Pronuncian.com. If you want to start learning immediately, order the ebook, and you can download it within seconds of placing you order. Remember, you do not need to live in the United States to order either the physical book or ebook. Both choices come with over a hundred audio files to help you understand the content.

That's enough promotion; let's get on to today's topic of tag questions. Tag questions are those weird questions that someone creates when they make a statement, and then add a two or three word question onto it. Here are a few examples:

Van Gogh was a French painter, wasn't he?
Henry and Holly didn't get married yet, did they?
You didn't see him at the party, did you?

Grammatically, one part of the sentence contains a negative and the other doesn't. For example, the question

Van Gogh was a French painter, wasn't he?

uses the affirmative, he was a French painter, in the first part of the sentence, and the question part, wasn't he, uses a negative (wasn't).

In the example

Henry and Holly didn't get married yet, did they?

the first part of the sentence uses a negative, didn't get married, and the question part uses the affirmative, did they.

Tag questions are punctuated with a question mark, but sometimes they aren't actually meant as questions. Sometimes the speaker is confirming something. While context can help you know if someone is asking a question or making a confirmation, the speaker will also use a different pitch boundary. I started talking about pitch boundaries in Episode 58, and again in Episode 59. Pitch boundaries occur at the end of intonation units. Many sentences only have one intonation unit, so the pitch boundary happens at the end of the sentence.

If I truly don't know if Van Gogh was a French painter, I would use a rising pitch boundary. Listen closely.

Van Gogh was a French painter, wasn't he?

If I wanted to confirm that Van Gogh was a French painter, I would use a falling pitch boundary.

Van Gogh was a French painter, wasn't he?

So why do we use tag questions and their odd sentence structure? Well, it can be a way to lead people toward a specific answer, or suggest what you think the answer should be. A good friend of mine graduated from law school yesterday, and this got me thinking about Anne Wennerstroms' excellent book about English discourse called The Music of Everyday Speech.

In that book Ms. Wennerstrom specifically highlights why an attorney uses tag questions when questioning a witness during a trial. Wennerstrom so perfectly states, "... the effect of the tag is to turn the statement into a question whose answer is inherently suggested." If an attorney asks a question like

You didn't see him at the party, did you?

It is technically a question. The falling pitch boundary tells the jury that the attorney asking the question already presumes to know the answer. Doing this can direct, or manipulate, all of the listeners of the conversation, including a jury, not just the people who are speaking.

Americans use tag questions all the time, not just in a courtroom. Many times they are truly meant as a question. I'll use a rising pitch boundary on the next example.

Henry and Holly didn't get married yet, did they?

With the statement portion of the question, Henry and Holly didn't get married yet, I tell the listener that I knew at some point that they were planning on getting married, and the rising pitch boundary lets the listener know that I really don't know if that event has happened yet or not.

Okay, are you ready to practice? I'm going to say all three of the example sentences I used earlier, first with a rising pitch boundary, then with a falling pitch boundary. I'll leave time for you to repeat after me. Ready?

(rising) Van Gogh was a French painter, wasn't he?
(falling) Van Gogh was a French painter, wasn't he?

(rising) You didn't see him at the party, did you?
(falling) You didn't see him at the party, did you?

(rising) Henry and Holly didn't get married yet, did they?
(falling) Henry and Holly didn't get married yet, did they?

How'd you do? The goal is to be able to do it, and be able to understand what someone else means when they do it.

Of course, this information is available, with more audio examples, in my book, Rhythm and Intonation of American English, which you can purchase from Pronuncian.com. You can also get to podcast transcripts, free lessons, and the forums from Pronuncian. If you haven't been there yet, go check it out!

That's all for today. Thanks for listening everyone.

This has been a Seattle Learning Academy digital publication. SLA is where the world comes to learn.

Bye-bye.

59: Falling pitch boundaries on yes/no questions

When to use a falling pitch instead of a rising pitch on a yes/no question.

Transcript

Hi everyone, and welcome back to Seattle Learning Academy's American English Pronunciation Podcast. My name is Mandy, and this is our 59th episode.

Last week I talked about pitch boundaries and the proper way of using a rising pitch on a statement. I want to emphasize again that there is a right way, and a wrong way, of using a rising pitch boundary on a statement. Use a rising pitch boundary when you are not finished speaking, and the next thing you say is directly related what you just said. Overusing rising pitch boundaries makes you sound less confident, and that is true for native and non-native speakers.

Today I'm going to talk about how to use a falling pitch boundary on a yes/no question. Most students were told to use a rising final pitch on yes/no questions and have never been told that there is also a purpose for a falling pitch.

A yes/no question, in case you're not familiar with the terminology, is a question that is formed by inverting the subject and auxiliary verb and can be answered with "yes," "no," or any version of "I don't know." These questions can have a rising pitch, or a falling pitch, and it all depends on context.

First, let's talk about the more common rising pitch. A rising pitch is used when the person asking the question really does not know the answer. If the question is not part of an ongoing conversation, the pitch will probably rise higher than if the question relates to what is already being talked about.

So, if you walk into a co-workers office and want to know if that person would like to go to lunch with you, you might say,

D'you wanna go to lunch?

The pitch was rising at the end of the word lunch because the speaker does not yet know the answer.

Here's another example. You need to get across town quickly, but you don't own a car. So, you call your friend and ask,

Can I borrow your car this afternoon?

You really didn't know what the answer would be when you asked the question.

Now, let's talk about falling pitch boundaries on yes/no questions. Let's say you see an acquaintance walking toward you on the street. You stop to say hello, and ask her if anything is new in her life. She hold up her left hand and shows you a shiny new engagement ring. You say,

Did you get engaged?

The answer to that question is most likely, "yes." There would be little other reason to show you the ring on her finger. So the question,

Did you get engaged?

is only asking for confirmation of something you probably already know. It is not the same kind of question as we first looked at.

Here's another example. You go into a nice restaurant and the server asks if you would like anything to drink. You ask,

Could I have a glass of red wine?

The answer is most likely going to be, "yes," assuming it is the kind of restaurant that serves wine.

Both of these questions, "Did you get engaged" and "Could I have a glass of wine" could have also been expressed as statements, "You got engaged," or "I'd like a glass of wine, please."

There is one other purpose for a falling pitch boundary on a yes/o question, and that is when the question is acting like a suggestion. In the United States, Mother's Day is this Sunday. It is the day we are supposed to be extra nice to our mothers. We take them to lunch, and frequently give flowers. If you know that your brother has probably forgotten about Mother's Day, you could say to him,

Did you order Mom's flowers, yet.

Given the context of the question, and the fact that you were assuming the answer was, "no," that question was serving as a recommendation, or a suggestion, or, some could say it is a warning question.

I'd like you to repeat these questions after me. I'm going to say all of the questions I used as examples during this show. Ready?

D'you wanna go to lunch?
Can I borrow your car this afternoon?
Did you get engaged?
Could I have a glass of red wine?
Did you order Mom's flowers, yet.

This information is all in my new book, "Rhythm and Intonation of American English." This book goes far beyond the typical level of detail of rhythm and intonation. It is an intermediate to advanced level book, and I think anyone interested in understanding American English intonation would find it quite helpful. The book comes out on May 15, but if you order it before then, you will receive a discount. The ebook is $32US right now, and the physical book is $42 plus shipping. You can order from any country that PayPal accepts, which is more of them. Plus, you can feel good about yourself for purchasing something from Pronuncian, because your orders are what keep this podcast coming to you, for free, every single week for 59 weeks now!

As always, visit Pronuncain.com for the transcript for this podcast episode as well as links from it to the related lessons. You can post any questions you have on this, or any other English topic, on our forums at www.pronuncian.com/forums. There is a current question on the forums about Chinese pinyin that I promised I'd try to get some more answers for by mentioning it on this show. If you know anything about Chinese pinyin, go to the sounds forum and click "t sound and double vowel sound."

That's all for today. Thanks for listening everyone.

This has been a Seattle Learning Academy digital publication. SLA is where the world comes to learn.

Bye-bye.

58: Pitch Boundaries, Rising and Falling

Pitch boundaries organize conversations, and give important emotional clues about the speaker.

Transcript

Hi everyone, and welcome back to Seattle Learning Academy's American English Pronunciation Podcast. My name is Mandy, and this is our 58th episode.

For the last three weeks, I talked about pitch words and how to interpret them. Today I'm going to continue talking about pitch, but I'm going to shift to talking about pitch boundaries. Remember, all this content is also available in my new book, Rhythm and Intonation of American English, as well as in our online lessons at Pronuncian.com.

The book comes out May 15, and you can pre-buy it now for a discounted price. Download the ebook and audio files directly onto your computer for $32, or have the physical book and CD audio sent to you for $42 + shipping. The ebook and physical book are both available from any country that PayPal accepts currency from.

Now, let's get back to pitch. First, I need to explain how a pitch boundary is different from a pitch word. A pitch word is an individual word that a speaker chooses to set apart by raising or lowering the pitch of that word's stressed syllable. Pitch boundaries happen at the end of intonation units and are really about keeping conversations going. Pitch boundaries are not dependent on stressed syllables the way pitch words are. Pitch boundaries mostly occur on the last syllable of the last word of an intonation unit.

Pitch boundaries have an organizational purpose and an emotional purpose.

Regarding organizing a conversation, pitch boundaries are the way speakers tell their listener that they are finished speaking, and expect someone else to take a turn. This is done with questions as well as statements.

When it comes to emotion, pitch boundaries express things like confidence and assertiveness, or uncertainty.

Let me give you a couple of examples of pitch boundaries, so you understand what I'm talking about.

In the following statement

Jane likes coffee.

the pitch word is the word coffee. The stressed syllable of that word, the first syllable, is at a higher pitch than the rest of the sentence. The pitch boundary is the last syllable of the sentence, the "ee" sound of the word coffee. I'll say the sentence again.

Jane likes coffee.

I said that sentence with a falling pitch boundary, and my listener could tell that it was a statement, and that I was sure of myself. I could have had a rising pitch boundary on the final syllable of the word coffee, which would sound like

Jane likes coffee?

If I did that, my sentence would no longer be interpreted as a statement, it would now be interpreted as a question.

That part of it is not so tricky, and I would bet that most people capable of listening to this podcast are already perfectly aware of this happening in English. The use of pitch boundaries that is difficult for non-native speakers and ESL students is how to use a rising pitch without signaling a question.

I'm going to make the sentence we've been using into a longer sentence.

Jane likes coffee, but I prefer tea.

That sentence had two intonation units, two different thoughts, two chunks of words divided by a pause. Listen to the different pitch boundaries of each part.

Jane likes coffee, but I prefer tea.

The first half, Jane likes coffee, ended in a rising pitch boundary

Jane likes coffee

and the second half, but I prefer tea, ended in a falling pitch boundary.

That sentence

Jane likes coffee, but I prefer tea.

uses a rising pitch during a statement correctly. It is used to tell the listener that I am not done speaking yet by rising on the word coffee. I don't raise the pitch as far as I would if I were asking a question. After I the falling pitch boundary on the word tea, then the listener knows I am done talking, and someone new is now free to talk.

I am not going to get into the use of rising pitch for questions today, other than the quick example I gave at the beginning of this podcast. Today I want you non-native speakers out there to start to pay attention to your own use of rising pitch boundaries on statements, especially if you aren't using it to ask a question or to tell the listener that you are going to continue talking about the topic in the first part of your statement.

Non-native speakers who use rising pitch boundaries too often sound less fluent. Unfortunately, many of my students are guilty of this. When rising pitch boundaries are overused, the speaker (native or non-native) is thought to be showing non-commitment or non-assertiveness. Let me give you an example of this.

Jane likes coffee, but I prefer tea. Mike likes juice, so we should buy all three.

That sentence, if it occurred alone, without another sentence right next to it that went on with more rising pitch boundaries, would be okay. But if I continued speaking like that, with an overuse of rising pitch boundaries, I would sound very uncertain of myself. If you are a non-native speaker, you will sound uncertain of your speaking abilities, which is not what you want if you are trying to convince someone else to trust you. You want to sound confident and certain. You want to use more falling than rising pitch boundaries on your statements. I'm not saying to never use a rising pitch boundary on a statement, they do have an important purpose; just don't overuse them.

If you want more information on this topic, go to Pronuncian.com to see the lessons on the topic of rising and falling pitch boundaries for spoken statements. If you are a Pronuncian subscriber, you also have access to the additional listening exercise and quiz on this topic. That exercise and quiz will also be in the new text, "Rhythm and Intonation of American English." Remember, you can pre-purchase that text now for a discounted price. Your Pronuncian subscriptions and purchases are what keep this podcast coming to you every week.

As always, visit Pronuncain.com for the transcript for this podcast episode as well as links from it to the related lessons. You can post any questions you have on this, or any other English topic, on our forums at www.pronuncian.com/forums. And you can email me at podcast@p-r-o-n-u-n-c-i-a-n.com to let me know of any content you would like me to talk about during these podcasts.

Thanks for listening everyone.

This has been a Seattle Learning Academy digital publication. SLA is where the world comes to learn.

Bye-bye.

57: Comparing extra-high and rising pitch words

Learn the difference between contrasting and defensively correcting your listener.

Transcript

Hi everyone, and welcome back to Seattle Learning Academy's American English Pronunciation Podcast. My name is Mandy, and this is our 57th episode.

I hope you're enjoying the pitch word podcasts, because today I'm going to do another one; I'm going to compare extra-high pitch words with rising pitch words. Remember, a Pitch word is an individual word that a speaker chooses to set apart by raising or lowering the pitch of its stressed syllable. Pitch words convey which word of the sentence is most the important, and how to interpret the importance of that particular word.

So far we've talked about high pitch word and extra-high pitch words. A high pitch word conveys information new to the dialog and guides the direction of the conversation. The stressed syllable of that word is said at a higher pitch, louder, and for more time than surrounding syllables and words. Remember, a high pitch word is given more emphasis than a stressed word. I most recently talked about stressed words in episode 53, when I talked about phrasal verbs.

Let's get back to today's topic of comparing extra-high pitch words to rising pitch words. I told you last week that an extra-high pitch word is used

• to magnify or dramatize a situation

• to correct another speaker's assumption

• to verbally defend themselves

And extra-high pitch word's pitch is even higher than a high pitch word's pitch.

Now, let's add another kind of pitch word, the rising pitch words. Rising pitch words are used

• to contrast something previously mentioned

• to contradict something previously mentioned

Rising pitch words are called rising pitch words because the pitch rises during the stressed syllable of that word. It is important to distinguish between an extra-high pitch word and a rising pitch word because of the way we use each kind of word. Rising pitch words contrast something previously said, which is a kind of correction, but not as defensive as an extra-high pitch. Remember how I said the extra-high pitch words can convey anger? Well, rising pitch words are less likely to do that, and can be safer to use if the purpose is to change the listener's mind or persuade them, since you will be less likely to cause them to feel defensive in return. It is a subtle, but important difference.

Let's go back to last week's example of an extra-high pitch word conversation between a parent and a child. The mother told the child to clean her room, and the child responded,

I CLEANED my room already.

That defensive tone might create a general defensive tone of the whole conversation. However, if a rising tone were used, which would sound like,

I CLEANED my room already.

The contrasting nature of the rising tone is alerting the parent that the chore is done already, and is less likely to anger the parent. The child contrasted the parent's assumption, but not in a defensive manner. The whole conversation can continue in a less defensive way, and will probably be more productive.

Extra-high pitch words are not always used in defense; sometimes they are simply used to be more dramatic.

Let's listen to some examples of beginnings of sentences, and how we would expect a different ending of the sentence based on the choice of pitch words in the first half. I'll say each of these a couple of times so you get a chance to hear the difference.

First, here is an extra-high pitch being used on the word hot to add drama.

It was hot in Florida

Here is a rising pitch on the same word, being used to show contrast.

It was hot in Florida

I'll say both of those again. They are similar, but not exactly the same.

It was hot in Florida
It was hot in Florida

Now I'll add the ending of the sentence.

It was hot in Florida
so hot we didn't even want to go outside.

It was hot in Florida
I expected it to be cooler, since it was January.

Don't worry, I'll explain both.

The first sentence

It was hot in Florida
so hot we didn't even want to go outside.

added more details about how hot it was, making it even more dramatic. The end of the sentence with the rising pitch word

It was hot in Florida
I expected it to be cooler, since it was January.

explained the use of the contrasting pitch on the word hot. Since Florida is a southern state, it is often quite hot, but the speaker through that maybe since it was a winter month it would have been cooler. She used a rising pitch on the word hot to contrast the temperature she was expecting.

A native English speaker could guess what kind of information would be added to each of these sentences based only on the type of pitch word used on the word hot.

I don't expect these podcasts to be able to fully teach these concepts. They are subtle, and they are complex. That is why Pronuncian.com has more examples of the difference between an extra-high pitch and a rising pitch, and if you are a subscriber, there is also a quiz to see if you comprehend the meaning correctly based on the use of pitch words.

That quiz is also included with the audio for my new book, Rhythm and Intonation of American English. The new pre-order price is $32 for the ebook and $42+shipping for the physical book. The book comes out May 15, but if you order before then, you get this reduced price. You can purchase the book from most countries of the world. If you buy the ebook, you simply get an automatic email with a link to the site to download the book from. The book will come as a PDF file, and the audio will come as an MP3.

Some of you may be wondering where the video podcasts went. Don't wory, they'll be back after the book comes out. I hope you can understand the push I've got right now for a final editing to make the content of the book as great as possible. Since video podcasts take an extra long amount of time to produce, they are temporarily on hold. You can expect the next one in May sometime.

Remember, all of your Pronuncian subscriptions and purchases allow us to continue to create these podcasts as well as offer all the free online lessons and practice. We really do rely on you, our listeners and users, to keep Pronuncian running. I don't just say that. It is true. We need your help. If you don't want to make a purchase, we appreciate even a $5 donation more than you can imagine.

As always, if you have any questions about this, or any other English pronunciation topic, you can post them on the forums at www.pronuncian.com/forums, or you can email me at podcast@p-r-o-n-u-n-c-i-a-n.com. Don't forget to check out the website for transcripts for this show as well as more information about English pitch words and the ways we use them in the United States.

I hope you've enjoyed this show. I know it does get complicated, but don't give up. You can learn to distinguish the difference between all these pitch words! That's all for today. Thanks for listening everyone.

This has been a Seattle Learning Academy digital publication. SLA is where the world comes to learn.

Bye-bye.

56: Extra-high pitch words for extra intensity

Add drama, correct someone, and try to not sound angry with these pitch words.

Transcript

Hi everyone, and welcome back to Seattle Learning Academy's American English Pronunciation Podcast. My name is Mandy, and this is our 56th episode.

Last week I started talking about intonation and pitch, and I'm going to continue on that topic for a while yet. As a review, intonation in the use of pitch, and pitch is the way we make our voice go up and down, like we do when we're singing.

Everything I'm talking about in these podcasts is also in our new book, "Rhythm and Intonation of American English", which you can pre-buy as an ebook through April 18 for only $28; after that, the price goes up. I was told last week that I should mention again that you do not need to be in the United States to purchase the ebook. You can download it from any country that you can download this podcast from. So, as long as PayPal accepts your currency, and it accepts all the major world currencies, you can buy the book! Pronuncian, and these podcasts, cannot continue without support from our listeners, so please consider making a purchase from the site to help it continue to grow and provide these educational services.

This content, and extra listening exercises and quizzes, are also available online. Exercises and quizzes are available only to subscribers, so if you prefer more interactive learning, please consider signing up for a Pronuncian subscription.

Now, let's get back to intonation and pitch. At Pronuncian and Seattle Learning Academy, we break the study of intonation and pitch apart into three categories:

• pitch words

• pitch boundaries

• starting pitches

Last week I talked about high pitch words, which have the following characteristics:

• they convey information new to the dialog

• they guide the direction of the conversation

• their stressed syllable is said at a higher pitch than the syllables that surround it

• their stressed syllable is usually said louder and for more time than surrounding syllables and words

This week I am going to talk about extra-high pitch words. Extra-high pitch words sound like intense, or extra strong, high pitch words. Their stressed syllable is said at an even higher pitch, and that syllable often lasts for even more time and is said even louder than high pitch words.

Extra-high pitch words have different uses than high pitch words. People use extra-high pitch words to

• to magnify or dramatize a situation

• to correct another speaker's assumption

• to verbally defend themselves

Let's listen to a quick example of each of these. First, here is an example of adding drama (or excitement) to what we're talking about. Let's pretend I just got finished with a boring meeting, and you asked me how it was. I might say.

It was SO boring.

If I say that, I'm not trying to direct the conversation, I'm not even really trying to add details to the conversation. This is probably small-talk, or informal conversation. I didn't merely say that it was boring, I said it was SO boring. I added drama to the extent of boredom I felt during the meeting. This may be the most common use of extra-high pitch words.

Extra-high pitch words can also be used to correct someone else. The use of this more prominent and noticeable pitch helps the speaker be certain that the listener is aware of the correction.

The next example is on the website as a dialog between two speakers. The first speaker is checking again of the other speaker still cannot go somewhere with him tomorrow. The second speaker replies,

Oh I CAN come now. My meeting was canceled.

By using the extra-high pitch word on the word can, there should be no confusion if the second speaker is or isn't going to come along. She definitely is coming.

Hopefully you could tell from context that the above conversations that the dialog was friendly. Extra-high pitch words, however, can turn a conversation defensive, or even aggressive.

I get students from quite a few different countries that tell me that native English speakers have told them that they sound angry. I'm going to rephrase that sentence: a native English speaker is telling a non-native speaker that the non-native speaker sounds angry when speaking English. I'm not going to list the countries of students who tell me this, because I don't want everyone from those places to become unsure of themselves and stop using extra-high pitch words. But if anyone has ever commented that you, or others who speak your native language, sound angry, it could be because your intended high pitch words have accidentally turned in to extra-high pitch words, which can be used in angry situations. Let's listen to some examples.

I'm going to give you some potential parent and teenage child situations because it is easy to think of situations between a parent and teenage child that the teenage child is getting defensive. In the following example, the child is correcting the parent.

A mother might say, "Do you homework." And the child could reply

I already DID my homework.

Or, a mother might say, "Clean your room." And the child might say back

I CLEANED my room already.

Again, the child was correcting the parent, which teenagers love to do. Teenagers can also be dramatic and defensive toward their parents at the same time. Extra-high pitch words can easily convey both things to the parent.

A mother might say, "You have to be home by midnight on Saturday." The child might reply, in disgust,

You ALWAYS make me come home earlier than everyone else.

The major difference between an extra-high pitch word being used to show drama, correction, and self-defense, is the context. The context is how a native English speaking listener knows that their non-native speaking friend is not actually angry, it is just part of their accent. You can learn to tune your pitch appropriately, with listening and speaking practice.

Again, there are more examples of extra-high pitch words on Pronuncian.com. Those have illustrations of the highness of the pitch used, so you can look at that while listening to the short dialogs to learn to hear the difference between high pitch words and extra-high pitch words.

Feel free to ask for clarification on any of these topics on the forums, too. The pitch section of the forums has been sadly without activity. So, if you have questions, please post them there and I'll be happy to add some answers.

That's all for today. Thanks for listening everyone.

This has been a Seattle Learning Academy digital publication. SLA is where the world comes to learn.

Bye-bye.

55: Intonation and high pitch words, an introduction

An introduction to English intonation and high pitch words in yes/no questions.

Transcript

Hi everyone, and welcome back to Seattle Learning Academy's American English Pronunciation Podcast. My name is Mandy, and this is our 55th episode.

We are entering a new area in our American English Pronunciation Podcast today - the world of intonation and pitch, otherwise known as the way humans can make their voice go up and down.

The words intonation and pitch are very closely related. Intonation is the use of pitch, just like mathematics is the use of numbers. Now, some people use these words interchangeably because the world of teaching is usually more concerned with helping students understand a concept than staying within the somewhat strict linguistic terminology. I'll use the word intonation more broadly, and the word pitch to refer specifically to the highness or lowness of the voice.

The best-known use of intonation is to make a statement into a question. Listen to the difference between the following sentences:

You drove to work.
You drove to work?

The first sentence, "You drove to work." is a statement, and the second sentence, "You drove to work?" is a question. Well, I'm sorry to say that the previous overused example has caused a major oversimplification of the uses of intonation. I'm hoping to help you understand the very complex aspect of American English intonation beyond the simple "make a statement into a question" use.

I hope you're ready to think, because the next few weeks' podcasts are probably going to challenge your English listening perception, as well as improve your listening comprehension, and hopefully, improve your own pronunciation of English.

Let's begin with an introduction to the terminology I use to teach intonation. Instead of considering all the different aspects of intonation at once, I break it apart into three categories:

1. pitch words

2. pitch boundaries

3. starting pitches

Today we're only going to talk about pitch words. A pitch words is an individual word that a speaker chooses to set apart by raising or lowering their voice on that word. Pitch words convey which word of the sentence is most important, and how to interpret the importance of that particular word.

Every sentence has at least one pitch word, and some sentences can have many; it depends on the speaker's style and intention.

I'm going to focus on pitch words in yes/no questions today, just to get you to realize that it's more than the end of the sentence that carries the meaning in regard to pitch.

Today I'm only going to talk about high pitch words. The purpose of a high pitch word is to tell the listener that the word conveys new information and is the main topic of the sentence. Because of its topic-defining nature, high pitch words are one of the most common tools for guiding the conversation.

A high pitch word is most detectable because the stressed syllable of that word is said at a higher pitch than the syllables that surround it. In addition to the higher pitch, the stressed syllable of that word is usually said louder and for more time than surrounding words.

So, the main features of a high pitch word are as follows:

• it conveys information new to the dialog

• it guides the direction of the conversation

• the stressed syllable of that word is said at a higher pitch than the syllables that surround it

• the stressed syllable of that word is usually said louder and for more time than surrounding syllables and word

Now, let's see how to use a high pitch word in a yes/no question.

Say I ask you to following question:

"Did Lilly give you that necklace?"

If Lilly had given the necklace to you, the simple answer would be, "Yes." Of course you could add to your answer, "Yes, she did," or, "Yes, isn't it beautiful!"

But what if the answer to that question is no? If the answer is no, hopefully you were able to recognize what part of the question the speaker was giving the most emphasis to.

When I said the question before, I gave emphasis to Lilly. I'll say it again.

"Did Lilly give you that necklace?"

If the answer is no, I'm looking for the name of the person that did give it to you. The answer could be, "No, Tom did," or even, "No, I bought it at the street fair."

Because I gave the word Lilly the high pitch in the question, I was attempting to guide the conversation in the direction of where the necklace came from.

Now, I'll switch the high pitch word. I'm going to stress the word give.

"Did Lilly give you that necklace?"

The yes answer could be identical to the answers above, "Yes," "Yes, she did," or, "Yes, isn't it beautiful!" or any other appropriate answer.

However, if the answer is no, your answer should relate back to the original high pitch word, which was the word "give".

So, the no answer would probably be something like, "No, she's just lending it to me."

Let's play with one more option for this question. Let's make the word that the high pitch word.

"Did Lilly give you that necklace?"

Notice that the word that was not said at very much higher of a pitch; it was the word's duration, or how long it took to say the word that made it the high pitch word.

What purpose could I have for choosing to make the word that into a high pitch word? Well, we would assume this is a continuation of a previous conversation. The person I am talking to already seems aware that Lilly gave me a necklace, and that person now assumes that the necklace I am wearing right now is that specific necklace. Just as with all the other pitch word options, if the answer is yes, I have can answer a simple "Yes," or I can add to the answer and take my turn guiding the conversation.

If the answer were no, however, my answer should relate directly to which necklace Lilly did give me, since it isn't this one. The answer would be something like, "No, she gave me a different necklace."

I don't expect these short podcasts to be able to give you a complete understanding of the concepts I'll be talking about in the next few weeks. They are just too complicated, and they require more listening practice than listening to a few simple examples only one time. I'm happy to say, though, that there are more examples in the online lessons, and even more lessons being added every week.

Since listening perception is so important for full understanding of these concepts, there is now a listening exercise added to the high pitch word lesson, as well as a high pitch word listening quiz. Exercises and quizzes are only available to subscribers, lessons, however, are available to everyone. When the Rhythm and Intonation book comes out next month, these exercises and quizzes will be included with it as well.

Don't forget, you can pre-order the book now for a big discount! The full price of the ebook will be $38, but until April 18, you can purchase the book for $28. So you can save $10.

I'd like to make sure you all know that you don't need to be living in the United States to purchase the book, you can buy it from anywhere that PayPal accepts, and that is most of the countries that can download these podcasts.

I also need to say again that we rely on you, our listeners, to keep the podcasts coming every week. We had to increase our bandwidth again last month, which means it costs us not only time, but also money to keep publishing these podcasts. We now accept donations on the site, and we would be sincerely thrilled to receive a $5 donation from you to keep the podcasts available and free to the entire world.

I also want to remind you to sign up for the enewsletter, where you can receive a monthly coupon toward Pronuncian subscriptions and purchases. The April newsletter has already been sent, but sign up now so you can take advantage of the May coupon. When you sign up, you can mark if you are a student, teacher, or subscriber. Everyone gets the monthly newsletter, but we're going to start sending a notice to subscribers every time a new exercise or quiz has been added, so you will always get to use Pronuncian fully.

That's all for today. Thanks for listening everyone. I'll be back next week with another intonation-related lesson.

This has been a Seattle Learning Academy digital publication. SLA is where the world comes to learn.

Bye-bye.

53: Phrasal verb sentence stress

Typical sentence stress changes when phrasal verbs are involved: stress the preposition, not the verb.

Transcript

Hi everyone, and welcome back to Seattle Learning Academy's American English Pronunciation Podcast. My name is Mandy, and this is our 53rd episode.

I want to send a welcome to all the new listeners from Brazil today! I have had a sudden jump in Brazilian listeners due to a link from a prominent English learning website there. I've gotten emails from a few of you this week, and I want to make sure you all know we have forums on Pronuncian, and that is a great place to post your questions. That way everyone can learn from your question!

Today podcast is dealing with the rhythm of English, specifically sentence stress. Spoken rhythm is primarily created through a pattern of stressed and unstressed words. I'm sorry, but a bit of grammar is necessary here. Generally, content words are the stressed words, and function words are unstressed words. Nouns, main verbs, adjectives, and certain adverbs are usually content words, the other words, including pronouns, auxiliary verbs, and prepositions are usually unstressed words.

Before we get started, I want to make sure everyone remembers that verbs tell us the action of a sentence. In the sentence

Janet swims.

The word swims is the verb, and verbs are considered content words.

In the sentence

I am speaking.

The words am and speaking are verbs. Speaking is the main verb, and am is the auxiliary verb. In sentences that have a main verb and an auxiliary verb, main verbs are content words, and auxiliary verbs are function words. The main verb gives the main information, and the auxiliary verb allows us to use the main verb in a grammatically correct way.

Prepositions are words that tell the relationship between a noun and another word.

In the sentence

Janet swims in a lake.

The word in is a preposition. It relates swimming to the place it happened. Prepositions are usually function words.

In the sentence

I am speaking into a microphone.

The word into is a preposition. It is relating speaking to the microphone.

Besides in and into, other prepositions include the following words:

at
below
under
over
toward
near
on
through
beside

and many more. I hope you get the idea.

We also need to talk about adverbs. Adverbs are words that give additional information to verbs. They help to describe the activity. In the sentence

Janet swims quickly.

The word quickly is an adverb. It is describing how Janet swims. Other adverbs include:

over
above
up
down

This list could also be very long. Some adverbs and prepositions look very similar, and sometimes the same word can be an adverb or a preposition depending on how it is used in a sentence. For what we will talk about today, it doesn't matter if the word is technically an adverb or a preposition, so don't worry about it too much. In fact, we are going to clump prepositions and adverbs that have this feature into their own group of words called particles.

Now I am going to talk about idioms that happen when a verb gets combined with a particle. These are called phrasal verbs. Most of you are probably aware of phrasal verbs, and many of you may hate them for their complexity. Phrasal verbs can make English comprehension difficult because they have a different meaning than either word alone. This will be easier to understand with examples.

To hang up is a phrasal verb. It can mean to put something, such as clothing, on a hook, or it can mean to end a conversation transmitted over phone or cellular lines, or even over the Internet. To hang up has nothing to do with the direction "upward", as in looking up at the clouds. For English rhythm, while it isn't overly important to be able to tell a preposition form an adverb, it is important to be able to tell as phrasal verb from a verb the just happens to be near a preposition or adverb.

Is everyone still with me? Well, if not, I'll link to some other websites from this episode's transcripts page for more help learning about phrasal verbs. Learning phrasal verbs is just another part of learning vocabulary, so don't skip over learning this feature of English.

I want to talk about a peculiar thing that happens when we speak using phrasal verbs; the particle becomes a stressed word; it behaves like a content word. If the verb is a small, single-syllable word, often the particle is given more stress than the verb. This is because of the Rhythm Rule. Remember, the Rhythm Rule tells us that the stressed words of English happen on regular beats. Stressing the particle of a phrasal verb and can be easily demonstrated with the phrasal verb to hang up. Listen to the following sentence.

Juan hung up on me.

Hung was a small, single-syllable word, and the particle up took the stress. I'll say it again.

Juan hung up on me.

To give up is another phrasal verb with a single-syllable main verb. To give up means to quit, and the word up will usually become a stressed word in the sentence.

Don't give up; keep trying.

Here's another example; to hang out means to spend time together casually. Here it is in a sentence:

Wanna hang out for a while on Sunday?

Did you hear that the word out was stressed, and the word hang was not? I'll say it again.

Wanna hang out for a while on Sunday?

If the verb of our phrasal verb is more than one syllable, the likelihood of it being also stressed increases. The verb is still important, but the particle is more important because of the shift in meaning it causes.

The phrasal verb to carry away mean to lose self-control. Since the word carry is two syllables, it may also be stressed in spoken English. Here's an example:

Jane got carried away with making cupcakes and baked one for every student in the school.

In that sentence, the words carried and away were both stressed. It was easy to do so because we had the unstressed syllable of the word carry before the stressed syllable of the word away. Remember, the Rhythm Rule is all about keeping the beat of the sentence. We need alternating stressed and unstressed syllables in order to follow it.

Sometimes that can get even more confusing because objects may appear between the main verb and the particle. An example is the phrase to take out. If I asked you to take out the trash, I would like you to put it outside. I can ask you this in a couple of different ways. Listen closely.

Will you take out the trash?
Will you take the trash out?

I the first example, "Will you take out the trash?" the word take is probably not going to get stressed because it is only one syllable long and occurs next to the particle "out". I'll say it again.

Will you take out the trash?

In the second example, " Will you take the trash out?" I can easily stress the word take because it is followed by the word the, which is not being stressed. That makes it easy to still stress the word "out". Listen again.

Will you take the trash out?

Wow, I know that was a lot of complex grammar stuff, and if phrasal verbs are new to you, this episode will take listening to a few times to get what I am talking about. You'll also want to go back and listen to earlier episodes on the subject of sentence stress. I'll link to those episodes from the transcripts for this episode on Pronuncian.com to make them easier to find. I'll also link to the free Pronuncian lessons related to this topic. For now, let's practice all the phrasal verb sentences we heard today. I'll leave time for you to repeat after me.

Juan hung up on me.
Don't give up; keep trying.
Wanna hang out for a while on Sunday?
Will you take out the trash?
Will you take the trash out?

How did you do? If you find this, and similar topics interesting, you'll be able to pre-order my new book on the topic of the rhythm of English in a couple of weeks. The ebook is scheduled for release in mid-May, and you'll find big savings if you order it before it is released.

That's all for today, everyone. I know this was another long, and kind of complicated show. Go to Pronuncian.com to view the transcripts and free lessons if this was a tough concept for you. Be bold, and practice your sentence stress!

This has been a Seattle Learning Academy digital publication. SLA is where the world comes to learn.

Thanks for listening.

Bye-bye.

52: Linking from the -ed ending

Fluently linking from the -ed ending is important for listening comprehension and proper articulation

Transcript

Hi everyone, and welcome back to Seattle Learning Academy's American English Pronunciation Podcast. My name is Mandy, and this is our 52nd episode.

Today I am marking a change in the content I will be teaching in the audio podcasts. The video podcasts will continue working their way through the vowels, then the consonants. The audio podcasts, however, are going to start a focus on the rhythm of English. I've been working on this content for a while now, and in April you will be able to pre-order the book about rhythm and intonation of American English pronunciation. The book is scheduled for release in mid-May.

I want to give a special shout-out to a Pronunican user named Leonardo today. Leonardo has been quite active on Pronuncian and has been doing me a big favor by letting me know when he finds errors on the site. We have a very small staff at Pronuncian, and we really do rely on users to help us keep things clean and accurate. Since Leonardo has helped us out few times now, we've decided that we are going to send him a free copy of the new Rhythm ebook when it comes out in May. Congratulations Leonardo. Now, I told Loenoardo that I'd mention his name today, but I didn't tell him he'd get a free ebook. So, I hope that is a fun little surprise for you, Leonardo.

Also, I want to mention quickly, listen all the way to the end of this show for a 5 dollar coupon code for Pronuncian products.

Today I am going to begin a more detailed discussion about linking than the earlier podcasts got into. This is a rather complicated and advanced lesson. If you are a new listener you may want to go to the transcripts page and find lessons related to this lesson to help you understand today's concepts. You may also want to read the transcripts along with this show to help you understand. Transcripts can be found at www.pronuncian.com.

Let's begin. Linking is why it seems like native speakers are speaking so quickly. For some of you, linking is what still makes understanding spoken English very difficult. Linking is how the end of one words flows into the beginning of the next word. I'll say that again.

Linking is how the end of one word flows into the beginning of the next word.

For you, as non-native speakers, being able to link fluidly will allow your listeners to perceive you as being more fluent, even if your vocabulary and grammar are the same because of the more accurate rhythm your speech will acquire.

The topic today is how to link the -ed ending to the word that follows it. So many of my students do not say the -ed endings of words, and most of them tell me that they do not perceive that native speakers are saying it either. Native speakers generally stay pretty grammatically correct with our -ed endings, so it isn't that we aren't saying them, it is that we link them so fluidly into the word that follows, that is can be hard to hear.

For instance, can you hear the difference between:

I call them
and
I called them

I'll say those both again.

I call them
I called them

The first sentence is in the grammatical simple present. I - call - them. As in "I call them every Saturday morning." I call them.

The second sentence is in the grammatical simple past. I - called - them. As in "I called them last Saturday, but they weren't home. I called them.

Now, if you need a review of when the -ed ending sounds like a d sound, t sound, or the id sound, go back and listed to Episode 19.

For this podcast, I'm going to talk about what makes the -ed ending so hard to hear. It has to do with the type of sound the d sound is. It is a discontinuous consonant, specifically, it is a stop sound. The t sound is also a discontinuous consonant, and a stop sound. That is an important detail when it comes to linking.

Stop sounds are called stop sounds because, to create them, we stop all the air from leaving our mouth, and then release it with a little puff of air. Stop sounds and affricate sounds both, for a very, very short amount of time, stop the air. We call them discontinuous consonants because they are different at the beginning of the sound than they are at the end. This is different from a continuous consonant, like an unvoiced th sound, which I can say for a long time (held unvoiced th).

Are you still with me? This really is important for fluid speech. We have two major categories of consonant sounds: discontinuous consonants and continuous consonants. Sounds like the d sound and t sound are discontinuous consonants (d sound, t sound), sounds like th and sh and f and v are continuous consonants. (unvoiced th, sh sound, f sound, v sound)

Here's why this is important.

When I want to link a discontinuous consonant to a continuous consonant or a vowel sound the puff of air at the end of the first sound gets taken over by the sound that follows it.

So, in our phrase "called them" the d sound of the word "called" was stopped by my tongue, but when I released the d sound, the th sound of the word them immediately began. The d sound was not fully said. The air was stopped like a d sound, but released as a th sound.

Listen closely

called_them

If I were to fully release the d sound instead of blending it to the th sound, it would have sounded like this:

called them

instead of like this:

called_them

Did you hear how it almost sounded like an extra vowel was between the words when I fully said the d sound? I'll say it again.

called them

To most of you, it would have sounded much clearer. It would have been easier to understand. Unfortunately, however, we don't break the words apart like that.

Here's another example, this time with an -ed ending that ends in a t sound, the word washed. Don't forget, because the sh sound is unvoiced, the -ed will sound like a t sound.

I'm going to say a sentence in the simple present, then the simple past. Listen carefully.

We wash my car.
We washed my car.

Could you hear that teeny-tiny t sound in the second sentence? I'll say both sentences again.

We wash my car.
We washed my car.

It is hard to hear because the air at the end of the t sound gets blended with the m sound of the word my.

We washed my car.

It isn't just the t sound and d sound of the -ed ending that get linked to the words that follow in this way. All stops link like this.

Here is an example with the word don't

Don't_think

here's another link from a t sound

aren't saying

And here's a sentence:

Don't think we aren't saying the t sound.

Let's practice some sentences with the -ed ending. All of these sentences will be in the simple past. If you are reading the transcripts, the other links from discontinuous consonants are also marked. Repeat after me if you can.

We asked_my friend_for a ride_home.
Leroy wondered_if she'd_like some chocolate.
Carry spilled_the cup_of milk_on the floor.
Everybody looked_for the lost_puppy.
It sounded_like_a good_idea.

There are a number of linking lessons that have been added to Pronuncian.com lately. If you haven't checked out that section of the website lately, I'd encourage you to go look at it.

Also, people who have subscribed have additional linking practice exercises available to them. Those people are able to mark listening exercises that have been practiced, or that they would like to go back and practice again. Subscribers also have access to the new -ed ending quiz AND the -ed ending linking quiz that was recently created. It can be found as a link on the bottom of the -ed ending lesson as well as at the bottom of the linking discontinuous consonants lesson. I'll link to those lessons from this transcript page.

To join pronuncian, go to www.pronuncian.com/join.

Your purchases and subscriptions are what keep Pronuncian running and allow me to spend the time on these podcasts each week. Your financial support is appreciated, and necessary.

Also, I want to mention that you will be able to sign up for the Pronuncian enewsletter soon from Pronuncian. You will find out lessons that have been added or revised, as well as get the coupon code for the month. This month's coupon code went out to people who had signed up through seattlelearning.com. But, since I love all of my listeners, I'm going to give you all access to a coupon code for the month of March. So, use coupon code "March9" M-a-r-c-h, then the number 9, as in the current month, for 5 dollars off any pronuncian product or subscription, or even Seattle Learning Academy classes. So, keep your eyes open for the newsletter sign-up, and don't miss out on valuable savings.

That's all for today, everyone. Whew, I know this was a long, and kind of complicated show. Go to Pronuncian to view the transcripts and free lessons if this was a tough concept for you. Be bold, and practice your linking!

This has been a Seattle Learning Academy digital publication. SLA is where the world comes to learn.

Thanks for listening.

Bye-bye.

50: The silent /t/ in '-sten' and '-stle' (as in 'listen' and 'whistle')

There is no /t/ in the pronunciation of words like 'listen' and 'whistle'.

Transcript

Hi everyone, and welcome back to Seattle Learning Academy's American English Pronunciation Podcast. My name is Mandy, and this is our 50th episode.

I hope you enjoyed last week's video podcast about the long i and short i sounds. Next week I'll do another video podcast that compares the short i to the short e and long e. I hear so many people who cannot say the short i properly, that I think it is well worth the time to compare those three similar sounds. Plus, I really want to focus on what these sounds look like from outside the mouth, so I want you to be able to see me say these sounds.

Today, since I'm getting good feedback from people saying that you're enjoying these topics, I'm going to continue talking about words that have unusual silent letters. You can send me your thoughts about past or future shows as well. Send comments to podcast@p-r-o-n-u-n-c-i-a-n.com, or you can also post them on the forums on the Pronuncian website.

Today's topic is the silent t in words like listen and whistle. That's right, those t's are absolutely silent. Don't say them. There are two different spelling patterns here to be aware of, the -sten pattern, as in the word listen, and the -stle pattern, as in the word whistle. Both of those patterns are pronounced with no t sound.

Let's look first at the word listen. Listen to the word, listen. You are not hearing lisTen. What other words follow this pattern? Well, there aren't a lot of them, but enough for me to call it a rule.

Here are the words that end in the spelling -sten; they all have a silent t:

listen
moisten
fasten
glisten

I know, it isn't very many words. But, if you happen to be an engineer, you may say the word fasten or fastener quite often. And we all need the word listen.

Now, for the -stle spelling, as in the word whistle. Words in this category include:

whistle
castle
hustle
nestle
rustle
bustle
gristle

Again, for some of you, those words don't matter very often, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't learn the rule, and maybe some interesting vocabulary as well. It is important to start noticing spelling patterns and how the pronunciation matches. That is how you take control of your own English learning. The more aware you are, the faster you'll notice these weird silent letters. I want to make you as aware as possible.

Let's practice saying the words in those lists again, so you can become more familiar with them.

listen
moisten
fasten
glisten
whistle
castle
hustle
nestle
rustle
bustle
gristle

I liked adding the inflectional suffixes (those are suffixes like the -ed and -s ending) to the words 2 weeks ago for a little extra practice, so I'm going to do that again. All of the words we've practiced today end in either an n sound or an l sound, which are voiced sounds, so the s, when added to these words, will sound like a z sound. For a review of this concept, go all the way back and listen to episode 3 again.

Here we go, with an added -s ending.

listens
moistens
fastens
glistens
whistles
castles
hustles
nestles
rustles
bustles
gristles

Now, let's add the -ed ending to the verbs. I can add an s to all of the words above because I can either make the nouns plural, or conjugate the verbs in the third-person singular. However, I can only add the -ed ending to verbs, so this list will be shorter. Again, all of the words end in a voiced sound, so the -ed ending will be pronounced as a d sound. Review episode 19 for a review of this concept.

Here we go, with an added -ed ending.

listened
moistened
fastened
glistened
whistled
hustled
nestled
rustled
bustled

There you go, two new rules to add to your list. Words that end in -sten or -stle are pronounced without a t sound.

I'm going to be talking about how to link words that end in -ed to the word that follows it in two weeks. I'm working on my next pronunciation book, which will focus on the rhythm and intonation of English, so we're going to have some fun new podcast topics coming up. I'll mix them in with the videos.

I also want to mention that Seattle Learning Academy has a Pronunciation intensive class coming up in April. You get a discount for registering for the class before March 15. So if you are in the Seattle area, or would like a visit to the Seattle are, and you want an intense, 3-day class covering all the sounds and syllable stress rules of English, you should check this class out. Go to www.seattlelearning.com for more information.

I want to thank those of you who have subscribed to Pronuncian or made a purchase from the site, or have added an iTunes review. We really rely on the support of you, our listeners and site users, to be able to keep adding new educational content to Pronuncian, and to be able to continue to create and publish these podcasts. If you value this service, please, help us support it.

That's all for today everyone. Please continue your comments and forum posts, and please, keep on learning.

This has been a Seattle Learning Academy digital publication. Seattle Learning Academy is where the world comes to learn.

Bye-bye.

48: 'talk' and 'walk' and other '-alk' /ɔk/ words

Another silent /l/, plus the 'aw' vowel sound /ɔ/ in this English spelling pattern.

Transcript

Hi everyone, and welcome back to Seattle Learning Academy's American English Pronunciation Podcast. My name is Mandy, and this is our 48th episode.

Last week, I talked about the fact that there is no l sound in could, would, and should. I decided to continue along that line this week, and tell you that there is also no l sound in the words walk and talk, or any other word that ends in -alk for that matter.

The words could, should, and would have something else in common with walk and talk, an odd vowel sound. No, it isn't the same vowel sound in both sets of words, but they both have less understood vowel sounds. Remember, could, should, and would have the u as in put sound. (u as in put) Walk and talk have the aw sound. I call it the aw sound because it is often spelled that way, as in the words awful, dawn, and draw. This sound can be confusing because it has a lot of common spellings. It is the vowel sound in the word dog, which is obviously spelled with an o, and is also commonly spelled au, as in taught and cause. I'll get to all of the aw sound's spellings when I do the video for that sound in a few weeks.

For now, I want to make sure you know how to say this sound. It sounds like this (aw sound, aw sound). Many vowel sounds we can't see from outside out mouth, this one we can. First, the lips are made rounded. They don't get closed like the oo sound, the sound in soon, but they are made round and open. Also, our jaw opens a bit for this sound. A lot of things are happening inside our mouth as well. The middle and tip of the tongue are pushed low in the mouth, and the back of the tongue raises and pushes back. So, you can tell now why this sound is so hard to say correctly, you need to be thinking about every part of your mouth for this sound. Again it sounds like this: (aw sound)

I'll explain how to pronounce again. The lips are open and rounded, the jaw opens, the middle area and tip of the tongue are pushed low, and the back of the tongue is raised and pushed back. Got it? Let's try it, repeat after me. (aw sound, aw sound)

Now, let's get back to the words talk and walk. First, remember, there is no l sound is words that end in -alk, ever. Don't try to sneak one in. It isn't there. I often hear my students say the l sound really softly. What they tell me is that they don't hear it in native English speakers, but they didn't trust that the native speaker wasn't saying it, so they add it in really quickly and quietly, just in case it is supposed to be there. Trust your ear on this one. We really aren't saying the l.

Let's practice some words that end in -alk. Practice saying the aw sound, and if you know you add the l sound, now it the time to break that habit, and take it back out again.

Please, repeat after me.

talk
walk
chalk
balk

And I'm sorry to say everyone, it is really only those four words you are likely to ever come across the end in -alk. And you may rarely, if ever, need to say chalk or balk. However, walk and talk are very, very high-frequency words. You want to practice saying them correctly just because you probably say them so often.

Also, because I don't want to create confusion, I said it is words that end in -alk. I mean the root words. If I add an -s or -ed to these words for grammatical purposes, the sound of the root word is the same, we just add the extra ending.

Let's practice the words talk, walk, chalk, and balk with an -s ending. These words end in the k sound, which is an unvoiced sound, so the s will sound like an s. Here we go, repeat after me.

talks
walks
chalks
balks

And, here is the -ed ending. Because these words end in an unvoiced sound, the -ed will end sound like a t sound. Again, repeat after me.

talked
walked
chalked
balked

If you want to review the rules for the -s ending, review podcast episode 3. You can review the -ed ending rules in podcast episode 19, and you can review the aw sound in podcast episode 11.

I'll link to those episodes and the free online lessons related to those topics with this week's transcripts, which you can find at www.pronuncian.com.

I really want to thank those of you who have subscribed to Pronuncian or made a purchase from the website. Those purchases keep this podcast coming to you every week, and are now essential to the upkeep of Pronuncian's programming and the addition of new content. So, thank you, thank you, thank you. Pronuncian support and I rely on you, our listeners and users, to show us how you value the site by financially supporting it.

Also, don't forget to check out the forums on Pronuncian. Gabriel, a Brazilian listener who lives in New Zealand, asked a question specific to Portuguese. You are also welcome to ask similar questions about your specific language, or more broad English questions, as well as post comments and make suggestions for the site and podcasts. Thanks, Gabriel, for your question.

That's all for today everyone. Thanks for listening.

This has been a Seattle Learning Academy digital publication. SLA is where the world comes to learn.

Bye-bye.

46: 'Three,' 'through,' 'throw' and other /θr/ combination words

The 'unvoiced th' /θ/ is difficult, the r sound is difficult, together they are VERY difficult.

Transcript

Hi everyone, and welcome back to Seattle Learning Academy's American English Pronunciation Podcast. My name is Amanda, and this is an updated release of our 46th episode.

Today's podcast is about a combination of sounds that are especially difficult for many non-native English speakers, the ‘unvoiced’ th /θ/ plus /r/, as in the word three. Three.

• See unvoiced th pronunciation lesson and spelling lesson

• See r sound pronunciation lesson and spelling lesson

It isn't surprising that this sound combination is so difficult; the /θ/ and /r/ individually cause problems for many non-native English speakers. When they occur right next to each other, the level of difficulty is multiplied.

Both the /θ/ and the /r/ are continuous consonants, meaning the sounds can be pronounced for a long time. I’m going to say, and hold, each sound. Join me if you can. (/θ/, /r/)

Now let’s compare that to a couple discontinuous sounds, the t sound (/t/) and the ch sound (/ʧ/). Notice that I can’t say and hold these two sounds. The closest I can get is to say each sound multiple times. (/t/, t, t/, /ʧ, ʧ, ʧ/.

So, /θ/ and /r/ are continuous consonants. Because these are both continuous consonants, I can blend them from one into the next. For a very brief moment, the sounds are both happening at the same time. (/θr/). Three.

This combination is hard because it takes a lot of tongue movement to get from the /θ/ into the /r/. The /θ/ happens at the front of our mouth, with the tip of our tongue very near the top front teeth. Air from our lungs is forced out of the vocal tract (see vocal tract lesson) between the tip of our tongue and the top front teeth. If that is done correctly, the /θ/ sound occurs. (/θ/).

The /r/ happens at the back of the mouth, with the tongue lifted up near the very back teeth. Now, here's the really important part, the tip of the tongue cannot touch anything during the /r/. It doesn't really matter what the tip of the tongue is doing, as long as it’s not touching any other part of the inside of the mouth. You should be saying the /r/ like /r/, and not like the discontinuous (tapped) /r/, or the rolled (rolled r).

Got it? Good!

So, to get from the /θ/ sound into the /r/, we need to quickly switch from using the tip of the tongue to create sound to using the back of the tongue. Listen to the combination: (th+r, th+r, th+r). Now you try it. (th+r).

In English, this sound combination is most likely to occur at the beginning of the word, so let's practice a few words. Repeat after me.

three
threw (or through)
thrill
threat
throw
throat
thread

Okay, one more time, let's practice those th+r words. Repeat after me.

three
threw (or through)
thrill
threat
throw
throat
thread

One other note about blending continuous consonants; it happens whether the sounds are within a single word, or are next to each other because one sound ends a word and another continuous consonant begins the next word. This is called linking, and there are specific lessons for linking continuous consonants on Pronuncian.com. We also have our very popular Linking ebook—which includes over an hour of audio practice for sale on Pronuncian. If you want more sound practice for sounds like the /θ/, or /r/, or any of the other 41 sounds of English, check out the Pronunciation Pages ebook or our Sounds Drills download. You can find all of those products on the “Books and Products” link on Pronuncian.com. Pronuncian is spelled p-r-o-n-u-n-c-i-a-n.

This has been a Seattle Learning Academy digital publication. SLA is where the world comes to learn. You can find more information about Seattle Learning Academy and our pronunciation classes by visiting www.seattlelearning.com.

Thanks for listening. Bye-bye.

45: Chinese speakers special episode

Learn the specific problems that native speakers of Chinese have when pronouncing English.

43: About the words 'world' and 'word': /wɚld/ and /wɚd/

The /w/, r-controlled vowels, and /l/: lots of opportunity for pronunciation trouble.

Transcript

Hi everyone, and welcome back to Seattle Learning Academy's American English Pronunciation Podcast. My name is Mandy, and this is our 43rd episode. I hope you enjoyed last week's video podcast about long and short vowels and the long and short a sound spellings and pronunciations. I was originally hoping to have another video podcast published next week, but it looks like it will more likely be released January 23rd. I was teaching a corporate class intensive this week, and I'm now a little behind on getting the video started. But that reminds me, if you would like Seattle Learning Academy classes to come to your workplace, visit www.seattlelearning.com to learn about class options and details.

Today I'm going to talk about two more difficult little words: the word "world" w-o-r-l-d, and the word "word" w-o-r-d. For some people, the difficulties with these words starts right at the beginning of them, with the w sound. Remember, the w sound is created by making the lips into a small circle. It sounds like this (w sound). You should feel the vibration equally on the top and bottom lip. If you feel more vibration on your bottom lip you are probably accidentally creating a v sound by placing the bottom lip too close to the top front teeth. The v sound sounds like this (v sound). Say the w sound and check that your lips both feel the vibration equally (w sound).

Next issue with the words "world" and "word", the letter o, and the r sound. For most words, the or sound is pronounced like "or". This is not true for the words "world" and "word". In both of these words, the or gets pronounced like a schwa+r, which really just sounds like an r sound. So, don't say wORld or wORd. The sound should go from the w sound immediately into the r sound. Listen closely, world, word. Did you hear it? I'll say them again, world, word.

If you aren't sure what I'm talking about when I say "schwa+r", you should go back and review episode 6, which is all about r-controlled vowels.

Next issue: the word world has an l sound immediately after the r sound. This is a really difficult sound combination for many, many language groups. To get from an r sound to an l sound, your tongue has to make a large movement. The r sound is created with the tongue bunched up at the back of the mouth, way back near your back teeth. The l sound is created by placing the tip of the tongue right behind you top front teeth. So you tongue moves from being mostly at the back of your mouth to the front of the mouth, and it happens very quickly. Listen again "world". Repeat it after me: world. (pause) One more time: world (pause).

Episode 5 was all about r sound and l sound, and has more practice for the r sound/l sound combination.

The final sound of both the words, world and word, is the d sound. Thankfully, that final d sound does not cause too much trouble except that a lot of languages tend to drop the final consonant sound, so just make sure you are actually saying that d sound at the end of both words.

Now that you know all the possible problems with your pronunciations with both of these words, let's practice them a few times.

Repeat after me. I'll say both words, then pause for you to repeat.

world
word

Again.

world
word

One more time:

world
word

If you're still having trouble, keep repeating them, again and again, first slowly, then more quickly.

If you're like most non-native English speakers, you are not exactly sure which sounds you are and aren't pronouncing correctly. Well, at Seattle Learning Academy, we understand that problem, and we have created an assessment that you can take which allows you to find that personal information out. You just purchase the assessment from the Pronuncian website, download the script from the email sent to you, and call our Skype phone number from your phone or Skype account read the script into the voicemail. We then receive and score your assessment, and send your results back to you within 5 days of receiving your message. We listen for every sound of American English as well as syllable stress. It is the perfect place to start for anybody who seriously wants to improve his or her English pronunciation.

You can learn more about purchasing the assessment or any other learning material, as well as view lots of free pronunciation lessons, the forums, and the transcripts for all of our podcasts at www.pronuncian.com (p-r-o-n-u-n-c-i-a-n.com).

That's all for today, everyone. You can expect the next video podcast in 2 weeks. Next week I'm planning to have a regular, audio-only show.

This has been a Seattle Learning Academy digital publication. Seattle Learning Academy is where the world comes to learn.

Thanks for listening!

Bye-bye.

42: Spanish speakers special episode

Special episode covering the issues that native Spanish speakers have when speaking English.

Transcript

Hi everyone, and welcome to this special Spanish speakers edition of Seattle Learning Academy's American English Pronunciation podcast. In the coming months I will be publishing these special podcasts to help direct certain language groups to the resources that group will find the most helpful.

This podcast is an overview of issues that Spanish speakers are likely to face when they are learning to speak English. The transcripts for this show are online at www.pronuncian.com, and all the episodes mentioned during this podcast will have direct links from this show's transcripts. Also, I'll put links at the top of the page to all the free sound lists mentioned during this show.

I have taught Spanish speakers from a number of countries, including Spain, Mexico, Cuba, Argentina, and the Dominican Republic. I know that Spanish speakers from different countries have different specific issues when speaking English. Because some of you are from countries closer to the United States, some of you learned English with an American accent. But many of you learned English with a British accent, which will mean you learned the r sound and r-controlled vowels, in particular, differently than I teach them. I am going to make generalizations about native Spanish speakers in this podcast, and not differentiate between all the differences groups of Spanish speakers have. That would simply be too confusing and take too much time. I hope you all understand.

Spanish speakers have a number of difficult challenges when speaking English. Many of these issues I have already created podcasts about, so you can pick and choose which areas you would like to work on first. Although there are lots of sounds to work on, I have taught many Spanish speaking students who have made wonderful progress in their pronunciation skills through practice, practice, and more practice. Remember, you need to train your ear just as much as the muscles in your mouth. Spend plenty of time listening to audio files, especially at the beginning of your practice.

Many of the consonant fricatives give the Spanish speaker problems. Fricatives are sounds created when air is forced out of the mouth through a small opening. These sounds include the voiced and unvoiced th sounds, the zh and sh sound, the s and z sound, the f and v sound, and the h sound.

Episode number 1 covered the very important th sounds. It's a good idea to practice the word lists for both the voiced th sound as well as the unvoiced th sound. Also, learn which sound you might be substituting for these sounds and practice those minimal pairs lists. Many Spanish speakers say the t sound in place of the unvoiced th sound, and the d sound in place of the voiced th sound.

The z sound is a voiced fricative that Spanish speakers often replace with its unvoiced counterpart, the s sound. A confusing aspect of these two sounds is that spelling does not always tell you which sound to say. Many words are spelled with an s, but pronounced with the z sound. Unfortunately, you just need to memorize which pronunciation to use. Episode 3 can help you learn more about this issue.

The voiced fricative v sound is troublesome for many Spanish speakers because of its similarity to the b sound. The v sound is created by forcing air out between the bottom lip and the top teeth. The b sound is created by pressing the top and bottom lip together for a very short amount of time, then letting it go without any friction against the teeth. Listen to both of these sounds: v sound (v sound) b sound (b sound). Can you hear the difference? Episode 18 is about the f sound and v sound, and might be helpful for this problem. Our upcoming episode 23 will talk more about the b sound.

Many Spanish speakers do not properly say the sh sound, and will replace it with the ch sound. Like the v sound, the sh sound is a fricative. The air needs to leave the mouth smoothly, but with friction. The ch sound has a stop at the beginning of it. The air is held inside the mouth in the same position as the t sound, then let go with the same friction of the sh sound. I know this is confusing. Basically the ch sound is the combination of a t sound plus an sh sound. Listen to the difference between these two sounds. sh sound (sh sound) ch sound (ch sound). Can you hear the difference? Listen to episode 17 for more information on the sh sound. I haven't created an episode for the ch sound yet, but you can still practice the sound list for that sound.

Consonant stops, especially the unvoiced stops, the p sound, t sound, and k sound, have a puff of air after they are released. If you don't let out enough of a puff, your stops may be heard as their voiced counterparts, the b sound, d sound and g sound. Also, make sure you are fully voicing the voiced stops, especially at the ends of words. Learn the correct -ed endings and make sure that you are saying the d sound when it is appropriate for the -ed spelling. I hear a lot of Spanish speakers who always say the final sound of the -ed ending as a t sound. It only should sound like a t sound some of the time, not all of the time. Episode 19 will explain how to know which sound the -ed ending should be, and episode 2 explains how to properly say the t sound and d sound.

I hear differing amounts of personal difficulty with the r sounds and l sound. This includes all the r-controlled vowels. Some Spanish speakers are big "tappers", meaning you tap the tip of your tongue to the tooth ridge, that bony ridge behind the front teeth, during your r sounds. This creates a very beautiful sound that English speakers have a very hard time saying, but that sound does not exist in English. We also don't roll our r sounds. If you were taught British English pronunciation and now are trying to learn an American accent, you will need to relearn the r-controlled vowels, as we say them very differently. Be sure to listen to episodes 4, 5, and 6 for specific instruction for those sounds. Remember, your tongue touches the inside of your mouth, directly behind the front upper teeth during the l sound, and it does not touch anything during the r sounds.

Be careful that the tip of the tongue does not touch anything inside the mouth during the y sound. Many Spanish speakers substitute a j sound for the y sound. Listen to the difference: y sound (y sound), j sound (j sound). Listen to episode 7 for more information about the y sound.

Vowels also cause considerable difficulty for the Spanish speaker. Pay special attention to the short i, which many speakers replace with the long e. Spend plenty of time with those minimal pairs at the bottom of these sounds' lists. All of the short vowel sounds are talked about in episode 9.

Spanish speakers also need to practice the u as in put sound. Make sure you aren't saying it as the oo sound. Listen to the difference between these two words: look, soon. Both words are spelled with an oo, but the word look has the same vowel sound as the word put. Episode 10 talks about these sounds.

Also pay attention to the aw sound, the sound in the word dog. Do not substitute a long o for this sound. Listen to the difference between these two words. The first word has an aw sound, the second word has a long o sound: bought, boat (aw sound) (long o). The aw sound is a part of episode 11. Also, remember that the long a, long i, long o, and long u are two-sound vowels. Listen to episode 8 for a reminder of what that means, as well as how to fully produce those sounds.

I know this was a lot of information. I have linked to the other episodes in the transcripts for this show, which can be found at www.pronuncian.com. I have also included a link to the sound lists along with these transcripts.

In addition to all the free online practice, I have created another way for you to take your practice with you wherever you go. You can now buy the sound practice audio in convenient MP3 practice for just $10US. You will get a PDF file of the sound list, so you can easily print it, and you will get 3 audio files for each sound, one file for each list of words for that sound in the beginning, middle, or end of the word. Of course, some sounds don't occur in all the part of a word in English, so those will just have audio files for where the sound does occur. If you've been wanting to put sound practice onto your iPod, this is the way to do it, and buying it supports this free podcast, which I really appreciate. You can buy the audio files from any country that PayPal accepts, and that is most currencies of the world. So you do not need to be here in the United States to buy this great practice.

You can also support this podcast with a purchase of a copy of my book, Pronunciation Pages: Sounds of American English. The ebook is only $25US, and you can immediately download it over the internet. The book can be yours in only minute. When you purchase a copy of the book, you receive 6 months full-access to Pronuncian.com and the online audio files for all the book's exercises. Just click the "Add to cart" button under the picture of the book on any of the transcript pages of Pronuncian.com.

You can buy both the book and the sound practice for just $30 US, which gets you all the lessons and audio exercises for the book, as well as the MP3 sound practice. All of your purchases go toward supporting this podcast, which I intend to keep producing for free.

I hope all you Spanish speakers have found this special episode of the American English Pronunciation podcast helpful. You can email me comments or suggestions at podcast@pronuncian.com. I love hearing from listeners around the world! I also really appreciate iTunes reviews. So, if you have the time, writing a review is also a great way to offer me support.

This has been a Seattle Learning Academy Digital Publication. Seattle Learning Academy is where the world comes to learn.

Thanks for listening!

Bye-bye.