Search results for 'tag:Accents tag:Intonations' matching tags 'Accents' and 'Intonations'

Re: Easy as Pie, Almost!

Anonymous — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 12:30:12 GMT

Frequently listen to English spoken by native speakers and repeat them.
Watch English movies, listen to music, audio clips, BBC news and presentations.
Control your rate of speech to get the correct intonation and rhythm of English.
Use your dictionary.Familiarize yourself with the phonetic symbols used for different words in the dictionary and look up the correct pronunciation.This method helps in neutralizing an accent tremendously.
Make a list of commonly used words that are difficult to pronounce.
Record your own voice and listen for pronunciation mistakes.
Read English newspaper regularly.
Work on how to pronounce the vowel and consonant sounds.Mostly vowel sounds play vital role for accent variation.
Hence pronounce the vowels clearly.
Practice English sincerely. Don't feel shy to speak English as a beginner.

Re: How to change my accent?

Kooyeen — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 18:04:20 GMT

sanycool4
Am really struggling with my accent...English people can't really understand some words what am saying...So any body advice me how to change my accent?

You might need an accent reduction course. Learn the sounds, learn how to connect words, learn to use a decent intonation, etc. It depends on the variety you want to learn though. For American English, I once read "American Accent Training" by Ann Cook. I found it vital for my English, learned a lot of things and I improved a lot. I can't say anything about British English or other dialects though. Good luck. :)

Re: Mimicking an actor's accent

Kooyeen — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 20:27:59 GMT

Hi,
yes, I remember you asked about him. I'm not an expert at all, but I can tell you my opinion, as a learner.
I agree it's a good accent for those who are interested in British English. I don't find any annoying features in his accent (=features I don't like). It doesn't sound posh to me, his intonation seems to be normal and not exaggerated like in annoying posh accents.

3:54 - That is strange, yes. <-- Tapped T in "that is". I don't know how many accents have this feature and to what extent because I don't really know enough about British English.
3:57 - Yeah, that's a little weird <-- Glottal stops in "little". But they are not everywhere... either he's changing hir accent while he speaks, or those glottal stops are only found in certain special cases in his accent.
He doesn't release final T's. - Notice the difference between his final consonants and the hosts' ones, especially the woman's (the hosts sound like they overpronounce final consonants to me, since I'm mainly used to American English).

Just my non-native opinion, though. I don't know how difficult it is for a learner to pick up such an accent, because I don't know how widespread those kinds of accents are in the UK and in the media in general. Good luck.

Re: If I'm used only to Standard English, might I have trouble understanding dialects?

Tanit — Fri, 30 May 2008 14:48:26 GMT

Mr Wordy
Welsh people speak English with a distinctive lilting accent that is often described as "sing-song".

Hi,

I had never heard of that expression, and it's just perfect! I've known some people from South Wales (Swansea and Cardiff, especially) and they really seemed to sing while speaking, because of their usage of intonation. It took me some time to get used to it, but it was not difficult after all.
I also met some people from the Valleys, but never became accustomed to their accent - really hard for me.

Re: I Want To Be Fluent English Speaker How Please?

Anonymous — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 05:58:38 GMT

Hello to all,

I believe that to learn English depends of the interest of individual and depending of the English knowledge you wanted to learn. like for instance, if you want to speak English all you have to do is to listen very carefully to some tools such as CD, DVD, tapes etc. either audio or video, any kinds of topics as long as educational and knowledgeable and while you are listening just follow and speak what they are talking this is a training of the tongue or tongue twisting trying to develop proper accent, pronunciation, intonation etc, if any words you donât understand have your dictionary besides you and open it. next step just prepare any topics as guidelines [ prepare the main topics, sub topics and conclusion] prolong, elongate and expound the topics you wanted to discuss make it in English version at first you might have the difficulty to speak but try and try until your English would connect and connect at this point your trying to bridge the gap. What is needed in English is that at least you have many words to know {synonym and antonyms} is what i mean.

The basic training of English is that you have to speak English by any topics. I understand that for a person who lived {not speaking country have the difficulty to speak English} on my behalf, English education must start first on basic like for instance if you need English conversation find a person who could talk with you English, or else speak and talk English with yourself even if someone listening at you and say something you are a fool forget it. What is needed is you learn something and speak English. if you have the difficulty to write English just read books literatures etc at this point you can get many ideas and your vocabulary broadens, watch the period, punctuation, commas, etc, if you are not a good English listener try to listen English teachings, news whatever that could improve your English, the four pillars of English are: reading. Speaking, writing and listening, if you have this all then you can speak English although not fluent as what others did but at least you can communicate via reading, writing, listening and speak. Fluent English would follow donât give up keep trying until success.

I am a Filipino not an English speaker, writer, etc but in terms of communication i could communicate. For to me to learn English depends on individual. If we have the basic then we have to improve, have the desire, act on it, and apply no need a tutor individual interest is vital here. Donât be shy to speak English if the English is crooked and someone laughs at you accept it consider yourself that you are not an English person, perhaps the person who laughs at you donât know how to speak English and even to communicate with. Thereâs a saying goes: a noisy person have little knowledge than a silent one. in this world what is important is communication regardless of races, nationality and religion. a crooked English is better than nothing, a crooked or a carabao English has the opportunity to become fluent rather than nothing. but if you have nothing at all nobody blames except yourself, your making your own fate and destiny donât blame your parents and the government its your own decision for what you are now, your right decision now will be your future someday but if you donât plan or decision today do you think you have something to expect in the future. To speak English needs perseverance, long patience and determination to reach the goal this is fundamental requirements. people who cannot speak English has less opportunity to go abroad particularly in the open country, and thatâs the reason why I wanted to learn English even basic for this is my only tool to go to other countries if opportunities permit.

From Philippines,

Rene

Re: Petal and Pedal - Difference?

Kooyeen — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 21:50:13 GMT

Hi,
hmm, good question! I think I say bed or and better the same, but it depend on the context (that is, it mainly depends on the intonation of the sentence they are in).
I could buy a mirror, or a wardrobe or... hmm, a bed or... hmm, maybe some chairs. But I know I'd better buy nothing. <-- different for me (or is not reduced)

Now I'll wait for some native speaker to tell me off... if I just posted nonsesnse!
But this "sound-the-same" game seems fun. I remember an example form American Accent Training, where the author says that "soup or salad" is "super salad" Maybe we could continue the game with some more interesting pairs:

I hate them all!
I hate the mall!
Unless I stress them or I reduce it to 'em, those two are the same to me.

Re: English entailment

Kooyeen — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 21:17:31 GMT

Eagerlearner wrote:

I need to analyse this precisely, because it's for a software program project. Thank you.

I don't want to disappoint you... but I really do NOT believe machines can understand human languages. They are too complicated. You'll have to wait for artificial intelligence.
A little example:
I only need a couple of oranges... (...not all those!)
I only need a couple of oranges... (...I don't need all that fruit!)

That "only" refers to two different things ("couple" in the first, "oranges" in the second). Those two sentences have different intonation. The pitch and volume change differently, since the words to stress are different. But those two sentences look the same!
So your machine won't even be able to understand what "only" refers to in such simple and basic sentences. Unless...
- your software is going to analyze intonation too (= splitting sentences in words, analyzing vowels, frequences, accents, tone of voice... )
- your software is going to analize the context (= understanding the meaning of words and sentences...)

That is not possible now. Wait for artificial intelligence.
And sorry that I can't help you.

Re: mask accent?

Anonymous — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 22:40:56 GMT

Hi,

I am applying to several Ph. D. programs, and I need to learn how to mask or hide my Southern West Virginia accent. It is not cute- it is embarrassing in a business setting. If anyone has ever seen "Matewon" (movie about WV coal country), you will understand. Imagine giving a presentation at Carnegie, sounding like your "grand pappy is the lead McCoy." This is no joke. Any advice?

As long as you are capable of making yourself understood in your speech community (and other relevant speech communities), why change anything? You should ask yourself: Am I the one who need to change my accent, or are they the ones who should change their attitudes?

I don't find any accents intrinsically comical or less prestigious than others. As long as your accent is clear I would be reluctant to change it unless there was a good reason for me changing my accent such as if I had to portray someone from a different locality in a play or the like.

If you still want to change your accent (and I hope you will take my previous comments to heart, because in your particular case what follows is probably not really necessary), you should study the sound system of the target-accent (be it General American or Cultivated Australian, Hiberno English or poshest RP). Work out how the sounds you make differ from those made by speakers of your target-accent. Sometimes you also need to change some things about intonation and rhythm, for example, but such changes are generally more sorely needed in non-native speakers trying to learn a native-speaker accent.

I hope this helps.

Re: Where to find daily conVerSation

Tanit — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 16:13:00 GMT

Hi K.,

I spent a whole year in the UK, doing a postgraduate course. To make things worse, I chose to go to Wales because Cardiff Uni is at the cutting edge in my field. Have you ever heard somebody speaking with a Welsh accent? For the first two months there, I only wanted to cry... In spite of my excellent performances during tests and exams (I had taken the FCE, the CAE and the TOEFL), I could understand very little outside the Uni
You know, most teachers' accents were pretty standard and easy... something like BBC's anchors, and my classmates were mostly international students, each with their own accent (we were a funny bunch!). I simply became accustomed to them... Welsh English (there was a girl who had a nice Swansea accent), Scottish English, Cornish English, Virginia English (AmE), Indian English, but also French-English, Chinese-English, Pakistan-English, Greek-English and lot more! Oh, I really miss them!
However, cashiers in supermarkers and kids playing in the parks were too hard for me... real English, lots of phrasal verbs I had never heard before, lots of contractions, and intonation quite different from the one I am used to!!!
Funnily, for a piece of coursework I had to interview six people. I was quite discouraged when I had to do the write-ups of the interviews (I remember you posted in the thread I created, "Spoken English").

Anyway, what I wanted to say is: formal education (all of the four skills) has helped me a lot to deal with University tasks, or with "formal" situations; it was not of (great) use, though, when it came to "real", daily life. I had often to guess, but people were usually kind, and when I made it clear I hadn't understood, they would repeat slowlier what they had just said, or rephrase it.

Re: compounds and its main stress

Kooyeen — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 17:28:33 GMT

Hi Jim,
I noticed this, and remembered something I read on that book, "American Accent Training". I didn't pay much attention to that part, because I then found out that there were a lot of exceptions, so many that it made no sense to consider any rules.

CalifJim wrote:

a palm-planted COURTyard ('palm-planted' is an adjective)
a glass-enclosed LOBby (as with previous example)
apricot-tinted HAIR (as with previous example)

She says:
"An adjective and noun combination is called a descriptive phrase, and in the absence of contrast or other secondary changes, the stress will always fall naturally on the noun."
And then there's this exercise:
"There is a little girl. Her name is Goldilocks. She is in a sunny forest. She sees a small house. She knocks on the door, but no one answer. She goes inside. In the large room, there are three chairs. [...]"

Ok. So, the stress in on the noun. A red car, not a red car. Really? Hmm... All of a sudden, there it is, "review of chapters 1-6". And as an exercise, this thing comes up, "sentence balance". She says:
"Certain shifts will be dictated for the sake of sentence balance. Set phrases and contrast don't change, but the intonation of a descriptive phrase will move from the second word to the first, without changing the meaning. The stress change indicates that it's not the end of the sentence, but rather, there is more to come. [...] When we practiced Goldilocks the first time, we had very short sentences so we didn't need sentence balance. All of the descriptive phrases in blue would otherwise be stressed on the second word, if the shift weren't needed."

There is a little girl called Goldilocks. She is walking through a sunny forest and sees a small house. She knocks on the door, but no one answers. She goes inside to see what's there. There are three chairs in the large room. [...]

At that point, I thought: "What's the point in spending time on this?" I feel those kinds of stress shifts are really common, and they depend on a lot of things, not only to say "Hey, this is not the end of the sentence". Native speakers don't usually have prearranged sentences in mind when they talk. Then not everyone has the same intonation... take valley girls: would they stress the same words as everyone else?

So I decided not to focus on that, and just "go by ear". That's why I often have trouble with stress and intonation... I don't have a clue, LOL. It would be too complicated to find out and remember rules for that, and it wouldn't be worth it, I think.

Opinions? Thanks