Search results for 'tag:Phonetics tag:Speak english' matching tags 'Phonetics' and 'Speak english'

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 learn English

Anonymous — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 09:30:48 GMT

i. Observe the mouth movements of those who speak English well and try to imitate them.

When you are watching television, observe the mouth movements of the speakers. Repeat what they are saying, while imitating the intonation and rhythm of their speech.

ii. Until you learn the correct intonation and rhythm of English, slow your speech down.

If you speak too quickly, and with the wrong intonation and rhythm, native speakers will have a hard time understanding you.

Don't worry about your listener getting impatient with your slow speech -- it is more important that everything you say be understood.

iii. Listen to the 'music' of English.

Do not use the 'music' of your native language when you speak English. Each language has its own way of 'singing'.

iv. Use the dictionary.

Try and familiarise yourself with the phonetic symbols of your dictionary. Look up the correct pronunciation of words that are hard for you to say.

v. Make a list of frequently used words that you find difficult to pronounce and ask someone who speaks the language well to pronounce them for you.

Record these words, listen to them and practice saying them. Listen and read at the same time.

vi. Buy books on tape.

Record yourself reading some sections of the book. Compare the sound of your English with that of the person reading the book on the tape.

vii. Pronounce the ending of each word.

Pay special attention to 'S' and 'ED' endings. This will help you strengthen the mouth muscles that you use when you speak English.

viii. Read aloud in English for 15-20 minutes every day.

Research has shown it takes about three months of daily practice to develop strong mouth muscles for speaking a new language.

ix. Record your own voice and listen for pronunciation mistakes.

Many people hate to hear the sound of their voice and avoid listening to themselves speak. However, this is a very important exercise because doing it will help you become conscious of the mistakes you are making.

x. Be patient.

You can change the way you speak but it won't happen overnight. People often expect instant results and give up too soon. You can change the way you sound if you are willing to put some effort into it.

Quick tips

Various versions of the English language exist. Begin by identifying the category you fall into and start by improving the clarity of your speech.

~ Focus on removing the mother tongue influence and the 'Indianisms' that creep into your English conversations.

~ Watch the English news on television channels like Star World, CNN, BBC and English movies on Star Movies and HBO.

~ Listen to and sing English songs. We'd recommend Westlife, Robbie Williams, Abba, Skeeter Davis and Connie Francis among others.

Books to help you improve your English

Essential English Grammar by Murphy (Cambridge)
Spoken English by R K Bansal and J B Harrison
Pronounce It Perfectly In English (book and three audio cassettes) by Jean Yates, Barrons Educational Series
English Pronunciation For International Students by Paulette Wainless Dale, Lillian Poms

Re: When I have trouble...

Anonymous — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 19:22:29 GMT

Hi,

For most learners of English, the goal is to learn to speak English clearly i.e. in such a way that one will be understood by all kinds of speakers of the language. High acceptability and native-like performance is rarely needed. I personally think you should learn your English from someone whose accent you like. Rare indeed are learners who acquire the phonetic ability to make the distinctions between 'micro-pronunciations'.

Re: What makes English so difficult to learn?

Marvin A. — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 15:55:37 GMT

and an ignorant American would look at British and pronounce practise (Br. spelling) like practize....

Highly unlikely.

Americans on the other hand, have been butchering it for centuries and should not be consulted when learning this language. It is, after all, English and not American.

Rubbish. North American English is in many ways much closer to Elizabethan English than British English, Australian English and New Zealand English.

Anonymous Australian.

Well, we could say that Australian English speakers are "butchering the language": for one thing, most of you have forgotten how to prononounce your r's; your vowels are quite different earlier forms of English, and your vocabulary has shifted quite a bit.

It is, after all, English and not American.

Well, it's not Australian either.

so it is logical that the more words one knows, the more thoughts one can have.

How is that logical? Other languages can also be quite expressive. Just because English "has" over a million words, you have to realize that many are simply restricted to medicine; others are not in common use and would be quite incomprehensible to most people. Just by possessing a copious amount of words (many of these so called "English words" are hardly native words, and are not understood by many people), doesn't mean that English is more expressive than other languages in all respects.

It (the spelling) was fixed 400 years ago

Yes, for the most part. But what I don't understand, is if someone wants to simply be able to speak English (and doesn't care about reading and writing), why don't they simply use a phonetic alphabet when learning English.

though I'm convinced once upon a time it really was pronounced "kuh-ni-git"

Actually in Old and Middle English, the "k" was pronounced (but there was no "uh" after it), and the "g" was pronounced like in the word "Loch" if you put on a Scottish accent.

Or meaby something from German: einhundertfunfundzwazig (125) - this is correct spelling, there shouldn't be any spaces!!!

Well, it's easy enough to break down, and is hardly harder than onehundredtwentyfive.

You say its easy, and yet you write 'learned' instead of 'learnt' - a classic example.

"learned" and "learnt" tend to be pretty well interchangeable.

Re: How would you pronounce these foreign names?

Colombo — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 10:40:22 GMT

I suppose demicjusz is interested in how those words are pronounced by people who speak English, so I don't think my opinion here would be useful, since my spoken English doesn't contain many sounds apart from those that belong also to Spanish (so you can imagine my accent). With my nil knowledge of phonetic transcription, if I wanted to tell you how I'd pronounce the words in demicjusz's list (with my Spanish accent, remember), all I'd have to do is copy the list again, perhaps with a couple of changes here and there. Besides, an English-speaking person would not pronounce my transcription as I'd do, so I'm afraid it's no use my writing it. However, I'd like to make a comment about "Fortaleza", which is a Spanish word.

Demicjusz wrote:
I'm not surprised about 'lei' in 3 (I see a parallel with 'Venezuela'),

Mister Micawber wrote:
3. Fortaleza / four t? 'lei z? /

When I've read Mister Micawber's transcription I've immediately thought of an American speaking Spanish with a very heavy accent (by the way, I cannot see the parallel with "Venezuela" ... Perhaps it's because I don't know how that word's pronounced in English). Anyway, I'm going to try to explain how I say "Fortaleza". The fact that -as I've already said- I speak English with Spanish sounds won't help, but I'll do my best.

To begin with, I think the idea of "four" for the first syllable is good. In case you're thinking of the British pronunciation of "four", the "r" does sound in "fortaleza", with what I think is a stronger sound than that of your "four" (since the tongue rolls when saying it). As for the next syllable, the transcription "t?" seems to have an "a" with an undefined unclear sound. However, that "a" should be clearly uttered (it seems to me that Nona has managed something closer to it). Forced to give an equivalence, I'd say it's the sound in "park" (but with all kind of reservations). The syllable Demicjusz finds logical, 'lei, wouldn't be pronounced like that, since Spanish is read as it's written, and so, if you see a vowel "e" you pronounce a vowel "e" (probably like in "met", not a long "ee" like Nona's), and not a diphthong. As to the last syllable, the wovel should be the same as in the second, while the "z" should be as the "th" sound in "think". Well, at least that's how I'd say it. That sound isn't used by all Spanish-speaking people. In fact, I think that most of them would use one of those /s/, /z/ or whatever you call it (I cannot really tell the difference, it's what I would simply describe as an "s", although I think theirs is softer, since all Latin Americans keep on telling us how strong our "s" is). In most of Spain we use that "th" sound, but in the south of Spain and in the rest of Spanish-speaking countries they use what I call the "s" sound (even though they're taught to pronounce the "z" with the "th" sound at school, I've been told).

I'm a little ashamed of this clumsy explanation, but I'm afraid I can do no better. I cannot give clear examples in English because I tend to say everything with the only five vowels I know, so I use the same sound in "can", "but" and "park", or in "sheet" and "***", or in "look" y "pool"... Have I made your hair curl? Sorry! I know they're not the same sounds, although that doesn't mean I can use them!

Demicjusz wrote:
so I added '-cjusz', which, at least in Polish, immediately shows masculinity;

To me, it only shows a very high degree of Polishness

Question about glottal Stops

LeicesterLad — Sun, 09 Jul 2006 13:15:21 GMT

I am a native English speaker from central England and about a year ago moved to the north east of England. I'm curious to know if any other languages use the distinctive combined glottal stop and consonant sound that is common here, and what the international phonetic symbol is (I've looked, but can't find it).

You hear it in words like "butter" and "paper", where the "er" part of the word starts with a glottal stop, but is sounded simultaneously with the the consonant at the end of the previous syllable. (That's not a very good explanation I know, but I hope you understand what I mean!). Its not like the glottal stop used in Cockney, south midlands and estuary English, where - in a word like "butter" - the "t" sound dosen't appear at all.

I'm not sure if any other languages use it, but you sometimes hear it used by Malay/Indonesian speakers when the speak English, so it may appear in Bahasa Indonesian. Possibly Arabic too.

Thanks.

Re: Received Pronunciation & Mid Atlantic English

Colombo — Tue, 16 May 2006 10:41:48 GMT

Tallulah Tam wrote:

I feel that Alan Jay Lerner was not so concerned about his own grammar when he wrote the song, he insults the intelligence of the audience by using the word "hung" incorrectly, especially when putting the words into the mouth of Professor Higgins who as I said, should, and most likely would, have known better. Also the rhyming is bad.

Henry, 'Look at her, a prisoner of the gutter,
Condemned by every syllable she ever uttered.
By law she should be taken out and hung,
For the cold-blooded murder of the English tongue.'

I would modestly suggest:-

Look at her, a prisoner of the gutter,
Condemned by every syllable to utter.
By law she should be taken out to hang
For the cold-blooded murder of the English twang.

First of all, I like your version of the verse! But then, does "murdering the English twang" make one deserve being hanged? (I'm sure I'm slipping up with my grammar here!) Isn't twang one of the things that murders the English tongue? (I'm intending no pun or joke, it's only a vocabulary question.)

I've always taken for granted that Alan Jay Lerner, being an American, would take great care not only over making Higgins' speech irreproachable, but also over avoiding americanisms and anachronisms. As far as I know he's done the latter, but I'm amazed to find ungrammatical sentences from Higgins! Even if it's for the sake of rhyming, I think he should have tried to think of something better. After all, it's his job... But Tallulah, you say the rhyming is bad. Is it? I've just looked it up in the dictionary, and all the words seem to rhyme well (the exact words in the song are "gutters" and "utters").

Incidentally, all the rhyming words ("gutters", "utters", "hung" and "tongue") contain a vowel sound (that represented by an inverted v) that I think Scousers pronounce in a funny way. As an anecdote related to English accents, in the English examinations over here there always are several questions about phonetics (which, more than my cup of tea, are my cup of bitterness). Well, the only questions about vowel sounds I have some chance of getting right are those about this "inverted v" sound. All I have to do is to imagine how George Harrison or Ringo Starr would pronounce a word, and I know whether it contains that sound or not. Stupid little trick... But it works.

Tallulah Tam wrote:

Personally I DO think such a transformation is possible one only has to witness the transformations of Glynnis Paltrow and Madonna who now speak better English than the English. I am also personally acquainted with a Dutch Professor who speaks perfect English with Received Pronunciation and no trace of a foreign accent. Richard Burton is another example; when once asked how he managed to lose his Welsh accent he replied, "blood, sweat and tears". I don't know how old you are, but perhaps you remember The Jenkins brothers Clive and Roy? British politicians. To hear them speak you would not have believed they were reared in the same household. Clive had a very thick Welsh mining community accent but Roy who won a scholarship to Oxford cultivated a Received Pronunciation accent so far back it was almost ridiculous.

No, I had never heard of the Jenkins brothers (probably I'm too young, or maybe they're not so well known outside of England, I don't know). But, apart from the Dutch professor, I think all the persons you've mentioned have English as their mother tongue (people from Wales speak both English and Welsh, don't they?) So I wonder whether all they have to do is to get used to pronouncing certain sounds in the proper places. I mean, when I speak English my main difficulty is to try to produce sounds that are not in my own language and that I haven't got accustomed to hearing from an early age. I simply can't do it with most of them. But when Eliza Doolittle says, for example, that "the ryne in spine sties minely in the pline", although it's all wrong, I don't think she is uttering any sound that doesn't belong to "normal" English; only that she uses them where they don't belong. (Although, of course, I'm on dangerous ground here; I know very little about English accents and my ear isn't sharp, to say the least, so maybe Eliza's speech is full of non-standard sounds.)

Tallulah Tam wrote:

My handy encyclopedia is Macmillan's, and it only lists Sir Rex Harrison, (Reginald Carey Harrison) as a British actor, followed by his achievements. It does not mention his place of birth. But actors are usually exceptionally good at mimicry (although Robert Redford refused to learn a British accent for his part in "Out of Africa"). Sir John Mills for instance was never heard speaking in any other accent but what was considered to be a high class English accent, except if the part called for it, such as in "Ryan's Daughter, but someone once commented that his natural accent was quite a strong West Country accent. James Mason is yet another example who killed his Huddersfield accent to play upper class British gentlemen in his films. The first time I heard James Mason speak with a flat accent (in a film) I was quite shocked! As you say, it would have been "a bit shocking" to have heard Rex Harrison speak with a Liverpudlian accent.

Rex Harrison was born very near Liverpool (in a place called Huyton, I think), but what I don't know is what is considered the scouse area. I suppose that, even if it's not properly a Scouser, Rex Harrison's accent can't be very different from it... Now that you mention all those examples of actors' accents, I realize that watching all the films dubbed doesn't help to learn to speak English, does it? I think I have seen less than ten films in English in all my life. There are some cinemas that show films with subtitles (not in my town), but I loathe them. I'm not used to it, so when I go to one of these cinemas I cannot watch the film, I spend all my time reading the subtitles! "My Fair Lady" is one of the exceptions; I bought the DVD and now I almost know it by heart in English.

(Now starts the off-topic section. My apologies!)

As to the film "Pygmalion", I recorded it from the TV a couple of years ago, only to find that, with those nasty timetables, the film had started more than one hour too late, and I could only see the beginning. So I cannot compare it to "My Fair Lady". But I had already heard that it was much more faithful to Shaw's play than "My Fair Lady". Probably, "Pygmalion" expresses much better Eliza's pride, intelligence, idependence, etc. As Shaw said at the end of the play, "Galatea never does quite like Pygmalion: his relation to her is too godlike to be altogether agreeable" (I liked it, so I learned it by heart). However, Alan Jay Lerner preferred his own ending (which I have found purists and feminists equally abhor ). When he wrote "My Fair Lady" (the theatre play) he explained how Shaw had written a sequel in which Eliza ends up with Freddy and not with Higgins. Lerner also said "Shaw and Heaven forgive me!, I am not certain he is right" (once again, I liked it ). I suppose that's the schmaltzy in me, but I prefer "My Fair Lady"'s ending! As to the scenes that quotation mentions... "Stiff and affected"... It's a good excuse to watch it all again, although I suspect what my verdict will be (I'm slightly partial to "My Fair Lady", hadn't you realized it?)

Re: :::::: HOW TO SPEAK AND LEARN EGNLISH ::::

Exclusive — Thu, 04 May 2006 22:16:55 GMT

Part I: Want to 'neutralise' your accent?

Many deserving candidates lose out on job opportunities because of their vernacular accent.

Can I 'neutralise' my accent?

Yes, you can. All you need to do is train yourself to speak English as comfortably and perfectly as you speak your mother tongue.

How do you train yourself? By inculcating certain practices in your daily lifestyle. These will get you closer to sounding like a native English speaker and equip you with a global accent -- and you will speak not American or British English, but correct English.

This is the first step to learn any other accent, be it American or British or Australian.

Lisa Mojsin, head trainer, director and founder of the Accurate English Training Company in Los Angeles, offers these tips to help 'neutralise' your accent or rather do away with the local twang, as you speak.

i. Observe the mouth movements of those who speak English well and try to imitate them.

When you are watching television, observe the mouth movements of the speakers. Repeat what they are saying, while imitating the intonation and rhythm of their speech.

ii. Until you learn the correct intonation and rhythm of English, slow your speech down.

If you speak too quickly, and with the wrong intonation and rhythm, native speakers will have a hard time understanding you.

iv. Use the dictionary.

Try and familiarise yourself with the phonetic symbols of your dictionary. Look up the correct pronunciation of words that are hard for you to say.

v. Make a list of frequently used words that you find difficult to pronounce and ask someone who speaks the language well to pronounce them for you.

Record these words, listen to them and practice saying them. Listen and read at the same time.

vi. Buy books on tape.

Record yourself reading some sections of the book. Compare the sound of your English with that of the person reading the book on the tape.

vii. Pronounce the ending of each word.

ix. Record your own voice and listen for pronunciation mistakes.

x. Be patient.

Quick tips

Various versions of the English language exist. Begin by identifying the category you fall into and start by improving the clarity of your speech.

~ Focus on removing the mother tongue influence and the 'Indianisms' that creep into your English conversations.

~ Watch the English news on television channels like Star World, CNN, BBC and English movies on Star Movies and HBO.

~ Listen to and sing English songs. We'd recommend Westlife, Robbie Williams, Abba, Skeeter Davis and Connie Francis among others.

Books to help you improve your English

Essential English Grammar by Murphy (Cambridge)
Spoken English by R K Bansal and J B Harrison
Pronounce It Perfectly In English (book and three audio cassettes) by Jean Yates, Barrons Educational Series
English Pronunciation For International Students by Paulette Wainless Dale, Lillian Poms

more info: www.ingilizcepratik.net

Re: i want to learn bristish accent...

Anonymous — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 07:21:14 GMT

hi, my advice is to listen and watch british shows, news on the "telly" , and radio online ( www.bbc.co.uk ) They have an extensive array of radio shows for every tastes. Any media you can find. Learning the phonetic of their speech is especially helpful. This was the way i started when I was learning to speak english, television and the news.Took some time, but it was really worth it .Hope you achieve your goal,

Re: Just Little in Size

LanguageLover — Thu, 14 Apr 2005 08:49:07 GMT

Thanks Ali for your note, and being patient with my questions!
You mean they speak English without an Arabic accent? I can't believe it! As you know, the phonetic features are very different, so it really makes it difficult to neutralize! I rarely have heard an Arab on TV, except for the anchors and interviewrs, speaking English without his/her Arabic accent. The funny mistake that always makes me laugh is the use of TASHDID in for example "connection". But believe me, it's way far from the worst that I've heard. My En glish wasn't so bad when I first moved here, but I couldn't recognize even a word spoken by Indians! Now, I got used to it, though sometimes I have to say "What?/sorry,..."!
I think the government should have done a lot to make it possible even for the residents of a small town to have the opportunity to learn English! Or, may be the government has nothing to do with it, and its the youngesters' desire to be able to communicate with the global language. Either way, it's great.
We can continue our discussion in a new thread related to culture, so that other people who are interested can participate, or read our debate, shall we?
If I am asking too many questions, just say it! You know, you are the first person from that part of the world, and there are a lot that I like to know about your country and people! But it's ok if you are not interested, or if they bother you- I have to apologize in this case!
I also agree with you about the way we get rid of the unwanted animals! We'll continue later, ok?
BTW. I am from Iran, and I am sure you have too many questions about my country and people as well, it's also one of the controversial places on the earth!
Cheers,