Search results for 'tag:Prepositions tag:Consonants' matching tags 'Prepositions' and 'Consonants'

Re: how to pronounce 'sp', 'st' and 'sk' in the middle of the word?

Kooyeen — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 19:34:55 GMT

Hi, this is interesting, it reminds me of something I read in a book for improving pronunciation (the famous "American Accent Training"). The title of the paragraph is "Spoon or Sboon?"

She (the author) say: "Say spoon. Now say sboon. Hear how they sound the same?" This is similar to your p/b problem. Anyway, I disagree, spoon and sboon sound similar to me, but not the same, and people say spoon, not sboon. She go on saying: "Hear how they sound the same? This is why I'd like you to always convert the preposition to to duh when you are speaking, no matter what comes before it (voiced or unvoiced sound)." I have to disagree again. I don't think to becomes duh after unvoiced consonants. Examples: "Way duh go!" (ok, vowel sound), "I need duh know that" (ok, voiced consonant), "To be or nod duh be" (I don't think so, I think it's simply "To be or not to be"). In the book, however, she explicitly write in the phonetic transcription "T'bee r nah d'bee".

In the end, that paragraph was one the ones I didn't pay too much attention to. But maybe she's right, and I'm just a bad sutdent not willing to listen to teachers

Re: preposition OF

CalifJim — Sun, 10 Dec 2006 08:03:33 GMT

of always has the 'v' sound at the end except in (typically faster) informal conversation, where the 'v' is sometimes dropped when the following word begins with a consonant, 'of' then being identical in sound to the word 'a'.

Help! Help! An alligator's got a hold of me! (a hold a me)
A friend of my sister's got a pony for Christmas. (a friend a my sister's)
That's the end of the story. (the end a the story)
A lot of the children already knew how to read. (a lot a the children)
He was the star of the show. (the star a the show)
Today's the start of football season. (start a football season)
She played the queen of spades. (queen a spades)

This form of of is sometimes written o' (but with the same pronunciation as the 'a's above) and has become a fixed part of a few words such as o'clock, jack-o'-lantern, will-o'-the-wisp, and man-o'-war.

This comment applies to American English.

CJ

Re: preposition OF

Marvin A. — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 06:50:30 GMT

Certain dialects in the Upper Midwest with a German substratum will sometimes devoice final consonants, therefore 'of' would sound something like [ @f ] rather than [ @v ]

Re: On / Off , Of / Off

Teacher Eric — Thu, 14 Jul 2005 07:39:36 GMT

Science_guru wrote:
Sweety_pudding wrote:

i think of and off just looks like earchother..

I don't agree with this.

In fact I don't see any relation between "of" and "off"

"of" is a preposition e.g. President of America, son of Mr. List.

"off" is an adjective meaning "not in operation" eg. Turn off the computer. The lights are off.

I found following meaning when it is used as adverb

"From particular thing, place or position" -- they drove off

"No longer on or in contact" eg. clear off the dirt

SG

Even the pronunciation is different. Final sound for "off" is "f". For "of" it's "v" when the word comes before a vowel sound, and "uh" or "ah" (as in sorta = sort of) when it comes before a consonant sound. Well, generally in AmE, that is. But if the "uh" or "ah" seems awkward to you, I suggest sticking to the "v". You won't go wrong.

I'm in a bit of a hurry. (v sound)

Here's a list of materials I need.