Search results for 'tag:Pronunciation tag:Spelling' matching tags 'Pronunciation' and 'Spelling'

Re: British English pronounciation

thactoad — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 14:46:34 GMT

Pronunciation (note the spelling of the noun!! - but to pronounce) is not something you will find in a book but you need a native speaker to help you. I suggest you try to listen to English radio broadcasts (available on the internet) as you are probably not living in the UK.

Re: Correct Pronunciation of "Caroline" Kennedy

Clive — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 12:57:14 GMT

Hi,

It is the morning after the opening night of the Democratic Convention.

I remember the 1960s and President Kennedy. I have always heard
his daughter Caroline's name pronounced "Care-oh-line" in accordance
with the spelling of the word.

Now I am hearing young TV talking heads pronounce her name as
"Care-oh-lynn," which I think is incorrect.

Which is it?
You'd have to ask her. However, I've always pronounced that name more like 'Car-oh-lynn'.

Best wishes, Clive

Correct Pronunciation of "Caroline" Kennedy

Caylor — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 10:23:15 GMT

A dictionary

Anonymous — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 15:34:17 GMT

ãThis dictionary tells you about English words and how to use them in reading, writing and speaking English. It not only gives the meaning of words, it can also help you with spelling, word building, grammar and pronunciation.

ããTo use your dictionary correctly, you need to understand how the dictionary works. At the front of the book, you will find some exercises to help you make the most use of your dictionary.

ããIf you look up the word âcolourâ, you will find two spellings for this word. âColourâ is used in British English, while âcolorâ is used in American English. When such a thing happens, the dictionary shows it with the word âBrEâ for British English and âAmEâ for American English.

ããThe dictionay also helps you pronounce words correctly. It uses a special alphabet to show pronunciation. If you turn to the inside back face, you will see all the phonetic letters with some words to show you how they are pronounced. Just have a look this page when youâre not sure how to say a word.

ããThe most important reason for using a dictionary is to find out the meaning of a wordâits DEFINITION.

ããIn this dictionary, the definitions have been written using only 2000 words. This means that the definitions of even the most difficult words are simply explained and easy to understand.
ããWhen a word has more than one meaning, read all the meanings until you find the one that correctly tells the use of the word you are looking for

Re: Consonant cluster reduction

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 22:54:33 GMT

Hi. On TV you may not hear the sounds, the tongue-play within the chamber of the mouth and the tiny air stops, etcetera that occur when people speak. You need to be face-to-face with your pronunciation coach.

I can well see how you "hear" FAX for facts, because the sounds are about identical in those two words. You know from the context when someone tells you to send them a FAX that they are not talking about the "facts." That is the context or the syntax of the language.

GIFTS is spelled that way, but, actually when you pronounce it, you DO HEAR "GIFS." The ortography of words is a clue to their meaning, so the spelling is important when you are reading.

ASKED. Pronounce ASK. Feel and hear the little "kick" when you produce the "k." Now, add the past tense syllable, "ed." In this particular word, "ed" is pronounced as if it were a "t." Your mouth cannot go from the "K" to the "T" without trouble, so the "K" gets forgiven, softened, blurred in pronunciation..it just about disappears totally so that your tongue is able to touch the alveolar ridge just behind your front teeth. That is the positioning of the tongue within the mouth that causes this particular phenomenon. KICKed...see above for "asked." These kinds of sound changes are required due to the placement of the tongue.

On that subject, I might point your interest to the pronunciation of "a" or "an." Before a consonant you use "a" and before a vowel you use "an."
Try it. A dog. A cat. A shoe. A house. Now consonants.....An elephant, An egg, An old man, An idiot. If you were to reverse this speaking pattern, you'd quickly feel the ugliness and difficulty forced into your tongue movements.

An dog; an cat, an shoe; an house..a elephant; a egg; a old man; a idiot.
Carole in Umatilla, OR

Re: The Hardest Words to pronounce!

Anonymous — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 05:54:02 GMT

Alienvoord. The fact that an error is made by a large number of people does not make it any less erroneuous. Many Americans also pronounce Iraq "eye-rack". Is that a regionalism as well? In any case, native English speakers don't rely on spelling to pronounce words because the english language can be irregular, but that isn't a point in favor of the regionalism argument. Being native speakers, they should know the correct pronunciation. If they don't, it's still wrong. Also, being educated doesn't mean that what you do is right - and you probably shouldn't make suggestions unless you have some evidence to back them up. i.e. it might have been better to reference Mirriam-Webster in the first place, not state something as the truth and later pin in on them

Re: The word "Greenwhich"

CalifJim — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 01:42:46 GMT

Espeland
Why do you pronounce "Greenwhich" not like "green witch" but like "grannich" ? In other words: why is the w silent and the wide -ee- turned into a "closed" e ?

I'm sure you realize that this is not an isolated example. Many, many words in English are likewise not pronounced the way it seems they should be pronounced from the spelling. The pronunciation changes over hundreds of years, but the spelling remains the same, so many words which sounded just as they were spelled centuries ago now sound different from their spellings. (English is not the only language whose spelling never bothered to keep up with changes in pronunciation throughout history. French is another good example.)

Re: Which language is most difficult language for people to learn?

Cool Breeze — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 13:18:45 GMT

Hi Forbes

I agree with you completely. Of course grammar includes syntax. I wrote about the very first experiences of a person who is beginning his language studies. All such experiences are very subjective!

I don't think there is an objective way or method to measure and compare the difficulty of languages. I honestly believe that just like people prefer different tastes and colours and whatever, they also vary in their ability to learn languages (and other things as well). If somebody thinks and says that a certain language is easy or difficult for him, it is his subjective view but he is certainly right. At least he feels that way. He may have a very superficial knowledge of the languages he is studying but if he finds one language easier or more difficult than other languages he is certainly right.

I know from experience that even if someone has a flair for languages, not all languages are equally easy for him. A language that is easy for some may be difficult for others. That's a fact. There are teachers who have been teaching languages for 35 years to thousands of students in Finland. They have noticed the differences.

Learning a foreign language is extremely subjective. Every student studies at least two foreign languages in comprehensive school in Finland. After that, in secondary school many students study a third foreign language. Some take up a fourth language. Students and teachers have a lot of experience in foreign language acquisition here.

With regard to English, most students never get far enough in their studies to really comprehend the intricacies of the language. They don't have to: graduating from comprehensive school calls for nothing special and it is possible to pass the nationwide Matriculation Examination, which is required if you want to graduate from secondary school, with very low language skills. Perhaps that is just as well. There are other things than languages that are also important. For many it's enough to be able to use basic English on their travels abroad and to exchange a few words with foreigners.

It's no wonder many students consider English easy. They never get far enough to encounter the difficulties, apart from the spelling, pronunciation and idioms!

Cheers, CB

Re: Simple Past Lesson Plan

Mister Micawber — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 04:22:11 GMT

.
Oh, I can always find something else (but I may have messed up your formatted columns):

Lesson Plan

Preparation

Level : Elementary

Lesson Length: 45 minutes

Objective: To be able to use the Past Simple question forms and short answers.

Target Language: did + subject + base form of verb ( Did your mother call you? )

Question word + did + subject + base form of verb ( What did you do last night? )

Short answers:

Yes + subject + did ( Did it rain? Yes, it did.)

No + subject + didn't ( Did Helen come to the party? No, she didn't. )

Assumed knowledge: Past Simple (regular / irregular verbs, negative form)

Anticipated problems:

Students may use a past form of the main verb to make the question instead of using the base form. E.g. Did you went?

Solutions:

During the presentation stage, draw students' attention to the fact that 'Did' does not change its form. 'Did' is always used to form the question in the Past Simple.(This is not true for the verb 'be' and sometimes the verb 'have'.)
Point out the verb tense in the question form. Did + subject + base form of the verb
Drill individually and chorally.
Practice making questions. Monitoring for errors and having students unscramble sentences

can also help to work on sentence structure problems.

Preparation and Aids: Simple reading text ,dialogue, in the Simple Past, using vocabulary that

students are already familiar with. Handout for homework correcting sentences. Four pictures of people doing things.

Lesson Plan

Stage	Activity	Interaction	Timing
1	Warmer : Timed Scattergories (*spelling? I don't know this word) with pre-chosen* themes (food, things you do on the weekend, etc) Review homework from last class	TS ST	5 mins
2	Introduction : Have two students stand up for a moment to set the scene; elicit their names. Then they can sit down. Write them on the board. Hand out the dialogue between these two friends who are talking about their past weekend. (A dialogue that mostly contains vocabulary the students are familiar with)	TS SS	1 min
3	Have students read the dialogue and answer gist questions about it to check their understanding.	S ST	3 min
4	Ask students to focus on the language used by asking what question Â« A Â» asked Â« B Â». Write this question on the board.	TS ST	1 min
5	Presentation : Show students how it is formed Did + subject + base Did you have a good weekend ? Point out that we don't use the past form of the main verb in questions, but always the base (or dictionary) form	TS	5 min
6	Drill chorally and individually. Focus on pronunciation and correct structure.	TST	2 min
7	Elicit: Draw students' attention to the short answer and explain the positive and the negative structures. Yes + subject + did -- Yes, I did. No + subject + didn't -- No, I didn't.	TS
8	Drill chorally and individually and then conduct a controlled question-and-answer drill around the class : E.g : Â« Sandrine ask Didier...(point to an action on the board : - go to the restaurant / movies / market / bank / etc.) Â» Sandrine: Â« Did you go to the restaurant? Â« Didier: Â« Yes, I did. Â» etc.	ST SS	2 min 5 min
9	Pairwork : Students ask and answer questions from the board and note down their partners' answers. The focus here is on correct pronunciation and structure, so it is important to correct any errors by referring to the structures on the board.	PW	5 min
10	Controlled Oral Practice : Use dialogue text as a basis to talk about what the two characters did on the weekend. Also use visual support such as a picture of a restaurant to prompt questions. For example, show a picture of two friends having a conversation; encourage them to produce the following question : Â« Did they go to a restaurant ? -- Yes, they did / No, they didn't. Â» Give four picture examples as prompts.	TS SS TS	1 min 2 min
11	Monitor closely. Correct errors by using what's already on the board as a point of reference.	TS	1 min
12	If students are performing well, turn focus to what they themselves did on the weekend. They ask each other questions and give short answers.	PW	5 min
13	Follow up with controlled written practice. For example, use questions and answers in which the words are all mixed up ; students put the words back into the correct order.	S	5 min
14	Homework : a transformation exercise (changing affirmative statements into questions and short answers)

Re: NARNIA

Tanit — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 21:42:40 GMT

Kooyeen
That way, you don't get a "A little bit" pronounced like it's a series of spits, but you get "A li(t)l bi(t)".

Your comment reminded me of something I listened to a couple of weeks ago. (Here's the link to the mp3 file ... warning: it's 3.3MB)
BBC Learning English has made a radio programme which consists of 12 episodes. In each episode, they analyse the way some famous non-native (but proficient) speakers speak English.
In one of the episodes, they focussed on BjÃ¶rk's English (I hope I got the spelling correct ) and discussed her usage of collocations and her pronunciation. I'm posting here only some sentences where she pronounces the t's the way you posted:

"only I did i(t) much be(tt)er" (around 0'20'')
"the most difficult bi(t) was to know it wasn't gonna be perfect" (around 1'40'')
"the happy song are a lo(t) lo(t) more" (around 02'05'')
"sort of before and after my li(tt)le lesson" (around 02'20'')

If you want to listen about the presenters' comments about this way of pronouncing the t's, listen to the clip from about 7'20'' to about 9'00''
If you don't want to listen to that, here's a spoiler

Their opinion is that, although some people say this is lazy, incorrect pronunciation, in fact it is a common feature among young people in London, and it clearly demonstrates that BjÃ¶rk has lived in England.