Lesson Three: Syllable Structure Can Vary A Lot
Another reason English is so hard to pronounce correctly is because of its 'syllable structure'. In many languages, especially Asian languages such as Japanese and Chinese, syllables very often go:Consonant - Vowel - Consonant - Vowel
This means that English words are often said this way.
For example, the word 'hot dog'
Has structure:
consonant vowel consonant consonant vowel consonant
This is shown here, with C standing for consonant and V standing for vowel
| Hot | dog | |
| CVC | CVC |
Now this can often be said wrong:
| Ho | ta | do | ga | |
| CV | CV | CV | CV |
Notice how there are now four vowels instead of two.
This often happens with English words that end in a special type of consonant called a 'stop' consonant. 'stop' consonants are sounds like b, d, g, p, t, k and here are some words that end in them:
Bed cab bag cat cap brick It is important that you do not put an extra vowel at the end, for example some people will say 'bed' like 'bed a' however this is wrong.
Syllable structure can get quite difficult in English, for example:
'conscientious' has this structure
| Con | sci | en | tious |
| CVC | CV | VC | CVC |
And 'glimpsed' like before, is like this:
| Glimpsed |
| C C V C C C C |
This has two consonants, then one vowel, then four consonants in a row.
Lesson index:
- Lesson 1 - Many sounds in english are not in your native language.
- Lesson 2 - Some combinations of sounds can be hard to pronounce.
- Lesson 3 - Syllable structure can vary a lot.
- Lesson 4 - Words are not always pronounced the way they are spelt.
- Lesson 5 - Accents, how to stress the correct syllable in a word.
- Lesson 6 - Pitch and loudness change the meaning of sentences.
- Lesson 7 - Words change their pronunciation when in a sentence.
- Lesson 8 - American and British accents are different.
- Lesson 9 - How to test, see and hear your pronunciation on your computer.
