Tag: English lesson

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English Sounds

R Controlled Vowels

R Controlled (or R Coloured) vowels are pretty rare in the world’s languages, but they are a main feature of North American English. R Controlled vowels (along with “th”) are often one of the most difficult features of spoken English for ESL learners.

Video Script
Hello. This video is about R controlled vowels. R controlled vowels are very rare; they only occur in about 1% of languages in the world. English – North American English – is one of them. If you speak Mandarin Chinese: good news! You do this in your language as well. If not, sorry guys, we’ve got something new to look at here. Let’s let’s get started. So first of all, this is sometimes called the “Bossy R” and the reason for that is because the R changes the vowel – changes the vowel sound – that comes before it. The /r/ and the vowel that come first get so close that it’s hard to tell them apart, okay? So the R blends with the vowel that comes before it. So let’s just take a look at the words that I’ve got on the screen here. Do you see any R controlled vowels? Now there’s the first one, or, or. Now where does the O end and the /r/ begin? It’s really hard to tell, isn’t it? Before, or, right? So they they blend together quite closely. There are three more. I’ll give you a moment to find them. I’ll give you a hint: every time you see an R that comes after a vowel, that vowel is controlled by the R. er- first, ar- hard, and the same sound in a different word: ar – apart. Okay, let’s get going. The first one that we’re going to look at is what we just saw in those examples: ar – so let’s take a look before a voiceless consonant: remark dark heart stark market park cart, and now we’ll take a look at some before a voiced consonant: yard large farmer guard hard card bard, and now let’s take a look at some in sentences. The market yard was large. After the farmers remark, it was hard to part. The next one is an ER sound. Let’s take a look at some before a voiceless consonant: work murky church irked lurk dirt earth, and before a voiced consonant: bird worm herder word urge fir curb. Now you noticed that fir – nothing comes after that, but when a sound like this comes at the end of a word, it stretches out just as though there were a voiced consonant, so that’s why that is there. Let’s take a look at some sentences: The dirty bird ate the murky worm. In Scotland, a church is called a kirk, sir. Now let’s take a look at or. First of all, before a voiceless consonant: north cork fort short horse course port, and then before voiced consonant: horn torn corn cord form floor store, and we’ll look in some sentences: The horse from the north sorry, I’ll start again: The horse from the north fort ate the corn. The corn is on the floor, of course. And one more here: air. air appears at the end of words or followed by voiced sounds. America carry there fair where glare prepare. There was bear hair on the chair. Jerry was scared to climb the stairs at the fair. Okay, so that’s all. If you’d like some practice, look below the video because I’ve set up some speaking exercises for you. Have a good day!

Categories
English Sounds

Diphthongs

Diphthongs, also known as gliding vowels, are a type of vowel that is made up of two sounds. No, it’s not the same as two vowel sounds, one after the other; it’s a vowel sound with two parts. The reason there are two parts is because the mouth has to move while making this type of sound.

Confused? Don’t be.

Say the name of this letter: I.

Did you notice that you moved your mouth moved? (If you didn’t, do it again and pay closer attention!)

That’s what a diphthong is. Not so bad, is it?

Video Script
Hello. This video is about diphthongs. Diphthongs are a specific type of vowel sound. If we look at the word diphthong itself, it’s going to help us to figure out what we’re looking at. So, di, meaning two, and phthong meaning sound or tone. This is borrowed from Greek. So to make a diphthong, you, your mouth has to move from one position to another. Wait a minute: Isn’t that two vowels? No, it’s not. Let me give you an example. “I” which is one letter – it’s also a word, but think about it: when you start, your mouth is open and by the time you’re finished, your mouth is more closed. I I if I just left my mouth wide open – uh – I would never finish saying it. I. So this is how we would write this, with two symbols. I So this is an example of a diphthong. We’ll come back to this specific one later. Right now we’re going to look at oi. We’ll start when this happens before a voiceless consonant: boisterous Joyce oysters voice loiter moist Gator, and before a voiced consonant: spoil boy destroy toy avoid noisy enjoy. And actually, I know I said “before a voiced consonant” I should have said “before a voiced consonant or at the end of the word” because when the sound comes at the end of the word, it stretches out just like it does when it comes before a voiced consonant. Let’s look at some example sentences: The spoiled boy destroys his toys. They avoided boisterous Boyd and noisy Joyce. Okay, the next one I. I only comes before a voiceless consonant, so that’s why there’s only one column here: light bike life wipe quite wife price. We’ll look at some sentences: The price hike was not nice. The wife’s mice were quite light. Now we’re going to look at another diphthong that comes in a different position. These ones come before, only before a voiced consonant: rye pile lie – or at the end of a word – high fine pine lime. The rye pile lies high. This is a fine pine lime. Now we’re going to look at those two together. I’ll go through one list again: wife price light. Now look at the other when it comes before a voiced sound: wives prize lied. Okay? Can you hear the difference? Because it is there. I’ll go through the list again but this time I’ll do one on the left and then the one on the right: wife wives price prize light lied, okay? So there’s a small difference. My English ear hears the difference though, so if you can get yourself to the point where you can hear this, that’s great! The next pair that we’re going to look at is similar, so this sound ow only comes before a voiceless consonant. house coach shout spout out mouth voucher. Let’s look at some sentences: He sat in his house, on his couch, and shouted. She kept a mouse in her pouch. Now let’s look at what happens when we put it before a voiced consonant: crowd arouse clown round tower brown flower. Let’s look at some sentences: The crowd was aroused by the clown. The round tower had brown flowers. So you might be thinking to yourself: wait a minute, that’s the same symbol. How is this different? Let’s take a look. So once again, before a voiceless consonant: house mouth about. Before a voiced consonant: houses mouths around. So, can you hear the difference? Again, I’ll do left side and then right side: house houses mouth mouths about around. Okay that’s all I have for today. Thank you very much for watching. If you like some practice, look below the video!

Categories
English Sounds

/ɑ/

To make the /ɑ/ sound, open your mouth quite wide. The tongue touches the inside of the bottom teeth, and the back of the tongue is low in the mouth.

Video Script
To make an /ɑ/ sound, the mouth is quite open. There’s a little bit of rounding in the lips, but not much. Let’s take a look at some examples before a voiceless consonant: gosh Gothic block hock moth watch sauce And before a voiced consonant: lodging audit cause gauze wall flaw long And let’s take a look at some example sentences: Gosh! What modern lodgings! and Don uh, I can’t even say this. Don is a Gothic bog hog. Don’t ask me what that is. I have absolutely no idea. If you like’d some more practice, take a look below the video.
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English Sounds

/æ/

To make an /æ/ sound, open your mouth quite wide. Push the front of your tongue forward and down. The middle and back of the tongue are slightly rounded.

Video Script
To make /æ/ open your mouth wide and keep the front part of your tongue low. Let’s look at some examples. First of all, before a voiceless consonant: bat cap path batch gas laugh pass And before a voiced consonant: handsome lad had bad jazz van badge Just to be clear about this, if I write here another word, listen to how long I say the sound. So I’m going to start by saying this word bad And now I’m going to say this word bat bad bat It’s how long the vowel is that is actually the biggest clue as to what the last letter is. Let’s look at some example sentences: The handsome lad had a bad bat. Did you hear the difference there? If you didn’t, listen again. Sam had a jazz cap in his van. If you’d like’d some more practice, look below the video.
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English Sounds

/ʌ/

To make a /ʌ/ sound, open your mouth and let your tongue lie at the bottom of your mouth.

Video Script
To make an /ʌ/ sound open your mouth fairly wide and let your tongue lie at the bottom of your mouth. Let’s look at some examples: hustle touch stunned bus but enough much And some examples before a voiced consonant: dumb lug dumb dull mud fun plug And some sentences: The hustle and bustle touched the dumb lug. Stunned Russel is numb enough and much dull. If you’d like some more practice, look below the video.
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English Sounds

/ɛ/

To make /ɛ/ raise the front of your tongue towards the front of your mouth. /ɛ/ is shorter when it comes before a voiceless consonant than when it comes before a voiced consonant.

Video Script
To make an /ɛ/ sound, raise the front part of the tongue partway up the mouth. Let’s look at some examples. First, before a voiceless consonant: guess dress bless met left let yes And before a voiced consonant: said head heavy wealthy well men French And let’s look at some example sentences: I guess Ben said his head felt heavy. The wealthy well-dressed men are French. If you’d like some more practice, look below the video.
Categories
English Sounds

/o/

To make /o/ open your mouth fairly wide. Round your lips into the shape of an “o.” This sound is shorter when it comes before a voiceless consonant than when it comes before a voiced consonant.

Video Script
So here we have an IPA symbol it actually looks like what we think it should sound like! Isn’t that nice. Let’s take a look at some examples. First of all, before a voiceless consonant: host ghost oaks moat awoke quote rope And before a voiced consonant: froze so cold toes stove home phone And actually I need to back up for a minute here, because it’s… I said that comes at the end, er, sorry, it comes before voiced consonant. Well wait a minute, there’s no voiced consonant that comes after that. No, there isn’t. But it comes at the end of the word, so it’s still the longer sound, so. Alright, let’s take a look at some example sentences: Our host saw ghost, so he froze. She was so cold that she froze her toes. If you’d like some more practice look below the video.
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English Sounds

/ə/

/ə/ is the most relaxed vowel. Your tongue should be at the bottom of your mouth, relaxed. Relax your lips as well. Your jaw should be in the middle position. /ə/ is often substituted for other vowel sounds when those vowels come in unstressed syllables.

Video Script
/ə/, which is called a schwa, is the most relaxed vowel that we use in English. Open your mouth, relax your tongue, and just let the sound come out. /ə/ One of the things that is hard for people who are learning English is that we often use the /ə/ sound in unstressed syllables, regardless of what the actual letter is. We’ll see lots of examples of that here. Just to be clear which sound we’re looking at, I have underlined where the schwa sound is. Let’s take a look at some examples. We’ll start before a voiceless consonant: Timothy except biggest atomic gallop afraid achieve And we’ll look before a voiced consonant: around anything tomorrow award again alarm ago And again, if you want to, move the video back and just go through those lists again, go through those words again, and you’ll notice that the schwa sound – the part I had underlined – was always in the unstressed syllable. Let’s look at some sentences: Jen can do anything Belinda can do. And let’s just take a look at this for a minute here because we’ve got this word, it appears twice and in both cases, it’s a reduced form. Jen can Jen can do. So if this was a strong version of this word, it would sound like can, but because it’s reduced here, we say can. Tomorrow Timothy will accept the biggest award. If you like some more practice, look below.
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English Sounds

/e/

It looks like one thing, but it sounds like another! To make an /e/ sound, hold the tongue in about the middle of the mouth. It is shorter when in comes before a voiceless consonant than when it comes before a voiced consonant. Some linguists consider this a diphthong since there is a slight raising of the tongue towards the end of the sound.

Video Script
I’m gonna be honest. This is one of the ones that drives me crazy because it looks like one sound and it makes another. The sound that we’re looking at here is /e/ To make an /e/ sound leave your mouth quite open and push your tongue up and back. /e/ Let’s look at some examples. Before a voiceless consonant: hate ate cake lake chafe lace safe. And some examples before a voiced consonant: grey kale wage vein snail pail gave And let’s look at some sentences: Jane hated, but ate, grey cake. That does not sound good… a gray cake. Rachel ate lake snails in vain. If you’d like some more practice with this sound, look below.
Categories
English Sounds

/ʊ/

To make a /ʊ/ sound, round your lips and relax your tongue and mouth. The difference in duration between being followed by a voiced or unvoiced syllable is tiny or non-existent.

Video Script
To make an /ʊ/ sound, leave your lips fairly close together and raise your tongue at the back. Let’s look at some examples before a voiceless consonant: shook push cushion butcher look cookie brook. And some examples where it comes before a voiced consonant: woman sugar wool whole hood wolf would And in some sentences: The woman shook the push cushion. A butcher looked at the sugar cookie. If you’d like some more practice, look below the video.