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Pronunciation Workshop
—The American dream does not come to
those who fall out quick.
Session One 1. Consonant R 2. Consonant W
Hi, I’m your instructor Paul Gruber and welcome to the Pronunciation Workshops---First Training Session.
I am very excited that you have taken this first step to improve your English
pronunciation and I do hope that you would enjoy this program and receive great benefits from it. Before we begin I wanna make sure that you have downloaded and printed out the training manual which accompanies this course. If you have not yet done so, please do it soon because you’ll definitely need it.
Now you may be wondering how is it that I am going to help you change the way you speak. Well, basically, when you learned English as a second language, you kept many of the sounds and speech rules from your first language and you were continuing to use them when you speak English. This is what gives you an accent. You were using the sounds and speech rules from your native language instead of the sounds and speech rules of English. And you know why? Well, because when you learned English, nobody ever showed you what the sounds and speech rules of English were until now.
That’s why I’m coming . Because I am going to show you and train you on how to use these sounds and speech rules correctly. Knowing in using these rules will help you reduce or possibly even eliminate your accent. Now throughout the program you’re often going to see me point to my mouth to show you how to
produce a particular sound. I want you to pay close attention and try to copy exactly what it is I am doing. I would be showing you how to correctly form new sounds by changing the position of your tongue or changing the shape of your lips. These small changes are going to make very big changes in your speech. We’re going to practising and I recommend that you use the training manual and try to practise often. When you practise, I recommend that you start out speaking slowly out loud in a strong voice while exaggerating all the mouth movements. What would you be doing is retraining the muscles of your mouth in your tongue to move in new ways, which will produce a new pronunciation patterns. These new speech patterns will slowly and eventually involve into your own spontaneous fast speech, but it is .
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important that you start out going very slow. If you can pronunce words and
sentences correctly speaking slowly, well, then you’ll have no problem in saying them fast.
I believe practising is important, but I do not believe it’s the only key towards success. Being aware of your errors. That’ s the key. Being aware and also recognizing mistakes when you hear them will probably be the most important factors towards your improvement.
Another thing I’d like you to keep in mind and I’m sure you may have noticed this already is that when most Americans speak you will notice that we seem to open our mouth a lot and there is a great amount of mouth movements. Watch my mouth when I say something like “Wow, was there really raining on Wednesday!” Did you see how my mouth seemed to move? It wasn’t with my lips flat. It wasn’t “Wow, was there really raining on Wednesday.” There was a lot of movements. My mouth opened wide, but also my whole mouth moved forward. Now I find many foreign speakers, maybe because of their language characteristics, they don’t move their mouths much. There is very little facial movement. Because of this, to an American listener, the words often sound mumble, making it very very difficult for an American listener to understand what it is you said. One way to be better
understood immediately is to become more aware of your speech and to really start opening and moving your mouth.
I’d like to try to observe what I’m talking about. When you speak to native-borned Americans or watch TV or movies, notice how when Americans speak, generally our mouths really open big and our lips come forward. These movements have a lot to do with the sound of American English.
I also want to add that I’ll often be asking you to repeat words and sentences on these videos. Try to think as if we were both sitting in the same room and I am directly right in front of you. Listen carefully to the words and sounds that I give you. Listen carefully to my pronunciation and watch my mouth, then repeat the words back to me in your own voice with the techniques that I’m showing you as clearly as you can. Now at first you may feel a bit of foolish talking to your
computer screen, but really you shouldn’t. Make believe you’re speaking directly to me. You’ll find this will to be extremely helpful and effective.
During the course of this program, I will begin by addressing consonant sounds and then later on we’ll work with vowel sounds. Now vowel sounds, as you know, are A E I O and U, like ahh, ohh, eee, ehh, ihh and ooo. And consonant sounds are basically all the other letters’ sounds, like b, ch, s, t, f, g, sh, w and of course, there are many many more sounds.
The consonants that we are going to cover in this first session are the consonant R and the consonant W. Ok, are you ready? Here we go. Let’s get started. Let’s start with the American R.
R’s are everywhere. They’re probably the most commonly occurring consonant sound in English. One reason for this is that R’s affect vowel sounds, especially .
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when an R falls at the end of word or after a vowel sound as in the word CAR, or the word AIR, or the word TURN.
After working with so many non-native English speakers from around the world, I believe the R sound is one of the main causes for being misunderstood in
American English. Therefore, this is why I’ve chosen to start out with this sound. Now when some languages, like our speaking Spanish, the R is produced by bringing the tongue forward in the front of the mouth behind the upper teeth and rolling or trilling the tongue~, like that. Now when some other languages, like
German and French, the R is produced in the back of the throat, but this is not how we produce an R sound in the United States. In American English, in order to say a clear R sound, two distinct things hafta(have to) happen. The first thing is that our mouth and lips come tightly forward as if you would be saying the OO sound. Do this with me, say OO and make sure you bringing your lips all the way forward. Say OO. That’s it. You see how your lips are forward? That’s what you wanna do. This is the position your mouth should be in when you producing an American R, like that, and I’ll bet you know whenever I told you that. Now, the second thing is that your tongue moves back in your mouth. It doesn’t come forward. It’s pulled back. This is probably the opposite of what you’re doing right now. So, for example, in the word Rock, notice how my lips are coming forward and my tongue moves back in my mouth and I push out the R sound. Watch this: RRRock. Do with me and exaggerate the R: RRRock. Watch with my head turn:RRRock. You see that? See how the whole bottom of my face came forward. Don’t be afraid to do this. This forward mouth movement is what is going to give you an American R sound. It’s not~ and it’s not Rock with your lips flat. Your whole mouth really hasta( has to ) come forward. Now latter I recommend that you practise doing this in front of a mirror while watching your mouth. Really push out the R and remember to pull your tongue back. Now one way of checking if you’re doing this correctly with your tongue is by actually putting your finger around an inch into your mouth while saying an R sound. Watch this, RRRock, like that. You should be able to take the tip of your finger and feel the tip of your tongue. If you do these two simple things---bringing your mouth forward and pulling your tongue back. I’m telling you your speech’s going to be clear and you’re going to sound so much better.
Ok, we’ re going to start out with R’s at the beginning of words. Here we go. Repeat after me. Rock Rip Reach Road Rain Rich Rome .
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Raise Robe Rice
Very good. Now repeat this sentence.
The round rooster rushed into the wrong road.
Very good. Now pronuncing R’s like this may feel a little weird to you, but if you notice this is how most Americans talk.
Ok. Now let’s do R’s at the end of words or after a vowel. When a foreign speaker produces R which at the end of word of follows a vowel, it’s usually very
weak---gets not really heard and leaves the word opener unfinished, like in the word CAR. Now you may say CAR ending with the A vowel. But it’ s not CAR. It’s CAR/r/. Your tongue hasta pull back. CAR. And also your lips close a little bit in the front. The R needs to be very strong and you need to close the word. CAR. Let’s practise these words. Repeat after me. Car Far Star Door Bear Four Air
Year( now has a high vowel sound EE.Year.) Turn Poor
Very good. Ok. Now let’s discuss R’s in the middle of words.
In the word Very, for example, which is a frequently used word in English. The R occurs in the middle of the word. It’s not a D sound. The word is not Vedi, or Vehi, it’s Very. Make sure that the R sound is strong and your lips are coming forward. Your tongue is back and you push out the R: Very, like that. Practise these sentences with me nice and slow. He is Very Very nice, like that. See how my lips are coming all the way forward? Next one. She is Very Very tall. Here are some more practice words with R in the middle. Repeat after me. Direction Arrange Erase Correct Marry Garage .
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Original Hurry Zero Marine Berry Operation Caring Arrive Everyone
Ok. Very good. Now, R’s are often combined with other consonants and form what we call R Blends. It is important to understand that the R sound is the
stronggest sound of the blend and your lips often come forward before you even say the word. And example of this is the word Grape. Now notice how my mouth comes forward before I even say the word. Grape. Did you see that? And notice in the word Grape the R sound is strongger and you even hear it more than the G sound. Grape. Here are some practice words with R Blends. First at the beginning of words. Here we go. Training Trust Trip Great Tropical Bring Print President Product Cracker Crawl Break
Ok. Now in the middle of words. Subtract Waitress Nutrition Australia Introduce Compress .
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Oppression Betray Very good. Ok now let’s practise R sounds in sentences. These sentences are filled with R’s. Keep the R sound strong. Don’t forget to bring your mouth forward and pull your tongue back. Say these sentences with me. Here we go. The story he read on the radio was incorrect. Her career in the law firm is permanent. Richard and Brooke took a ride in their brand new Range Rover truck. Everyone will respect the Royal Family when they arrive at the airport.(Be shorter close to the word Air. It’s not airport. It’s Air, Airport, like that with strong R sound.) The trip to the Rocky Mountains will be rescheduled on Friday. Very good. Ok now let’s talk about W sounds. W sounds are very similar to R sounds. The major thing to keep in mind is that in English when you see a W, it always has a W sound. Like in the word What. Again notice how my mouth moves forward. One way to make sure you were doing this correctly is to first say oooo with your whole mouth forward, oooo, like that, and then, open and close your lips to make the W sound, like this, ooooWaWaWa. That’s how you produce a W. Wa, like that. It’s never a V sound, /v/,or you’re like biting down on your lower lip, never. We’ll be going over V sounds in the fourth session. The reason I mention this is because many foreign speakers, especially the German speakers say, for example, Vhat with V for the word What. Instead of saying “What will we do?”, which is correct. They may say “Vhat vill ve do?” And that is not right and many people may not understand you. Bring your mouth forward on those W words. What will we do. Say with me. What will we do. Very good. Now as I said the W and the R are similar, both of them are made with your mouth in the forward position and your tongue pulled back. Your mouth should be a little bit tighter when you’re saying an R. Listen to the similarities and differences between these R and W words. Rick – Wick Right – White It’s not Vhite with V. It’s White with W. Very good. Also be aware that the W sound occurs in some words beginning with the letter O, like in the words: One, Once. You might not be aware of this. Practise the W words with me. We’ll start out with W at the beginning of words. Don’t forget to bring your mouth forward at the beginning of each word. Why Which When .
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What Wipe Wish Weight Wing
Very good. Ok now W in the middle of words. Always Away Beware Awake Someone Rewind Halloween Hollywood
Now practise these W sentences.
The wind from the west was very wet. (Remember Very starts with the V sound followed by a strong R. --Was very wet. Very good.) We woke up and washed the white washcloth. We waited for the waitress to give us water.
We had a wonderful time in Washington and Wisconsin.
Very good. Now while we are talking the W sounds, I’d like to mention Q sounds. How are Q sounds related? Well, Q sounds are made with the K/k /sound and the W sound/w/ put together. You may have known that. So, for example, the word Quick is pronunced with the K and the strong W sound. KWICK, like that. Repeat some of these words beginning with the Q sound. Question Quiet Queen Qualify Quit Quebec Quilt
And also in the CH word Choir
Very good. Ok, here now is a paragraph which contains many R and W sounds. You may wanna practise reading this paragraph a few times . Notice how my lips come forward and all my Rs and Ws. Try to do the same thing and don’t forget. Do not roll your R’~. Don’t do that. Here we go. .
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Ray was born in Russia. He dreamed of building the perfect roller coaster at the Grand Canyon in Arizona. He had a friend named Fred who lived in Norway. Fred’s profession was designing railroad tracks and his career involved traveling all around the world. Ray thought it would be perfect if Fred designed his roller coaster ride. Fred was creative, brilliant and worked well with railroad tracks. He would be the perfect engineer for the project. The ride took two years to construct and was painted red and white. Everyone really wanted to ride the brand-new roller coaster.
Very good. Now if you strongly push out those Rs and Ws when you practise eventually your Rs and W sounds are going to be clear and your speech will be much easier to understand.
If you have the time watch the session again and practise your pronunciation along with me, then take out your training manual and practise on your own. All the word lists and reading passages that are on these videos are in the munual as well. I hope you enjoy our first session together. Fell free to watch this session again. I’m Paul Gruber with the Pronunciation Workshop and I’ll see you next time.
Session Two 1. Voicing
2. Consonant pairs 3. Consonant S 4. Consonant Z Voicing
Hi, welcome back. Again my name is Paul Gruber and this is the Pronunciation
Workshops---Second Session. I hope things have been going well since we last met. I would like to just mention again there are literarlly hundreds of languages around the world and every language has its own set of characteristics. What I’ ve done in this program is to address the most significant pronunciation errors made by most foreign speakers that you may find that not every lesson pertains to you
individually pronunciation problem. If that’s the case, well, that’s great cause you’ll get less to work on. But I hate you to miss out anything important. Therefore, I still do recommend that you watch all of the sessions in chronological order from the first session to the last session to get the most out of this program and latter on if you feel you meed more practice, review the sesions which you feel may need more attention.
Ok. Let’s get started with today’s session. In this video, we’re going to talk about Voicing. We’ll also talk about Consonant Pairs and what they are and then we’ll cover S sounds and Z sounds. Ok, here we go.
Voicing. You’re going to hear me say this word a lot and you need to understand what it is what I’m talking about. All speech sounds , all of them are either voiced or .
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unvoiced. Now, what did that mean? Well, first, let’s take a look at this video. It may look a little bit disgusting . Do you have any idea what it is. It’s look like something that is opening and closing. I’ll give you a hint. You’ve got pair of these and you use them when you speak. Any idea? Those were vocal chords. Vocal chords are those tiny muscles that are right here when your throat that vibrates quickly and creat sound and that sound is your voice that you can easily make you vocal chords vibrate by just saying AH. That’s it. That’s voicing. Voicing is when your cocal
chords are vibrating, producing a sound, and you can feel the vibrations if you put your hand right here on your throat. Do this with me. Put your hand on your throat and now let’s loud say AH. Do you feel the vibration? Those your vocal chords vibrating. Now all vowel sounds are voiced A, Oh, OO, AE, EE . You can not produce a vowel sound without voicing it. Nothing would come out. You see? You need voicing. AH. So all vowels are voiced. Now, consonants are completely different story. Some consonants are voiced and some consonants are not voiced. And many consonants are what we call paired. So, let’s talk about Paired Consonants. Let’s look at the sound. The letter P makes /p//p//p/-- that’s the sound of the letter P. Are your vocal chords vibrating when you’re saying the sound?/p//p//p/.You feeling vibrations in your throat? No, your vocal chords now are not producing a sound so therefore the P sound is what we call unvoiced because there is no voicing. And this is the sign that I’m going to make when there’s no voicing.
So now let’s look at the same sound the P sound /p//p//p/. But this time we’ll add voicing by vibrating our vocal chords. Now we won’t change the thing with our mouth. We’ ll keep that the same, we’ ll just add voicing. So what happens to the P sound /p//p/---/b//b/. It becomes a B sound. Watch again. P—no voicing, /p//p//p/. /b/--B, voicing. /p/--/b/. You see that everything here stays the same. The only
differences my vocal chords are either vibrating or they’re not vibrating. So we say the P sound and the B sound are Paired Consonants. They’re produced exactly the same way here in your mouth, but the P sound has no voicing and the B sound /b//b/ does have voicing. Ok. Having said that, let’s look at another set of
consonants. How about the letter T. What sound does that make? /t//t//t/. Is that voiced or unvoiced? /t//t//t/--It’s unvoiced. Your vocal chords are not vibrating. /t//t/. Now don’t change the thing with your mouth. Just take the same sound and add voicing. What does that T sound become?/t//t/---/d//d//d//d/---becomes a D sound. So we say that the T sound /t/ and the D sound /d/ are also Paired Consonants. Ok. Now let’s look at the F sound /f/. We’re biting down on your lower lip---/f/. Is that a voiced sound or unvoiced sound? /f/---it’s unvoiced. Your vocal chords are not vibrationg. /f/. Now same sound but this time we add voicing. /f/---/v/. V. It becomes a V/v/. You see that? F/f/---no voicing. V---voicing./v/. So the F and V are also Paired Consonants.
There are many more consonants that are paired and we’ll get to those at another time. But for now, I’m going to to mention just one more. The S consonant, made with the air going through your front teeth. /s/. Any voicing going on with the sound /s/. No, the S sound is unvoiced./s/. What would be if you didn’t change the thing. .
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You just add voicing. What would the S sound become. /s/---/z/. It will become a Z sound/z/. So S has no voicing /s/, Z has voicing/z/. So we say the S sound and Z sound are also Paired Consonants. And this brings us to what I would like to cover today---S sounds/s/, Z sounds /z/and how they work in terms of word endings. I find that most people who learn English as a second language do not use the proper voicing on /s/ and /z/ endings. So what happens is it can cause your speech to sound unclear and sometimes may cause you to be misunderstood. I’m going to show you three easy rules that will help you pronunce many of these words correctly.
This first rule is easy and this one I know you probably do already. Rule 1: If the last sound in a word is unvoiced, and you’re adding an S, well, then the S remains unvoiced, too. Let me explain that. Take the word Cup. Cup. It ends with the unvoiced P /p//p/Cup /p//p/or then if you add an S to the word Cup to make a plural. The S you add also remains unvoiced. So, for example, you have one cup or two cups. There’s no voicing at the end of that word. The S remains unvoiced. One cup. Two cups. That’s easy. You already do this. I’ll show you another word Cat. Cat ends with the unvoiced T/t//t/. One cat. Two cats. Again the S ending is unvoiced. Cats. This also goes for verbs like in the verb Break. I Break. Break ends with the unvoiced K sound/k//k/. There’s no voicing on that K. So when you put the word in the third person. He Breaks. The S you add also remains unvoiced. He breaks. I stop(ends with the unvoiced P /p/). I stop. He stops./s/---unvoiced S. Stops. Now as I said you already follow this rule and there really isn’t anything you don’ t know. But on rule No.2, now this one you probably do not do, So pay close attention to this rule. When adding an S to a word to make a plural. If a word ends with any of these sounds S Z SH CH or DG(J) as in Judge. Don’t worry. You really don’t need to memorize this. It will become automatic. When you add an S ending, this time, we always add the ending IZZZZZ with the voiced Z. It doesn’t matter that it’s spelled with an S. It’s never S, unvoiced, never. It’s always IZZZZZ with voiced Z. Ok. Do this with me. Put your hand on your throat, cause I want you to feel the
vibration in your neck and say IZZZZZ. Feel that right here IZZZZZ. Ok, so let’s look at the word Page, for example, which ends in a voiced sound. One Page becomes Two Page with that voiced Z. Two Pages. It’s not Two Pages/s/,unvoiced,no. It’ s Two Pages /z/ with the voiced Z. Even though you spell the word like this, in
American English you pronunce the word like this PAGEZZ. You’ re probably saying I never knew that. See what you’ re learning from me. Ok, let’s look at another word in the word BUS, for example, BUS ends with an S sound /s/. BUS. So if you make a plural, you’ re going to add the ending IZZZZZ with the voiced Z. So we’ ve got One Bus or Two Buses. Buses. Two Buses. The last sound you hear is that voiced Z, Buses.
Next one. Lunch. Lunch ends with the CH sound [?] . So we’ve got One Lunch or Two Lunches. Lunches./IIIZ/. Very good. Let’s do some verbs. Raise. Meaning like to raise my hand. This word is a bit unusual because even though it is spelled with an S, it’ s pronunced with the voiced Z. So we say I Raise with the voiced Z ending. .
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And he Raises. Raise. He Raises his hand. It’s voiced. Next one. Brush. Like to Brush our teeth. I Brush. He Brushes. Brushes. It’ s a voiced ending. Push. I Push. He Pushes. He pushes. Very good. By voicing these endings, your speech will
become clearer, sharper and cleaner. Most likely you haven’ t noticed that American English spoken this way, but now as I pointed out listen forward when you hear people speak. To an a native listener, this makes a very big difference.
Ok, here comes the thrid rule. This one’ s easy. If a word ends with a vowel sound, all you do is add a voiced Z. It’s simple. Let’s look at the word Tree. The last sound you hear in that word is the vowel /EE/ and remember a vowel is always voiced. So the word ends in a voiced sound. Tree. So what you wanna do if you’ re going to add an S to word like this to make a plural is you continue the voicing throughout the whole word and add on a voiced Z. So here we go. You’ve got One Tree or Two Trees. It’s not Trees /s/ with the unvoiced S. It’s Tress /z/ with that voiced ending. You see that. Another example, the word Day. It ends with the voiced sound /e/, so you have One Day or Two Days. It’s not Days/s/---unvoiced S. Days/z/, with voiced Z ending. Next one. Shoe. One shoe. Two shoes. Next is the verb Fly, which ends with the voiced sound [а?] . So you’ ve got I Fly. He Flys. Keep that ending voiced. Flys. The last sound you hear in the word Game is the M sound /m/, which is a voiced consonant. So because of that, when you add an S, the S should also be voiced. One game. Two games. Games. Another word. Head ends with the voiced D/d/, so we got One Head or Two Heads. Heads. It’s voiced. Two heads. Very good. Next word. Train ends with the voiced n. See that? So you’ ve got One Train or Two Trains. Two Trains with the voiced Z ending. Song ends with the voiced NG sound, so if you make a plural, don’t forget to add a voiced Z ending. You’ ve got One Song or Two Songs. Two Songs.
Now what I just showed you take some practice to actually incorporate into your English. But I can tell you from past experience that most my clients were able tomaster these S and Z voiced endings in just a few weeks.
Ok, now for something else. As you know by now, English is a difficult and crazy language. All these words that I’m going to show you now are written with an S, however, they’ re all pronunced with voiced Z. Why this is I have no idea, but this is how English is.
Here we go. The word Is. It’s not /Is/(unvoiced). It’s pronunced as if it were a Z/IZ/. This is good. You hear that. Is. His. Same thing. It also has a voiced Z ending. His mom is Mary. As. You pronunce it with voiced Z. As the phone ring. Was, which is a very common word. It was raining. These, voiced ending. These are my children. Those. Those are my books. Easy, again, the S is like a voiced Z. Easy. This is easy. Because, which is another common word. Because we were late.
Ok, now let’s do some practice with reading passages. Each of these has many voiced and unvoiced S and Z sounds. All of the unvoiced Z sounds you’ ll see are underlined. If you printed out the training manual using a color printer, you’ ll notice that the voiced Z sounds are all printed in red. This will help you visually see which sounds should be voiced. I’ m going o slow and exaggerate the sounds. You may .
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just wanna listen to me first, then stop the video, practise on your own and then later on watch this video again and pratice with me. Whatever feels right to you. Now this first one has many voiced Z sounds. Here we go.
Another zippy, zappy, crazy day comes to a close. As we zoom up to Joe’s snooze zone,Zoe Jones of Zodiac Zoo plays with her zipper. Very good. Next one.
Last week, Jim’s brothers were picked to represent their country in the Olympic Games. Two of the brothers were swimmers, while the other two were long distance runners. All of the brothers wore glasses. These athletes worked hard at qualifying for the games and were hoping to come home with prizes. Since the brothers go to the same university, they often take the same courses. This makes studying easier and gives them more time to do other things. O, here’ s the last one.
On Thursday, I had a very lazy day. I woke up early and first squeezed oranges into juice. I then got dressed and watched the sunrise come up over the mountains. It was so beautiful that I took many pictures with my camera and I used three rolls of film. After drinking two cups of coffee, I got dressed, left the house, and walked three miles home.
Very good. Now another good way to practise these voiced S and Z endings is to do a naming activity. What you do is you just sit in your rome and out loud name everything you see. First in singular form, and then in plural form. For example, you look around and you say out loud One door, Two doors with the voiced Z ending. One table. Two tables. One computer. Two computers. One light. Two lights. Some of my clients found this to be very helpful. In addition, try listening for these voiced sounds when you hear native-borned Americans speak. It’s very good ear-training and that’ ll help you improve. Soon , slowly begin to put these sounds into your ownspeech. You’ ll find that by adding these voiced endings your English will
sound cleaner and people will have an easier time understanding you. Believe me it’s going to really make an improvement.
Before we finish, I have one more suggestion that comes from clients who have taken this program. I think it’s really a good idea. If you can find a very small mirror and attach it maybe with some tape right onto the side of your computer monitor right next to the screen. By having a mirror right in front of you during our sessions you can easily read the text on the screen, watch my mouth and then look right into the mirror at your own mouth. You’ ll be able to compare your mouth with what I’m doing. And you’ ll know whether you’ re forming your lips and tongue into the correct positions. Through imitation and following my instructions, you’ ll be becoming closer to speaking with American accent. Well, that is for today. Relax. Have fun and practise what I’ ve shown you until next time. I’m Paul Gruber with Pronunciation Workshop and I’ ll see you on the next session. .
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Session Three
1. The Unvoiced TH Sound 2. The Voiced TH Sound 3. THR Blends 4. Voicing the T Sound
Hi, welcome back. Again my name is Paul Gruber and this is the Pronunciation Workshops---Third Training Session. In this class, we will cover the American TH sounds, both the unvoiced TH[θ] and the voiced TH[e]. This is one of my favourite areas because when you correctly produce TH sounds, you will significantly improve the way you speak English. Later on in this video, we’ ll also address voiced T sounds.
Now except for maybe a few languages, English is one of the only language in the world that has TH sound when your tongue comes out between your teeth[θ] that you may have a difficult time with this sound because this sound probably does not exist in your own native language. Therefore, you don’t think to use the sound when you speak English. Most likely, you just sbustitute another sound, like a T or an S. So instead of saying a word like Thumb, my Thumb, which this is and notice my tongue is coming out. My thumb. You’ ve been saying Tumb. My Tumb or my Sumb and your tongue is not coming out. That is not correct. If you made mistake like this and connected speech over and over again. There’ s a good chance people are not going to understand you. I have found that some people from different cultures of the world find the idea of sticking out their tongue when they speak to be rude and offensive even if it is to produce a TH sound, I want you to understand that this is how American speak English and it is something that you must become comfortable with if you wish to speak well. To produce TH sound correctly you need to first stick your tongue out between your teeth and bite down slightly[θ], then blow[θ]. This created Air Friction. The sound comes from the air friction and should be pretty loud[θ] . Keep your tongue flat and maintain it even steady flow of air. I’ m not just saying stick it out a little bit, I’ m saying stick it way out at least while you’ re practising to get used to the feeling. The TH sound comes from the air and the friction. You have got to hear it and should be somewhat loud [θ], like that. If you’ re like most people, you may need to work on this a little bit but trust me I know you can do it. Hundreds of my clients who have never produced a TH sound in their lives are speaking English English clearly and beautifully, because they’ ve learned how to do this. It may help if you look at a mirror and watch your mouth and tongue. See if you can maintain the air flow for these sounds [θ],like that. I know this may feel very strange and uncomfortable to do possibly, but soon you’ ll get used to it and the small change in your speech is going to really improve how your English sounds. Now the TH sound is a friction sound and it’s not as aloud as other speech sounds. Therefore American speakers stretch them out a little bit we don’ t even realize we do this, but this make the sound come out clearer. Let me show you what .
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I mean. Let’s look again at the word Thumb. For practicing purposes, think of the word in two beats: One. Two. [θ]Thumb. You see that? Notice how long I’ m holding the TH sound. [θ] Thumb. It’s not good enough just to put your tongue between your teeth and say a TH word. Like this~. You see that, my tongue came out. But there was never any air friction. That’s not good. You must stretch out the TH sound and hear the air friction. Thumb. Like that. Let’s pratise some words with TH sounds. First at the beginning of words. Here we go. Thanks Thick Thunder Thursday Think
Now in the middle of words. Anything Bathmat Toothpick Athletic Mouthwash
Now at ends of words. Bath North Beneath Fourth South
Very good. Ok now let’s talk about voiced TH sounds. To make a voiced TH sound, all you have to do is take the TH sound that I just showed you and just add voicing [e]. There’s the voiced TH. You should be able to feel the strong vibration in your throat and on your tongue [e].
Let’s go over some of these voiced TH sounds. This first set of words are some of those the most commonly used words in English and yes they should all be voiced and all made with your tongue coming through your teeth. First at the beginning of words. The (The book) That (That house) They (They came over) Them (Give them water) There (There it is) This (This is my nose) .
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Those (Those boys are good) These (These are my parents)
You know, another good way to practise these words is by going around your room and naming everything you see using a TH word. For example, the chair, that window, those books, this door, like that. Then go around and name your body
parts in some clothing like that shoe, this watch, these feet. Ok. That may be helpful. Let’s look at these voiced TH sounds in the middle of words.
Clothing. Notice how my tongue comes out in the middle of the word and the TH sound is pushed out. Clothing.
Leather. Same thing. Stick out your tongue and make a very strong vibration. Leather. Mother Another Weather Northern
And now at the ends of words.
Smooth. Believe it or not. The TH in Smooth is voiced. Most foreign speaker say this word incorrectly. They say Smooth, the unvoiced TH. But it’s voiced. Smooth [e].
Bathe. The word Bath is a noun, with an unvoiced TH. Bath. But when you change it into a verb “to bathe” the vowel changes to an /e/ sound and the TH is voiced. Bathe, like again. Batheing suit.
Breathe. Same thing. Breath is a noun. Take a breath, unvoiced. But when you
change it into a verb, the vowel changes and becomes Breathe. I am breathing with the voiced TH. Now, let’s do some practice phrases. These all have voiced and unvoiced TH sounds. Repeat after me. This and that A tablecloth Winter clothing Athens, Greece That’s the one Her skin is smooth Thirty Day’s notice A famous author Here and there False teeth Thread the needle A thoughtful gift .
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Thunder and lightening Thumbs up
Repeat these sentences.
Thelma arrived in town last Thursday. I’m having trouble threading this needle. I need 33 thick thermometers.
The thing they like best about Athens is the weather. This thrilling novel was written by a famous author. He will be through with his work at three-thirty. Now and then, she likes to buy new clothing. They thought they were going to Northern Spain. Which tablecloth shall we use for the party? That was the thirty-third theatre to open.
Now, I’d like to talk about THR Blends which is the combination of TH sonund and the R sound. Like in the word Thrill or Throw. When producing these blends, I want to be aware that the R is the stronggest sound of the blend and it’s louder than the TH. Just like what we talked about in the first session. So when you say a word which begins with THR. First make the TH sound and then strongly push out the R. Let’s practise a few of these . Thread (thread the needle) Throw (throw the ball) Throat (my throat is sore) Thrill (a thrilling ride) Three (three more days)
Threw (yesterday he threw the ball) Throne (the king sits on a throne)
Ok, now let’s go over this reading paragraph. It has many TH sounds and it might be difficult, but it is a very good paragraph to practise on. You may wanna watch me do this a number of times. Keep your eyes on my mouth and notice how often my tongue comes out. Try to do the same thing. Here we go.
Nurse Thatcher was thankful it was Thursday. She knew that on Thursday she had to deliver 33 boxes of thermometers to the North American Athletic Club. They thoughtthat thermometers were necessary for testing the hydrotherapy baths. This was thought to benefit the athletes with arthritis. The athletic trainers required authorization to provide hydrotherapy to the youthful athletes on the three bulletin .
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boards withthumbtacks throughout the athletic club. Rather than risk the health of the athletes, they thoroughly checked the thousands of thermometers to insure their worthiness; otherwise they needed to be thrown away.
Very good, I hope that wasn’ t too bad. As I said that is an excellent paragraph to practise on. You should review it a few times if you can.
Ok, now as I always said English is a crazy language and there are always to be exceptions. Here are a few TH exceptions that I’d like to point out. Although these next words and names are spelled with TH. They’ re pronounced as if they were spelled with a normal T/t/, like that. And these words are: Thomas Thompson Theresa Thailand
Thames, likethe river Esther
Thyme,which is a spice
Ok, now let’s take a moment and talk about T sounds. The T sound is the
unvoiced sound like in the name Tom or the word TV. If you add voicing to a T, what do you get? /t/---/d/, a D. Remember? We went over this in the first session, but I want to tell you is in American pronunciation we like to make things easy. So if a letter T falls between two vowel sounds, which are voiced. So if it falls in the middle of vowels, then the T is pronunced as a D and the whole word is voiced. This is very easy and you may already be doing this correctly. Here are three examples: Water is pronunced as Wader, the T into a D and the whole word is voiced. Water . I want water.
Better becomes Bedder. She’ s feeling better. And Butter becomes Budder. Please pass the butter.
This should be simple. So now that you know that. Practising this poem with me. Remember all the Ts are pronunced as Ds because they fall between vowels. Betty bought a bit of better butter. But, said she, this butter’s bitter. If I put itin my batter, it’ll make my batter bitter.
Again, notice that you do not hear any T sounds /t/. they are only Ds /d/, which are voiced. Go over this poem a few times. It’s also printed in your manual. Once you get good at it, try to speed it up. I’ ll do it one more time for you a little bit faster:
Betty bought a bit of better butter. But, said she, this butter’s bitter. If I put itin my batter, it’ll make my batter bitter. .
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Well, that was marvellful. Ok, start by practising it slow and then later get faster. Try to let the words just roll out of your mouth. That’s for today’s session. Try spending some time in front of a mirror and practising these TH sounds like Thumb and Throw. The small change will really improve your English and make you a lot more understandable. I’ m Paul Gruber with the Pronunciation Workshop and I’ ll see you at our next session. Good bye!
Session Four 1. Consonant ‘F’ 2. Consonant ‘V’
3. The Unvoiced ‘SH’ Sound 4. The Voiced ‘ZSH’ Sound
Hi, welcome back. Again my name is Paul Gruber and this is the Pronunciation Workshops---Fourth Training Session. I hope things have been going well. Today, we’ ll cover F and V sounds as well as SH and voiced SH sounds. Just a reminder all of the material covered in those videos are also printed in your training manual for pratising later on. Let’s get started.
In the last session, we talked about Air Friction with TH sounds [θ] that the sound is made with air friction. Well, today we’ re going to talk about Air Friction again, but this time it is with F and V sounds.
The F and V are paired consonants and they are both produced exactly the same way except the F sound is unvoiced and the V sound is voiced. They are both produced by contacting your upper teeth to your lower lip. It’ s sort of feels like your biting down on your lower lip /v/,like that. Now remember all the voicing
means that your vocal chords here on your throat are vibrating and making a sound. So the F sound is unvoiced and sounds like this /f/ and the V sound is voiced, and sounds like this /v/. Correctly pronuncing these sounds will make your speech
nuch clearer and you more intelligible, like the TH sounds from the last session. Fs and Vs are friction sounds and not that loud. So we stretch these sounds out a little bit, so they can be clearly heard. Let’s start by looking at the F sound in the word Foot. Now many foreign speakers may use the right positioning by biting down on their lower lip, but they still keep the F very short and they don’t creat air friction. Therefore , you do not hear the F clearly and it sounds like~. That’s no good. Let me show you what you need to do. First think of the word is having two beats: one- two. Hold the F sound for the first full beat. F---oot, like that. Do it again. F---oot. Do you see how long I’ m holding that F? Now I know that’s a little bit exaggerated, but you get the idea. You need to hear the air friction when practising. Try to give the F one beat F---oot. Let’s work with words beginning with the letter F. Here we go. Find Finally .
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Family
Freedom,with the strong R, freedom
Laugh, notice the gh combination in that word,laugh.
Telephone, notice the ph combination in that word, it’s also pronunced as an F telephone, It’s the same thing in this next word
Symphony, this is a tricky one because you’ ve got the M sound followed by an F sound, symphony. And the last word
Rough, notice the gh combinatin in that word,rough. Let’s work on this paragraph. Do you feel like a physical wreck?
Are you fed up with your feeling of fatigue? Have you had enough of feeling rough? Why don’t you fight fever with Pharaoh’s Friend.
A medicine that is tough on Flu.
Very good. Ok now let’s talk about the V sound. First of all, like the F sound. Don’ t make the V sound too short. Let’s look at the word Vote, you’ ve got to stretch out the V. Like this.V---ote, V---ote. Are you hearing that long V sound. That’s what you should be doing. Now, depending on your native language, you may be replacing your V sounds for W sounds. Be careful not to do this. The word is not Wote, it’s Vote. Every V that you’ ll see in English is made with this lip-biting position./v//v//v/. When you say a V, it’s never WaWaWa. It’ s never a W sound. It’s always V---, V---ote, like that. Let’s practise some words with the V sounds, Here we go. Vine Oven Evaluate Voice Travel
River,notice the strong R, River Every
And now the ends of words Glove Alive .
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And Leave. This last word Leave is very different from the word Leaf , like from the tree, which has an unvoiced F The word is leave,with voiced V.
Keep the voicing going throughout the whole word and voice the V. Leave, like that. If you stop the voicing at the end of the vowel /i/, then you’ ll be saying Leaf with an unvoiced F and the word we’ re trying to say is Leave with the voiced V. Ok, now let’s look at the paired words with F and V. You’ ll see here just by adding voicing, you can completely change the meaning of the word. Here we go.
Feel – Veal Safe – Save Fat – Vat Fine – Vine Face – Vase Fan – Van Foul – Vowel Proof – Prove
Very good. Ok now we’ re going to work on listening exercises and ear-training. I’ m going to displace some words with V sounds, however, some words I’ ll be saying correctly and then some others are purposely saying incorrectly. I want you to listen carefully to my pronunciation and to the voicing of the V sounds and see whether or not you can tell if I’ m saying the words correctly or incorrectly. Here we go. Here’ s the first word.
Stove-- I cooked dinner on a hot stove. Was that correct? No. I should have said Stove/V/. I cooked dinner on a hot stove with a voiced V.
Next word, Five. There, four, five.Correct? Yes , I said Five with voiced V.
Leave—I’ m in a hurry, and I need to leave. Is that correct? No , it’s not Leaf with an unvoiced F. I should have said Leave with the voiced V sound.
Visa—She just received her international Visa. Correct? No , I said Fisa with an unvoiced F. I should have said Visa with voiced V.
Living—I am living in a house. Is that correct? Yes, the V is voiced. Living. That’s correct.
Ok, now repeat these phrases.
A famous athlete A food vendor The Foreign Service Summer vacation .
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Vocabulary test Over the rainbow Our first victory Harvard University Husband and wife Very well done
Good. Ok now repeat these sentences with me.
Her promotion in the firm was well deserved. There was only one survivor on the island.
Steve noticed that the olive juice must have stained his sleeve. The street vendor was selling souvenirs to tourists.
Dave gave me his car so that I could drive on New Year’s Eve. There were several dents in the rear fender.
Tom placed several tomatoes from the vine into a basket.
Very good. Now we’ re talking about English so you know that there’s always an exception to everything. I would like to show you what I call the OF Exeception. Many foreign speakers make this mistake. Even though the word OF is spelled with an F, we pronunce the word OF with the voiced V. I know this sounds crazy, but it’ s true. For example, Statue OVVV Liberty. And notice how I connected the word OF with the word. Liberty of Liberty. You see OF is voiced. Here’ s another example. It’s made ovvv Glass or it’s made ovvv Wood. It’s not OF with unvoiced /f/. It’ s all voiced and it’s all connected. It’s made ovvv wood, like that.
Very good. Ok now let’s go on to something new. Let’s talk about SH sounds [?] and voiced SH sounds [?]. First, to make the SH sound, you bring your lips forward, keep them open, and leave your teeth slightly apart. Blow air through your teeth and produce the sound [?] . It’s an easy sound. What you may not know was that there are some words in English that are written with the letter S, but are pronunced with the SH sound. Words like Sugar and Sure. And to make things even more difficult. There are a couple of words that are spelled with CH and are also
pronunced the [?] sound. Words like Chef and the city of Chicago. Ok, having said that let’s go over these words: She Sugar Sure Shadow Sheep .
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Shirt Shoe Shape Chicago Chef
Very good. Ok now let’s do [?] sounds in the middle of words. You’ll notice that there are many different spellings for these sound, but the sound is always the same. Here we go. Nation Motion Mission Special Reputation Official Machine Fishing Insurance Sunshine Ocean Tissue Addition Subtraction
And now at the end of words. Rush Dish Establish Splash Irish Fresh Finish
Very good.Ok, let’s do some sentences now.
The fishing trip was planned and we left to go to the ocean. Was the chef ashamed to use the precious sugar? Sharon gave a special performance.
He will be stationed in Washington, D.C, the nation’s capital. .
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She went to a fashion show after taking a shower. She sells seashells by the seashore.
The social club was praised for their cooperation.
Now try this.
Joe’s weather machine shows a sharp drop in air pressure, especially offshore. Ships in motion on the ocean should be sure to use caution.
Very good. Ok, now let’s work on the voiced SH sound [?]. To produce this sound, first make a [?] sound and then you add voicing [?] --[?]-, like that. [?]. Now, for some people this may take a little bit of practice, you should feel the vibrations right here in your throat [?]. Believe it or not. This is a very important sound in American English. Many none-native English speakers mispronunce the words with the
sound, especially the words Usual and Uusual, which are very very common. If you were someone that pronunce the word Usual as ~(a wrong pronunciation). I’ m telling you you’ re not being understood. Let me show you how to pronunce the word Usual correctly. Break it up into three syllables. U-ZSHU-AL. That’ s second syllable ZSHU, the one with the underline needs to be voiced. Put your hand on your throat and feel for the vibration in the second syllable U-ZSHU-AL. Now, put it together U-ZSHU-AL, Usual, like that. Ok now try Usual, UN-U-ZSHU-AL, Unusual, like that. Very good. Now let’s practise some more words. It may help if you keep your hand right here on your throat to feel the vibrations. Here we go. Vision Visual Conclusion Asia Version Division Casual Television
Very good. Now there are only a few words that have the voiced [?]sound at the end. A few of these words are: The color Beige. The word Massage. And the word Prestige.
Ok. Now that you’ re great at this. Let’s go over some sentences.
It’s not unusual for people to study division in Asia. .
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I usually use a measuring cup to measure erosion.
The beige walls were the usual color in the treasury building.
Very good, you’ ll find in your manual that there is a worksheet that you could list things that you would consider usual and things that you would consider to be unusual. For pratice, fill this list and read your answers out loud in full sentences. Like this:
It’s usually hot in the summer.
And it’s unusual for me to be late for an appointment.
Great. Well now it’ s time to go on practice. You may want to wait a day or two and then watch this training session again. You’ ll find that the things in this video again would probably be very helpful. Ok, have fun practising. I’ m Paul Gruber for the pronunciation workshop and I’ ll see you at our next session. Session Five 1. Consonant L
Hi, welcome back. Again my name is Paul Gruber and this is the Pronunciation Workshops---Fifth Training Session. We’ re really moving along. In this session, we will cover the L sound, which happens to be another important speech sound. Dpending on your native language, some speakers have a very difficult time with the L sounds. L sounds are actually very easy. Here are a few things to remember. No.1. When you’ re saying a word which begin with an L, your mouth should be wide open and your jaw should be down, like this. That’ s an easy one. No.2.Your tongue should rise up and push just behind your top teeth, like this. Notice my mouth is open.
No.3. And this is an important part. You pronunce the L sound by dropping and
relaxing your tongue~, like that. Now, again you’ ll notice that my mouth and jaw are open. This is the key. What I don’ t want you to do is to be moving your jaw along with your tongue. I don’ t want you to be doing this Ah Ah Ah. Your jaw should not be moving at all. Keep it open. Here’ s a trick that may help you. Take your finger and put it in your mouth and pull down hard on your lower lip and force your mouth open and your jaw down. Like this. Now, while your jaw is down, bring your tongue tip all the way up behind your teeth and do this LaLaLa. My tongue is coming up but my jaw is staying down. What you’ re doing is forcing your mouth and your lower jaw to stay open while you’ re raising your tongue up, and that’ s what I want. I want your jaw to stay down, your mouth to stay open and your tongue to rise up
independently of your jaw LaLaLa, like that and that’ s how you produce a beautiful and clear L. Ok, let’s do some pratice. Repeat these words beginning with the letter L. Here we go. .
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Lunch Local London Learn Large Life Lobby Library Lucky Lift Laugh Long
Very good. Here are some words with L in the middle of them. When you say these words, focus on the L sound and really push them out. Inflation Believe Volume Glue Elevator Solve Pulling Flood Delete Elect Alive Color
Ok, let’ s talk about when L falls at the end of a word. This is a big problem for many foreign speakers, so pay close attention to this. To produce an L sound at the end of a word. Keep in mind that the sound of the L comes from the movement of the Tongue Rising. It does not come from the placement of the tongue, but from the actual movement. Watch me as I say this word. Hill. The L comes from the movement of my tongue. You may want to use that finger trick again. Put your
finger in your mouth, pull down on your lower tip and slowly say the word. The only thing that should be moving is your tongue should be coming up. Hill. Your jaw
should not be moving at all to let your tongue rise up. Hill. If you’ re having difficulty, .
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produce this in front of a mirror and watch your jaw and your tongue and be sure you don’ t produce the L sound by closing your mouth which many foreign speakers do. Hill. Hill. See how my mouth is closing. Hill. You don’ t want to do that. That produces a weak L and to an American listener it is not clear and you may not be understood. Let’s start in practising these words ending with Ls. Here we go. Will Ball Tall Call Small Control Bowl Apple Miracle Powerful Control Financial People
Notic in this last word People is not pronunced People with your tongue not moving. It’s people with your tongue slowly moving up and your jaw remaining
down. Stretch out that L sound. People, like that. Here’ re some sentences that have many Ls in them. Listen carefully to my example and then repeat. Don’ t forget to push your tongue behind your upper teeth and to use strong L sounds. Here we go.
The lollipop fell into the cool water.
Her driver’s license was pulled out of the blue golf bag. Blake’s bowling ball fell under his tools. Carl could not locate the lemons or the limes. The school was a mile away from the hill. The golf club was made of steel.
Al’s goal was to play baseball with Carol.
A certified letter was delivered for the enrollment list. It was revealing to look at the smiling lawyer.
Very good. Now let’s try reciting this poem with FL Blends. Here we’ re
combining two sounds that we have already covered. The F sound and now the L sound. Don’ t forget to first bite your lips for that F/f/, like that and then quickly push your tongue up and against your teeth for the L to creat the FL blend Fly, like that. .
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Ok, let’s try this slowly.
A flea and a fly, flew up in a flue. Said the flea, “Let us fly!” Said the fly, “Let us flee!”
So they flew through a flaw in the flue.
Ok, let’s do that one more time. This time a little bit faster. A flea and a fly, flew up in a flue. Said the flea, “Let us fly!” Said the fly, “Let us flee!”
So they flew through a flaw in the flue.
Very good. Ok, these next sentences all have the word Will in them. The word Will may be difficult for you because it has that final L sound. Remember try to keep your mouth open, your jaw down as your tongue rises up. By doing this, you’ ll
produce good final L sound. Again, if you’ re having difficulty, try looking at a mirror, use your finger and push down on your bottom teeth as you say the word Will, like that. This will force you to keep your bottom jaw down as your tongue moves up. Here we go.
Will you empty the garbage?
Will you ask her to clean the kitchen? Will you prepare a meal for the children? When will you begin your studies at college? When will she purchase the dress for her wedding? Why will he ask them to stay late at work? Why will she bring her baby to the meeting? How will they know if our flight is delayed? Where will the child be going next year? Where will they put all of the pillows?
What will she do with the millions of dollars she won?
Very good. Now some Janpanese and Chinese speakerS in particular have
difficulties distinguishing between the L sound and the R sound. Now that we have covered hoth of these sounds I would like to go over some paired words containing these sounds. Keep in mind when you’ re producing an L, your tongue moves forward and up behind your tip. When you’ re producing an R sound, your lips move forward but your tongue moves all the way back. Basically, the L and the R .
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are completely opposite sounds. Listen carefully and repeat these paired words. Red - Led Rick - Lick Reef - Leaf Rear - Lear Rest - Less Grass - Glass Crime - Climb Free – Flee
Very good. Well, I call the next words LR combinations. These words and phrases having an L sound and an R sound right next to each other. This forces you to make a clear L and then roll it right into a strong R. Here we go. Repeat after me. Seal ring Toll road Already Civil rights Railroad Rivalry Coral reef Jewelry Schoolroom Gravel road
Very good. As you can see. Ls are very important sounds when they come to speaking understandeable English. You should review this material a few times for practice. Have fun and I’ ll see you next time. I’ m Paul Gruber with the Pronunciation Workshop. Goodbye.
Session Six 1. Word Endings
Hi, welcome back. Again my name is Paul Gruber and this is the Pronunciation Workshops---Sixth Training Session. In this session, we will cover Word Endings. Often people who speak English as a second language drop the endings or final sounds off their words, well, they do not pronunce the final sounds correctly. If this is done consistantly in conversation, chances are you’ ll not be understood. I’ve noticed that the majority of my clients clip off the endings of words without even realizing that they’ re doing this. What I mean by clip off is when saying words a .
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common mistake that foreign speakers make is that they drop off the last sound in a word, especially those words that end in B, P, D or a T. For example, in the word Job, you may be saying Jo_ without a B sound or the B is so weak you don’ t even hear it. I have a good Job. You see that. You did not hear the B sound. For Cap, you may be saying Ca_. I am wearing a Ca_ and you don’ t hear the P sound. For bed, you may be saying Be_. I sleep in a Be_ and there is no D. For the word Plate, you may be saying Pla__. I eat on a Pla__ and you don’ t hear the T sound. The problem with your listeners is not hearing that last consonant sound and the person you’ re speaking with does not hear with the last sound is in your words. They’ ll
consistently be guessing at what you’ ve trying to say. Therefore don’ t drop off the endings. Make sure that the final sounds come through clearly and fully. Don’ t shorten them. Let’s practise these following sentences. Be aware not to drop the endings off. We’ re going on starting with words ending with P. I hope the group will sleep on the ship.
The soda pop spilled out of the cup, over the map and onto her lap. Was the Egg Drop Soup cheap?
Very good. Now another mistake that foreign speakers make is unvoicing a sound when it should be voiced. For example, Job ends in a B, which is a voiced sound. Job. It’s not Jop with an unvoiced P. Keep the voicing going throughout the whole word. Job, with a voiced B ending. Same thing with Robe, also has a voiced B ending. It’s not Rope with an unvoiced P. It’s Robe. OK? Let’s go over these sentences ending with Bs.
We cleaned the cobweb from the doorknob near the bathtub. Rob broke his golf club when he slipped on the ice cube. The crab was under the cement slab at the yacht club. The ticket stub was found in the taxi cab.
Now T endings. Make sure the Ts come through clearly.
Kate left her cat on the mat as she flew a kite. The sailboat came into the port to join the fleet.
What bait will make the fish bite? A cricket or a piece of meat?
Very good. Now also remember to add a voicing towards with D endings. Bed has a voiced D ending. It’s not Bet with an unvoiced T. It’s Bed with a voiced D. Road also has a voiced D ending. Road. It’s not Roat,unvoiced. It’s Road. The whole word is voiced. Let’s go over these sentences ending with voiced Ds.
Fred will decide which sled should be painted red. David tried to send a refund back to England. .
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He could not hide his report card behind the chalk board.
Very good. Ok now let’s talk about ED Endings. Many verbs that are in the past tense end with ED. For example. Clean. Today I clean. Yesterday I cleaned. Now ED Endings have similar rules as the S and Z endings that we discussed in the second session.
Here’s the first rule and probably you already do this correctly. If a word ends in an unvoiced consonant, all we do is add an unvoiced T. So let’s look at the word Jump, for example, the final sound in Jump is P, which is unvoiced. So when you put it in the past tense, all you do is add a T, so Jump becomes JumpT with the T sound at the end. Jumped. Of course the word is spelled with ED Ending. It’s just pronunced as a T. Jumped, like that. The word Walk, which has an unvoiced K sound at the end. Walk becomes walkT. Yesterday I walked.
Here’s the second rule. If a word ends in a voiced consonant, you add a voiced D. In other words, to keep the whole word voiced. So for example, the word Rub ends with the voiced B. Rub. Today I rub. Yesterday I rubD. All I did was add a voiced D sound at the end. Rubbed. It’s not Rubbet with the unvoiced T. It’ s Rubbed, like that. Here’s another example. Clean ends with a voiced N. So today I clean. Yesterday I cleaned. I cleaned the kitchen. Pour becomes PourD. I poured the milk. Scrub becomes scrubD. I scrubbed the floor. Tag becomes TaggD. I tagged the clothing. Spill ends with the voiced L sound, spill, so becomes SpillD. I spilled the juice. Trim becomes TrimmD. I trimmed the tree. Move has that voiced V sound. Move. So it becomes moved. I moved to California. Buzz becomes BuzzD. The clock buzzed all night. Ok. So that’s the second rule.
Here is the third rule. If a word ends in a T or a D sound. We add the ending ID which is a vowel I followed by a D, which is voiced. ID. So, for example, the word Lift. Lift ends with an unvoiced T. Lift. So today I lift the ball. Yesterday I liftID(lifted) the ball. Lift becomes Lifted. And remember in the third session we talked about when a T falls between two vowels turns into a D, like in the word Water. Water becomes Wader. Remember that? Well, the same thing happens here when a T comes between two vowels. So look at this next word Heat. The verb to heat becomes Heated. I heated up my dinner. Vote becomes VotID. He voted this morning. Hand becomes HandID. He handed me his report. Trade becomes TradID. I traded in my old car. Add becomes AddID. She added some information. Ok, now let’s go over these exercises with ED Endings. You’ ll notice that I put a line under all the endings that are voiced to help you remember to add voicing. Here we go.
Bob raked the leaves and then started to wash his car. He then loaded up the dishwasher and finished washing his dishes. Susan spilled her drink on the spotted rug.
She cleaned it up with a napkin, which wasted a lot of time.
He thanked me and offered me money, if I picked up the used equipment. .
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Very good. Ok now let’ s talk about words that end in NG. Some people who speak English as a second language have gone into the bad habbit of adding a K release sound /k/, like that, after NG Ending. For example, in the word Ring, it becomes RingK(×). The word Walking becomes WorkingK(×). The word Talking becomes TalkingK, /k/ like that. That is not right. The problem is there’ s just this little/k/ K sound at the end of the ING sound. Don’ t do this. It is not right and it does not sound good. Let’s talk about the NG sound. There are three nasal sounds in English. Nasal sounds are sounds which come out of your nose. Those three nasal sounds are M/m/,N/n/,NG [?],like that. Let me show you something. Try to say the M sound /m/ while closing off your nose. You see you can not do it. Because the M sound comes out of your nose. It’s the nasal sound. Same thing with the NG sound-- [?]-- comes out of your nose. It’s a combination of a N and a G and it’s found at the ends of words, like Ring and Sing. And I want you to realize that there’s not a /k/ K sound. There’s not a K sound. The word is not Walking/k/. It’s Walking [?] with that NG Ending, Ok? Walking. Let’s practise these sentences with NG Endings. Here we go.
I have a feeling that she is working too much.
She has been wearing a hearing aid so that she could sing. He is looking forward to speaking at the Thanksgiving celebration.
Very good. Well, that is for today’s session. I hope that you’ ve been enjoying this program so far and I’ ll be getting to know some improvements in the way you’ re speaking English. I’ ll bet you’ re sounding much better already. Have fun practising those ending sounds and I’ ll see you at the next session. I’ m Paul Gruber with Pronunciation Workshop. Good bye!
Session Seven 1. CH sound
2. The American J sound (DG) 3. Consonant H
Hi, welcome back. Again my name is Paul Gruber and this is the Pronunciation
Workshops---Seventh Training Session. In this session, we will cover the CH sound [?] and the American J sound [?] and then later on the H sound/h/.
Ok, first let’ s start with CH. It’ s a common sound in English. It’s a combination of the T sound/t/ and the SH sound [?]. When you put these two sounds together, you get a [?]. It’s an unvoiced sound. You can hear the sound, for example, at the
beginning and at the end of the word Church. Church. See that. Now if you take this CH sound and you keep everything in your mouth the same, you just add voicing. It becomes an American J sound [?]. CH [?], unvoiced. J, voiced. You see that
everything here stays the same. You just add voicing for the J. This voiced J sound comes at the beginning and at the end of the word Judge. Now the mistake that .
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many foreign speakers make is that they unvoice the J sound at the end of a word. So, for example, many foreign speakers would pronunce the word Judge as Juch, turning that last sound into an unvoiced CH. Juch . And that is not right. The J sound in American English is always voiced [?] Judge, like that. For you Spanish speakers whenever you say the letter J in English, it always make this [?] sound. It’s never a Y sound. Never. So, for example, the word Job has the [?] at the beginning. Job. It’ s never Yob, my Yob. It’ s always my job, with the strong J sound. Job, my Job, like that. Ok, let’ s do some practice. Let’ s start with some CH words. First with CH at the beginning of a word. Here we go. China Cherry Charge Chocolate Challenge Cheese Chunk Chairman
Now with CH fallen in the middle.
Key chain Lunch box Richard
Picture (That’s a tricky one. It has two syllables. You pronounce it pic-ture,picture) Teacher Fortune Nature Beach ball
Now with CH at the ends of words. Detach Teach Porch March Patch
Wrench (notice the strong R sound at the beginning of that word .Wrench) Coach
Approach(also with the strong R sound,approach) Very good. Let’stry this exercise. .
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Chop-chop, children, it’s Charlie’s Kitchen adventure!
Today, Chuck will be teaching future champion cooks how to make a chocolate cheesecake.
Very good. Ok, now let’s practise words with the voiced American J sound. We’ ll start with the J sound at the beginning of words. Keep in mind that these sounds can be spelled with both the letter J or the letter G. Here we go. Juice Jump Juggle Jury Japan Giant Genetic Junior Generate German
Now in the middle of words. Algebra Legend Magic Subject Digest Rejoice Objective Majesty
Educate (That has also an unusual pronunciation. Let me break it down for you. e-du -cate,deucate)
Next one suggestion. (This one also a bit tricky.sug-gestion,suggestion.)
Very good. Now the American J sound at the ends of words. Be sure to keep the voicing going through the whole word. Age( It’s not Ach. It’ s Age, with voiced ending) .
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College Postage Stage Pledge Village Average Page Courage Knowledge .
Very good. Now this paragraph coming up is filled with American J sounds. Don’ t forget to voice these endings. Here we go.
A German judge and jury have charged and jailed a strange giant, who sat on the edge of a bridge throwing jelly onto large barges. Very good.
You know , later on in this course. You’ ll get a lot more practice using these sounds in connected speech. But for now, I’ d like to cover H sounds when they come at the beginning of words. When an H is at the beginning of a word. It is pronunced with the strong loud air stream. You should first breathing and then loudly out. /h/, like that. Now is the vowel A, HHHA, HHHA. Did you hear that sound? Now this may not pertain to you, but many foreign speakers tend to drop that air sound when a word begins with the letter H. For example, instead of saying the word Hand. They would say _and, like my right _and. By not putting in that H sound with the loud airstream, your speech can be very difficult to understand. Let’ s practise some of these words beginning with an H. You may want to put your hand in front of your mouth for this exercise. You should be able to feel the airstream come out onto the palm of your hand. /h/, like that.
Note that some words in English that begin with the letter W are also pronunced just like an H. Here we go. Hand Hide Hope Hair House Harvard Honey .
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Happy Who Whole
Let’ s go over some of these words pairs. The first word in the pair does not have an H sound. The second word does have an H sound. Here we go. Repeat after me. Old- Hold Is- His It- Hit At- Hat Arm- Harm Ill- Hill Ate- Hate As- Has
Now try these words with the strong H sound in the middle. Ahead Behave Anyhow Inhale Downhill Dehydrate Wholehearted Overhaul
Now, let’s do these H practice sentences using the word He for each of these sentences. You’ ll be using the same opening phrase. Focus on clear and loud H sound in the word He. He thought that he should… Wash the car. Thank his teacher. Watch television. Use the telephone. Shut the door.
Breathe deeply. (Voiced TH) Tell the truth.
Good. Ok now let’ s try this. .
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Henry the hungry hippo, who hogged a huge heap of one hundred hamburgers, has had hiccups for one whole week.
Very good. Ok, before we end today’ s session. Let’ s talk about how you’ re supposed to incorporate all this material that I’ m giving you into your spoken English.
As you’ ve seen there’ s a lot I’ m teaching you and a lot to remember. Don’ t try so hard to put everything into use. Instead, just focus on what it is you’ re saying. You’ ll find by taking this program the more you speak English, the more you’ ll become aware of when you have pronunced something incorrectly. I’ ve said this before. It is this the awareness of your mistakes that will eventually help you to change and improve the way you’ re speaking automatically. So I want you to keep on practising, but just sit back and relax and watch your English pronunciation continues to improve. I hope you had a good time. I’ m Paul Gruber for the Pronunciation
Workshop and I’ ll see you at the next session. We’ re going to begin working on Vowels.
Session Eight
1. American English Vowels 2. Vowel EE 3. Vowel I
Hi, and welcome back. Again my name is Paul Gruber and this is the Pronunciation Workshops---Eighth Training Session. Today, we will begin to work on Vowel
Sounds. I know that vowel sounds are often difficult for non-native speakers. One reason is that there are five vowel letters in English: A E I O and U. But there are around 15 vowel sounds and some vowels have as many as 10 different spellings. So that’s why it is so difficult. When some one learns English as a second language what they often do is substitute vowel sounds from their first language into their newly learned English. And when these vowel sounds are spoken incorrectly, it may often cause you to be misundrestood. That’ s why I need next few sessions. I’ ll be teaching you the correct way to pronunce American English Vowels.
Now, vowel sounds are made by slightly changing the Size, Shape and the Tension of the musles in your mouth, your tongue and your lips. A small change can produce an entirely different sound. Instead of giving you diagrams of tongue
placement---how round your lips should be or how far you should open your mouth. I believe the best way to learn American vowels is by Ear Training. Ear Training is learning vowel sounds just by listening and then reproducing them on your own. To help teach you the American vowel sounds, I’ ll separate them to two groups: front vowels and back vowels. When your tongue rises up in the front, it’ s a front vowel. When your tongue rises up in the back, it’ s a back vowel. Let’ s start by .
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going over the basic front and back vowel sounds. My goal right now is to just have you hear the sounds. You do not need to memorize this.
First,front vowels. Listen carefully. Don’ t repeat. Just listen. These sounds move from what I call high to low. Here we go. EE I AE EH A
Notice with each of these vowels. My jaw is opening a little bit more and more. Let’ s do it again. Listen carefully. EE, i (which is a difficult one for many people) i, AE, EH, A. Now, this time I’ d like you to repeat. EE, i, AE, EH, A. EE, i, AE, EH, A. Now, I put them in word forms to make it a little bit easier. Repeat after me.
EE as in Heat i as in Hit AE as in Hate
EH as in Het (which is a nonsense word) And A as in Hat
Heat, Hit, Hate, Het, Hat, Heat, Hit,Hate,Het,Hat.
Ok. Now let’ s do back vowels. Again, vowel sounds move from high to low. Here we go. OO Uh Oh Aw Ah
Again.and notice how my jaw is opening on each one and also notice how my lips are coming forward all the way on the OO sound. You see? That OO. OO, Uh, Oh, Aw, Ah. Ok now repeat with me. OO, Uh, Oh, Aw, Ah, OO, Uh, Oh, Aw, Ah. Let’ s put these sounds into word forms. OO as in Boot Uh as in Book Oh as in Boat Aw as in Bought
Ah as in Bot (which is a nonsense word)
Boot, Book, Boat, Bought, Bot. Again . Boot, Book, Boat, Bought, Bot. Boo_, Boo_, .
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Boa_, Bough_, Bo_.
Very good. Now, let’s go back a little bit to front vowels. I’ d like to address the EE sound in the word Heat and the i sound as in the word Hit. Most of the foreign speakers that I work with make many errors with these two sounds. And many times they’ re switched when the word should have an EE. It’s pronunced as an i. When it should have an i. It’s pronunced as an EE. Think of the sound EE as in Heat as being high up and i as in Hit. It’ s being a little bit lower. One hint that I would give you is when you’ re practising raise your eyebrows with EE words, like this Heat, and then lower your eyebrows and don’ t smile so much with i words, like Hit, Heat, Hit, like that. I put together some paired words with these two sounds. Listen, compare the vowel sounds and then repeat them back. Here we go. Heat – Hit Keen – Kin Deal – Dill Seek – Sick Seen – Sin Reap – Rip Teal – Till
Bean –Been (Bean is high. I ate a bean. Been is low. I have been here.)
Let’ s talk about these last two words. Bean and Been. Most of the time in English when a word is spelled with double E. It’ s pronunced as EE like in the word FEED or SEEN or TEEN with the double E. However, in English, here is an exception. The word BEAN spelled B-E-A-N, which you eat is pronunced with the high EE sound, BEAN. However, this word B-E-E-N, spelled with the double E is pronunced with the low i sound. BEEN, like in the word Hit. Ok. Even though it’s spelled with the double E, it’s pronunced with the vowel sound i. So for example, this sentence reads I’ ve been buying beans. Ok? We’ ll be going over more of these this moment. But first, let’s look at some words with the EE sounds, remember smile and think high. See Me Each Even Key Green Tree Very Happy Softly .
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Mary Busy Finally Country
Now, these sentences.
Speeding on the Freeway Happily eating cheese He and She Skiing very Rapidly
Very good. Ok, now let’ s try this paragraph. She sees a monkey eating honey. We see a pony stealing money. Who can he see? It must be me!
Very good, Ok now let’ s work on the i vowel sound. The same sound as in the word Hit. Hit. Repeat after me. Bit Bill Lift Fizz Kitchen Build Bigger Chimp Fifth Listen Business Fist Display Filming Live Fish Discuss Fig .
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Fifty Been
Ok, now let’ s go over these practice sentences which have both the EE sound and the i sound. Listen and repeat these sentences after me. I’ ll be putting my hand up high for every EE sound and lower it for every i sound. EE, i, like that. And also all the words with EE sounds are underlined. Here we go.
The beans have been cooking since six o’clock. Sit in that seat by the window. We ate our meal, by the mill. The seal will live in the ocean.
Tim’s team grinned after seeing the green field. Pip and Pete shipped the sheep cheaply. Those bins are for Bill’s beans. Does Jim still steal Jill’s jeans?
The girls put concrete on Jill’s sneakers.
Pick cherries at their peak or you will eat the pits.
Very good. Now I know these vowels can be very tricky. It’ s probably a good idea to review this video a few times. Some of you may have noticed that you’ ve been mispronuncing many words incorrectly using wrong vowel sounds. For example, eariler we spoke about the pronunciation of the words Heat and Hit and how the sounds are often switched. So if you say “He hit the baseball and felt the heat.” I want you to realize that that’ s not right. What correct is He hit the baseball and felt the heat.
Ok, so keep on practicing. Believe me you’ ll eventually get very good at this. Thanks for watching. I’ m Paul Gruber for the Pronunciation Workshop and I’ ll see you at our next session.
Session Nine 1. Vowel O 2. Vowel AE
Hi, and welcome back. Again my name is Paul Gruber and this is the Pronunciation Workshops---Nineth Training Session. I hope things have been going well. Today .
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we would be addressing the Ohand the AE vowel sounds. Also, most foreign speakers do not know how to correctly pronunce the 50 American States. In fact, many times when none-native speakers try to name the states, they’ re not even close to how they’ re supposed to sound. Therefore in today’ s session, I’ m going to show you how to correctly pronunce all 50 of the United States. Hopefully this will come in veryhandy.
Let’ s get started . let’ s begin with the American O sound. Many foreign speakers do not pronunce the American O correctly and very often the O sounds like an AH. So, for example, the word Open sounds like Apen and there’ s no such word that people may not understand you. So let me teach you how to properly pronunce the O. First thing that I’ d like to talk about is what I call the Hidden W. I have found this to be the best way to teach foreign speakers how to pronunce the O sound correctly. When an American speaker makes an O, we end the vowel with a small “w” sound. Watch this. O---www.OOO. You notice how my lips are all the way forward and the front of my lips are opening and closing like the front of a trumpt. Owww. You hear that little w sound in there like wo wo wo. That’ s what you need to make a good O sound. Owowowo. It’s a little hidden w at the very end.
Now another way you can approach this is to bring your lips forward, use a strong w and say the word We, like that. Now, put an O in front of it and connect the two. O-Wee. Now , you’ ve done that. Now just drop the EE vowel. O-W and you got a perfect O sound O-W. So now when you wanna say this word Open you’ re not saying Apen with an AH. You’ re using that hidden w. You’ re bringing your lips
forward and you’ re saying Owpen. Owpen, like that. So let’ s practise some of those words with the O sound. Repeat after me. Let’s start with Open. Open Oatmeal Blown Bold Owner Phone Cold
Robe(Remenber to bring your lips forward on that R,robe ,very good) Coach Rotate Loan Slow Road Roam
Now let’ s do some sentences. .
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How did you know that?
I don’t know where the hole is on the coat. Does Joe know how to drive on the road? I need to blow my nose when I have a cold. Has it ever snowed in Rhode Island? Ok,now try this.
Cold winds will slowly blow snow over most of Ohio. This low is no joke. So folks, don’t go out without coats!
Very good. Now, I wanna tell you about two words that you’ re probably saying wrong. And these words are Woke and Won’ t. Most foreign speakers mispronunce these two words. Instead of saying Woke, when they say it sounds like Walk. So instead of saying I just woke up. It sounds like I just walk up and that is not good. And instead of saying the word Won’ t. It sounds like they’ re saying Want. So instead of saying I won’ t go. It sounds like they’ re saying I want go. So it sounds like you want go when you actually saying you won’ t go. So listen carefully because I’ m about to give you great information on how to say these words
correctly and you’ re not going to learn this anywhere else. Here we go. If you were riding a horse and you want the horse to stop or to slow down. If you remember word taught to say Whoa, Whoa, right? Now watch my mouth when I say that Whoaw. There’s a W sound at the beginning of that but there’ s also a hidden w sound at the end. Whoaw and my mouth is also very forward and tight. Whoaw. Whoaw.Whoaw.Whoaw . Right? Say with me, Whoaw. That is exactly the sound you need to make to say the words Woke and Won’t correctly. So here’ s what you do is to say the word Woke. First, say Whoaw with the w sound at the beginning and the end and then you just add the K sound /k/. Whoaw+K, like that. Put it together and you’ ve got Whoaw k Whoaw k. I just woke up, like that. Very good. Now Won’ t. First say Whoaw with the w sound at the beginning and at the end and then you add nt Whoaw nt. Now you put it together. Whoa + nt . I won’ t go, like that, won’ t. Let’ s practise these exercises comparing the words Want, Woke and Won’ t.
I want the ball.
I won’t give you the ball. She wants to sleep. She woke up.
He wants to buy a car. He won’t buy a car.
They want to speak with you. .
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He won’t speak with you.
Very good. Ok, now let’ s work on A sounds. If you listen carefully, you will hear that this sound is a combination of two vowel sounds. You start with an A and then you glide up to an E. A—E, A—E. Notice how my mouth also closes a little bit at the end of the vowel A—E. And notice it’ s not[ ? ] as in Egg. It’s not the[ ? ] sound. It’s A-E A-E, as in Age. Think high. It’ s a high vowel. Ok, let’ s go over some of these words. Here we go. Age Aid Eight Able Chain Date Eighteen Fake Lazy Made Baby Gain Change Gave Nation Day Paper Angel Basic Face
Ok, now let’s try these sentences. The ape gave the trainer a cane.
David began shaving when he was eighteen. The rainbow appeared when daylight changed. The baby snake lived in a painted cage.
My neighbors basement was changed from blue to beige.
Hey, take away the strain! Weigh the gains of a great break with Lazy .
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Day Vacations. Lines are open eight till late. They aim to make your day!
Very good. You know by improving you O and A vowel sounds. It will really make a huge difference in your speech and people will have a much easier time understanding you.
Ok, now for something new. How to pronunce the names of the 50 American States. Many of my clients have often asked me to help them out and provide them with correct pronunciation. So I thought this may be helpful for you as well. The names of many States are difficult to pronunce, especially the ones with R and L sounds in them.
When saying then, if you say an R. Don’ t forget to use strong R sounds and if say an L, don’ t forget to use strong L sounds with your tongue tip rising up in the front, right behind your teeth. L, like that. Ok? You’ ll notice that there’ s a line under the syllable in each State which receives the most stress to make it a little bit easier for you to pronunce. Ok, let’ s go. These States are in alphabetical order. Repeat after me. Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan .
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Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming
Very good. Now as you know, the United States is a large country and each state is unique and has a lot to offer. If you haven’ t done much traveling yet in the United States, I hope someday you’ ll get to see how beautiful this country really is. Well, that’ s it for today. Now, go on practise and please feel free to review today’ s session again if you like. Thank you for watching. I’ m Paul Gruber for the Pronunciation Workshop and I’ ll see you at our next session. Goodbye! .
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Session Ten 1. Vowel OO 2. Vowel UH 3. Vowel EH
Hi, and welcome back. Again my name is Paul Gruber and this is the
Pronunciation Workshops---Tenth Training Session. Today, we’ ll work on more vowel sounds. The vowels OO, Uh and EH. Now, a few sessions ago, we discussed front and back vowels. If you remember the back vowels we discussed were OO, Uh, Oh, Au and Ah. OO as in Boot. Uh as in Book. Oh as in Boat. Aw as in Bought and Ah as in Bot(which is a nonsense word)
So, let’ s talk about the first one now. OO, OO. The OO sound is in the word Move. Notice how my lips are parked tight and forward OO. Wove. If you don’ t bring your lips tight and forward you’ re not going to make the correct sound and if you don’ t do this right, the OO will sound like [ ? ] and Move will sound like [ m?v ]. And that is no good. Practise these words with me, making sure your lips are coming forward and that you’ re getting that clear OO sound. Here we go. Blue Booth News Juice Loosen Ruler Food Choose Mood Moving Loop Knew Tooth Smooth Pool Moon Shoes Zoo Grew Room .
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Ok, now let’s go over these sentences.
The room in the school was very cool. Tuesday at noon in the studio. Viewing the moon on June nights.
Do you remember the woman who lived in a shoe? She hadn’t a clue what to do when her family grew.
Well, through your help, they are moving in June into two big boots.
Very good. Now at times you know English pronunciation can be very confusing. Here is one of those times. There are many words that are spelled with the double O. As we just went over and in most of these words, the vowels are pronunced as OO. However, here’ s the confusing part. There are also many words that are spelled with the double O. But there’ re not pronunced with the OO vowel. They’ re
pronunced as Uh which is a lower vowel. Let me show you . the word Food has a double OO and it’ s pronunced as OO-Food. Ok? But the word Foot is also spelled with the double OO. But it is pronunced with a lower vowel sound Uh. Food. Foot. Foot. OO. Uh. Food. Foot. You hear that. There’ re whole bunches of words spelled with that double OO but are pronunced with that lower vowel Oh. Let’ s practise some of those words now. Here we go. Foot Took Cook Shook Stood Good Look Book Wool Swoosh
Very good. Now, another word that gives many foreign speakers difficulty is the word Wood regardlessly the spelling as in “it’s made of wood.” or “Would you help me?” Or “The city of Hollywood California”. The vowel sound in Wood is also a lower vowel same sound is in the word Foot. Wood. Foot. What makes it difficult for many people is the “w” at the beginning. I’ ve seen many foreign speakeres just drop that W sound. The Wood is not _ood without the “w”. It’s Wood. Your lips need to be tight and forward and you need to push out that “w” sound. Wood, like that. Now, say this sentence with me. Here we go. .
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Would you please ordre the wood from Hollywood?
Very good. Ok, notice also that the word Good has the same vowel sound as the word Would and Foot. Very good. Ok . Let’ s practise these sentences with the OO and the Uh vowel sounds. To help you out all the words that have a high OO sounds appear in red. Here we go.
He took a good look under the hood and found a flute. Julie enjoys good books after school. He put his foot in the new boot.
She took her students to the brook to wash their shoes. We pulled him out of the swimming pool. The fool ate until he was full.
Very good. Now let’ s do a new vowel sound. Let’ s cover the EH sound. EH is in the word Egg. Ok ? It’ s made with the front of the tongue low. Listen carefully and try to copy that sound EH EH Egg Egg. Ok? Let’s go over some words with that sound in them. Here we go. Egg Get Friend Next Entrance Better Healthy Lettuce Wrench Spread Best Ready Every Red Exit Check Fence Headset Necklace .
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Wealth
Now, let’ s go over these sentences.
Resting on the edge of the bed. Ten letters from the enemy. Dennis will enter the festival. The message was given to the chef. Very good. Ok, now let’s try this.
Hello again, friends! Let’s do a weather check. Well, whoever said temperatures are getting better, better get ready to spend a wet weekend in Tennessee.
Great. You know generally nowels take a longer time to master. But if you hear the sounds I’ m giving you and understand the concepts eventually you’ ll be saying all of these vowels correctly. Remember . Practising does help. Well, that’ s it for today’ s session. Thanks for watching and I’ ll see you next time and I’ m Paul Gruber for Pronunciation Workshop.
Session Eleven
1. Vowel AU as in Out 2. Vowel AH as in Top 3. Vowel A as in Hat
Hi, and welcome back. Again my name is Paul Gruber and this is the
Pronunciation Workshops---Eleventh Training Session. Today we will work on three vowel sounds. A as in Hat. Au as in Out and AH as in Top. Ok, the first vowel sound that I want to address is A as in Hat. It is the last front vowel. You may remember the front vowels that we went over. EE, i, AE, EH and A. Well, that last sound A as in Hat. That’ s the sound we’ re covering today. Listen carefully. It’s not AH. It’s A. Hat. Your mouth has to be wide open. Listen very carefully and practise these words with me. Back Dad Fax Value Sat .
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Hatch Jacket Taxi Apple Catch Rabbit Tack
Ok, now try these sentences.
The fat cat wore a jacket.
Pack your sack and bring your magnet. He sang about an actor named Jack.
Very good. Now the next vowel sound that we’ re going to cover is a little bit more tricky. It’ s the AU sound, as in the word Out or the word Downtown. Many Asian speakers have difficulty with this sound. In order to say correctly, when you begin the sound, you start it with the sound that we just went over. A as in Hat. That A sound is what begins the AU sound. You then move your mouth forward and you close the sound sort of on the W. AAAAWWW , AAAAWWW . Did you hear that? It starts with A but then moves forward. AU. Let’s look at this word. Downtown. First of all, it’ s not DonTan, which you may be saying, especially if you’ re from China. To
correctly say this sound with proper pronunciation. Here’ s the trick. You have to make believe the vowel begins with the A sound as in Hat. Once you have that sound, then you close it. AU.Daaa wn. Ta Taaa wn, like that. You see if you don’ t begin the vowel with the A sound in Hat. You’ ll never say it correctly. Ok, now the whole word. Downtown. With practice, you’ ll be able to say these sounds perfectly. You just have to remember that even though Down and other words like it are
spelled with an O, you still attackthe vowel with that A sound as in Hat. Downtown, like that. Let’ s practise these words slowly and as you’ re saying them. Keep that A sound in the back of your mind. Now House Round Loud Gown Sound Ouch Out Found .
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South Ounce Rebound Mouth Bounce Flower Thousand Spout Count
Ok, now try these sentences.
The brown couch is downstairs.
Her house is on the South side of the mountain. I was proud of the sounds that came out of my mouth.
If these vowel sounds strange to you, just listen when American speakers talk and you’ ll start to notice that is exactly how we pronunce our words.
Ok, new topic. How to pronunce the words Are and Our. You may not have known that there’ s a pronunciation difference between these two words. Because many people pronunce Are and Our exactly the same. This is not correct however. Let me show you how to pronunce these words correctly. The first word Are has a strong R sound at the end. AR. Are you going? The second word Our has that AU sound like in the word Out andit sorts of has a hidden w in the middle AU-Wer. Think of the word Our as having two syllables. One two. AU-Wer, like that. Our car is over there. Also, while we’ re on the subject. Know the word Hour that is used for telling time is pronunced exactly the same way as in “Our meeting is in one hour.” Ok, let’ s practise these sentences.
Are you going to our house?
Sales are down, but our projections for next year are very good. Our plans will be changing in the next hour. Are you sure that our meeting will be an hour late?
Very good. Ok, here is another example of when English pronunciation can become very confusing. Do you know that there are words in English that are spelled with an O but are pronunced as AH. So even though these words that I’ m about to show you all spelled with an O, we pronunce all of these vowels with an AH. Here we go. .
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Hot .You see, it’ s not hot. [ ? ]. It’ s [ ?/а ] Hot. Top Stop Probably Follow Not Blob Sock Mop Product Solve Problem
Ok, let’ s practise these sentences. Note that I put a line under all the words which having AH sound.
Bob opened the box and followed the instructions. Tom put some cotton, rocks and a doorknob in his locker. My mom made a concrete model of a hockey rink.
Very good. You may wanna watch this session again, especially the part when I talked about the au sound in words like Downtown. Ok? Now go practising and I’ ll see you at our next session. I’ m Paul Gruber for the Pronunciation Workshop. Good bye!
Session Twelve 1. Tongue twisters
Hi, and welcome back. Again, my name is Paul Gruber and we’ve made to the
pronunciation workshops---Twelveth Training Session. I hope that you’ ve begun to notice some really good improvements in your speech. I also hope that these sessions have been giving you a bit more confidence when you speak English. Today, we’ re gonna have some fun, we will work with English Tongue Twisters. Tongue twisters can be found in almost all languages. They are sequences of words and phrases which are difficult to pronunce because they have many
different consonant sounds with very slight variations. There are a lot of fun in their perfect for practising some of the learned techniques we have covered in this .
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program. Tongue twisters can be very tricky. They will force you to concentrate even harder on some of the new sounds that you are learning. I’ ll give them to you both slowly and then a little faster. Listen carefully to my pronunciation, then pause the video and then repeat them back.
Ok. This first one is called Fuzzy Wuzzy. In this tongue twister, we’ re addressing F sounds /f/, W sounds /w/ as well as voiced Z sounds/z/. All the voiced Z sounds are underlined to help you out a little bit. Here we go.
Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear, Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair.
Fuzzy Wuzzy wasn’t fuzzy, was he?
Very good. Ok now pause the video here and practise it back. Now, I’ m going to give you the same thing a little bit faster. Here we go.
Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear, Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair.
Fuzzy Wuzzy wasn’t fuzzy, was he? Very good.
Ok, this next one has many voiced V sounds /v/. V sounds. Don’ t forget to bite your lower lip and feel that vibration when you make this sound/v/, like that. First slow. Here we go.
Vincent vowed vengeance very viciously.
Now, a little bit faster.
Vincent vowed vengeance very viciously.
Good. This next one is called Peter Piper. It’s one of the more famous tongue
twisters. You may heard this one before. There are many P sounds. Before I begin, note the L sound in the word Pickled. Don’ t forget to bring your tongue up on that L. Keep your jaw open /l/, like that. Ok? Here we go.
Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked. If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, How many peppers did Peter Piper pick? .
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Ok. Pause the video here and then repeat it back. Ok, now I’ m gonna do Peter Piper this time a little faster.
Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked. If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, How many peppers did Peter Piper pick?
Very good. Ok, this next tongue twister’ s also well-known. It contains SH sounds[?] , S sounds /s/ as well as voiced Z sounds /z/. Also notice the EE vowel sounds in the word Seashore and She. It’ s not she[ ? ]. It’ s She[ ? ] with that high EE vowel sound. Ok ? Also remember the word Sure and Surely are both pronunced with that American SH sound[?]. Ok. Here we go.
She sells seashells by the seashore. The shells she sells are surely seashells. So if she sells shells on the seashore, I’m sure she sells seashore shells.
Very good. I’ ll say that again a little faster now.
She sells seashells by the seashore. The shells she sells are surely seashells. So if she sells shells on the seashore, I’m sure she sells seashore shells.
Ok, this next one has many W sounds/w/, many CH sounds [?] as well as many final consonant sounds. Do not forget to bring your lips forward on the word Wood. Keep it tight. Wood. Here we go.
How much wood, would a woodchuck chuck, If a woodchuck could chuck wood?
He would chuck, he would, as much as he could, And chuck as much wood as a woodchuck would If a woodchuck could chuck wood.
Very good. Ok, let’ s do that a little faster now. .
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How much wood, would a woodchuck chuck, If a woodchuck could chuck wood?
He would chuck, he would, as much as he could, And chuck as much wood as a woodchuck would If a woodchuck could chuck wood.
Very good. Ok. Here are a few tongue twisters to give you practice with W sounds. Here we go.
Which witch, wished which wicked wish?
That’ s a tough one. Let’ s do that again a little faster. Notice how my lips are coming tightly forward very quickly for each of those W words. Here we go.
Which witch, wished which wicked wish?
Here’ s another one with W words.
While we were walking, we were watching window washers wash Washington’s windows with warm washing water.
Notice how my lips are moving on the phrase “We Were”, “We Were”. My lips are coming quickly forward on those words to creat clear W sounds, “We Were”, like that. Let’ s do that whole thing again a little faster.
While we were walking, we were watching window washers wash Washington’s windows with warm washing water.
I love that one. Ok. Here is another one.
If two witches would watch two watches, which witch would watch which watch? That’ s another very good one. Here it is a litter bit faster. .
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If two witches would watch two watches, which witch would watch which watch?
Very good. This next one is great to practise your R sounds, like the W sounds we just covered. Make sure your lips are coming forward for each R word. Here we go.
Roberta ran rings around the Roman ruins. Let’ s do that a little faster.
Roberta ran rings around the Roman ruins.
Very good. This next one is a little bit tricky. It’ s a good practice for BR and BL blends. Also, do not forget the TH in the word Bath, Brush. Here we go.
Bradley’s big black bath brush broke. Bradley’s big black bath brush broke. Let’ s do that a little bit faster. Bradley’s big black bath brush broke. Bradley’s big black bath brush broke.
Very good. Ok. Here are a few tongue twisters with the TH sounds. All I can say about this is don’ t forget to stick your tongue out between your teeth and be sure to make a loud air friction sound[θ], like that. Ok, here we go.
Tom threw Tim thirteen thumbtacks.
He threw three free throws. A free throw is a basketball term. A free throw.
There are thirty-three thousand birthdays on the third of every month.
In this next one remember that the Smooth is an exception that ends with voiced TH sound. Smooth. [e].
The father gathered smooth feathers for Thanksgiving.
The sixth graders are enthusiastic about Jonathan’s birthday.
This next one has Gr and Gl blends. Remember to bring your lips forward on the Grs and bring your tongue up on the Gl/gl/, like that. Ok, you ready. Here we go.
Green glass globes glow greenly. .
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Very good. This next one has only two words in it but it can be very tricky. It will ready get your mouth going. It has the OO vowel sound as well as a lot of the Ls. Here we go. Aluminum Linoleum Here’ s it faster. Aluminum Linoleum
I wanna in case you wondering , Linoleum is a washable floor covering. It’ s often used for flooring in kitchens.
Ok, in this next one the last word is Won’ t. Did you remember what I told you
about saying Won’ t correctly with the hidden w. Remember first say Whoaw whoaw with the w at the beginning and at the end and then add the nt. Keep your lips and mouth forward. Won’t, like that. Won’ t. I would if I could! But I can’t, so I won’t! Let’ s try that again.
I would if I could! But I can’t, so I won’t!
Very good. Ok, we’ ve come to the last exercise. This last one has the word Woke. Remember what I told you about Woke. It’ s just like the word Won’ t with that
hidden w. You first say Whoaw with the w at the beginning and the end and then you add a K. Whoaw +K ,Woke, like that. I woke, he woke, she woke, they woke. We all woke up. Now, a little bit faster.
I woke, he woke, she woke, they woke. We all woke up.
Very good. Very good.
Ok, well, we’ ve made to the end. I hope you thought this was fun and at the same time productive. Thank you for watching and I’ ll see you next time. I’ m Paul Gruber for the Pronunciation Workshop. Good bye!
Session Thirteen 1. Phrase Reductions 2. Intonation Phrase .
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Hi, and welcome back. Again my name is Paul Gruber and this is the Pronunciation Workshops---Thirteenth Training Session. In this session, we will cover Phrase Reductions and Intonation. Ok, what do I mean by Phrase Reductions, well, in conversational English, words are often broken down or not fully pronunciated. Two and three words are sometimes squeezed together to creat easy-to-say phrases. I’ ll show you what I mean. Look at this phrase. Going to try. When we reduce the phrase. It becomes Gonna try. All we do is combine the words. I’ m gonna try to finish this book. Repeat with me. Gonna try. “Want to eat” becomes “Wanna eat”. Do you wanna eat at 7 O’clock. Repeat with me. Wanna eat? “Have to start” becomes “Hafta start”. I really hafta start studing for that text. Repeat. Hafta start. “Has to try” becomes “Hasta try”. He hasta try harder. Repeat. Hasta try. “Got to leave” becomes “Gotta leave”. I really gotta leave in fifteen minutes. Repeat. Gotta leave. “Ought to believe” becomes “oughta believe”. She really oughta believe what he is saying. Repeat. Oughta believe. “Out of bed” becomes “outa bed”.I got outa bed when I heard the alarm clock. Repeat. Outa bed.
“Did you go” becomes “Didja go”. Didja go to the store? Repeat. Didja go. “Would he help” becomes “Woody help”. Woody help me move the furniture? Repeat. Woody help. “Won’t you play” becomes “Woncha play”. And don’ t forget about
that correct O sound in the word Won’ t. Woncha play one more song on the piano? Repeat. Woncha play. “Didn’t you know”becomes “Didincha know”Didincha know that she was coming home tomorrow? Repeat. Donincha know? “Is he” becomes “Izzy” Izzy the one that called? Repeat. Izzy. “What do you want” becomes
“whadaya want”. Repeat. Whadaya want. “Give it to me” becomes “Gividame”. Gividame right now. Repeat. Gividame.
Very good. You’ ll find the better you’ re good at speaking English, the more you’ ll be using these phrase reductions. The key is to still be easily understood. You’ ll find that almost all of the rules that I have told you, especially the ones having to do with voicing remain the same.
In the last example Ginidame. The only big change comes from the Ts being
pronunced as Ds and this happens because the Ts fall between two vowel sounds. If you remember an American pronunciation when Ts fall between two vowels, they become voiced and are pronunced as Ds. Now even though you may at times to speak quickly and use thesereduced phrases in your conversations, you’ ll still be easily understood as long as you continue to use the pronunciation rules that I’ ve been showing you throughout this program.
Ok, now we’ re going to talk about Intonation. English is a very musical language. As we speak our words and phrases go all the way up and then they come all the way down, much like the music does. Now as you can see. I’ m trying to give you a good example of intonation. This keeps our speech interesting and it helps to get our message across. Now, listen to this.
Many foreign-borned speakeres of English use a flat intonation pattern or in .
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monotonous tone. This can creat uninteresting and misunderstood speech. Everything is very flat.
Ok, I hope you can see from that example what I’ m talking about. Monotonous speech can be very boring and difficult to listen to. Use correct intonation to make people want to listen to you. It’ s generally easy to guess what country a speaker is from just by their accent. Each language has its own characteristic rhythm and melody. Some languages use a wide range of tones and change in pitch with the melody going up and coming down. And other languages sound very flat. These characteristics of languages called intonation. Even though they distinguish one language from another. They are rarely taught. Now in American English, words that carry the highest information of value in a sentence are given more emphasis with increase loudness—a higher pitch and sometimes a longer duration. Listen to my intonation and notice how I slowly step up and then I work my way down again. Listen to the following made-up advertisement for Diane’ s Donuts. Listen to how the words in each sentence are stressed.
Have you ever tried one of Diane’s Donuts? They are so delicious. I have eaten many different kinds of donuts, from all over the country; however, I have never tasted anything, quite like Donuts made by Diane. I have been told that she uses the finest and freshest ingredients that money can buy. The best flour, the best eggs and the best milk. I am sure, that once you taste these incredible donuts, you will run and tell all of your friends.
Now I recommend that you practise that paragraph again along with me. Do your best and emphasize the important words by increasing your loudness as well as raising your pitch. Ok?
Very good. Now let’ s talk about Asking Questions. Notice how my voice goes up at the end of a question, like this. Are you sleeping? And notice how my voice
comes down at the ned of the sentence. That is not a question. He is not sleeping. Very often if you don’ t use proper intonation when asking a question. The person you’ re speaking to won’ t understand that you’ ve even asked them question to begin with. So rising up at the end of a question is very important. Ok, now let’ s talk about Syllable Stress. In words that contain more than one syllable. There’ s always one syllable which receives the most stress or giving a higher ptich. Now although there are many exceptions, it is most common that 2 syllable words have stress on the 1st syllable. Let’ s go over some examples. Repeat after me. Sofa Oven After Finger Station .
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Second Enter Often Uncle Carpet Father Children Walking Jacket Lucky Comment
Good. Now here are a few Two-Syllable words that are stressed on the second syllable. Delete Decline Survive Protect Adopt Advance Below Resolve Advice Acquit Control Arrive Involve Massage Disease Relate
Very good. Now again. Although there are exceptions. Most Three -Syllable words are stressed on the second syllable.
Reduction Arrangement Audition .
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Companion Detective Ambitious Companion Appliance Discover Unlawful Conclusion Assemble Adjustment Affected Acceptance Ferocious
Very good. Practise using syllable stress in these sentences.
The pictures are fantastic.
He needs permission to find a solution. The party is in honor of his retirement.
Her son exhibited bad behavior on their vacation.
Very good. You know stress and intonation can have a big impact on the meaning you’ re trying to get across. Let’ s compare some of these sentences.
Joe drinks cheap wine.
Sue only drinks expensive wine. Don’t forget his birthday.
We would never forget his birthday. She’s planning to leave tomorrow. He made plans to leave a month ago. The Teacher’s meeting is at 9:00.
The students announced that they will never have a meeting. My telephone isn’t working.
The telephone needs to work by lunchtime. He’s painting his house blue and green. Your house would look terrible if it were green. .
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Very good. Well, I hope you have fun with this session. You may wanna watch this one again and go over it a few more times. Now when you’ re speaking to people in English. Try to bring more intonation into your conversations, you’ ll find that you’ ll be better understood. Thank you for watching. I’ m Paul Gruber for the Pronunciation Workshop and I’ ll see you at our next session. Goodbye！
Session Fourteen
1. Putting it all together – Part I
2. The 10 Key steps towards Improvement
Hi, and welcome back. Again my name is Paul Gruber and we’ ve made to the
Pronunciation Workshops---Fourteenth Training Session. What I’ ve done in the last two sessions is put together reading passages that contain all of the material
covered throughout the program. In the past, my clients have often requested that I do some paragraph reading using correct American pronunciation. So they could hear and repeat and get a chance to practise everything that they have learned in this program. It’ s sort of like review. I have been told many times that this is extremely helpful and aids in overall improvement of pronunciation abilities. So
therefore, this is what I have done. Today’ s session contains four short paragraphs. Each paragraph is designed to address everything that we have covered:
Consonants,Vowels, Intonations, Phrase Reductions and Word Endings. All the conponents needed to speak clearly and with good pronunciation.
You may want to listen to these paragraphs a few times. Read along with me and then practise your pronunciation on your own using your manual. As I told you earlier in the program, I recommend that you speak out loud a little slower than usual and try to incorporate as much the material as you can from all the previous sessions. Now don’ t worry if first it doesn’ t come out perfectly, you can’ t possibly remember everything. It takes time. But soon you’ ll find that they’ ll all come
together and you’ ll sound just great. Also at the end of today’ s session, I’ ll cover the 10 keys towards improvement, which I believe will guarantee you success in speaking with American Accent. Ok. Let’ s begin. This first paragraph is about Photo Albums.
Photo album
Keeping a family photograph album is a good way to save family memories for yourself and future generations of your family. Very old pictures can be taken to a photo shop and reprinted so that they can be placed in an album. Be sure to write on the back of the picture any information you remember about the people in it. Also, write the date if you remember it. Looking at photo albums is a relaxing way to spend the day and it is a fun activity to share with family and friends. Your children, grandchildren and their children will appreciate your efforts too. .
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Ok, this next paragraph is called The Public Library.
The Public Library
Your library card can be your ticket to entertainment, current events and new ideas. Almost every city has a public library and there is no charge for a library card. Libraries have books about many subjects, but there are also other things at the library. These include books on cassette tape, videotapes, large print books, CD’s, DVD’s and magazines. Many have free programs in the afternoon or evening about travel, hobbies or other topics of interest. Some cities also have a bookmobile or traveling library, which brings the library right into your neighborhood.
Very good. Ok, this next paragraph is about John D Rockefeller who is a famous American.
John D. Rockefeller
John D. Rockefeller did three amazing things. First, he acquired probably the
greatest fortune in all history. He started out in life digging potatoes under the hot sun for four cents an hour. In those days, there were not half a dozen men in all the United States who were worth even one million dollars. Eventually, John D.
managed to collect a fortune said to be anywhere from one to two billion dollars. And yet, the first girl he fell in love with refused to marry him.
The reason given was because her mother refused to allow her daughter to throw herself away on a man who had such poor prospects.
Very good. Ok. This next paragraph is called Stars. In this paragraph. Be aware of my pronunciation of numbers, especially the TH and the voiced Z sound/z/ in the word Thousand. Thousand. Ok? Here we go.
Stars
How many stars can you see on a dark, clear night? You can see about 3,000 stars with your eyes alone. But keep in mind that you are viewing only part of the sky. If the whole sky were visible, you could count about 5,000 stars. If you look through a small telescope you might see as many as 600,000 stars. Through the most
powerful telescopes, astronomers can spot millions of stars. No one is sure exactly how many stars there are altogether, but astronomers believe there are at least 200 billion, billion stars out in space.
Ok, very good. Now, then we’re putting it altogether. I wanna give you the 10 keys that I believe will guarantee you success in speaking with American accent. Here we go.
No.1. Practise and listen are the key. You can improve your pronunciation in only a few weeks. But for many people, it takes longer. As I told you when we started.
Practising is important but so is listening. As you go through your day, you listen to the melody of English. English has its own rhythm and flow. It goes up and it comes down. Master that and people will more easily understand you. Also, listen to native .
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speakers, inmitate the way they speak. You’ ll see that they also follow the same speech rules that I presented throughout this program.
No.2. Do not leave off the endings of your words. Say the ending of each word, especially the final Ss and the final ED sounds and the final LY sounds. These
sounds have a lot to do with making you better understood, especially when saying numbers clearly.
No.3. Make a list of frequently used words or words related to your profession that you find difficult to pronunce. Ask a native speaker to pronunce them for you. Perhaps you may want to record those words into a mini-voice recorder and play them back at later time.
No.4. And this is a big one. Open your mouth, open your mouth more when you speak English than when you speak your native language. Native speakers of
English generally open their mouth wider than speakers of other languages. People who speak English as a second language sometimes speak like this and they fell embarrassed to open their mouth too much. Trust me, if you open your mouth more, you most likely will speak slower and produce clearer speech in more intelligible English.
No.5. Don’ t be afraid to speak. Get involved in conversations. It is very important that you practise what you’ re learning and use these techniques that I’ m teaching you to make yourself understood in all different situations.
No.6. Read aloud in English for ten to 15 minutes every day. This will help you
strengthen and retrain the movement patterns of your mouth muscles that you use to pronunce intelligible English. It will also give you the experience to focus straightly on pronunciation without having to think about anything else.
No.7. Record your own voice and listen for pronunciation errors. Now this could be just audio or audio in video. It’ s really a good idea to do because it will increase your awareness of pronunciation mistakes that you may not even be aware of.
No.8. Watch the mouth movements of native speakers and try to imitate them. When you watch TV, look at the mouth movements of actors. Repeat what they’ re saying. Try to inmitate the intonation and rhythm of their speech.
No.9. Here’ s a really good tip that many of my clients do. Buy books on tape and also buy the actual book. Go to your favorite bookstore and buy a book that you’ ll .
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really enjoy reading on tape and then also buy the same book. Be sure that the person reading on the tape is a native-borned American. This is very important so that you can hear their American pronunciation. Listen and read out loud at the same time. Maybe record yourself reading some sessions of the book and compare the sound of your English without the speaker from the recording. Many of my clients have found this to be extremely helpful step in improving their English.
And here is the last one. No.10 is Be patient. You can change the way you speak, but it won’ t happen overninght. It will take time. Some people expect instant results and they give up too soon. You’ ll definitely can change the way you sound, but you must be willing to put some efforts into it and you must give it time. Now go on practise the paragraphs that we covered today and I’ ll see you at our next session. Thank you for watching. I’ m Paul Gruber for the Pronunciation Workshop. Goodbye!
Session Fifteen Part A 1.Reading Passages
Hi, and welcome back. Again my name is Paul Gruber and this is the Pronunciation Workshops---Fifteenth Training Session. Congratulations! You have made it to the final session. In today’ s session, we will continue to incorporate everything that we have covered: Consonants, Vowels, Intonation, Phrase Reductions and Word
Endings. As I told you eariler in the program, I recommend that you speak out loud when you’ re practising this material and also try to listen really hard to my pronunciation. Try to hear it when I voice my Z endings/z/. Try to hear it when I
pronunce correct the TH sound [θ] or bring my lips forward for an R or W sound/w/. As I told you eariler, if you’ re able to recognize many of these speech sounds when you hear them, well, that alone is crucial in helping you speak with proper
pronunciation. Now, all you got to do is practise using these techniques in your own conversations. Ok, let’ s begin with some reading passages. You’ ll see that they start out easy and progressively become more difficult. For today, I want to give you some material that I thought with challenging . You’ ll also find these passages in your workbook under Session 15. Here we go.
A foreign student
When a student from another country comes to study in the United States, he has to find out for himself the answers to many questions, and he has many problems to think about. Where should he live? Would it be better living in a dormitory or in a private room off campus? Should he spend all of his time studying, or should he .
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take advantage of the many cultural and social activities that are offered? At first, he may not feel that he fits in with the American culture. He may not feel confident when he speaks. Little by little, however, he learns how to handle himself in various situations. Finally he begins to feel very secure and ‘at home’. Unfortunately, this long-awaited feeling doesn’t develop suddenly. It takes time. Very good. Ok. The next paragraph is on Volcanoes.
Volcanoes
Volcanoes are holes in the Earth’s crust which allow molten rock to escape from beneath. The molten rock, or lava, may flow out gently or it may be blasted high in the air with gas and ash in a violent explosion. There are eight hundred and fifty active volcanoes around the world. Do you know where these mountains of fire are found? Three quarters of them are found within a zone called the “Ring of Fire.” One edge of the zone stretches along the west coast of the Americas from Chile to Alaska. The other edge runs along the east coast of Asia from Siberia to New Zealand. Twenty percent of these volcanoes are located in Indonesia. Other big groupings are in Japan, The Aleutian Islands, and Central America.
Very good. Ok. This next paragraph is about the Chinese language.
The Chinese Language
Chinese is a most unusual language. It differs from English and most other major languages in that it has hundreds of different dialects. A person who lives in one section of the vast country of China, often cannot understand a fellow Chinese who lives in another section. These two major dialects are Cantonese and Mandarin. Cantonese is a southern dialect. Mandarin, a dialect that originated in northern China, is spoken by more Chinese than any other dialect.
Non-Chinese people often say that the Chinese seem to “sing” their language. Chinese sounds as though it is sung, because many words are only one-syllable long and because the tone of voice changes for each word. As in English, many words have more than one meaning. The speaker’s tone of voice indicates each word’s specific meaning.
Even more fascinating than the variety of spoken sounds is the Chinese written language. It has no alphabet. Instead, it employs signs called “characters.” Each spoken word in the language is represented by a separate character. Originally, the characters were drawings that depicted the meanings of words, but over the years, they have simplified, and most no longer look like the things they represent. .
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Very good. Ok. This next paragraph is on the supercontinent.
The Supercontinent
Around 100 to 150 million years ago, there may have been only one continent on our planet. At least that is what some earth scientists have decided after years of research. If you look at the map of the world carefully, you can see that the present-day continents could be thought of as the pieces to a gigantic jigsaw puzzle. In your imagination carefully put the pieces together to form the
supercontinent. You will see that if you took away the South Atlantic Ocean and pressed South America and Africa together they would fit very nicely. You could continue removing oceans and seas and put other parts of the world together quite easily until you get to those last two pieces of Australia and Antarctica. Scientists believe that the continents of Australia and Antarctica were once linked together. They may have split slowly off from the supercontinent and then separated from each other as recently as 40 million years ago.
Very good. Ok. The video for this session continues on session 15 Part B. Please go to that now. Session 15 Part B. I’ ll see you there.
Session 15 Part B
1.The 50 most mispronunced words.
Hi, welcome back. Again my name is Paul Gruber and this is the Pronunciation Workshops---Fifteenth Training Session Part B.
Ok now for the grand finale. In this section, as added bonus what all my clients beg me for I’ ve included for you. The 50 most mispronunced words in American
English. I give you the words. I show you how to pronunce them correctly and then I use them in a sentence. You’ ll find this list to be extremely beneficial. These are all pretty common words and many of them are often used in professional situations, like offices and universities. I hope you find this list to be helpful. Here are the words in alphabetical order.
Accounting, OU, like Down. He works in the accounting apartment.
Argue, it’ s not Argu. It’ s Argue. There’ s a hidden y. I don’ t argue with my coworkers.
Actually. It’ s not Actually with the CH. It’ s Ac tually with an SH sound. Actually. Actually, I left you a message. .
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Available with the strong V/v/. It also has four syllables. Available. Available. These shoes are not available in your size.
Arrangements use a strong R followed by the [?] sound. Arrangements. We made arrangements to meet after work.
Basically. There are three syllables. Ba-sica-lly. Basically. It’ s basically a good idea.
Business. Most Americans pronunce this word with two syllables. Busi-ness. Her business does very well.
Calls. Bring your tongue up for that L. Calls. She calls me every day.
Complete. This has a strong L in the second syllable. Complete. We will complete our project.
Continue. Three syllables. Last syllable has a hidden y. Continue. His classes will continue next month.
Contribute. Three syllables. Con-tri-bute. We will contribute our time.
Corporation. Four syllables. The third syllable has a very strong R. She works for a huge corporation.
Differences. These syllables and the second syllable begins with a strong R. Differences. There are many differences between us.
Directly. Three syllables and most Americans drop the T. Directly. She is directly responsible.
Exactly. Three syllables Ex-act-ly. It’ s exactly what we always wanted.
Educational. Five syllables. E-du-ca-tion-al. Educational. This movie is very educational.
Every has a very strong V sound followed by an R. Every. We travel every year. .
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Exceptional. It has four syllables. Ex-cep-tion-al. She is an exceptional student.
Familiar with a strong L and there’ s also a hidden y after the L. Familiar. She has a familiar face.
Financial. Three syllables. Fi-nan-cial. New York is a great financial center.
Frustrating. Strong R’ s in that word. Frustrating. Good pronunciation can be frustrating.
General. Don’ t forget the L at the end of that word. General. Give me a general idea.
Immediately has five syllables. I-mme-di-a-te-ly. Immediately. Once I took the phonecall, I left immediately.
Inconvenience. Four syllables and there’ s also a hidden y in the last syllable. Inconvenience. The power outrage was the inconvenience.
Introduce. Three syllables In-tro-duce. Let me introduce to you.
Irrational. Four syllables with a very strong R. Irrational. His fear of elevators was irrational.
Justice. Don’ t drop the middle T. Jus-tice. They asked the judge for justice.
Likeable has the high /aI/ vowel, likeable. He’ s very likeable.
Loosen. This has the OO vowel sound. Bring your lips forward OO. Loosen. It’ s too tight. We need to loosen it.
Measurements has the voiced [?] sound. Measurements. The measurements were accurate.
Middle. It has two syllables and bring your tongue up quickly for that final L. Middle. Middle. We get paid in the middle of the month. .
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Multiple. Three syllables. Mul-ti-ple. Multiple. We have multiple offices in the city.
National with the [?] sound in the middle and the L sound at the end. Na-tion-al. Our story made the national news.
Original. Four syllables with the strong R. O-ri-gi-nal. Your idea is certainly original.
Outrageous. Three syllables. First syllable has the [ а? ] sound followed by an R. Outrageous. That was an outrageous request.
Particular. Four syllables. Par-ti-cu-lar. Particular. She wants a particular car.
Partnership. Three syllables. We have a solid partnership.
Problem. This has a strong R and then the sencond syllable has a strong L. Problem. They no longer have a problem.
Prohibit. Three syllables. Pro-hi-bit. They prohibit the use of alcohol.
Quality. Your tongue should come up slowly from the L. Quality. The shirt is made of good quality.
Question. Please ask me a question.
Referring. Three syllables. Referring. What are you referring to.
Regardless. Regardless with the strong L. I want you redo this project regardless of the cost.
Request. Don’ t forget that st ending. Re-quest. They made a special request.
Similar has three syllables. Si-mi-lar. Similar. We have similar opinions.
Specific. Three syllables. Spe-ci-fic. Please be specific.
Value. There’ s a strong L and then a hidden y. Value. I value our friendship. .
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Visualize. Four syllables. Vi-su-al-ize. Visualize. Can you visualize what you’ ll be doing in ten years.
Vulnerable. Give that a strong L. Vul-ner-able. Without the police, they’ re very vulnerable.
Working. This word has the [?] vowel sound. Working. I have been working on these videos for six years. No kidding.
Well, there you go. The 50 most mispronunced words in American English. I hope that would be helpful. You may wish to go over this list again.
Well, congratulations! You finally made it to the end of this program. Although I’ m sure there’ s more to improve upon. I do hope that the pronunciation workshop program has given you a greater sense of confidence and self-worth in terms of your English communication skills. I hope that if before you begin my program. If you were self-conscious about your English pronunciation. That you now feel a little better about your speech and at least know what areas of pronunciation you need to continue to work on. I’ m always trying to improve this program and I do get many ideas from my clients. If you have time. Please send me an emile through my website. Let me know how you did if you enjoy the program and if you had any suggestions to make it even better. I always loved to hear from people who took this program and see how my works change people’ s lives for the better. Also, don’ t forget to tell your friends, relatives and coworkers about this unique on-line training program. I’ m sure that they would love to improve the way they speak English as well. Also, for your information, at certain times throughout the year dependently on my work schedule. I do work with people individually over the telephone as well as in person. Believe it or not. Working with me personally over the telephone one on one can be very effective especially after completing this on-line training. If you were interested in working with me and direct to one-to-one basis. Again contact me through the pronunciation workshop.com website. Well, congratulations again. You have just completed the most comprehensive and effective program on English pronunciation avaialbe today. You should be very proud of yourself through all your efforts. I hope my program has brought you a greater sense of confidence and I also hope that in some way I’ ve been a positive influence on your life. I thank you for allowing me this opportunity. Good luck in all your endeavours and take care. I’ m Paul Gruber for the Pronunciation Workshop. Goodbye!
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美语发音视频教程Paul Gruber主讲全程15个系列教程文本
