English Pronunciation Exercise
Pronunciation exercises Sound, stress, intonation
Hints on pronunciation for foreigners
I take it you already know
Of tough and bough and cough and dough?
Others may stumble but not you
Or hiccough, thorough laugh and through?
Well done: And now you wish perhaps
To learn of these familiar traps:
Beware of heard a dreadful word
That looks like beard and sounds like bird.
And dead: It's said like bed, not bead,
For goodness' sake, don't call it deed!
Watch out for meat and great and threat,
They rhyme with suite and straight and debt.
A moth is not a moth in mother
Nor both in bother, broth in brother.
And here is not a match for there
Nor dear and fear for bear and pear
And then there's does and rose and lose,
Just look them up; and goose and choose.
And cork and work and hard and ward
And font and front and word and sword.
And do and go and thwart and part –
Come, come, I've hardly made a start!
A dreadful language?
Man alive, I'd mastered it when I was five!
(Anon)
1
Pronunciation
Why is pronunciation necessary?
Language is a means of communication. It has three components: language grammar
Vocabulary or lexis
pronunciation
a) Structures (the patterns that can be seen in these are usually called grammar of the language.
b) Words that convey meaning (vocabulary or lexis).
c)
Sound, stress, and intonation patterns, which combine to make "Pronunciation".
If you communicate only through the written word, you will need only the first two of these components. If, on the other hand, you want to be able to understand spoken language, and to be understood, you’ll need all three components.
Communication is a two-way process:
a) Understanding other people when they speak.
b) Conveying what you want to say so that other people can understand you.
If you have no idea, for instance, that there is an important difference in English between
"s" and "sh" (phonetically written [s] and [ ] and furthermore you can't distinguish between the two, you won't know how to react
Hints on pronunciation for foreigners
I take it you already know
Of tough and bough and cough and dough?
Others may stumble but not you
Or hiccough, thorough laugh and through?
Well done: And now you wish perhaps
To learn of these familiar traps:
Beware of heard a dreadful word
That looks like beard and sounds like bird.
And dead: It's said like bed, not bead,
For goodness' sake, don't call it deed!
Watch out for meat and great and threat,
They rhyme with suite and straight and debt.
A moth is not a moth in mother
Nor both in bother, broth in brother.
And here is not a match for there
Nor dear and fear for bear and pear
And then there's does and rose and lose,
Just look them up; and goose and choose.
And cork and work and hard and ward
And font and front and word and sword.
And do and go and thwart and part –
Come, come, I've hardly made a start!
A dreadful language?
Man alive, I'd mastered it when I was five!
(Anon)
1
Pronunciation
Why is pronunciation necessary?
Language is a means of communication. It has three components: language grammar
Vocabulary or lexis
pronunciation
a) Structures (the patterns that can be seen in these are usually called grammar of the language.
b) Words that convey meaning (vocabulary or lexis).
c)
Sound, stress, and intonation patterns, which combine to make "Pronunciation".
If you communicate only through the written word, you will need only the first two of these components. If, on the other hand, you want to be able to understand spoken language, and to be understood, you’ll need all three components.
Communication is a two-way process:
a) Understanding other people when they speak.
b) Conveying what you want to say so that other people can understand you.
If you have no idea, for instance, that there is an important difference in English between
"s" and "sh" (phonetically written [s] and [ ] and furthermore you can't distinguish between the two, you won't know how to react