Hello! And welcome to Chat Eng – a podcast where people chat about how they learn and use English. My name is Sam, I’m a CELTA teacher and a performer, and I have a particular interest in pronunciation and expression.
In each episode, non-native and native speakers will chat about their experiences with English, share their advice and, at the end, I’ll give some pronunciation tips for you to take away and practice.
So – ready? Let’s get Chat ENG!
This episode I’m chatting with Maria. As we were online, you might hear a few glitches or gremlins … which is good for your listening skills!
We chatted about accents, spelling difficulties, and formal and informal language … but I started by asking Maria to tell me a little about herself…
INTERVIEW
Maria’s advice to ‘have fun’ when learning English is an important one! The one word Maria said she sometimes finds difficult is ‘accessories’ – this word has 4 syllables, or beats, and the important stress is on beat 2 = / ak – SES – so – ries /. (Be – BA – be – be). A good word for you to practice!
So, this episode’s Pronunciation tip is linked to spelling in English and how some words are difficult to spell because, as Maria said, “what is written is not always what we would say”…
So, let’s look at 3 examples of words that learners typically find difficult to pronounce because the spelling doesn’t match the sound!
1. First – the feeling you have after a long day just before bed… T – I – R – E – D. When we spell the word, many learners naturally pronounce the ‘r’ = / ti-red / but, we actually want to change the ‘r’ sound for a ‘y’ sound - / ti-yed /.
Practice with this sentence: “I’m so tired today!”
2. Next – a line where people wait in a shop or at the bank = Q – U – E – U – E. When we spell the word, many learners want to pronounce the Q and U as / Kw / as in ‘Quiet’ or ‘quite’, but the sound needs to be a hard / K /.
Practice with this sentence: “Why is the queue so long?”
3. Finally – a perfect place for a holiday… = - I – S – L – A – N – D. This is a great example of a silent consonant.. when we spell the word, learners want to pronounce the ‘s’ as either an ‘s’ (like the country) or a ‘z’ = / izland / … but we actually don’t need ‘s’ or ‘z’ = / eye – land/.
Practice with this sentence: “I want to go to a tropical island!”
Final practice sentence: “I’m tired of the queue on this island!”
So there we are! The transcript of this episode is available to read on the podcast’s webpage, so take a look!
Join me next time for more pronunciation tips, more advice and, most importantly, more chatting!
My thanks again to Maria and, for her music, a massive thanks to the wonderful Mara Carlyle.
Bye for now!