Perfect Pronunciation - Consonant Sounds

Perfect Pronunciation - Five Common Pronunciation Problems (consonants)

Jack: It’s good to see Ilkay Gundogan back for Manchester City after his injury.

Rich: Yes, it is and I hope he gets Player of the Week next week so we can hear you pronounce his name again!! 

Jack: Well, some names and sounds are difficult for English speakers. I always have a problem with Henry Mkhitaryan, too! 

Rich: I think it might be Henrikh rather than Henry, Jack!

Jack: Yes, you’re right. I tell you what, I’m happy that Benjani Mwaruwari isn’t playing in the Premier League anymore!

Rich: Yes, I bet you are! Didn’t you know that everybody at Manchester City just called him Benjani!

Jack: I should have known that! Cesar Azpiliceuta - that’s another difficult name! Chelsea fans call him Dave but he’s made a video to help people pronounce his name!

Rich: I wish all players would make a video. It would help us when we’re doing these podcasts!

Welcome - Consonant Sounds

Rich: Hello my name’s Rich

Jack: and I’m Jack

Rich: and welcome to this week’s Premier Skills English podcast

Jack: Where we talk about football and help you with your English.

Jack: What’s happening this week, Rich?

Rich: In this week’s podcast, we are going to look at some common pronunciation problems.

Jack: We’re going to focus on five consonant sounds that learners often find difficult. We’ll speak about each problem, give you some advice and some practice sentences for each sound.

Rich: We will look at vowel sounds in a later podcast.

Jack: Don’t forget, there is more information about the language we use on the page below and activities to help you understand. 

Rich: Make sure you listen to the end of the podcast because we’ve got another football phrase for you as well.

Topic Focus  

Jack: Those player names we said at the beginning of the show were very difficult to pronounce.

Rich: Yes, they were. There are a number of reasons that words can be difficult to pronounce. It might be because the sound doesn’t exist in your own language or it might be the relationship between spelling and pronunciation.

Jack: Many people, including native English speakers, often have problems saying the team name Leicester City.

Rich: Yes, Americans often say lie chester or something similar.

Jack: And I live down the road from a town called Leominster and it took me ages to work out how to say it properly. It’s funny because people are quite precious about their town name and expect you to know how to say it properly.

Rich: We’re going to put together a worksheet with some of the most difficult to pronounce places in England. It’s just for fun really but will give you some practice with the phonetic script.

Jack: And it will give you a chance to practise some tricky consonant sounds.

Rich: That’s what we’re going to do now, isn’t it?

Jack: Yes, we’re going to look at five different consonant sounds that cause problems. 

Rich: What’s the first sound then?

Jack: We’re going to read a sentence and you the listeners have to guess what sound we are looking at.

Rich: I like that. Let’s do it. Remember we’re focusing on a problematic consonant sound. Consonants are sounds like /t/, /p/ and /s/. They are not vowels like /i:/ and /o/.

Jack: Consonant sound number one:

Rich: Manchester United shirts match Manchester United shorts.

Jack: Say the sentence again.

Rich: Manchester United shirts match Manchester United shorts.

Jack: The sound we are looking at in this sentence is /ʧ/.

Rich: Speakers of Portuguese often overuse the /ʃ/ sound rather than using the /ʧ/ sound.

Jack: I’ve heard it can also be a problem for Japanese and Korean speakers.

Rich: It could be a problem for Spanish speakers too but the reverse. There are lots of sounds with /ʧ/ but not many with /ʃ/.

Jack: How can we help with the /ʧ/ sound?

Rich: Ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch - it‘s like the sound of a train. You push your lips forward and show people your teeth! Air goes through the gap between your teeth.

Jack: Ch … Chair … Cheese … Manchester … ch ch ch ch ch ch.

Rich: OK, shhh! Shut up! Shh! That’s the other sound /ʃ/

Jack: Words like shoe, share, shorts, shirts, shin pads.

Rich: It’s similar to the /ʧ/ sound but /ʃ/ is longer and softer as we push air out of our mouth. Shhhhh!

Jack: Do you want me to be quiet?

Rich: No, carry on. Can you give everybody an example sentence? Actually, give us three sentences and everybody has to count examples of /ʧ/ and examples of /ʃ/.

Jack: OK. Three short sentences. Can I choose some new shoes? … The ship’s chef made a special cherry dish … Share the cheese before you catch the ball.

Rich: Those sentences were a bit strange.

Jack: You didn’t say they needed to make sense! Anyway, how many /ʧ/ sounds and how many /ʃ/ sounds? Listen again if you need to.

Rich: Let’s move on to our second consonant sound.

Jack: Consonant sound number two: Sound

Rich: Remember!  We read a sentence and you have to guess what sound we are going to look at. Jack, are you ready with the sentence?

Jack: I’m ready. The big player up front hit the post with a belter.

Rich: Say the sentence again.

Jack: The big player up front hit the post with a belter.

Rich: Did you get the sound? The problematic sounds here is /p/. Speakers of Arabic often find it difficult when using these sounds.

Jack: This is because it’s very similar to /b/ and in Arabic, there is only one sound. The best way to practise /p/ and check that you are saying /p/ correctly is to put some paper in front of your mouth.

Rich: Put some paper in front of your mouth?

Jack: Yes, get a piece of paper and say some words with /b/ … ball, boy, basketball. The paper doesn’t move. Now do the same with some words with /p/ … player, penalty, Premier League. The paper … paper moves.

Rich: Nice tip!

Jack: Right, here are three example sentences to practise. We want you to count the number of times you hear /b/ and the number of times you hear /p/.

Rich: The boy was happy on his bicycle … I like blackberry pie … The paperboy went past on his brand new pink bicycle.

Jack: Listen again if you need to.

Rich: Let’s move on to our third consonant sound.

Jack: Consonant sound number three:

Rich: Remember!  We read a sentence and you have to guess what sound we are going to look at. Jack, are you ready with the sentence?

Jack: Here it is. The Liverpool player received a red card not a yellow card.

Rich: Say the sentence again.

Jack: The Liverpool player received a red card not a yellow card.

Rich: Oh yes. This is a really difficult sound for Japanese and Chinese speakers. We’re looking at the /r/ sound here.

Jack: It’s really difficult because to some learners, it sounds exactly like /l/. Let’s look at /l/ first.

Rich: /l/ /l/ la la la l l l …. When I make the /l/ sound my mouth is open and my tongue is touching the top of my mouth. /l/ /l/ /l/ Liverpool, later, 

Jack: When I make the /r/ sound my tongue is much further back and doesn’t touch the roof of my mouth /r/ /r/ /r/ red, Rangers, Rich ..

Rich: Yes?

Jack: Just an example … Rich. A good way to practise this sound is with words that sound similar to each other. Listen and repeat.  Alive-arrive, long-wrong, lead-read.

Rich: Right, here are three example sentences. We want you to count the number of times you hear /l/ and the number of times you hear /r/.

Jack: Turn right at the yellow light … He had a full belly after his bowl of cherries … He lead the race until the last lap but had to settle for last place.

Rich: Listen again if you need to. Let’s move on to our fourth consonant sound.

Jack: Consonant sound number four: Sound effect

Rich: Remember!  We read a sentence and you have to guess what sound we are going to look at. 

Jack: Here is the sentence. Woolly vests are best worn on very cold winter days.

Rich: Say the sentence again.

Jack: Woolly vests are best worn on very cold winter days.

Rich: The problematic sound here is /w/. It’s often difficult for some learners for example in lots of European countries to use /w/ they tend to overuse /v/. I wear a vest when it’s cold. I live in the west. I don’t live in my vest.

Jack: No, that would be a bit smelly!

Rich: Let’s look at the /v/ sound first. Put your teeth on your bottom lip and make a buzzy sound. You can do it for a long time, listen … vvvvvvvvv

Jack: We use it for very, vest, vase, arrive and drive.

Rich: We make the /w/ sound by pushing our lips forward. /w/ /w/ water, west, worry, Wednesday.

Jack: Here are some words that sound similar. Repeat after me: vest, west, vine, wine, verse, worse.

Rich: Right, here are three example sentences. We want you to count the number of times you hear /v/ and the number of times you hear /w/.

Jack: I live in a wonderful villa in Wales … I love to welcome visitors to my villa … On Wednesdays, I visit my friend William.

Rich: Listen again if you need to. Let’s move on to our fifth and final consonant sound.

Jack: Consonant sound number five: 

Rich: Remember!  We read a sentence and you have to guess what sound we are going to look at.

Jack: We’re focusing on a problematic consonant sound. This one is probably the most difficult sound in English. Are you ready?

Rich: I think that this is the third time we’ve thought about this.

Jack: Hmmm. Say the sentence again.

Rich: I think that this is the third time we’ve thought about this.

Jack: Did you get it? Which sound causes problems?

Rich: There are two sounds here /θ/ and /ð/ and they cause lots of language learners problems These sounds are written with TH. I don’t think this sound exists in Indonesian, French, and Chinese and probably lots of other languages too!

Jack: These are difficult sounds, but it’s important to remember that sometimes you don’t have to get the sound exactly right. Even if you get these sounds muddled up people should still understand you if you speak clearly.

Rich: That’s right and English is changing all the time and changing in different ways in different parts of the world. In some types of English, it is often acceptable not to use certain sounds. 

Jack: I think we should look at it though because you will never be making a mistake if you do use these sounds! So how do we make these TH sounds?

Rich: To make the /θ/ sound, the very end of your tongue sticks out a little bit between your teeth. Th th th thanks thank you. But keep it soft. 

Jack: Some other examples are Thursday, think, path, faith.

Rich: What about the other T H sound? Like in this and that ...

Jack: The other sound is more buzzy. You make the sound further back in your throat and with your voice, not just your breath. Th th this and that this that. The….

Rich: Some other examples are brother, mother,  weather, then …

Jack: Rich, can you give our listeners three example sentences? We want you to count the examples of /θ/ and the examples of /ð/.

Rich: It was my fortieth birthday this year. That thing is much better than the other thing. There are thousands of fans in the stadium at this moment.

Jack: Listen again if you need to.

Football Phrase

Rich: Have you got a football phrase for us this week? 

Jack: Yes, I have, but first, last week’s football phrase. Last week’s phrase was to break down a defence. This phrase is used to describe what an attacking team need s to do to score against a team that defends a lot. 

Rich: Well done to Liubomyr and Sabanoleg from Ukraine, Lakerwang from China and Ahmed Adam from Sudan. You all got the right answer! What’s this week’s phrase, Jack?

Jack: This week’s football phrase is ******** ****. It’s when one player kicks the ball to a teammate when there is an opposition player nearby. This is a dangerous thing to do because both players will try to get the ball and they might crash into each other. Because a player could get hurt, we use the place sick and injured people go to in this phrase.

Rich: Not sure if it’s the phrase or the explanation that is difficult this week.

Jack: Right, that’s all we have time for this week! Don’t forget to write your answers to our questions and make a guess at our football phrase in the comments below.

Rich: Bye for now and enjoy your football!