Pronunciation - Difficult words and sounds
Pronunciation - Difficult words and sounds
In this week's Premier Skills English Podcast, Jack and Rich focus on pronunciation. They talk about where their clubs (Arsenal & Liverpool) finished last season and where they might finish in the Premier League this season. The language focus is on difficult sounds to say and difficult words to pronounce. Jack and Rich give you lots of examples of some of the most common sounds and words that learners have problems with. They also give you some sentences and tongue twisters to practise at home. The task for listeners is to write a tongue twister that includes some sounds that are difficult to pronounce. As always, we also have a new football phrase for you to guess. Enjoy!
Transcript
Pronunciation - difficult words and sounds
Intro:
Jack: A great start last week ...
Rich: A great start?
Jack: To the Premier League!!
Rich: Ah, yes. Good start for Arsenal. I bet you want Arsenal to finish higher than last season. You can’t have been happy with fifth.
Jack: No, fifth is not good for Arsenal, but better than sixth!
Rich: Liverpool finished fourth but I think we can finish higher than fourth this season.
Jack: Maybe … fourth, fifth, sixth … these are really difficult words to pronounce … especially sixth ... SIXTH. I think we should look at some pronunciation in this week’s podcast. What do you reckon?
Rich: Great idea. Let’s do it!
Welcome - Tricky pron
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’re going to talk about pronunciation. We’re going to look at difficult words to say, difficult sounds to use and some tongue twisters and tricky sentences for you to practise.
Jack: Tongue twisters. I like tongue twisters. Listen to this one. I slit a sheet, a sheet I slit. Upon the slitted sheet I sit.
Rich: Great Jack! I think we’ll use some easier ones than that but you’ve got the idea. That tongue twister practises the /s/ and /sh/ and /i/ and /i:/ sounds/.
Jack: And we want you to practise the words, sounds and tongue twisters we say in this podcast at home or with your friends or classmates.
Rich: And your task is to tell us which word, sound or tongue twister is most difficult for you and to write your own tongue twister using sounds that you think are difficult for speakers of your language.
Jack: Don’t forget, there is information about the language we use on the page below and activities to help you understand too.
Rich: Make sure you listen to the end of the podcast because we have another football phrase for you as well.
Topic Focus
Jack: Let’s start this section by looking at some words that can be difficult to pronounce. We’re going to take a look at five different words or groups of words.
Rich: We want you to be ready with the pause button this week because we’re going to ask you to repeat some of the different words and sentences that we say.
Jack: (number one - sound effect /countdown) The first type of word we’re going to look at are ordinal numbers and the /θ/ sound. This is one of the most difficult sounds to pronounce.
Rich: We started the podcast by talking about where Arsenal and Liverpool finished last season and where they might finish this season.
Jack: I said fifth is not good but better than sixth.
Rich: And I said Liverpool finished fourth last season but I think we can finish higher than fourth this season.
Jack: These words: fourth, fifth and sixth are called ordinal numbers because they tell you the position of something in a list.
Rich: And all of them apart from first, second and third finish with the same sound and that sound is really tricky.
Jack: The sound is /θ/ and it is written with t and h together, like with Thursday, think and thank you.
Rich: When you make this sound the end of your tongue comes through the gap in your teeth. Teeth, Thursday, think, thank you.
Jack: It’s a bit more difficult at the end of the word: third, fourth, fifth, sixth.
Rich: Now, you try. Repeat after me: third …, fourth …, fifth ... , sixth … Repeat this sentence: I think Bournemouth will finish thirteenth this season …
Jack: And if you want a real challenge. Have a go at this tongue twister: the sixth sick sheikh's sixth sheep's sick. One more time … the sixth sick sheikh's sixth sheep's sick.
Rich: Have a look at the transcript and listen and repeat until you get it!
Number two
Jack: Our second tricky word or set of words to master are words with disappearing syllables like comfortable and vegetables.
Rich: Com for ta ble
Jack: No, never! It’s comfortable and comfortable is an example of a word that has fewer syllables than you would think!
Rich: It looks like it should have four syllables but it actually only has three … comf ter ble. You try it. Repeat after me: comf ter ble
Jack: There are many words like this. Comfortable swallows a syllable. Another common example is vegetable. Repeat after me: veg ter ble
Rich: It’s not only longer words like this. There are other examples like every and different. Repeat after me: every ... , different …, comfortable …, vegetable … I eat different vegetables every day!
Jack: Very healthy, Rich! I wanted to use the word comfortable there but it didn’t work! Are you sitting comfortably? There’s one more common phrase with a swallowed syllable - In Tottenham Hotspur, the en is swallowed; it’s pronounced: Tottenham Hotspur
Number three
Rich: Our next type of word looks like it should be easy but is often quite tricky because the words have silent letters.
Jack: A good example is Wednesday. Did you know that there is a football club called Sheffield Wednesday?
Rich: I did. A very strange name. The word Wednesday is difficult because it has a silent letter in the middle of it - the ‘d’.
Jack: Another very common word that is mispronounced is ‘sandwich’. It also has a missing ‘d’. It’s not always a ‘d’ that is missing. Should and walk don’t have ls in them. Let’s repeat: Wednesday ... , sandwich … , walk … should .
Rich: OK, repeat this sentence. On Wednesday I walk to the shop to buy my sandwich …
Jack: No ls and no ds!
Number four
Rich: Another set of words that cause pronunciation problem are verbs in the past that end in -ed. Regular verbs.
Jack: That’s because there are three possible pronunciations for these verbs. Some end in -t, some in -d and some in -ed.
Rich: Listen to the difference: These verbs end in /t/ liked, watched, looked.
Jack: These verbs end in /d/ played, tried, showed.
Rich: And these verbs end in /id/ wanted, visited, needed
Jack: If you’re not sure which pronunciation to use you can do a quick Google image search and you’ll get lots of word lists to practise. Just search for regular past simple pronunciation.
Rich: We’ve put some of the more common verbs in the page below this podcast.
Jack: What about a tongue twister or a sentence or two to practise?
Rich: OK, what about this: I worked, I studied, I practised then I practised some more and worked and studied and practised and then I decided to stop.
Jack: You stopped. You finished? Why?
Rich: Yep I ended it. I decided to stop. Too many -ed endings. Finished.
Number five
Jack: Finally, we’ve been trying to find out the word that is the most difficult for the most people to pronounce and we think we’ve found it.
Rich: We’ve researched and researched and found the word … but we’re not going to tell you we’re going to describe it and then we want you to use an online dictionary to tell us the word and practise the pronunciation.
Jack: Oxford and Cambridge online dictionaries are both free and give you the pronunciation of words.
Rich: So, the word you are looking for is … the name of an animal which climbs trees, eats nuts and in the UK, there are two types the red one and the grey one … let us know in the comments section what it is and practise the pronunciation!
Jack: Right so there are some difficult words and sentences for you to practise saying at home. Your task this week is to practise saying the words and sentences we have used in this podcast.
Rich: We would like you to use an online recorder like vocaroo.com then we’d like you to say the sentences then listen and compare them to the sentences that we said in the podcast.
Jack: Let us know in the comments section if you think listening to your own voice and comparing them with our voices is an exercise that you think works for you.
Can you work out this week’s football phrase?
Rich: Have you got a football phrase for us this week?
Jack: Yes, I have, but first, last week’s football phrase. The phrase was a dark horse. This is a team that people think could surprise everybody by winning lots of games. Many people are choosing Everton as their dark horse this season.
Rich: Well done to Ahmed Adam from Sudan, Milos from Serbia, Mamoud Rady from Egypt, DVD_023 from Spain, Elghoul from Algeria, Emir from Bosnia and Violinka from Ukraine for getting this one right. Ahmed Adam from Sudan said it was too easy last week, Jack?
Jack: OK, this one is a bit more difficult. This week’s football phrase is ******** *****. This means that an event, like a football match, has sold all its tickets and there are no seats left - it’s a sell out. There will be ******** ****** at football stadiums across the country for the new season.
Rich: Mmm … I’m not sure … ah yes! I wonder if there will be a ******** ***** at Wembley for the Tottenham - Chelsea match this weekend?
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: And don’t forget to listen to our new round-up show. Every Monday we talk about everything that happened in the Premier League that weekend!
Jack: Bye for now and enjoy your football!
Vocabulary
How much did you understand?
In the podcast, Rich and Jack used some words and phrases that might be new for you. Do you know the words in bold?
Tongue twisters. I like tongue twisters. Listen to this one ...
We want you to be ready with the pause button this week.
There were a few more tricky words and connected to hotels in the podcast. Do you know what they all mean? Try the activity below, then, listen to the podcast again to hear how we used the words.
Activity 1
Language
Difficult Sounds and Words
In this week's podcast, Jack and Rich spoke about some sounds and words that are difficult to say.
The first sound that they discussed was / θ /. The / θ / sound is often used to make 'th' in words such as Th-ursday, th-ing, bir th-day and fif-th. To make this sound, you need to put your tongue between your teeth. Try saying these sentences from the podcast:
Liverpool finished fourth last season but I think we can finish higher than fourth this season.
Fifth is not good for Arsenal but it's better than sixth.
The second pronunciation problem that Rich and Jack looked at was words with disappearing syllables. They looked at the words such as comfortable and vegetable (3 syllables), and, every and different (2 syllables). Practise saying these sentences:
I eat vegetables every day.
I don't feel comfortable when I have to do something different.
The third pronunciation problem that Jack and Rich discussed in the podcast was silent letters. Many words in English have letters that are not pronounced. In the podcast, we looked at the letters 'd' and 'l' which are often silent. Here are some example sentences to practise:
Sheffield Wednesday is the name of a football club in England.
I often walk to work.
On Wednesdays, I always walk to work and buy a sandwich.
The fourth pronunciation problem was -ed endings to regular verbs in the past. There are three possible pronunciations to regular verbs: /t/, /d/, or /Id/. Look at the table below and then think how you should pronounce the following sentences:
-
On Sunday, I watched Man Utd against West Ham. I wanted West Ham to win, but Utd played very well and I loved Romelu Lukaku’s goals!
-
I called my friend to see if he needed my help with his garden.
-
We looked in the restaurant but decided not to go in.
| /id/ | /t/ | /d/ |
| wanted | helped | played |
| needed | looked | loved |
| ended | laughed | closed |
| decided | watched | called |
Activity 2
Look at the table above and invent some sentences or short dialogues. Practise your pronunciation with a friend. Make sure you are using the /id/, /t/, and /d/ sounds correctly.
Language
Tongue Twisters
A tongue twister is a sentence or group of phrases that are designed to be difficult to say. Tongue twisters are difficult to say when English is your first language, so they are especially difficult when learning English as a second or foreign language. Tongue twisters usually use two phonemes that are similar and this is confusing for the speaker. Jack said two tongue twisters in the podcast. This tongue twister has been named as the world's most difficult tongue twister by the Guinness Book of Records:
The sixth sick sheik's sixth sheep's sick.
If that tongue twister was a little too difficult, here are some others for you to try at home:
- She sells seashells on the seashore.
- Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.
- He threw three free throws.
- Red lorry, yellow lorry. Red lorry, yellow lorry.
- I wish to wash my Irish wristwatch.
If you think these tongue twisters are easy, you are probably speaking too slowly. Try speaking faster and see if it gets more difficult!
Task
Write a Tongue Twister
In the podcast, Rich and Jack spoke about some sounds and words that are difficult to pronounce. Your task is to write a phrase or tongue twister that includes some of the sounds in English that speakers of your language have problems with. For example, speakers of Spanish often have problems with /i/ and /i:/ or /b/ and /v/ sounds. Arabic speakers often have problems with /p/ and /b/ or /v/ and /f/ sounds.
You need to:
- decide which sounds are most difficult for speakers of your language
- think of one - three sentences that include as many of those example words as possible
- practise saying your tongue twister again and again
Write your tongue twister in the comments section below and don't forget to try saying other people's tongue twisters too!
Quiz
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Comment
What do you think?
In this week’s podcast, Jack and Rich spoke about pronunciation and some sounds and words that are often difficult to say.
Do you have any problems with pronunciation? Is it an important part of learning English?
Which sounds in English are difficulties for speakers of your language? How do you practise your English pronunciation?
Do you ever listen to players and managers in post-match interviews? Is pronunciation ever a problem?
Look at the task above and write your tongue twisters below!
Remember to write your guess at this week's football phrase, too!
Leave a comment
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Comments
23/08/2021
points
Task
• In my language, there is no "θ" sound, therefore I always pronounce it like "t" sound and forget to make touch my tongue back of my teeth-:)
• Pronunciation is a important part of language to give message clearly in order to be understood.
• I’ve listened some managers in post-match interviews. It was hard for me to follow them.
The word is----Squirrel
23/08/2021 13:17
Tottenham Hotspur
5558
Task
• In my language, there is no "θ" sound, therefore I always pronounce it like "t" sound and forget to make touch my tongue back of my teeth-:)
• Pronunciation is a important part of language to give message clearly in order to be understood.
• I’ve listened some managers in post-match interviews. It was hard for me to follow them.
The word is----Squirrel
19/05/2020
points
I think this week's football phrase is ( popular event ) when all tickets are sold out
19/05/2020 17:10
Manchester United
6539
I think this week's football phrase is ( popular event ) when all tickets are sold out
19/05/2020
points
I often listen to pre-match conference and post-match interviews and they are so useful
The difference in pronunciation between natives and non-natives is ususally clear though
19/05/2020 17:08
Manchester United
6539
I often listen to pre-match conference and post-match interviews and they are so useful
The difference in pronunciation between natives and non-natives is ususally clear though
19/05/2020
points
I practice my English pronunciation by listening to a variety of podcasts on iTunes. They are really useful to pronounce correctly and even pick up the accent
19/05/2020 17:06
Manchester United
6539
I practice my English pronunciation by listening to a variety of podcasts on iTunes. They are really useful to pronounce correctly and even pick up the accent
19/05/2020
points
Some of difficult sounds in Turkish are ( ö ı ü )
because they are not existed in any other language but by practice , they become easy to pronounce
19/05/2020 17:05
Manchester United
6539
Some of difficult sounds in Turkish are ( ö ı ü )
because they are not existed in any other language but by practice , they become easy to pronounce
19/05/2020
points
There are some difficulties in the ordinal number ( sixth ) and ( months ) and ( clothes )
It's very important to pronounce the words properly
19/05/2020 17:03
Manchester United
6539
There are some difficulties in the ordinal number ( sixth ) and ( months ) and ( clothes )
It's very important to pronounce the words properly
22/08/2017
points
I think that the phrase is the ‘******** *****’.
22/08/2017 13:10
Watford
4417
I think that the phrase is the ‘******** *****’.
22/08/2017
points
Well done Liubomyr!
22/08/2017 13:57
Arsenal
560
Well done Liubomyr!
22/08/2017
points
This week's phrase is standing rooms
22/08/2017 07:50
Manchester United
4779
This week's phrase is standing rooms
22/08/2017
points
Hi Kwesimanifest
Sorry - it's a really tough one this week. Have another guess?
Jack - The Premier Skills English Team
22/08/2017 09:02
Arsenal
560
Hi Kwesimanifest
Sorry - it's a really tough one this week. Have another guess?
Jack - The Premier Skills English Team
22/08/2017
points
Studying English language at show, we were thought phonix and that helps me to pronounce words better.
22/08/2017 07:45
Manchester United
4779
Studying English language at show, we were thought phonix and that helps me to pronounce words better.
22/08/2017
points
I listen to post match interviews after matches and normally hear them well with the exception of some people with different diction which sometimes make me want to listen more keenly.
22/08/2017 07:35
Manchester United
4779
I listen to post match interviews after matches and normally hear them well with the exception of some people with different diction which sometimes make me want to listen more keenly.
21/08/2017
points
Pronunciation is a true issue. It is really difficult to understand when ordinary English people speak. And of course a lot of local accent. Teachers and English born one's are more easy to understand. I uselly struggle in listening football players or coaches although I have enhanced my football vocabulary and my Premier League knowledge. There are so many nationalities in UK football.
football phrase , sold out.
21/08/2017 16:01
Manchester City
3988
Pronunciation is a true issue. It is really difficult to understand when ordinary English people speak. And of course a lot of local accent. Teachers and English born one's are more easy to understand. I uselly struggle in listening football players or coaches although I have enhanced my football vocabulary and my Premier League knowledge. There are so many nationalities in UK football.
football phrase , sold out.
22/08/2017
points
Hi Elghoul
I agree with you, it's a daunting task to listen to native English speakers. I remember one day when Peter Crouch was interviewed after he had scored his 100 PL goal, it was impossible for me to understand what he was saying! The same thing happened again with Gary Cahill being interviewed. Sometimes I feel like I don't know any English at all. I hope if all English people speak as clearly as our teachers Rich and Jack, but unfortunately they don't!
22/08/2017 08:30
Liverpool
2903
Hi Elghoul
I agree with you, it's a daunting task to listen to native English speakers. I remember one day when Peter Crouch was interviewed after he had scored his 100 PL goal, it was impossible for me to understand what he was saying! The same thing happened again with Gary Cahill being interviewed. Sometimes I feel like I don't know any English at all. I hope if all English people speak as clearly as our teachers Rich and Jack, but unfortunately they don't!
21/08/2017
points
Hi Elghoul
When people are speaking naturally, especially straight after a football match, it can be very difficult to understand. When you listen to me and Jack, do you use the transcript or are we easier to understand?
Rich - The Premier Skills English Team
21/08/2017 16:45
Liverpool
594
Hi Elghoul
When people are speaking naturally, especially straight after a football match, it can be very difficult to understand. When you listen to me and Jack, do you use the transcript or are we easier to understand?
Rich - The Premier Skills English Team
20/08/2017
points
Correct me.
I have (1) lot of problens with pronunciation. I think that portuguese speakers have (2) more difficulty with TH sound, because this kind of sound doesn't exist in portuguese, its very strange for us.
Thank you (3) about the tip (4) of the post-match interview, I think is a good way (5) for improve my listening. I watched Marco Silva's interview and the post on Facebook about United's win.
My tongue twister: Three free trees through the field.
I guess that the footbal pharse is crowded.
20/08/2017 13:52
Arsenal
663
Correct me.
I have (1) lot of problens with pronunciation. I think that portuguese speakers have (2) more difficulty with TH sound, because this kind of sound doesn't exist in portuguese, its very strange for us.
Thank you (3) about the tip (4) of the post-match interview, I think is a good way (5) for improve my listening. I watched Marco Silva's interview and the post on Facebook about United's win.
My tongue twister: Three free trees through the field.
I guess that the footbal pharse is crowded.
21/08/2017
points
Hi Rafael
Marco Silva has made a good start as Watford manager. I'd like you to look at five things in your message. The mistake is after the number. Can you try to correct them and I will check later?
Rich - The Premier Skills English Team
21/08/2017 16:43
Liverpool
594
Hi Rafael
Marco Silva has made a good start as Watford manager. I'd like you to look at five things in your message. The mistake is after the number. Can you try to correct them and I will check later?
Rich - The Premier Skills English Team
22/08/2017
points
Correct me.
I have (1) a lot of problems with pronunciation. I think that portuguese speakers have (2) greater difficulty with TH sound, because this kind of sound doesn't exist in portuguese, its very strange for us.
Thank you (3) for the tip (4) about post-match interview, I think is a good way (5) to improve my listening. I watched Marco Silva's interview and the post on Facebook about United's win.
My tongue twister: Three free trees through the field.
I guess that the footbal pharse is crowded.
22/08/2017 10:39
Arsenal
663
Correct me.
I have (1) a lot of problems with pronunciation. I think that portuguese speakers have (2) greater difficulty with TH sound, because this kind of sound doesn't exist in portuguese, its very strange for us.
Thank you (3) for the tip (4) about post-match interview, I think is a good way (5) to improve my listening. I watched Marco Silva's interview and the post on Facebook about United's win.
My tongue twister: Three free trees through the field.
I guess that the footbal pharse is crowded.
24/08/2017
points
Great stuff RafaelRC!
You've got 4/5!! Prepositions are often a problem but usually they are something you can correct yourself when you think about it for a while
The only one that we should look at more closely is number (2). This was about comparatives and superlatives. I think you should be using the superlative here because I think you're trying to say that this is the biggest problem. What do you think?
Rich - The Premier Skills English Team
24/08/2017 22:58
Liverpool
594
Great stuff RafaelRC!
You've got 4/5!! Prepositions are often a problem but usually they are something you can correct yourself when you think about it for a while
The only one that we should look at more closely is number (2). This was about comparatives and superlatives. I think you should be using the superlative here because I think you're trying to say that this is the biggest problem. What do you think?
Rich - The Premier Skills English Team
30/08/2017
points
Thank you! I I confused comparative with superlative.
30/08/2017 17:14
Arsenal
663
Thank you! I I confused comparative with superlative.
20/08/2017
points
that was great . thank you
20/08/2017 12:30
Manchester United
196
that was great . thank you
21/08/2017
points
Thanks Yacine! We're happy you liked it!
Rich - The Premier Skills English Team
21/08/2017 16:38
Liverpool
594
Thanks Yacine! We're happy you liked it!
Rich - The Premier Skills English Team
20/08/2017
points
My tounge twister "The great Greek grape growers grow great Greek grapes" lots of Gs & Rs here!
20/08/2017 11:43
Liverpool
2903
My tounge twister "The great Greek grape growers grow great Greek grapes" lots of Gs & Rs here!
21/08/2017
points
Really difficult! I want to hear from other people who have tried this one!
21/08/2017 16:38
Liverpool
594
Really difficult! I want to hear from other people who have tried this one!
20/08/2017
points
After a little bit of research, I finally got it. It must be Squirrel, if I'm not mistaken!!!
Actually, I haven't seen this animal in real life, but saw it in the animation film of Ice Age 4 continent drift, very intertaining!
It's interesting that we studied Squirrel cage Induction Motor at university, but I don't know what's the link between this animal and that electrical motor, maybe the shape of its cage as the name suggests.
20/08/2017 11:34
Liverpool
2903
After a little bit of research, I finally got it. It must be Squirrel, if I'm not mistaken!!!
Actually, I haven't seen this animal in real life, but saw it in the animation film of Ice Age 4 continent drift, very intertaining!
It's interesting that we studied Squirrel cage Induction Motor at university, but I don't know what's the link between this animal and that electrical motor, maybe the shape of its cage as the name suggests.
24/08/2017
points
I think you might be our only listener to have looked this up!! Am I wrong or is 'squirrel' quite difficult to say?
Rich - The Premier Skills English Team
24/08/2017 23:01
Liverpool
594
I think you might be our only listener to have looked this up!! Am I wrong or is 'squirrel' quite difficult to say?
Rich - The Premier Skills English Team
27/08/2017
points
To be honet, I wasn't pronouncing it correctly! But that Google search I did help me!
27/08/2017 09:29
Liverpool
2903
To be honet, I wasn't pronouncing it correctly! But that Google search I did help me!
20/08/2017
points
Correct me
I had had lots of problems with pronunciation before I bought Peter Roach's Refrence of English Phonetics & Phonology, 3rd edition, Cambridge. Now, the problems are no longer remained. I think it's extremely important to learn pronunciation which guides to correctly pronouncing words and that leads to one being easily understood.
"P" is a mispronounced sound here in Sudan -- the sound itself it's not difficult to pronounce -- but it's unfamiliar because we don't have it in Arabic. A lot of people here tend to pronounce it as "b". You might hear someone says "beoble" instead of people. Of course, that sounds awful and sometimes changes the meaning completely! Like "bray and pray".
I record myself as a way of practicing my English pronunciation. It's a very powerful way with a lot of fun having learned it from the series of "Five tips to improve your...." here on the PSE! I sometimes listen to 5 live's sport daily football podcast from the BBC Radio. I have to say that it's a bit challenging as there's no transcript at all and the representers often speak in a high speed which I think makes it even more difficult, but I always enjoy it when Mark Pougatch is representing the podcast! This guy has got a clear and a very nice accent!!
Football phrase, I'm not going to miss out on this! It's a "******** *****", I hope!
20/08/2017 10:51
Liverpool
2903
Correct me
I had had lots of problems with pronunciation before I bought Peter Roach's Refrence of English Phonetics & Phonology, 3rd edition, Cambridge. Now, the problems are no longer remained. I think it's extremely important to learn pronunciation which guides to correctly pronouncing words and that leads to one being easily understood.
"P" is a mispronounced sound here in Sudan -- the sound itself it's not difficult to pronounce -- but it's unfamiliar because we don't have it in Arabic. A lot of people here tend to pronounce it as "b". You might hear someone says "beoble" instead of people. Of course, that sounds awful and sometimes changes the meaning completely! Like "bray and pray".
I record myself as a way of practicing my English pronunciation. It's a very powerful way with a lot of fun having learned it from the series of "Five tips to improve your...." here on the PSE! I sometimes listen to 5 live's sport daily football podcast from the BBC Radio. I have to say that it's a bit challenging as there's no transcript at all and the representers often speak in a high speed which I think makes it even more difficult, but I always enjoy it when Mark Pougatch is representing the podcast! This guy has got a clear and a very nice accent!!
Football phrase, I'm not going to miss out on this! It's a "******** *****", I hope!
21/08/2017
points
Hi Ahmed Adam
You're the first and only person to get the football phrase so far this week! Well done! The book sounds great and must be a real help with pronunciation. It's also important to practise what you read, though and like you say, recording yourself is a great way to practise :)
5 live's daily podcast! Wow! That is challenging! If you can understand most of that your English will be perfect :) Thanks for the feedback on our podcast, too.
A couple of corrections: (1) I don't have any problems anymore (2) presenting (3) at a high speed or really quickly
Rich - The Premier Skills English Team
21/08/2017 16:36
Liverpool
594
Hi Ahmed Adam
You're the first and only person to get the football phrase so far this week! Well done! The book sounds great and must be a real help with pronunciation. It's also important to practise what you read, though and like you say, recording yourself is a great way to practise :)
5 live's daily podcast! Wow! That is challenging! If you can understand most of that your English will be perfect :) Thanks for the feedback on our podcast, too.
A couple of corrections: (1) I don't have any problems anymore (2) presenting (3) at a high speed or really quickly
Rich - The Premier Skills English Team
22/08/2017
points
Thanks a bunch our teacher, Rich.
I really need your corrections.
Please, keep them coming!
22/08/2017 07:52
Liverpool
2903
Thanks a bunch our teacher, Rich.
I really need your corrections.
Please, keep them coming!
19/08/2017
points
Correct me.
I think for spanish learners is difficult pronounce those words that swallow letters. That is so way because in spanish we pronounce all the sylables.
Also it's difficult to us when appear several consonant in a row. In spanish it's difficult see more than two consonant without a vowel.
My tongue twister: Tottenham and Leicester supportes eat different vegetable sandwich while they watch the macth in confortable way.
Week's football phrase: In Spain we say "lleno a rebosar" or "todo vendido". Maybe in english could be "All sold" or "full sold", I don't know...
Thanks
19/08/2017 16:15
Liverpool
58
Correct me.
I think for spanish learners is difficult pronounce those words that swallow letters. That is so way because in spanish we pronounce all the sylables.
Also it's difficult to us when appear several consonant in a row. In spanish it's difficult see more than two consonant without a vowel.
My tongue twister: Tottenham and Leicester supportes eat different vegetable sandwich while they watch the macth in confortable way.
Week's football phrase: In Spain we say "lleno a rebosar" or "todo vendido". Maybe in english could be "All sold" or "full sold", I don't know...
Thanks
21/08/2017
points
Hi Javi
Thanks for your message. Yes, I agree with you about the Spanish - English problem. English is a stress-timed language so Spanish speakers need to work a lot on connected speech. Sometimes just simple things like saying 'fish n' chips' instead of 'fish AND chips' can help.
Your tongue twister is great! It really uses some of those difficult words from the podcast! it would be great to hear from other users who have tried your tongue twister.
The football phrase is not right, sorry. Sometimes it works to translate from Spanish but not this time :(
Thanks again for your message.
Rich - The Premier Skills English Team
21/08/2017 16:29
Liverpool
594
Hi Javi
Thanks for your message. Yes, I agree with you about the Spanish - English problem. English is a stress-timed language so Spanish speakers need to work a lot on connected speech. Sometimes just simple things like saying 'fish n' chips' instead of 'fish AND chips' can help.
Your tongue twister is great! It really uses some of those difficult words from the podcast! it would be great to hear from other users who have tried your tongue twister.
The football phrase is not right, sorry. Sometimes it works to translate from Spanish but not this time :(
Thanks again for your message.
Rich - The Premier Skills English Team