Arale

Arale

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dimarts, 10 de maig del 2016

 Pronunciation. From BBC and Cambridge.
A question from Svetlana in Kazakhstan:
Could you help me to explain difference in pronunciation of two pair words - there're, they're and there'll be, they'll be? Dictionary pronounces separate words they, there, are and will. However, in real English speech you use contraction. These contractions are usually unstressed, so it's difficult for me to define difference.
Em podrieu ajudar a explicar la differència en la pronunciació de les parelles de paraules  there're/they're and there'll be/they'll be? El diccionari ofereix la pronunciació per separat però a la conversa real l'anglès empra contraccions. Aquestes contraccions no tenen accent cosa que en fa difícil la diferenciació.
Hello Svetlana – this is a great question as, like you said, it's almost impossible to find the answer to this in a dictionary or grammar book. You're right – we use these kinds of contractions all the time when we're speaking and because they're not 'important' words like nouns or verbs, they tend to get mumbled a little bit and it’s difficult to hear how they are said.

If you try and pronounce any of these contractions slowly, you can make out the differences between them:

there're        /ðɛərə/        
they're          /ðeər/
there'll be      /ðɛərl/ 
they'll be    /ðeɪl/

But of course, when we're speaking normally we don't say them slowly and in fact, the two pairs of words you're asking about end up sounding almost exactly the same. Let's try putting them into sentences so you can hear them in context:

She said there're going to be about a thousand people there.
I hope they're all going to bring something to eat!
If not there'll be a lot of hungry people.
I expect they'll be so busy dancing they won’t think about food.

Can you hear that the first two words sound a bit like 'there' /ðərə/ and the second two words sound like 'thell'/ðɛərl/ . Listen again.

Because, as you said, they are unstressed, the pronunciation of the second syllable in each word almost completely disappears.

One last thing – one of the contractions you’ve mentioned is only really used when speaking, while the other three are used in informal writing as well. Do you know which is the odd one out? It’s there're - the contraction of 'there are'. It's quite uncommon to see this written down unless you are trying to write exactly like we speak, for example in direct speech in a dialogue.

I hope this answers your question. Remember to practise saying them within whole sentences rather than as single words as it's much easier to make the pronunciation sound natural.

dijous, 21 d’abril del 2016

Family.









Animals
Songs aimed at improving knowledge of animals.
Cançons per  aprendre el animals.


dilluns, 18 d’abril del 2016



USUAL PRONUCIATION. PRONUNCIACIÓ HABITUAL. 

English has no rules for spelling or pronunciation, but there are some strong tendencies that may help us guess what the most probable pronunciation of a word is. I will tell you here the most important ones, but don't forget that you will find many exceptions to these rules. 
 L'anglès no té regles per a deletrejar o pronunciaar, però hi ha tendències generals que ens poden ajudar a endevinar quina és la pronunciació més probable d'una paraula. Vos deix aquí les més importants, però no oblideu que trobareu moltes excepcions a aquestes regles.

This may be useful for consultation but, please, don't try to memorize it, it would be useless since there are so many exceptions. To pronounce English correctly you have to find out the pronunciation of every single new word when you learn it. 
Pot ser útil per a consula però, per favor, no tracteu de memoritzar-ho, seria innecessari donat l'elevat nombre d'excepcions. Per a pronunciar l'anglès correctament heu de cercar la pronunciació de cada nova paraula quan l'apreneu. 

A
A sat, marry, hand, ran, cat
radio, case, page, fate, mate 
father, bath, dance, cast, fast
AR artist, car, park, start, far, charm  
AR+vowel: care, stare, Mary
AIR air, chair, fair, stair, hair, fairy    
WA watch, what, want, quantity, quality  walk, water, wall, war, warm
AU/AW Paul, caught, fault, cause, daughter, saw, lawn, law  
AL all, call, fall, ball, tall, salt, bald, false   
         pal, calendar, balance 
AI/AY rain, paid, day, away 


E



E egg, editor, bet, went, send, pest   English, pretty, before
EE sleep, deep, meet, cheese, keep, teen
EER beer, cheer, steer, eery    
EA read, eat, tea, meat, speak, breathe bread, health, ready
EAR near, ear, dear, fear, beard, clear pear, wear, bear
ER (stressed) person, verb, prefer, certain    
EW /ju:/ new, few, sewerage, knew    
EI/EY receive, ceiling, perceive, key    

I



  I
if, film, his, pistol, risk
fine, mine, pile, pilot, child  

   
IE field, piece, niece    
IGH high, light, fight, might    
     IR (stressed) first, girl, stir    
IRE fire, pyre, tired, Ireland    



O

O bottle, clock, pot, dog
so, ago, home, cold, post
son, love, come, London
OO good, book, look
food, cool, pool
   
OOR door, floor, poor    
  OR horse, port, more, before    
WOR (stressed) work, worse, word, worm, world    
WO worry, wonder, won
woman, wolf
woke, won't, wove
  OA boat, coast, coat, road, coal, oak    
  OU/OW house, out, found, brown, how, town low, snow, know, soul
  OUR/OWR hour, our, sour, flower, power    
  OI/OY boy, boil, joy, toy, voice    
  OUGHT bought, brought, ought    

U

U /ju:/ 
student,ambulance,cute
cup, uncle, funny, us  
blue,June,flute
put,sugar
UR (stressed) turn, fur, spur    
UR + vowel
/jʊə/
pure, cure, curious, mature    
  UI fruit, juice, suit    



All these vowels and vowel combinations are often pronounced with a Schwa 
() if they are in a non-stressed syllable, so I don't give any examples of this sound here because it is unnecessary.