Reductions

An important part of stress is reducing. You know that one syllable gets the stress in a word. In words of more than one syllable, the other syllables are reduced.

There are three sounds we reduce in English.

They are:

vowels - reduced to /ə/

t - reduced to /d/, /ʔ/, or Ø

-ing - /Iŋ/


Examples:

1.

Take the word computer.

Computer is stressed on the second syllable. That means the first and third syllables are reduced.

o is reduced to ə

and

t is reduced to d

2.
Take the word guitar.

Guitar is stressed on the second syllable. That means the first syllable is reduced.

/gətɑr/

Here's a song where the stress in guitar is clear to hear.

Silent E

There are many words in English that end in an 'e', but you do not pronounce the 'e' in these words. Instead the proceeding vowel is the one that changes.

Look at the following examples:

twin /twIn/
twine /twayn/

pan /pæn/
pane /peyn/

For more examples of this, watch this very cool video from an old children's show called The Electric Company. It was written and sung by Tom Lehrer a famous singer, songwriter, and professor. He taught for many years at the University of California at Santa Cruz.

Sibilants

Sibilants are sounds that make a hiss or a buzz. They can be either voiced or voiceless.

The following consonants are voiceless sibilants in English:
/s/,/∫/, & /ʧ/

The following consonants are voiced sibilants in English:
/z/, /ʒ/, & /dʒ/

In addition to have correct pronunciation of these individual consonants, sibilants are important because they tell you how to pronounce the final s in English.

If a word ends in a sibilant, you need to pronounce the plural as /Iz/. This adds another syllable to the word. For example the word class is one syllable, but if you make it plural, classes, it is now two syllables: /klæs Iz/

Here are some examples for you.

dances- /dæns Iz/
washes- /wɑ∫ Iz/
languages- /læŋ gwɪdʒ Iz/
relaxes-/rə læks Iz/
James’- /dʒæmz Iz/

If you want more sibilant practice, you can check out these links.

Pronunciation Meg's first sibilant lesson
Pronunciation Meg's second sibilant lesson
Pronunciation Meg's third sibilant lesson

A word of warning
Be careful- I've noticed a lot of Korean speakers add a /iy/ after final sibilants. Try hard not to do this! What do I mean? Well, I mean instead of saying /kɑlIdʒ/ for college, many Korean speakers say /kɑlIdʒiy/.

Here are some other examples I've noticed:


church- Correct: /ʧərʧ/ Incorrect: /ʧərʧiy/

judge- Correct: /dʒʌdʒ/ Incorrect: /dʒʌdʒiy/

watch- Correct: /wɑʧ/ Incorrect: /wɑʧiy/

English- Correct: /ɪŋglɪʃ/ Incorrect: /ɪŋglɪʃiy/

The sibilant /dʒ/ is often confused with the continuant /y/ by many Spanish speakers. I've made a recording of these sounds for you to practice here. (This is from our book.)

/dʒ/
Joe
jar
judge
joy
jury
jam
just
job
Jack
juice
jump
jelly

/y/
yes
you
young
your
year
yet
yard
yellow

Teresa reading the /dʒ/ & /y/ sounds.


Many students have difficulties with the voiceless sibilants /∫/ & /ʧ/. (This is from our book.)

Voiceless Sibilants /∫/ & /ʧ/

share chair
shoe chew
sheep cheap
shop chop
wish witch
dish ditch
mush much
cash catch

Teresa reading the /∫/ & /ʧ/ sounds.

Practice from our book:

What did you watch? A movie

What did you wash? My car

What does “chatter” mean? To talk fast

What does “shatter” mean? To break glass

Does Jack eat much? No, not a lot.

Does Jack eat mush? It’s his favorite cereal.

What’s a “chip”? A small piece

What’s a “ship”? A big boat

What’s a “sip”? A little drink

What does “cheap” mean? Not expensive

What does “jeep” mean? A car for rough roads

Where does “c” go in the alphabet? It’s the third letter.

Where does “z” go in the alphabet? At the end

Where does “g” go in the alphabet? In the middle

What does “choke” mean? To strangle

What does “joke” mean? A funny story

What does “yolk” mean? The yellow part of an egg.

Her son went to Yale. That’s wonderful.

Her son went to jail. That’s terrible.

What’s Jell-o? A dessert

What’s yellow? A color

What does “jell” mean? To become solid

What does “yell” mean? To shout

How do you spell “jewel”? J E W E L

How do you spell “you’ll”? Y O U apostrophe L L

Sibilants Practice: Teresa Pargeter & Eric Lee

Sibilants Practice: Eric Lee & Teresa Pargeter

Consonants

The consonants /kɑnsənəns/ are:
/b/, /k/, /ʧ/, /s/, /d/, /f/, /g/, /h/, /dʒ/, /l/, /m/, /n/, /ŋ/, /p/, /ʒ/, /∫/, /r/, /t/, /θ/, /ð/, /v/, /w/, /y/, /z/, & /ʔ/

Consonants, however, are written like this is English:
b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, x, y, z

Consonants have restricted airflow.
Some consonants are voiced and some are voiceless.

Consonants are relatively set sounds in English; this means you won't hear many differences in how different native speakers say the same consonants. However, you will hear variation in when native speakers reduce /t/ to Ø, /d/, or /ʔ/.

Written Form:
There are several consonant sounds that have either no written form or no standard written form in English. These are:
/ʔ/, /ʒ/, & /dʒ/

There is no written distinction between /θ/ and /ð/. What this means is, when you see a word with the letter "th", you cannot know based on the spelling if the word is pronounced as a voiced or voiceless th.

The letter c can be pronounced /k/, /s/, or Ø
cake- /keyk/
cell- /sɜl/
practice- /præk tIs/
indict- /In dayt/

If you'd like a couple of fun little videos about consonants, you can check out these songs on consonants: here and here.

/l/ & /r/

Remember, as we have talked in class, your tongue is flat and touching your upper teeth for /l/.
For /r/ your tongue is curved and not touching the roof of your mouth. There's a good drawing of these two different sounds on Learn English Free Online here.

If you find /l/ and /r/ challenging to do correctly, check out this video. This is a clip from a popular TV show called Glee. As he sings the song Hello, you can really see how he places his tongue for /l/ and you can see how round his lips are for /r/. As you can't see his tongue for the r, you can understand the placement is different. (Pay attention to how he sings hello, alone, and door.)



CONSONANT CLUSTERS
There are also consonant clusters in English. This is when two or more consonants are placed next to each other in a word. Let’s look at the list below of initial and final clusters.

Consonant Clusters- Teresa


Initial Consonant Clusters
br- brown, brew, braid
cl- clown, clue, clean
cr- crown, crew, crack
dr- draw, drink, drone
fl- flag, flood, flatter
fr- frank, France, from
gl- glass, glow, glance
gr- grass, grow, grab
pl- play, plate, please
pr- pray, practice, prank
scr- scream, scram, scrutiny
shr- shrine, shrub, shred
sk- skip, ski, skill
sl- slow, sleep, slip
sm- small, smooth, smile
sn- snore, snack, snail
sp- speed, spell, spend
spl- split, splash, splurge
spr- sprain, sprout, sprung
squ- square, squander, squat
st- stay, stage, stair
str- strange, straight, streak
sw- swim, sweep, sweat
thr- throw, thrust, three
tr- treat, treasure, trip

Final Consonant Clusters
-ct duct, act, fact
-ft left, deft, heft
-lb bulb
-ld child, build, world
-lf golf, gulf, self
-lk silk, bulk, milk
-lm helm, realm, film
-lt adult, belt, fault
-mp jump, lump, hump
-nd and, hand, land
-ng sing, bring, string
-nk think, link, brink
-nt tent, bent, lent
-pt apt, kept, Egypt
-sk ask, risk, disk
-sp grasp, crisp, rasp
-st best, east, rest



There are also 6 sibilants in English. To learn more about them, click here.



Homework practice:
Many students say they would like to hear a recording of the homework before they record it. You can find such a recording here. Enjoy and good luck!!

Consonants in Sentences- Teresa


Consonants in Sentences- Eric

Vowels

The vowels /vaʊəlz/ are:
/iy/, /ɪ/, /ey/, /ɜ/, /æ/, /ɑ/, /ə/, /ɔ/, /ow/, /ʊ/, /uw/, /ər/, /ay/, /aw/, & /ɔi/.

Vowels, however, are written like this is English:
a, e, i, o, u, & y.

All vowels have open (unrestricted) airflow.
All vowels are voiced.

The most common vowel in English is schwa /ə/ because it is the reduced vowel in English.

Vowels are the most flexible sounds in English; this means you'll hear differences in how different native speakers the same vowels.

If you'd like a fun little video about vowels, you can check out this song on vowels, click here.

This song is about when you find a word with two vowels together, like in the word brain.

This song contains many words with the vowel sound /æ/, so it's good practice for that vowel.

This video uses many words with the vowel /I/. Be sure to watch this video on /iy/ because many students confuse the two sounds- /I/ and /iy/.

There are many other links on YouTube that practice vowels.

Note: Long vowels are: /ey/, /iy/, /ay/, /ow/, and /ʊ/

Short vowels are: /æ/, /ɜ/, /I/, /ɑ/, and /Ʌ/

Homework practice:
Many students say they would like to hear a recording of the homework before they record it. You can find such a recording here. I've included both my voice and husband's so you can hear both a female and a male voice. Enjoy and good luck!!

Vowels in Sentences- Teresa


Vowels in Sentences- Eric