This diphthong is pronounced as a long E sound sliding into an Ur sound. Try saying these words: (the diphthong is in red)
pier
hear
steer
clear
fear
deer
ear
/eə/
This diphthong is pronounced as a long A sound sliding into an Ur sound. Try saying these words: (the diphthong is in red)
bear
hair
fair
stairs
pair
wear
where
/k/ vs /g/
How to pronounce the K and G sounds
The voiceless (unvoiced) K sound(IPA symbol: k) can be found in English words such as cat, kid, black, box, cake, quit, and chorus
The voiced G sound(IPA symbol: g) can be found in English words such as girl, go, egg, big, single, and dog.
The G consonant can also make a softer j sound that is found in words such as Germany and gym (IPA symbol:dʒ). We will study this sound in a later lesson.
Both of these sounds are called stop consonants. That means the air used to make these sounds is stopped for a short time before it exits your mouth. Both of these sounds are produced by stopping air in the back part of your mouth. The back part of your tongue should touch the roof of your mouth in the back to briefly stop the air. You release the air to make these sounds. The force of the air is stronger for the K sound than the G sound. The G sound is voiced while the K sound is voiceless.
Voiced and voiceless sounds
In the English language, we use many voiced sounds. That means that the vocal cords vibrate when you say that sound. The G sound is a voiced sound because the vocal cords vibrate when you make the sound.
The K sound is a voiceless or unvoiced sound because the vocal cords do not vibrate when you make the sound. Instead, we use air to make the sound.
In this video, Rachel from Rachel's English will show you how to position your mouth to make each of these sounds.
Let's practise
Practise the voiceless K sound
There are six spellings of the K sound: k, ck, c, ch, x, qu/que.
k spelling
kid
kitten
like
bake
thinking
ck spelling
back
ducks
sick
truck
black
c spelling (If C is followed by the letters E or I, the word will usually be pronounced with an S sound: city, face.)
cart
cup
cat
cool
caught
x spelling The x spelling can be pronounced in two different ways:
K + S sound = fix, fox, next, box
G + Z sound = example, exist
ch spelling - These words are a challenge. (The most common pronunciation for the ch spelling is the CH sound as in China. We will study this sound in a later lesson.)
In these words, the ch spelling is pronounced with a K sound.
chorus
choir
ache
chaos
school
qu/que spelling - These words are more difficult. The qu / que spelling is pronounced as a K + W sound.
quit
quiet
quick
question
queen
When the que spelling is at the end of the word it is pronounced as only a K sound.
antique
unique
Now practice the voiced G sound
Now, let's practice the voiced G sound. Remember, your vocal cords should vibrate when you make this sound.
There are three spellings of the G sound: g/gg, ng, gue.
g/gg spelling
The g spelling sometimes makes a softer g or j sound like in Germany. Words are pronounced with the softer j sound when the g spelling is followed by e, i, or, y (giant, gym, large). All other spellings should be pronounced with the hard G sound you have learned about in this lesson.
go
good
great
big
bigger
egg
again
ng spelling
bring
sing
anger
finger
language (note: The second gin language is aj sound)
gue spelling - These are challenging words.
When the gue spelling is at the end of the word, it is usually pronounced as a G sound only.
league
dialogue
Some words do not follow the rule.
argue(g + vowel sound)
When the gue spelling is in the middle or beginning of a word, it is pronounced as a g + vowel sound.
guerrilla
guest
guess
Finally, practice the sounds side-by-side
Remember to voice the G sound and use only air for the K sound!
G
K
go
cool
bag
back
hang
cake
green
queen
sing
sink
Now say these sentences out loud.
The K sounds are in blue. The G sounds are in green:
1) The dog can lick the girl. 2) Kick the big green ball. 3) The bigc ake cooled in the kitchen. 4) The school chorus will sing for the queen in England. 5) Get a clean fork from the sink. 6) Please be quiet so I can ask you a quick question. 7) I thinkI like to speak the English language. 8) The kitten is in black the box. 9) Bring Kate the bigger egg. 10) He quickly corrected the group.
Intonation
The entire variation of pitch while speaking is called intonation. A very obvious difference in intonation can be observed when looking at statements and questions. Take for example American English:
When someone utters an echo or asks declarative questions (like He found it on the street?), the intonation (i.e. the voice) is rising to a higher pitch at the end.
When someone asks a wh-question (like Where did he find it?) or utters a statement (like He found it on the street.), the intonation (i.e. the voice) is falling to a lower pitch at the end.
Yes or no questions (Did he find it on the street?) often have a rising end, but not always.
Intonation also deals with the stress of words. Words are stressed to make a certain emphasis. A sentence can be spoken differently, depending on the speaker's intention.
Look at the following sentences. Speak them out loud and especially stress the word that is in bold writing. Then think about how the meaning of the utterance changes.
I did not read anything about the disaster.
I did not read anything about the disaster.
I did not read anything about the disaster.
I did not read anything about the disaster.
I did not read anything about the disaster.
I did not read anything about the disaster.
You can use intonation to exaggerate / highlight / stress a single word within a sentence, so that it becomes more important (than all the other words in that sentence). Sentence stress with correct intonation is done by:
Slowing your target word down (to be slower than all other words)
Pausing before or after (or before AND after) your target word
Using an exaggerated, sliding melody on your target word
Saying the non-target words much more quickly (to show that they are not as important as the target word.
/t/ vs /d/
LA POSTURA EN COMÚN
Para reproducir el sonido D y T en inglés. La lengua toca el paladar (región alveolar) y empuja hacia arriba. La postura es parecida a la postura de la L en español.
¡A PRACTICAR!
Minimal pairs
Esta es sólo una pequeña lista de los pares mínimos entre la D y la T con el cual puedes practicar.
D (inicial)
T (inicial
D (final)
T (final)
do
to
and
ant
down
town
feed
feet
dent
tent
seed
seat
/ɒ/ vs /ɔː/
/ɒ/ and /ɔː/ can be easily confused. Moreover there are many native speakers who don't make a difference.
/ɔː/
Some common words containing /ɔː/ include the following:
with "oa": abroad - broad
with "ough": bought - brought - fought - ought - thought
with "a": water
with "al": almost - already - alter - always - chalk - false - salt - talk - walk
with "all": ball - call - fall - hall - mall - small - talk - walk - wall
with "aw": dawn - hawk - lawn - shawl - yawn
with "au": auction - August - author - autumn - caught - cause - clause - daughter - fault - launch - taught
with "or": afford - born - cork - fork - horse - lord - pork - short - storm - sword
with "oar": board
with "our": court
with "ar": quarter - warm - warn
/ɒ/
with "o": doll - golf - hot - lot - off - on - stop - top
La letra U tiene dos pronunciaciones principales en inglés. Tiene lo que llamamos una pronunciación corta y una pronunciación larga. Cuando una vocal tiene un sonido "largo", la vocal "dice su nombre" (se pronuncia como el nombre de la letra). Oye la diferencia entre el sonido corto y largo de la letra U con las palabras en la tabla abajo. Haz clic en el enlace para oír la pronunciación.
Nota que en la columna de palabras con el sonido largo, todas las palabras terminan con una E muda o tienen una combinación de vocales. Cuando una palabra termina con una E muda, la E hace que la otra vocal en la palabra "diga su nombre" (se pronuncia como el nombre de la letra). También si una palabra contiene una vocal combinada con otra vocal, la primera vocal "dice su nombre."
Y, ahora, vamos a practicar un poco.
/f/ and /v/ sounds
/b/ and /v/ sounds
/θ/ and /ð/ SOUNDS
¿Has notado que existen sonidos en inglés que suenan parecido y se le dificultan pronunciar? Es por eso que hoy continuaremos con nuestros tips de pronunciación en inglés, que le ayudarán a entender mejor la fonética de este idioma y de paso mejorar la misma.
Los sonidos /θ/ y /ð/, son sonidos que no existen en la fonética española. En el inglés, los encontramos en palabras como three, thirteen, they and them.
Sin embargo, como hispanohablantes generalmente se nos complica la pronunciación en inglés de estos sonidos porque creemos que se pronuncian como los sonidos /t/ o /d/ del español. A pesar de que su sonido es parecido al de estos últimos, es importante hacer la diferenciación para evitar confusiones.
Los sonidos /θ/ y /ð/ representan en inglés el sonido de la combinación de letras t y h (th). Ambos sonidos son dentales fricativos, es decir, su punto de articulación está en los dientes superiores y se pronuncian tocando estos dientes con la lengua, lo que produce una fricción. Se diferencian de los sonidos /t/ y /d/ ya que el punto de articulación de estos últimos son los alvéolos, es decir, al pronunciar los sonidos /t/ y /d/ la lengua toca la parte de atrás de los dientes superiores.
Practique pronunciando las siguientes palabras e intente marcar la diferencia en la pronunciación:
Ahora, es importante entender la diferencia de pronunciación entre /θ/ y /ð/. Como se mencionó anteriormente, sus puntos de articulación son los mismos y ambas son fricativas. La única diferencia entre estos dos sonidos del inglés es que /θ/ es un sonido sordo y /ð/ es sonoro. Al pronunciar /ð/, el paso del aire entre los dientes y la lengua debe producir un zumbido y una vibración fuerte, mientras que al pronunciar /θ/ no hay zumbido y la vibración es bastante leve. Practique con las siguientes palabras e intente entender y producir la diferencia entre los dos:
Si te fijas en algún diccionario de fonética* verás que:
/ɑ:/ La /ɑ:/ aparece en palabras como “park”, “bark”, “march”, “car” y “carnival”. También existe alguna palabra como “calm” y “father” que se pronuncia con /ɑ:/.
/æ/ La /æ/ aparece en palabras como “man”, “cat”, “bank”, “hat” y “barrier”.
/ɑ:/ y /æ/ Hay muchas palabras que se pronuncian con /ɑ:/ en inglés británico y /æ/ en americano, por ejemplo “halve”, “last”, “bath”, “after” y “staff”.
/ʌ/ La /ʌ/ se emplea en palabras como “brother”, “mother”, “cousin”, “son” y “mud”.
vocal /ə/ Aunque nos parezca increíble, el fonema /ə/ se emplea en casi todas las sílabas inacentuadas. No sé cómo no enseñan eso el primer día de clase A continuación indico unos ejemplos y pongo en negrita lo que se pronuncia con /ə/“about”, “common”, “standard”, “butter”, “banana”, “father”. Fíjate que en todos los casos el fonema /ə/ aparece en sílabas inacentuadas. Para más información, echa un vistazo a la entrada en la que se explica cómo se pronuncia el fonema /ə/ y la entrada en la que se muestra un vídeo de la BBC para explicar cuándo se utilizaeste fonema.
HEALTH
1-Minute speech about it. If you click on the image above, you'll find interesting vocabulary and structures to be used in your oral presentation.
/S/, /Z/ AND /IZ/ SOUNDS
Here you are a video to learn about these three sounds. don't forget to put them into practice. Remember: imitation is the key!
Art is a way to express your feelings, and this is what graffiti means.
There are places where painting graffiti is allowed and they can make them the way they prefer.
Graffitists want to leave a message on walls so that it can reach to lots of people. A wall is the best place where you can make them because everybody can see them, and there are lots of walls.
The ability to produce complicated pieces is what separates the tagger from the graffiti artist; graffitist for short. Taggers scribble and graffitists do art. The completion of a piece or a production involves a great deal of imagination, planning, and effort.
There is a huge difference between kids tagging in the street and graffiti artists.
Some of them can be really beautiful, if they are well painted, and if the people know how to paint or has some experience on it.
producing graffiti art with a crew builds team work in that the crew works together for the accomplishment of a common goal. The feeling of this achievement in league with others is of value to the artist.
Street art beautifies the community by appearing on areas that normally would be eyesores.
Graffiti are made illegal, as in homes or shops where people do not want them done.
A lot of signs have been tagged over by some graffiti and it could cause road accidents as a result of driver’s confusion
Many people do not like them because they make places look dirty, abandoned and unsafe. (tags)
Graffiti aren’t in museums or art galleries that’s why they aren’t art.
Local governments spend a big amount of money in removing graffiti from towns and cities.There are organizations against them and following every step they take.
Expresar sentimientos, gustos e intereses
Existe un grupo de verbos en español que se conjuga casi siempre en 3º persona. Estos verbos van siempre acompañados de los pronombres de objeto directo (me, te, le, nos, os, les) y expresan sentimientos y opiniones respecto a cosas, personas o actividades.
Lee estas frases: Afirmativa - Me gusta el teatro. - I like theatre. Negativa - No me gusta Justin Beiber - I don’t like Justin Beiber Interrogativa - Pablo: ¿Te gusta Shakira? Paul: Do you like Shakira? - Pedro: ¡Por supuesto! Peter: Of course! Examinemos estos pares de frases con más detalle: Me --> objeto indirecto gusta --> verbo el teatro --> sujeto I --> sujeto like ---> verbo theatre ---> objeto directo Como puedes ver, la construcción es opuesta. En español, el sujeto de este tipo de verbos es la cosa, persona o actividad que provoca el sentimiento (el teatro), mientras que el objeto indirecto es la persona que tiene el sentimiento (me = ‘yo’). Una traducción literal de esta idea en inglés sería algo así como "Theatre is pleasing to me", donde el sujeto es “theatre”, el verbo es “is pleasing” y el objeto de persona es “to me”. Más ejemplos para comparación entre español e inglés:
Gustos:
LIKES
1. ¡Me encantan los donuts! Especialmente los de Dunkin Donuts. ¿Te gustan los de mermelada? - I love doughnuts! Especially from Dunkin Donuts. Do you like the ones with jam in? 2. Anne: Hugh Grant me vuelve loca. ¡Está buenísimo! Sarah: ¿Quéee? ¡Tiene más de 50! Anne: I’m crazyabout Hugh Grant. He’s gorgeous! Sarah: Whaaaat? He’s like over 50! 3. Los efectos especiales de ‘Misión Imposible’ me fascinan. - I really love the special effects in ‘Mission Impossible’.
DISLIKES
- ¡Odio a Justin Bieber! - I hate Justin Bieber! - ¡No soporto ‘Friends’. - I can’t stand ‘Friends’. - He oído que Rafa Nadal odia todos los deportes aparte del tenis… ¡Detesta el baloncesto! - I heard that Rafa Nadal hates every other sport apart from tennis….He loathes basketball!
Sentimientos FEELINGS
- Esta película me aburre. ¿La dejamos? - I’m bored with this film. Shall we walk out? - Me apetece un pizza de piña. ¿Y a ti? ¿Te apetece una? - I feel like having a pizza with pineapple on top. How about you? Do you feel like one? - No te preocupes. No importa. - Don’t worry. It doesn’t matter.
Intereses: INTERESTS
- Me gusta mucho Harry Potter, pero prefiero los libros… no las películas. ¿A ti te gusta Harry Potter? - I’m really into Harry Potter, but I prefer the books… not the films. Are you into Harry Potter? - No me interesa ‘Twilight’… - I’m just not interested in ‘Twilight’… - No me atrae el arte abstracto, ¡no tiene ningún sentido! - Abstract art doesn’t appeal to me. It doesn’t make any sense!
