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Some Tricky Words

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Tricky American English Pronunciation

Universidad de California en Irvine

4.7 (544 calificaciones) | 69K estudiantes inscritos

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In this course, you’ll practice the sounds of American English that might sometimes be confusing. You'll practice both consonant and vowel sounds. You’ll also learn about the things that give English its special “music,” such as how to stress the right syllable in a word, how to make your voice go up and down in a natural-sounding melody, and how to naturally connect sounds and words. Learning these things will help you speak more clearly and make sure that others can understand what you're saying. This course is useful for English language learners who want to improve pronunciation of American English for better communication. Note that access to all of the lectures and handouts are free to anyone, but the graded assignments and quizzes are only available in the paid version of the course. You will need to submit recordings of your own pronunciation for graded assignments.

Revisiones

4.7 (544 calificaciones)

5 stars
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4 stars
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3 stars
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2 stars
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1 star
4 ratings

FU

Apr 28, 2017

Just finished the free mode course. This course is really great. I was expecting a lot from it, and I am very surprised it exceeded my expectations.

CD

Nov 05, 2017

If English is not you native language, you can benefit enormously from this course, specially if you have been speaking English for a long time.

De la lección

Other Tricky Things

In this final week of the course, you'll look at a few more tricky points in American English pronunciation. First, you’ll learn about the different ways to pronounce the –s and –ed word endings, which have important grammatical meanings, and you’ll learn when to use each kind of pronunciation. Next, you’ll practice pronouncing numbers like 14 and 40, 15 and 50, 16 and 60 that can cause misunderstandings. You’ll also learn about the pronunciation of the words “can” and “can’t” –the difference between them might surprise you. Finally, you’ll practice some sound changes that happen when words come together in common spoken expressions like "gonna" for "going to," "wanna" for "want to," and "shoulda" for "should have."

Some Tricky Words6:28

Some Tricky Words Practice6:15

Impartido por:

Tamy Chapman
Instructor, International Programs
Marla Yoshida
Academic Coordinator
Brad Gilpin

Prueba el curso Gratis

Transcripción

Pronunciation of Some Really Tricky Words. There are two words, can, and the negative contraction, can't, that seem to cause more trouble than any others. People don't usually pronounce these words clearly. So if someone says, we can help you. Did they say can or can't? Here are some clues for telling the difference between can and can't. Can is usually unstressed, and it sounds like /kən/, with a reduced vowel. We can help you. When can you help me? Can't is usually stressed. It sounds like /kaent/ with a clear sound. We may not be able to hear the final [SOUND]. We can't help you. Why can't you help me? But when can is alone, with no verb after it, it's stressed. Can you help me? Can is not stressed. Yes, I can. Can is stressed. There's no verb after it. Now, practice saying these sentences with can and can't. Notice which words are stressed. Eagles can fly, but penguins can't. Can ostriches fly? No, I don't think they can. Eagles can fly, but they can't live in Antarctica. Can't you tell me more about birds? No, I can't. Another tricky group of words is numbers ending in -teen and -ty. These are often very hard to tell apart, even for native speakers. Numbers like 14 and 40, 15 and 50, 16 and 60. Sound very similar. So how can we tell these numbers apart? If you look at the spelling of these words, it seems like it should be easy. Fourteen has an extra sound at the end, [SOUND]. Forty doesn't. But people don't usually pronounce that last sound very clearly. And sometimes, it gets blended into the words after it. Like when we say, 14 notes, or 40 notes. The [SOUND] doesn't actually help much. There are two important differences that you can hear between these numbers. The first difference is stress. Teen words are usually stressed on the second syllable. T words are always stressed on the first syllable. We say fourteen and forty. Say these numbers and notice where the stress is. Fourteen, forty. 15, 50. 16, 60. 17, 70. 18, 80. 19, 90. But sometimes the stress in -teen numbers changes. When we count, we usually stress the first syllable of each number. Thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen. And when there's a noun after the number, we also usually stress the first syllable of the number and the noun that comes after it too. Fourteen children. Fifteen years. Sixteen books. Seventeen dollars. Another difference is the sound of [SOUND] that we hear. When we see the -teen numbers, like fourteen, we hear a clear, puffy [SOUND] sound. It's voiceless. Fourteen. When we say the -ty numbers, like forty, we hear a sound that's more like a [SOUND]. It's voiced. Forty. Now, say this numbers. Fourteen, forty. Fifteen, fifty. Sixteen, sixty. Seventeen, seventy. Eighteen, eighty. Now, practice saying these sentences with numbers. How many chairs do we need? We need sixteen. We need sixteen chairs for the meeting. How old is your grandmother? She's eighty. My grandfather is eighty years old, too. My aunt was born in nineteen seventy. This book costs $30.15. How many people will come to the meeting at 2:40? Fourteen. Keep practicing these tricky words, can and can't. And numbers with -teen and -ty, so that you can say them easily and clearly.

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