Assimilation and Deletion, Part 2

Hello!

Whew. That was much better, don't you think? Ahmad and Wen were not in class yesterday, so they benefited from the review of what we covered yesterday. I thought we could use a little more practice with yesterday's concepts.

But first we chatted a bit about the neighbourhoods of Windsor: downtown, Walkerville, Old Sandwich Town, Pillette Village, Old Riverside, South Windsor, and The Via Italia (Erie Street). I asked each of you where you live and whether you like that area. My favourite neighbourhood is Walkerville because I love old houses. But I live in Riverside. I hope to move to Walkerville in the future. Florin said he lives there. He can smell the distillery, but only once a week.

I put twelve words and phrases from yesterday on the board. Some of them were examples of assimilation, like "these shoes." Some were examples of deletion, like "landlord." One was an example of consonant to vowel linking. I gave a pair of dice to Angela and asked her to roll. The number she rolled indicated the word or phrase on the board that she had to use in a sentence. Everyone did great! You are becoming very comfortable with linking, assimilation and deletion.

Next we went over a long list of other words that have silent letters. I did not tell you ahead of time which letters are silent. You told me that the "p" in raspberry is silent. The "n" in column is silent. You did a great job on those!

Next we asked each other some questions that included words and phrases from the lesson: landlord, next month, first country, favourite, beverage, etc. After you had about ten minutes to talk to your partner, I asked some of you what you learned about your partner. That was very interesting! I learned that Husnieh's favourite beverage is milk. Ahmad learned that when his mother tells him the meaning of a word in English, he can trust her.

I announced today that I will be gone next week after the long weekend. My boyfriend and I are going to Muskoka for a little vacation. I don't think we will see any colours; it's probably too early for that. On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, Stephanie will teach the class.

See you!

Assimilation and Deletion

Hello!

Today we started looking at two things that happen in fast, native-speaker English: assimilation and deletion.

First we talked about what assimilation means. Florin told us that it means when someone who is different starts to fit in and change to be more like the environment. This happens with newcomers to Canada, and it also happens to sounds in languages!

For example, it can happen across word boundaries. When we say "nice shoes," we don't hear a clear /s/ at the end of "nice" before the "sh" sound. It's more like one slightly longer "sh" sound.

We also looked at deletion or elision. This is when a native speaker, when speaking at a normal to quick conversational speed, doesn't pronounce certain letters. Examples are the second "t" in Toronto, the "d" in Windsor, the "t" in plenty and twenty, etc.

We looked at a passage about someone who found an apartment to rent on Erie Street. We found all the linking, assimilation and deletions. One thing that came up while we were taking up the exercise was whether we can drop the final -s (plural marker). We cannot drop that. When a sound makes a difference in grammar, we have to say that sound. I notice that almost all LINC students have trouble remembering to say the past tense markers /t/, /d/ and /Id/ and the plural markers /s/, /z/, and /Iz/.

I apologize for taking you through today's exercises too quickly. Tomorrow I will slow down and we will have more opportunities to use what we learned in conversation.

Have a nice evening (two syllables in evening)!

Linking C to Same C

Hello!

While we were waiting for everyone to get to class, some of us talked about how the weather is starting to get a bit cooler. Those of us without air conditioning are finding it easier to sleep these past few days. I asked each of you if this will be your first fall in Ontario. Most of you said yes, this will be your first fall here. Those who were here last fall told the newcomers what they can expect to see this fall: lots of colour!

Before starting the lesson, we had a miniature side lesson about "a" and "an." An exception to the rule came up in her class, and I wanted to explain it. Two of the students from that class are in pronunciation with us.

I asked you for the rule and you told me that we use "an" before a count noun when it starts with a vowel. But that's not really true. We use "an" when the next word starts with a vowel SOUND. As usual, there I go stressing the fact that it's the SOUND that matters more than the spelling.

Consider: an umbrella, a unit, a uniform

We talked about why this is so. It has to do with the sound that the letter "u" makes in unit and uniform. It starts with a /y/ sound, doesn't it?

We also talked about how some native speakers say "herb garden" with silent "h" while others pronounce the "h." Those who pronounce the "h" would say "a herb garden." Those who don't pronounce the "h" say "an herb garden."

It's good to have that out of the way!

Today we looked at another type of linking. When you have the same consonant sound at the end of one word and the beginning of the next word within the same thought group, you say the sound only once, but hold it slightly longer. Examples: call Laura, phone number, big girl, bad dog. This also occurs between the two parts of a compound noun, such as bookcase. However, when a consonant is doubled inside a normal word, we say the consonant sound only once: carrot, bullet, simmer.

We practiced this chorally and individually in words. Then we found the links in sentences, wrote them in, then practiced those sentences aloud.

Next we read a passage about what makes leaves turn orange, yellow, red, purple and brown in autumn. We practiced pausing, keeping thought groups together, and all three types of linking that we've learned so far.

After a brief interruption so we could learn about an upcoming session for the Men's Group, we asked each other some questions while paying attention to linking. We asked our partners things such as:

• Will this be your first fall in Ontario?
• Do the leaves change colour in your first country?
• Are you looking forward to seeing the changing colours?
• Have you ever been to the Muskoka area of Ontario?
• Have you ever been to Quebec?

Have a nice weekend! I'll see you on Monday. Oh, and click here if you want to see some beautiful photos of northern Ontario in the fall.

Linking V to V

Hello!

Today we talked about another type of linking in English. This is the linking between vowel sounds. You remember the alphabet vowel sounds, right? They are /ey/, /iy/, /ay/, /ow/, and /uw/. We also have relative vowel sounds, but we don't need to talk about them because English words never end in relative vowel sounds.

Today we saw once again that English is not pronounced as written. We write "I am," but we say, "I yam." There is no pause between the two words. The little /y/ sound at the end of "I" acts like a bridge or link to take us smoothly into the next vowel sound.

We practiced vowel-vowel linking in some phrases together.

Next we practiced writing a tiny Y or W between words to remind us of the link. Then we practiced saying those word pairs out loud.

We also practiced a dialogue. First we found the links and wrote them on our papers to remind us when to link. Then we practiced the dialogue with a partner. Finally you each had a chance to perform the dialogue for the class.

For the last activity, we asked each other some questions. Did you remember to link your final and initial vowel sounds?

Tomorrow we will be in the computer lab. See you then!

More Linking C + V

Hello!

Today we finished Thursday's worksheet on linking final consonant sounds to initial vowel sounds. First we did a quick review of Thursday's work.

Next we worked on the dialogue, which I had put up on the whiteboard before class. You all took turns telling me where the links were, and I drew them on the board in red ink.

Next we practiced the dialogue together and then in pairs.

Then I passed out a little quiz on partitive and collective nouns. Partitives are the words that we use to count things, like a grain of rice or a drop of water. Collective nouns describe groups of things or animals. For example, we say a flock of sheep but a herd of cattle. The worksheet was divided into three sections: beginner, intermediate and advanced.

I gave you a couple of minutes to try the beginner's section, then we took it up. As you gave me the answers, I asked you also, "where is the linking?"

For example, we say, "a glass of orange juice." There are two C + V links there: glass-of and of-orange.

Great job! We didn't have time to go over the next two sections, but you have the answers on the back. Tuesday we will finish up that worksheet and start talking about V + V linking.

Don't forget: this week's computer lab day has been changed to WEDNESDAY. Another teacher needs the lab tomorrow. Thank you for understanding.

See you!

Linking C to V

Hello!

Today we started our unit on linking, but before that, we finished Wednesday's worksheet on pausing and thought groups.

Then we began our unit on linking by learning about one kind of linking: the linking of a final consonant sound to an initial vowel sound. Why do I say "sound?" Because it doesn't matter what LETTER the word ends in or starts with. What matters is the sound, right?

An example of C to V linking:

We write "North America," but we say "Nor thamerica."

We practiced some pairs of phrases that sound exactly alike when said naturally at a normal conversational speed, such as "made a mistake" and "made him a steak."

Next we practiced some phrases that had the link lines drawn on them for you.

On the next exercise I gave you a couple of minutes to draw the link lines on some sentences. While you were working, I wrote them all on the board. To take them up, I said them and we repeated them and said how many C to V links there were and where they were.

We didn't get to the dialogue, so we'll do that on Monday. We'll be going to the computer lab this coming week, and you'll be able to practice linking with the Ellis software.

I was very happy to see such a big class! Pretty soon we will run out of chairs, eh?

Pausing and Thought Groups

Hello!

Oh, my goodness, what a big class we had today! Our little group is really growing, eh? Pretty soon there will be a waiting list for a spot in the class.

Today we started by taking up yesterday's homework. It was a puzzle about the pronunciation of "can" and "can't." You all told me yesterday that it looked difficult, but you did pretty well with it. I was amazed that Husnieh did the puzzle in about 3 minutes before class started, even though she wasn't here yesterday. Wow.

Today we started talking about thought groups and pausing. We said that English speakers seem to be speaking very quickly. Actually, they are linking together the words within thought groups. We need to learn to do that, too. But before we learn to link, we have to learn where not to link. There are places where we need to pause.

There are three reasons for pausing:

1. It gives your listener time to process information.

2. It helps break the language into chunks of meaning.

3. Sometimes where you pause changes the entire meaning of a sentence!

We read a passage about a couple's camping trip in Algonquin Park, which is in the Muskokas in northern Ontario. First you read it and predicted where the pauses would be. Then you listened to me and checked your predictions. Then we all took turns reading parts of it.

Next we looked at the rules governing what we should keep together. Some examples were noun phrases, verb phrases, prepositional phrases, and clauses. We saw examples of each of these from the passage. Also, there is no need to pause in short phrases or sentences such as "Nice to meet you."

Having reviewed these rules, we returned to our passage to read it again. I wanted to see if your phrasing was better the second time through. Again we took turns and I think your phrasing did improve.

Tomorrow we will learn how you can change the meaning of a sentence if you don't put your pause in the right place.

Here are some links you can follow to learn more about our vocabulary from today:

Algonquin Park - pictures

Algonquin Provincial Park official site

chipmunk

birch trees - pictures

deer

rabbit

clover

Canon 5D

Cheers!

Can and Can't

Hello!

Today I started class with a bit of silliness. I said, "I can raise one eyebrow at a time. Can you?" I said, "My mother can wiggle her ears. Can you?" I said, "My friend can touch his tongue to his nose. Can you?"

We found out that Federico can touch his nose with his tongue.

Today's lesson was about the pronunciation of can and can't. Yesterday we learned about when function words can be stressed. When a function word is stressed, we call that its strong form. When we reduce it, which we do in normal speech, that is called its weak form.

Together we built the table of strong and weak forms for can, will, have, he and some other function words.

We practiced saying some sentences with can and can't. We said that can't is always stressed. Why? I heard two people say, "because it's negative." That's right. Negatives are content words. We said that can is usually reduced, but not always. When do we use the strong form of can? We will see if you know the answer to that tomorrow when we take up the homework!

Next we did a listening exercise. You were to circle the word you heard me say: can or can't. We took those up, then you practiced choosing one or the other to see if the rest of the class and I could tell which one you were saying. There were many things we needed to do to make ourselves clearly understood:

1. Except at the end of a sentence, can needs to be short with a schwa sound.
2. With regard to rhythm, can doesn't get a full beat.
3. When you say can't, I need to hear a nice clear vowel sound.
4. Can't does get a full beat.
5. Also, Federico noticed that you can often hear a little pause at the end of the word can't. That's the unreleased /t/. He has a good ear!

Next we practiced those with our partners.

Finally we played a little game. It was a contest. Each person had to come up with five things they can do and five they can't do. Points were awarded for anything you came up with that you could do but nobody else in the class could do. Points were also awarded for anything you could NOT do that everyone else in the class could do. Bashar got a point for being able to play the guitar, Florin got a point for being able to drive a boat, Ina got a point for being able to speak Russian, Tania got a point for being able to play the flute, Federico got a point for being able to extract a molar, and I got a point for being able to speak some Japanese.

I wish we'd had time to play all the rounds of that game, but we ran out of time.

For homework, I gave you a challenging word game and gap-fill. You have nine words to unscramble. Those words go in the blanks in the paragraph. The paragraph is about the rules of pronouncing can and can't. Also, some of the squares where you will write the unscrambled words have little numbers on them. I showed you how to build a phrase at the bottom of the page using the numbered letters in unscrambled words.

Good luck with that. I can't wait to take it up tomorrow!

Stress for Correcting and Contrasting

Hello, students!

We have a new student. Welcome, Morgan! That's a pretty name, isn't it?

Today we started class by looking at some comic strips from the Windsor Star. I asked you to notice the bold type and underlining. The cartoonist used bold and underlining to show you which words are most stressed.

Then I asked you about two of the cartoons. What was going on there? Ghadeer said, "They stressed a function word!"

Oh, my goodness. I thought we said that content words are stressed and function words are reduced. We did say that, right? Yes, we did. The characters in the cartoon are breaking that rule. I asked you to think about why we might sometimes break that rule.

Ghadeer said we can break the rule if the function word is important. Exactly! I asked you to think about some situations where a function word might be important. We talked about some of those.

Next we looked at the following sentence written six different ways:

His book is in her desk.
His book is in her desk.
His book is in her desk.
His book is in her desk.
His book is in her desk.
His book is in her desk.

We practiced saying the sentence the six different ways and talked about the nuance of each. They answer different questions. Whose book? His what? Really? On her desk? In whose desk? In her what?

I told you that I am in a situation similar to yours. You often have to ask native speakers to repeat themselves. I also have a situation like that because my boyfriend is a low talker. He mumbles. When you don't understand someone, you don't have to ask for the whole sentence to be repeated. You can just ask for the part you didn't hear. Example: "You're going WHERE?" "Your mother said WHAT?"

Next we practiced some sentence pairs. Speaker A was making a false statement and speaker B was correcting him or her. How did speaker B choose the focus word? The focus word was the word that corrected the false imformation, right? We practiced those orally and then with a partner.

After that we had some more sentence pairs where a function word was sometimes stressed. For example, a store clerk says, "We have the Windsor Star and the National Post." The customer says, "I'll take a Windsor Star AND a National Post."

For our final activity, we were supposed to go around the room and say some statements for each other to see what the response would be. For example: Wen is from Japan. The response would be, as you know, "No, Wen is from CHINA. However, I found that you were all feeling shy today and didn't want to work with anyone but your first partner. That was okay, because we were able to do the homework assignment in class.

The homework was a gap-fill exercise. It was a list of the seven focus rules. When you finished the gap-fill, you had all seven focus rules!

Tomorrow we will finish sentence stress and then start a new unit. See you then!

The Focus Word

Hello!

Before everyone arrived in class, I polled a few of you to find out how you liked using the pronunciation quizzes in Ellis Intro. Many of you told me you wish you could access Ellis from home. I'm sorry to say that it isn't available via the Internet, but I'm glad so many of you like using it and feel that it's very helpful to you. Some of you chose to use Ellis Intro and some of you chose to stick with Master Pronunciation Course to work on your consonant and vowel sounds. That's fine.

Earlier this week we learned that content words are usually stressed and function words are usually reduced. That is a good foundation for training ourselves in the music of English, but it's not the whole story.

We started the class by talking about the meaning of the words "focus" and "pitch." You gave me lots of good definitions for focus, and Florin made us all laugh when he came up with "I have a Ford Focus." He always comes up with higher level nuances of words for us to learn and think about. Bashar gave us a good definition for pitch. It's how your voice goes higher and lower while you're talking. It's different from volume, which means how loud your voice is. A change in volume is also part of the music of English, though.

Today we learned that every clause or sentence has one word that receives the biggest focus. (In the case of choices, there can be two words that share the main focus.) That means we stress them the most. We repeated some sentences; you told me which word in each sentence sounded most stressed. There was a pattern. When you only have one sentence, or when you are beginning a conversation, the last content word is the main focus word.

Examples: The car hit a pedestrian. My dog likes water. What are you doing?

We practiced the intonation of some more sentences by humming them. Then we practiced them orally, making sure to make our stressed vowels longer and clearer.

Then we looked at a dialogue between two people. We saw that after the first sentence, the focus word is no longer always the last content word in the clause or sentence. The focus shifts! What is the rule governing how the focus shifts? We discovered one situation where focus shifts: the introduction of NEW INFORMATION.

Example:

A: What do you want to do after class?

B: Let's go to the AGW.

A: I've already seen the AGW.

B: [etc.]

In line two, AGW is the new information. But in line three, AGW is old news. Now seen is the new information.

With this new rule under our belts, we worked in pairs to identify the focus words in a series of short dialogues. We took each one up and then practiced them with our partners. We took turns performing them for the class, too.

Ghadeer said today's lesson was too easy. Well, don't worry. We are building a firm foundation for mastery over the music of English. If you can do this, you are well on your way to sounding very natural in English.

Have a good weekend, and I'll see you Monday.

Reducing Function Words

Hello!

Today we looked at what happens to function words in connected speech.

We practiced saying some sentences and phrases and noticed the pronunciation of words like the, a, to, for and as. We talked about the schwa sound.

We listened to some more sentences and talked about what happens to the initial consonant in he, her, him, his, and them. The "h" sound often drops out, doesn't it? The sound of "th" also sometimes drops out in a sentence like "Give them a break." But we keep the "h" or "th" sound if the pronoun begins the sentence. He is a teacher.

We practiced the sentences aloud.

Then we looked at what happens to the final consonant sound in of and and in phrases like "cream and sugar," "men and women," "a cup of coffee," and so on. You don't hear the /d/ in and or the /v/ in of, do you?

Next we had a gap-fill exercise to see if you could recognize and supply the correct function words in some sentences. Some of them proved very challenging. But I reminded you that you don't have to strain all day long trying to understand every single word native speakers say. Listen for the content words. They will be stressed, which means longer, clearer, a bit louder and said with slightly higher pitch. Remember our telegram exercise? We took out all the function words, but we still understood the meaning. Relax and just listen for the content words. Later you will develop a good ear and will begin to catch even the function words.

Finally we practiced a short dialogue with a partner.

We ran out of time before we could create our own short dialogues to practice.

In the Computer Lab

Hello, students!

Are you done using Ellis?

You may use any of the websites in my sidebar (the links on the right). Have fun!

High intermediate students, you might want to try "Listen and Read Along." You can stop the audio whenever you want. You can click a line of text to play it again. Please notice which words the speaker stresses. Also notice which syllables are stressed in the words. Call me if you need help.

Very advanced students, you might want to try watching a TED Talk. Many of them have been translated into your language. You can read the text in your first language, then you can watch the lecture while reading the English text. This is good practice in listening, but it is very advanced. If you decide to try this, call me and I can help you learn your way around the website.

Introduction to Sentence Stress

Hello!

Over the past two weeks we have been learning to count syllables, identify the stressed syllable, and pronounce the schwa sound. We now know that the stressed syllable is longer, clearer, maybe a bit louder, and has a slightly higher pitch. Now we have a good foundation for the rhythm and music of English.

Today I told you that most of the languages of the world can be divided into two main categories. Spanish, French, Cantonese Chinese, and Romanian are syllable-timed languages. That means that a sentence with 12 syllables takes four times as long to say as a sentence with three syllables.

English, Arabic, Russian, Swedish and Mandarin Chinese are in a different category. Before telling you what we call that category, I had you play a little game. I gave you each a telegram that was too long, too expensive. Your job was to make it cheaper. Each word was $1 and we started with 28 words. I only had $13, so you had to eliminate 15 unnecessary words without losing the meaning.

After we finished cutting out the unnecessary words, we made two lists: words we kept and words we threw out. I told you that the words we kept are called content words. These are the words that carry meaning. The words we discarded are called function words or grammar words. You need them for good English, but you don't really need them for meaning.

We talk to animals and very small babies using content words. Think about these:

"Bad dog!"

"Stove hot!"

"Good girl!"

In the next activity, we practiced saying a short sentence: Cows eat grass. I asked you how many beats there are in this sentence. You said three. That's correct. And how many content words? Three.

Then we looked at "The cows eat grass." We counted the content words (still three). And we counted the big beats. It's still three, isn't it? We barely say the word "the." It gets squeezed in and almost sounds like part of the word cows, doesn't it? What about the vowel sound in "the?" You're right; it's schwa!

We kept adding more and more function words to the sentence, but we still only had three big beats when we said it! It takes the same amount of time to say "The cows will have eaten the grass" as it takes to say "Cows eat grass." Isn't that amazing?

English is a stress-timed language.

In the next activity, we practiced saying some sentences. We drummed on our desks and tried to keep the same time between content words. "Dogs chase cats." "A dog has chased the cat." Each of those sentences should take the same amount of time for you to say. They have three big beats.

We then talked about the parts of speech that we usually stress in English and the parts of speech that we usually don't stress. I gave you a handout with the lists. We usually stress nouns, main verbs, adjectives, numbers, question words, negatives, helping verbs when they are alone (e.g., "Yes, I am."), etc. We quickly came up with examples for each category.

Finally we looked at some sentences and underlined the words that get the stress (all the content words). We took turns saying those sentences while stressing the content words.

Good work! See you Tuesday in the lab!

Stress in Compound Words

Hello, students!

Today was fun, eh? We have two new students in the class: Federico and Tania. Welcome to Canada and welcome to the class.

We started off the class by listening to two sentences: Barack Obama lives in the White House. My friend lives in a white house. I asked you if you could hear a difference in how I said "white house" in each sentence.

Angela said she noticed that the stress is on the first word in White House. We also noticed that White House sounds like one word. That's right. The two words are said together without a pause between them.

We talked about two kinds of compound nouns. They can be made from noun plus another noun, like bookcase, lunch box, key chain, post office. They can also be made from other parts of speech plus a noun, such as adjective plus noun. For example: greenhouse, darkroom, yellow jacket, hot dog.

We practiced some minimal sentences aloud as a class and then in pairs. Our partners had to hold up one finger or two to indicate which they thought we were saying: the compound noun or the descriptive phrase.

Next we played a game. I put eight pictures on the board. There was a picture of the White House and a picture of a white house. There was a picture of a greenhouse and a picture of a green house. There was a picture of a wasp and a picture of a yellow jacket with black buttons. There was a picture of a warm canine and a picture of a frankfurter in a bun with mustard on top.

One person from each team came to the board and took a marker. Bashar said, "Show me the White House," and each player rushed to circle the correct picture. Florin also took a turn calling out the sentences.

For our last activity, I passed out glossy pictures from clothing and furniture catalogs and asked you to find compound words on the pages. But it was tricky, because I had some regular descriptive phrases mixed in. You all found some great examples of compounds.

In clothing, we found: bucket hat, sun glasses, sun hat, golf hat, tank top, halter top, trademark, etc. On the pages from an IKEA catalog, you found step stool, floor lamp, work lamp, coffee table, love seat, arm chair and more.

For the last few minutes, you made sentences about your pictures using the compound words. Federico said, "I need a step stool to change the light bulb." He used TWO compounds in the same sentence. Way to go, Federico!

Have a nice weekend. I'll see you all on Monday.

Stress Patterns

Hello!

Welcome to the class, Qiao!

Today we continued talking about word stress. We practiced saying words that end in -tion, -sion, and -cian. Then I asked you if you noticed any pattern in the stress of these words. Bashar said the stress always falls right before the "shun" sound. That's exactly right.

Next we did a short activity where you underlined the stressed syllable in some words without having me pronounce them for you. You were able to predict where the stress would fall based on the rule. Cool, eh?

Then we did the same thing with some words ending in -ic. They were all adjectives. We noticed that the stress always falls on the syllable before "-ic." Right after that we practiced saying words ending in "-ical." Once again, we were able to find a rule. The stress always falls on the syllable right before "-ical," doesn't it? Magical, political, economical. Those are also all adjectives.

We practiced some words that have two clear vowel sounds, each in its own syllable, like "biology" and "create." Usually the second vowel takes the stress and so is a bit longer.

Finally, we looked at how stress can be the only difference between a noun and a verb that are spelled the exact same way. For example, an export is a product that one country sells to another country. Rice is an export of the U.S. To export means to ship something to another country for sale. It's the verb.

We practiced saying the noun / verb pairs. Then we worked with our partners to see if our partners could tell which we were saying, the noun or the verb of a noun/verb pair.

There were lots of interesting words on today's worksheet, so we spent a little time talking about the meanings of some of them. I was amazed that Florin knew the meaning of the noun convert. Florin has a very large vocabulary in English!

See you Thursday. Don't forget to bring your socks if you are going bowling.

Stress and Flap T

Hello! I hope you enjoyed your long weekend.

Today we talked about true t and flap t. The symbol for "true t" is /t/. The symbol for "flap t" is /D/. We practiced saying two columns of words to listen for a difference in how "t" is pronounced. In the first column we had words like: talk, toy, telephone, attack, photography, retire. In the second column we had words like: butter, pretty, litre, bitter, batter, letter.

We decided that the "t" in the words in the first column really sounds like a T. We held paper in front of our mouths and saw the paper move. There is a lot of air coming out with this T.

We decided that the "t" sound in the words in the second column sounds like a quick D. This is called "flap T" or "tap T." We make the sound by quickly tapping the tooth ridge with the tip of the tongue.

Next we tried to discover the rule for when T is /t/ and when it is /D/. Bashar said that it is true /t/ at the beginning of words. That's right. It is also true /t/ at the beginning of a stressed syllable.

What about a rule for the second column? When does T become flap /D/? We decided this happens when the T sound is between two vowel sounds AND when the previous syllable is more stressed. Bashar said he noticed that the following syllable often had schwa in it. That's a good observation.

We talked about the fact that a Level One teacher might pronounce "daughter" with a true /t/. But that is just because she is trying to pronounce things very carefully for beginners. We also sometimes speak carefully like that when speaking to children. But when adult Canadians talk to each other, we pronounce "daughter" with the flap /D/.

Next we practiced stress in numbers, contrasting the zero numbers (20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90) with the teens (13, 14, 15, 16, etc.) The teen numbers have a true /t/. The the zero numbers have a /d/ or flap /D/. Seventy has a /d/ sound; eighty has a flap /D/ sound.

We practiced a little dialogue about the VIA Rail schedule for trains that run between Windsor and Toronto.

Finally, we did an information gap activity. I gave you each a train schedule, but each of you had different pieces of information missing. You had to go around to your classmates to find the missing times on your timetable. This was a good chance to practice saying "9:15" or "9:50" correctly.

Stress and Flap T

Hello! I hope you enjoyed your long weekend.

Monday we talked about true t and flap t. The symbol for "true t" is /t/. The symbol for "flap t" is /D/. We practiced saying two columns of words to listen for a difference in how "t" is pronounced. In the first column we had words like: talk, toy, telephone, attack, photography, retire. In the second column we had words like: butter, pretty, litre, bitter, batter, letter.

We decided that the "t" in the words in the first column really sounds like a T. We held paper in front of our mouths and saw the paper move. There is a lot of air coming out with this T.

We decided that the "t" sound in the words in the second column sounds like a quick D. This is called "flap T" or "tap T." We make the sound by quickly tapping the tooth ridge with the tip of the tongue.

Next we tried to discover the rule for when T is /t/ and when it is /D/. Bashar said that it is true /t/ at the beginning of words. That's right. It is also true /t/ at the beginning of a stressed syllable.

What about a rule for the second column? When does T become flap /D/? We decided this happens when the T sound is between two vowel sounds AND when the previous syllable is more stressed. Bashar said he noticed that the following syllable often had schwa in it. That's a good observation.

We talked about the fact that a Level One teacher might pronounce "daughter" with a true /t/. But that is just because she is trying to pronounce things very carefully for beginners. We also sometimes speak carefully like that when speaking to children. But when adult Canadians talk to each other, we pronounce "daughter" with the flap /D/.

Next we practiced stress in numbers, contrasting the zero numbers (20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90) with the teens (13, 14, 15, 16, etc.) The teen numbers have a true /t/. The the zero numbers have a /d/ or flap /D/. Seventy has a /d/ sound; eighty has a flap /D/ sound.

We practiced a little dialogue about the VIA Rail schedule for trains that run between Windsor and Toronto.

Finally, we did an information gap activity. I gave you each a train schedule, but each of you had different pieces of information missing. You had to go around to your classmates to find the missing times on your timetable. This was a good chance to practice saying "9:15" or "9:50" correctly.