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.
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