Misheard Lyrics...?

Yes, that's exactly what the title suggests. Have you ever listened to a song you like and then noticed that something didn't make sense? This is called "misheard lyrics".

Observe the lyrics below and relate them with their song.

1. The ants are my friends

2. Excuse me while I kiss this guy

3. There’s a bathroom on the right


A) Jimi Hendrix - Purple Haze

B) Creedence Clearwater Revival - Bad Moon Rising

C) Bob Dylan - Blowing in the Wind

So, what do you hear when you listen to these songs? Leave a comment and tell us! 

   

How English Sounds to Non-native Speakers

Hello, everyone!

This is just to entertain us a little bit. Probably each of you have been through a situation like this in which someone says something in another language but you can't understand a single word. Or, you DO understand... a word or two. This video shows us how English sounds to non-native speakers (something we have all been through).

Can you understand what is happening? What are they probably saying?

Word Stress

Hi, guys! 

Today we are going to talk a little bit about word stress in English. Brace yourselves, and Wingardium Leviosa! haha :)

Stress is the relative emphasis that may be given to certain syllables in a word, or to certain words in a phrase or sentence. In English, stressed syllables are louder than non-stressed syllables. Also, they are longer and have a higher pitch.

The underlying pattern of English rhythm is that the stressed syllables of stressed words occur on relatively evenly spaced "beats." This concept is called the Rhythm Rule. This pattern is possible because words and sentences have three levels of stress:

1. stressed
2. unstressed
3. secondarily stressed

Based on this, we can say that English is a stress-timed language.

Examples

Look at the examples of stress in words. The stressed syllables are represented by bold writing. If you want to, you can listen to the words to hear the stress (click here Stressed syllables)

holiday, alone, admiration, confidential, degree, weaker, nervous, parents

In spoken language, grammatical words (auxiliary verbs, prepositions, pronouns, articles, etc.) usually do not receive any stress. Lexical words, however, (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, etc.) must have at least one stressed syllable.

There is no rule, however, about which syllable is stressed in a word with more than one syllable. You will need to learn the stress of words by heart.

Now... it's your turn! 

Based on this brief overview and on the explanation made in class, answer the questions below in the comment section of this blog. Remember to put the number of the question before the answer. 

The exercise below belongs to BBC Learn English * Adapted 

What is the correct stress in these words? 

(The stressed syllables are in CAPITALS.)

1. Do you know how to pronounce this word? I find pronunciation quite difficult, don't you? 

a) PROnounce / PROnunciation 

b) proNOUNCE / proNUNciation 

c) proNOUNCE / pronunciAtion 

d) PROnounce / pronunciaTION 

2. She's been taking photographs for years. She's a brilliant photographer. 

a) PHOtographs / phoTOGrapher 

b) phoTOgraphs / phoTOGrapher 

c) PHOtographs / PHOtographer 

d) phoTOGrpahs / phoTOGrapher 

3. He likes studying geography. The geographic features of different counties interest him. 

a) geoGRAgraphy / geoGRAphic 

b) geOgraphy / geoGRAphic 

c) geoGRAgraphy / geOgraphic 

d) geOgraphy / geOgraphic 

4. Her boss is really critical. No matter what she does, he always finds something to criticise. 

a) criticAL / CRIticize 

b) CRItical / CRIticize 

c) CRItical / criticIZE 

d) criticAL / criticIZE 

5. My granddad is so dependable. If I have a problem, I can depend on him to give me good advice. 

a) DEPendable / DEPend 

b) depENdable / DEPend 

c) depENdable / depENd 

d) dependAble / depENd 

6. It was the first democratic election there for years. Almost everyone was happy to see democracy return in their country. 

a) demOcratic / demOcracy 

b) demoCRAtic / demOcracy 

c) demoCRAtic / demoCRAcy 

d) demOcratic / demoCRAcy

Source: Pronuncian - American English Pronunciation (American English Stress) and Learning English Online (Stress and Intonation).

Exercise source: BBC Learn English - Quiznet (Word Stress)

A tour of the British Isles in accents

Hello, guys!
Nothing like some accents to start our new pronunciation blog. So here goes an interesting video about different accents in the United Kingdom and Ireland. What do you think about these accents? Were they easy to understand? Which accent did you consider difficult to understand?  Leave a comment and let's share some impressions! :)

Schwa Sound

Vowel of the day: Schwa

Schwa is the most common sound in the English language. It occurs only in unstressed syllables. 

Any vowel letter can be pronounced as schwa and the pronunciation of a vowel letter can change depending on whether the syllable in which it occurs is stressed or not.

Where is it found?

1.  Schwa can usually be found in function words which are unstressed in the sentence;

2. It can be found in prefixes and suffixes;

3. It can be found in content words as well.

Getting the schwa sound correct is a good way of making your pronunciation more accurate and natural. The phonemic symbol for schwa is: 

Listen to the example below:

Schwa - I'm going to the shop to buy some eggs

Following are some exercises to help you develop your awareness of schwa. The exercises belong to BBC Learning English and Okanagan College. 

Exercise #1

Watch the video about the Schwa sound. Listen and repeat the words. 

Exercise #2 Listen and Repeat

Repeat the phrases below. The underlined word will contain the schwa.

each and every       cold as ice               feel at ease

John had gone        These are cheap.     three or four  

        

box of apples          cup of tea               we can stay

more than that         Get some sleep.     ten to two.

Exercise #3

Look at the words below and decide where in the word the schwa sound occurs. In the comment section of this post,  indicate the schwa symbol in the correct part of the word using the Caps Lock function in your keyboard. The first one has been done for you. 

       /ə/

 doctOR               tomorrow                difficult                summer              level           

 survive                pupil                        theatre                measure            wizard

Exercise #4

In this exercise, look at these sentences and decide where the schwa sound occurs. It may occur more than once in each sentence. The minimum number of schwas in a sentence is 1, the maximum 7.  In the comment section of this post,  indicate the schwa symbol in the correct part of the word using the Caps Lock function in your keyboard. The first one has been done for you. 

            /ə/    

1 . It’s fOR  you.

2 . It takes a lot of time.

3 . How about a cup of tea?

4 . What are you doing tonight?

5 . What time will you arrive at Victoria?

6 . I was going to tell you.

PS.: You can click on the radio (upper right corner of the blog) to listen to a podcast about the Schwa sound by the BBC Learn English program. 

Source: BBC Learn English - Pronunciation Tips (Schwa)

Okanagan College - Pronunciation (Schwa exercises)

Image Source: Schwa Baloons