Pronunciation Practice

Sounds

• The vowel sound /i:/ (please, meet, dream...)
• The schwa sound /ə/ (browser, server, scanner...)
• The vowel sounds /ʊ/, /ɒ/, /ʌ/ and /əʊ/ (pull, lost, company, approach)
• The vowel sounds /əʊ/, /aʊ/, and /uː/ (cope, about, choose...)
• -ed endings (1) (decorated, walked, stored...)
• -ed endings (2) (changed, mended, washed...)
• 'd: would / had (You'd have seen more of the island if you'd hired a car.)
• The letter h (house, home, honourable...)
• The sounds /ʃ/ and /ʧ/ (shop - chop, cash - catch...)
• The suffixes -ible and -able (sensible, dependable, eatable...)
• Pronouncing acronyms (AIDS, UK, UFO...)

Words

• Used to (I used to go swimming every morning.)
• Homographs (row /rəʊ/ - row /raʊ/; windy /wɪndi:/ - windy /waɪndi:/...)
• Homophones (whale – wail, sore – saw)
• Spelling and pronunciation patterns: -ough, -ought, -augh, -aught (cough, thought, laugh, taught...)
• Spelling and pronunciation patterns: ie and ei (heirs, field, veil...)

Word stress

• Word stress in food words (vinegar, champagne, aubergine...)
• Changing stress in word families (significance, significant, signify...)
• Compound words (Are you online? I like online learning.)
• Two- and three-syllable words (chimney, cottages, continue...)

Phrases and sentences

• Sentence stress (This is not really my cup of tea.)
• Correcting and clarifying information (1) (A: I think Jane likes Madonna. B: Jane hates Madonna.)
• Correcting and clarifying information (2) (A: Do you like this blue jacket? B: I prefer the red one.)
• Constructive stress (Maybe you don't remember, but I did tell you there was a meeting today.)
• Contradicting information (We have not seen this film before.)
• Sentence stress and rhythm (He lifted his head from his drinking, as cattle do, ...)
• Sentence stress and linking words (What's his name? What-do-you-call-it?)
• Phrasing and stress (Lie on your back on the floor.)
• Phrasal verbs (What are you looking up?)
• Articulating difficult phrases (Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.)
• Complex numbers (fifty-seven point five per cent)
• Contractions (I don't suppose they'd have minded if we'd come...)
• Connected speech (Just keep it all together.)

Accents

• Identifying different accents (bath - bath; bottle - bottle...)

Tone groups

• Identifying tone groups (This painting represents a kangaroo hunting for its mate.)