美语听力与发音技巧print

1、美语听力与发音技巧(轻重音的重要性stressed and unstressed syllablesWelcome to Daily Tips on Learning English. Todays tip is on stressed and unstressed syllables.Every English word has more than one syllable, and every complete sentence has at least one stressed syllable.A stressed syllable is pronounced more promine

2、ntly than surrounding syllables. Simply put, we say it louder and we lengthen the vowel sound. Unstressed syllables are just the opposite. They are not as loud and the vowel sound is usually reduced. Vowel sounds are most often reduced to “”or to “”. For example, in the word “purpose”, the first syl

3、lable is stressed, and the vowel of the second syllable can be reduced to either “”as in “purpose” or “i” as in “purpose”. Let me give you a complete sentence. “I didnt do it on purpose.” “I didnt do it on purpose.” The following word has three syllables. Which syllable is stressed? “banana”. Thats

4、right. The second syllable is stressed. Listen now for the lengthening of the vowel in the stressed syllable. “bana-na”, “bana-na”. Its very important to stress the proper syllable, to lengthen stressed syllables, and to reduce unstressed vowels. This is essential if you want to achieve a proper Eng

5、lish rhythm. If every syllable is given equal stress and length, what you will sound like is a robot. “I didnt do it on purpose.” “I didnt do it on purpose.” Proper rhythm comes from stressing only certain syllables, and lengthening those syllables, while reducing the others.Listen again to the exam

6、ple sentence, and notice how only certain syllables are stressed and lengthened. “I didnt do it on purpose.”We will talk about how to figure out what syllables or words to stress at the sentence level in an upcoming program. But todays tip is to make sure when you learn word s of more than one sylla

7、ble, you give special care to learning which syllable or syllables are stressed, and to remember to lengthen the vowels in those syllables.This has been todays daily tip on learning English. Tune in tomorrow for another tip.美语听力与发音技巧(句子中的重音stress on sentencesWelcome to Daily Tips on Learning English

8、. Todays tip is on word stress in sentences.In general, it is true that content words are stressed whereas function words are not stressed. Content words usually convey the meaning of the sentence. Function words make the sentence grammatically correct. Content words are: nouns, main verbs, adjectiv

9、es, adverbs, this, that, these, those, and “wh-“ words, who, what, when, why, how, which. Function words are: articles, such as “a” and “the”; possessive adjectives, such as “his”, “my”, “your”; prepositions, such as “in”, “on”, “of”; conjunctions, such as “and”, “but”; personal pronouns, such as “

10、I”, “he”, “she”; the “be” verb, “am”, “is”, “are”, “was”, “were”; and auxiliaries, such as “do”, “does”, “did”.T ake for example the sentence “Andrew brushes his teeth every morning.” The content word alone can convey the meaning of the sentence, namely “Andrew brushes teeth every morning.” The func

11、tional word “his” only makes the sentence grammatically correct. So “his” is unstressed, the other words are stressed. Why isnt “his” stressed? Because of course he brushes his teeth, not your teeth, or my teeth. This we would naturally assume. If, however, Andrew brushes someone elses teeth besid e

12、 his own, then it would be very important to let your listener know that by stressing whose teeth he brushes.So, what words should be stressed? The simple answer is whatever words are important to the meaning you are trying to convey. If someone writes the sentence on the board out of context and as

13、ks, “Which words are important? Which words should you stress?” You should answer, “That depends on the context.” Stress is used to let your listener know what is important to your message. If you stress words properly, your listener will have an easy time understanding your message. If you stress e

14、very word equally, then your listener will have to listen very carefully and try to guess the main point of your message. If you stress the wrong words, the listener will misunderstand your message or just feel very confused. So remember to stress the important words to your massage.This has been to

15、days daily tip. Tune in tomorrow for another tip on learning English.美语听力与发音技巧(那些词重读呢contrastive stressWelcome to Daily Tips on Learning English. Todays tip is on contrastive stress.If you listen to previous daily tips, you will recall that content words, such as nouns, main verbs, adjectives and ad

16、verbs are normally stressed, and function words, such as personal pronouns, possessive adjectives and prepositions are normally not stressed.However, there are exceptions to this rule. The exceptions to conform to the universal rule for word stress, namely, you should stres s the words that are impo

17、rtant in the context. Lets look at some examples. The sentence “I put your pen in my desk” would normally have the words “put”, “pen” and “desk” stressed, but if the listener didnt hear me clearly and started looking for his pen on my desk. I would change the stress to the word “in”. I would say, “N

18、o, I put your pen in my desk, not on my desk.” The information conveyed by the preposition “in” has now become the most important word, and so receives the greatest stress. So now he looks in my desk and finds the pen. But he says, “This isnt my pen. This is your pen.” Although the possessive adject

19、ives “your” and “my” are not normally stressed, here they are very important to convey the message and so they receive the greatest stress.Lets look at another example. Two people are ordering in a restaurant. One says, “I will have a ham and cheese sandwich and a small bow of soup.” And then the ot

20、her says, “I will have a ham and egg sandwich, and a large bow of soup. Did you notice how the second person who order stresses the word “egg” and “large”? Thats because those words were different from what came before. This is called contrastive stress.Todays daily tip is to make sure to stress the

21、 most important words in your speech. Tune in tomorrow for another daily tip.美语听力与发音技巧(连音Welcome to daily tips on learning English. Todays tip is on sound linking.Although in written English, therere spaces between every word, in spoken English therere always never pauses between words. In order to

22、understand spoken English, it is essential to understand how this linking is done. Today lets concentrate on the most common sound linking situation. Whenever a word ending in a consonant sound is followed by a word beginning with a vowel sound, the consonant sound is linked to the vowel sound as if

23、 they were part of the same word.Lets look at some examples. Id like another bowl of rice, please. First, note that although therere six words in the sentence, all the words are linked together without pause. Listen again. Id like another bowl of rice, please. Now listen to how the words “like” and

24、“another” are linked. “Like another”, “like-another”. “Like” ends in a consonant sound, and “another” begins with a vowel sound. So the “k” from “like” is linked to the “a” from “another” to produce “kanother”. Listen to the example sentence again. Id like another bowl of rice, please. In the senten

25、ce there is another example of a consonant being linked to a vowel. A bowl of, a bowl-of. It sounds lik e that youre saying the word “love”. Heres another example. Id love a bowl of rice. Id love a bowl of rice. This sound linking is probably the biggest problem for learners of English when they try

26、 to understand native speakers talking. Well talk more about sound linking in future daily tips, as this is an extremely import feature of spoken English. Todays tip is to link consonants to vowels which come after them. Till then, tomorrow, for another daily tip.美语听力与发音技巧(“h”音的略读Welcome to Daily Ti

27、ps on Learning English. Todays tip is on sound linking.Remember that although written English has spaces between every word, spoken English doesnt have pauses after every word. As a matter of fact, long strings o f words are all linked together. And it is this linking, which often makes it difficult

28、 for learners of English to understand native speakers talking. Todays tip is to notice how the “h” sound is often dropped in personal pronouns such as “he”, “him”, “his” and “her”. And when it is dropped, what is left is a vowel sound, and the vowel sound is always linked to the preceding word. Let

29、s look at an example. Give her a book. Giv-er a book. Notice how the “h” is dropped and how “give her” become “giv-er”. Lo ok at another example. Tell him to ask her. Tell-im to ask-er. Did you notice that “tell him” became “tell-im” and “ask her” became “ask-er”? This happens very frequently in spo

30、ken English, especially when “he” follows an auxiliary verb. For example, “what will he do?” becomes “What will-i do?” “Where will he go?” becomes “Where will-i go?” “When will he come?” becomes “When will-i come?” “Who will he meet?” becomes “Who will-i meet?” “How will he know?” becomes “How will-

31、i know?” “Has he gone?” becomes “Ha s-i gone?” “Had he done it before?” becomes “Had-i done it before?” “Must he go?” becomes “Must-i go?” “Can he do it?” becomes “Can-i do it?” “Should he leave?” becomes “Should-I leave?” its important to accustom yourself to the dropped “h” sound in sound linking.

32、 This has been todays daily tip. Tune in tomorrow for another tip on learning English.Welcome to Daily Tips on Learning English. Todays tip is on sound linking.When 2 identical or similar consonants are in a row, most sounds are not pronounced. For example, stop Peter. “stop” ends in the sound “p”,

33、and “Peter” begins in the same sound. Together the words are linked as “sto-peter”. The words arent pronounced stop Peter. To pronounce two identical sounds one after another, would sound like someone stuttering. English words are always linked smoothly. Similar but not identical sounds such as voic

34、ed and voiceless pairs of consonants are also linked in this way. For example, its a big cake. “big” begins in the sound “g”, cake begins with the sound “k”. “k” and “g” differ only in that “k” is voiceless and “g” is voiced. When they are next to each other in a phrase theyre linked smoothly by not

35、 aspirating or pronouncing fully the first of the 2 sounds. Listen carefully as I read the example again. Its a big cake. Notice how the first sound “g” is not released. If the pair of s ounds is reversed, like in “I like goats.” it is the “k” sound which is not pronounced. Listen closely. I like go

36、ats. I like goats.Therere 8 pairs of consonants that differ only in the presence or lack of vocal cord vibration. Listen as I give one example of sound linking for each pair.v, f : I love France.,: Lets bathe three times.z, s : She is Susan.,: The garage should be cleaned.d,t: He has a huge chin.b,

37、p : Put the cap back on.d, t : Dad told me.k, g : I like Gavin. (? It is important to include this type of sound linking in your speech if you want to achieve fluency. It is also important to be aware of how this linking affects how spoken English sounds. Otherwise you may not understand native spea

38、kers speech. This has been todays daily tip. Tune in tomorrow for another tip on learning English.Welcome to Daily Tips on Learning English. Todays tip is on sound linking.When certain sounds are linked together, the resulting sound is merely the combination of the two original sounds. For example,

39、“one apple” is pronounced “one-na pple”, and “four apples” is pronounced “four-rapples”. However, when other sounds are linked, theres a blending of the sounds. The sounds are linked smoothly without any break. For example, “two apples” are pronounced as if theres an additional “w” sound“w” in betwe

40、en the words. “two apples”, “two apples”. And when the words “three” and “apple” are linked, it sounds as if there were an additional “y”sound “i” between the words. “three apples”, “three apples”, “three apples”. This is because the sounds between the words are linked smoothly without any break. “t

41、wo-w-apples”, not “two” “apples”. “three-i-apples”, not “three apples.” Pay careful attention how sounds are blended together.Another good example is how words ending in a “t” or “d” sound “t” or “d” are linked to words beginning with a “y” sound “j”. For example, “Did you do it?” becomes “Did-you d

42、o it?” “Would you do it?” becomes “would-you do it?” Notice how together “did” “you” becomes “Did-you” and “would” “you” becomes “would-you”, and “do” “it” becomes “do-it”. Listen again as I give more examples. “Did you do it?” “Did you do it?” “Would you do it?” “Would you do it?” “Should you do it

43、?” “Should you do it?” “Could you do it?” “Could you do it?”And also notice when a word ending in the “t”sound “t”is followed by a word beginning in a “y”sound “j”, you get the sound “t”. For example, “Cant you do it?”“Cant you do it?”“Didnt you do it?”“Didnt you do it?”“Couldnt you do it?”“Couldnt

44、y ou do it?” “Shouldnt you do it?” “Shouldnt you do it?” “Wouldnt you do it?” “Wouldnt you do it?” “Its nice to meet you.” “Its nice to meet you.”Todays tip is to pay careful attention to how words are blended together, and how the resulting sound is often very different from the original sounds. T

45、his has been todays daily tip. Tune in tomorrow for another tip on learning English.美语听力与发音技巧(断句Welcome to Daily Tips on Learning English. Todays tip is on the use of pauses in English speech.Although written English has spaces between every word, spoken English doesnt have pauses between each word,

46、 rather words are linked together. However, people do not normally speak without pausing at all. We do pause in speech. While in written English, there are periods, commas, semicolons and question marks. But we also pause in long sentences without punctuation marks. Lets look at some exa mples. My m

47、other listens to the radio in the evening. This sentence can be said without pausing, because it isnt very long. But if I were to pause, I would say, “My mother/ listens to the radio/ in the evening.” Why? Because pauses come between thought groups-groups of words that express one thought.For exampl

48、e, “in the evening” is a thought group. Lets make the sentence longer. My mother listens to the radio in the evening, plays tennis in the afternoon, and cleans the house in the morning. Now it is necessary to pause because the sentence is very long. Pauses come between thought groups, and help the l

49、isteners organize the information they hear. Listen to sentence again. My mother listens to the radio in the evening, plays tennis in the afternoon, and cleans the house in the morning. If you pause in the wrong places, listeners will have a harder time organizing the information. Listen to the sent

50、ence read again with improper pausing. My mother listens to the radio in/ the evening, plays tennis in /the afternoon, and cleans the/ house in the morning. Now the sentence is almost impossible to understand, so remember to pause between thought groups, to help your listeners easily organize what t

51、hey hear.This has been today's tip on learning English. Tune in tomorrow for another tip on learning English.美语听力与发音技巧(定语从句前的停顿Welcome to Daily Tips on Learning English. Todays tip is on when to use pauses before adjective clauses.Lets take an example. In the sentence “My sister who lives in San

52、 Francisco is a doctor”, the adjective clause is “who lives in San Francisco”. It describes my “sister”. Theres no pause before the adjective clause. So, it means that I have more than one sister, and the one who lives in San Francisco is doctor. Theres a pause a fter an adjective clause because it

53、is a long sentence. But there can be no pause in the group of words “my sister who lives in San Francisco”. Because this is one idea or thought group. Listen to the sentence again. “My sister who lives in San Francisco i s a doctor.” The same words used in that sentence have a different meaning if t

54、heres a pause before the adjective clause “who lives in San Francisco”. Listen to the new sentence. “My sister, who lives in San Francisco, is a doctor.” Now theres a pause before, and a pause after the adjective clause, and in writing, there now is a comma before and a comma after the adjective cla

55、use. This sentence means that I have only one sister. She is a doctor, and by the way, she lives in San Francisco. The information conveyed by who lives in San Francisco is not necessary to understand whom I am talking about, as I only have one sister. I just added it in passing.If you say, “My girl

56、 friend who drives a BMW is a good dancer.” Youre saying that you have more than one girl friend. “My boss who is very generous gives me a raise every year” means I have more than one boss. “Hawaii which is an island in the Pacific is a poplar tourist spot” means theres another Hawaii not in the Pac

57、ific. So remember to pause before and af ter adjective clauses only when it is referring to something or someone of which theres only one. This has been todays daily tip on learning English.美语听力与发音技巧(短句的断句Welcome to Daily Tips on learning English. Todays tip is on the importance of pausing to mark t

58、he boundary between phrases or thought groups.In a previous tip, I mentioned how in long sentences, it is necessary to pause between thought groups. However, relatively short sentences may also require pauses to help the listeners organiz e the stream of sounds correctly. Lets look at some examples.

59、 In the question “what time do you come in in the morning?” It is necessary to pause between the two prepositions “in”. If you pause after the word “come”, “what time do you come / in in the mor ning?” Then the listeners will be confused, because “come in” and “in the morning” are two separate thought groups. Heres another similar example. “Look your papers over over the weekend.” You need to pau