Lesson 2

Pronunciation Drills
Objectif : montrer le mécanisme pour la prononciation et la position de stress sur les mots
Consignes / activités d’introduction (éventuellement)
A focus on consonant sounds, consonant clusters, long and short vowels, influence of
the position of the stress on pronunciation. Some activities point out how uncertain the
relationship between spelling and pronunciation can be.
Contenu:
SHORT VOWEL SOUNDS VS LONG VOWEL SOUNDS
fill /I/, feel /i:/
sick /I/, seek /i:/ ; wick, weak; lid, lead

book /ʊ/, moon /u:/

CONSONANT CLUSTERS
/tʃ/ as in catch, cheap, teach, cheat, charcoal, don’t you
/dʒ/ as in jump, cage, joy, Jack, juke, page.
POSITION OF THE STRESS
a convert, to convert; commerce, commercial;
TRICKY PRONUNCIATION

leopard, lieutenant, Colonel Caesar

algae /dʒ/
champagne, charlatan /ʃ/
chameleon /k/

fœtus, amoeba

anxiety /z

wander, wonder

gauge /eI/

cow /aʊ/, crow /əu/ or /oʊ/ in AmE chyme, chimera, chalice champagne, charade, machine

possess, resound, brassiere, Windsor /z/

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bosom, tomb /u:/
bear, bare, beer, beard

equation /ʒ/

heir, heiress,
worship, warship

journal, journalism

weird, weary, wary,

sleight, sleigh

schedule AmE /k/, schedule BrE /ʃ/

sceptical /k/ BrE, skeptical /k/ AmE
drought, draught, draft

to live /I/, live /aI/ (Adj.), lively /aI/

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SOME SILENT CONSONANT SOUNDS
English consonants can be silent at times. The speaker needs to know the words in order
not to make himself/herself ‘ridiculous’ or ‘ignorant’.

The following are some examples of words in which specific consonants are not
pronounced. The teacher can write the words on the board and ask the students to
pronounce them correctly and loud for everybody to check the pronunciation. A variation
of this activity is to ask the students to transcribe the words on the board.

Windsor, debt, doubt, walk, talk chalk calf, half, alms, psalm, qualm, almond, should,
would could climb, limb, dumb, damb, tomb, comb, bomb, thumb, solemn,
condemn, autumn, hymn, listen, whistle, muscle, subtle, bristle, apostle, chestnut,
to christen, moisten, fasten, hasten, mistletoe, knee, know, knife, knock, knight,
gnaw, gnat, receipt, cupboard, pneumatic, raspberry, psychology, Wednesday,
handkerchief, honour, honest, isle, aisle, island, whole, write, wrong, wholesome,
wry, wreak

EXAMPLES OF INCONSISTENCY IN PRONUNCIATION AND

SPELLING
English : /I/

clerk and jerk

full and dull

work and

fork worm,

form put,but

gone, done, bone

four, dour

said, laid,

plaid cow, low

treat,
threat
tear (noun), tear (verb)
names, Thames
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love, strove (simple past of ‘to strive’)
Ou: dough, enough, rough, tough, drought, bough, bought, fought, sought, nought,
ought.
country, county
useless cash VS use less cash
WHAT YOU HEAR IS NOT WHAT YOU SEE
Contrary to many speakers’ pronunciation, the letter ‘i’ is not always
pronounced /aI/. It can rather be pronounced /I/.

e.g. to play the piano

Mississipi

river
king /k I ŋ / but kind/kaind/
- The letter ‘c’ occurring in middle position is pronounced /s/ as in ‘place’,
‘face’, ‘mice’ or ‘grocery’. As for the double letter ‘cc’ in ‘soccer’, it
should be pronounced /k/, not /s/.