B1.

2 Pronunciation Skills Module

Contents

1. Word stress in 2-syllable words 2

2. Contractions: have/has & would 3

3. Regular verbs (-ed endings) 4

4. Some irregular past participles 5

5. I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice-cream 7

6. Word stress in longer words 8

7. Sentence stress and intonation 10

8. Combinations of letters 12

9. Vowel – consonant – vowel (and the silent ‘e’) 14

10. The importance of intonation 15

B1.2 Pronunciation Module 1

 1. Word Stress in two-syllable words

In English, when a word has more than one syllable, one of these syllables is always
stressed. Fortunately, there are some simple general rules to help you with this. Write
the rules for the following groups of words.

Verbs
We usually stress the ........................ syllable.
1. perform 5. review 9. suggest
2. succeed 6. install 10. announce
3. acquire 7. appoint 11. produce
4. assume 8. submit 12. supply

Adjectives
We usually stress the ........................ syllable.
1. prudent 5. common 9. second
2. cautious 6. social 10. likely
3. neutral 7. perfect 11. useful
4. senior 8. easy 12. current

Nouns
We usually stress the ........................ syllable.
1. merger 5. deadline 9. coffee
2. target 6. progress 10. expert
3. culture 7. leader 11. market
4. business 8. meeting 12. power

Verb or Noun?
Some words are both nouns and verbs. For example, export is a noun if you put the
stress on the first syllable, and a verb if you put the stress on the second syllable. Other
words that can be nouns or verbs are:

record produce
contrast project
desert protest
object rebel
present transport

Pronouncing unstressed syllables

Listen again to the words in the lists above. This time listen carefully to the unstressed
syllables. You’ll see that often the vowel-sound in these syllables is pronounced as a
schwa. E.g. the letter a in normal is not pronounced the same as the a in the Spanish
word mal.

B1.2 Pronunciation Module 2

 2. Contractions: Have/has & would

Re-write the following sentences with contractions. The first one is done
for you. Understanding and practising contractions will help you sound
more fluent and make a big difference to your listening comprehension.

Present perfect: have / has

1. I have eaten there twice.
2. You have passed!
3. She has just left.
4. He has written to me again.
5. It has been difficult but fun.
6. They have always supported me.

Contracted forms Negative forms

I’ve eaten there twice.

2nd conditional: would

1. I would love to go
2. You would be very welcome.
3. He would like to help.
4. It would be a better option.
5. We would get there quicker.
6. They would probably go on strike.

Contracted forms Negative forms

I’d love to go.

B1.2 Pronunciation Module 3

 3. Regular verbs pronunciation

There are three different ways to pronounce past regular verbs. The difference between
columns one and two is not so important; the –ed ending is not an extra syllable, it’s
just a small consonant sound added to the infinitive.

Present Past
play = one syllable played = one syllable
answer = two syllables answered = two syllables
ask = one syllable asked = one syllable

What’s more, in connected speech it often disappears (this is called elision) or merges
with the first syllable of the following word (called assimilation).

I helped Jane. I help-Jane.

I washed them. I wash-them.

However it is really important to distinguish between the first two columns and column
3. In column 3, the –ed ending is pronounced as any extra syllable.

want = wanted I wanted a new car. /wantid/

add = added She added water to the mixture. /addid/

Hard ‘d’ sound Hard ‘t’ sound ‘ed’ extra syllable

1. tried 1. asked 1. acted
2. worried 2. checked 2. counted
3. covered 3. looked 3. ended
4. copied 4. worked 4. hated
5. carried 5. stopped 5. lifted
6. continued 6. shipped 6. rested
7. used 7. helped 7. waited
8. lived 8. hoped 8. accepted
9. moved 9. missed 9. attended
10. happened 10. passed 10. expected
11. listened 11. danced 11. invented
12. planned 12. washed 12. limited
13. enjoyed 13. wished 13. promoted
14. changed 14. rushed 14. included
15. managed 15. crashed 15. expanded

B1.2 Pronunciation Module 4

 4. Some Irregular Past Participles

These past participles are all different to the infinitive and past forms of the verbs.

Final ‘n’ sound (after a vowel sound or the letter ‘r’)

Infinitive P. participle
grow grown The kids have grown a lot.
know known We’ve known each other for years.
blow blown Look! Our parasol has blown away.
throw thrown My son has been thrown out of camp.
show shown I’ve not been shown how to use it.
fly flown I have never flown in a helicopter.
draw drawn We’ve drawn up a rough plan.

swear sworn Remember you have sworn to tell the truth.

wear worn I’ve never worn a yellow shirt.
tear torn Oh no! you’ve torn a hole in your jersey.
see seen Have you seen the last episode?
be been I’ve been to Barcelona a couple of times.
do done She’s done her homework.

Extra ‘-en’ syllable (after consonants)

Infinitive P. participle
give given He was given a second chance
forgive forgiven It’s forgiven, but not forgotten.
eat eaten She’s eaten half the cake!
take taken It’s taken longer than we expected.
shake shaken Shaken but not stirred.
fall fallen I think I have fallen in love.
beat beaten We haven’t been beaten this season.
prove proven We’ve finally proven that he’s guilty.

B1.2 Pronunciation Module 5

steal stolen Someone has stolen my bag!
choose chosen He’s been chosen to play for the first team.
freeze frozen My kids love ‘Frozen’.
break broken Have you ever broken a bone?
speak spoken I haven’t spoken to him yet.
wake woken He has just woken up.
get gotten He has gotten a lot better since Monday.
forget forgotten Oh no! I’ve forgotten my wallet.

rise risen Our share price has risen 3 points since January.
hide hidden I’ve hidden the Easter eggs in the garden.
ride ridden Have you ever ridden a camel?
drive driven They’ve driven down from Leeds for the weekend.
write written He’s written 3 books.

Final ‘u’ sound

Infinitive P. participle
begin begun Has the film begun?
drink drunk Who has drunk all the coke?
sing sung He has sung in the royal Albert hall.

6 verbs that are always difficult

Infinitive P. participle
buy bought I have bought you a present
bring brought Have you brought a jacket?
catch caught The police have caught the thieves.
fight fought He’s fought 4 championship fights.
teach taught She’s has taught me a lot.
think thought I’ve thought about it, and the answer is ‘no’.

B1.2 Pronunciation Module 6

 5. “I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice-cream.”

In this sentence, the first two words ‘I scream’ are pronounced in exactly the same ways
as the last word ‘ice-cream’. We can use this idea to help practice pronouncing verbs
that begin with an ‘s’ followed by a consonant.

Step 1. Practise with column 1, saying ‘I scream (ice-cream) I speak (ice-peak) I

sleep (ice-leep)’ quickly and fluently. Think carefully about the rhythm – there must
only be two syllables when you say this and the stress falls on the verb. Keep practising
until you can say all 25 in less than 40 seconds.

Step 2. Practise saying the sentences in column 3. Again, think about the rhythm
and practise slowly at first to ensure that you’re pronouncing correctly.

English Spanish Sentence

1. scream chillar Ice-cream at her.
2. speak hablar Ice-peak to him.
3. sleep dormir Ice-leep a lot.
4. stay quedarse/alojarse Ice-tay with them.
5. stand estar de pie Ice-tand in the queue.
6. start empezar Ice-tart early
7. stop parar/dejar de hacer algo Ice-top at 7 o’clock.
8. scare asustar Ice-care my brothers.
9. smell oler Ice-mell terrible!
10. smile sonreir Ice-mile at him.
11. slow down desacelerar/ir más despacio Ice-low down for them.
12. spend gastar Ice-pend too much.
13. spit escupir Ice-pit on the ground.
14. study estudiar Ice-tudy every day.
15. stretch estirar Ice-tretch in the morning.
16. store almacenar Ice-tore them at home.
17. steal robar Ice-teal clothes.
18. state declarer Ice-state my opinion.
19. stare mirar fijadamente Ice-tare at them.
20. Stand up incorporarse Ice-tand up suddenly

Step 3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 with different subject pronouns, e.g. you/she etc.

B1.2 Pronunciation Module 7

 6. Word stress in longer words
Prefixes and Suffixes
We can build longer words by adding parts to the beginning or end of shorter words.
Usually,this does not change the stress: it stays on the same syllable as in the original
word. For example:

forget
forget ful
forget ful ness
forgett a ble
un forgett a ble

The following is a list of endings which do not change the stress of the root word.

-able (habitable) in-/im- (impossible) -ness (happiness)

-al (musical) -ise (civilise) -ship (friendship)
-er (presenter) -ish (childish) un- (unhappy)
-ful (helpful) -less (childless) under- (underpay)
-hood (childhood) -ly (friendly)
-ing (irritating) -ment (employment)

Some endings do change the stress in the shorter word. Look how the ending -ion
changes the stress in the word educate.

ed-u-cate
ed-u-ca-tion

When the endings -ion or –ian form a new word that has 4 syllables or more, the stress
always moves to the syllable before these endings. Compare:

Su-ggest e-lec-tric de-co-rate

Su-gges-tion e-lec-tri-cian de-co-ra-tion

Note: -tion and -cion are pronounced the same.

The ending -ic also moves the stress to the syllable before it. Listen to your teacher read
these examples.

sci-en-tist e-con-o-my
sci-en-ti-fic e-co-no-mic

a-tom ar-tist
a-tom-ic ar-tis-tic

Note: When a syllable changes from unstressed to stressed, or stressed to unstressed,

the vowel sound often changes. For example the letter 0 in atom is pronounced as a
schwa, but in atomic, it is pronounced with the short o sound.

B1.2 Pronunciation Module 8

Exercise 1
Use the beginnings and endings on the previous page to make longer words from the
words below. Try to make at last 3 new words for each root word.

EXAMPLE

Child childhood childish childishness childless

1. believe

2. enjoy

3. care

Exercise 2
1. Underline the stressed syllable in each of the following words.

2. Now, combine each word with one either -ion or -ic, and give the stress pattern of
your new word. You may need to change or add other letters to the first word. Use a
dictionary to help you if necessary.

EXAMPLE inform information

1. organise

2. drama

3. economy

4. describe

5. romance

6. compete

7. optimist

8. celebrate

9. diplomat

10. operate

11. explain

12. decide

B1.2 Pronunciation Module 9

 7. Sentence stress and intonation

English and Spanish both have stressed and unstressed syllables, but in English the
difference between these is much bigger. Specifically, in English unstressed syllables
are minimised or ‘squashed’ so much that they vowel sound changes.

Listen to your teacher pronounce the following phrases. Focus on how they pronounce
the underlined word.

fish and chips Call your dad. It’s for James.

In theory, these words should rhyme with sand, cure and the first syllable of sorry, but
they don’t.

Listen again to the vowel sound. It sounds ‘squashed’. In fact, this squashed sound is
called the schwa. It is the sound often used in English for unstressed syllables. (In fact,
the schwa is the most common sound in the English language).

Which words should I stress? - Content words vs. function words

The general rule is that we stress content words and ‘squash’ or reduce function words.

• Content words (normally stressed)

Content words are words that communicate meaning. They are nouns, adjectives, verbs
and adverbs.

• Function words (normally unstressed)

Function words are grammatical words that help us connect content words together.
The are important but normally don’t add much meaning to a sentence. Function words
are: prepositions, articles, conjunctions, auxiliary verbs and pronouns.

Look at the following examples. The all have the same stress pattern: O o O.

O o O
1. Look at him. the unstressed syllable is a preposition
2. Choose a card the unstressed syllable is an article
3. Fish and chips the unstressed syllable is a conjunction
4. Who’s your friend? the unstressed syllable is a possessive pronoun
5. I can go the unstressed syllable is an auxiliary verb
6. You were right. the unstressed syllable is the verb ‘to be’

Note that not all content words are stressed and not all functions words are pronounced
as a schwa.

B1.2 Pronunciation Module 10

Exercise
Can you identify the stress patterns in the following short sentences?

........................ ........................
He knows you. Did you go?
She phoned me. Will you stay?
We fixed it. Are they ripe?

........................ ........................
What do you think? A can of coke
Where are you from? A bowl of soup
Why did you go? A glass of wine

Exercise
Can you identify the stressed syllables in these short sentences?

Preposition + ing
1. I’m worried about starting on Monday. (3 stressed syllables)
2. She’s afraid of speaking in public. (3 stressed syllables)
3. We talked about reducing my timetable. (3 stressed syllables)
4. They blamed us for losing the contract. (3 stressed syllables)
5. I can’t wait to go. (3 stressed syllables)
6. We’re aware of the problem. (2 stressed syllables)
7. I’m not very good at sports. (3 stressed syllables)
8. Did you see the document I attached? (3 stressed syllables)
9. I’m sick of sandwiches and coke. (3 stressed syllables)
10. They apologised for the noise and the damage. (3 stressed syllables)

Verb + gerund or infinitive

1. I like to cook Indian food. (2 stressed syllables)
2. She’d love to have a dog. (2 stressed syllables)
3. You promised to pick up the kids. (3 stressed syllables)
4. How did you manage to get the new one? (3 stressed syllables)
5. I need to get a Masters. (2 stressed syllables)
6. I forgot to buy your newspaper. (2 stressed syllables)
7. I miss living near my family. (2 stressed syllables)
8. They agreed to sign the contract. (2 stressed syllables)
9. I don’t remember turning off the oven. (3 stressed syllables)
10. How did he avoid paying the fine? (3 stressed syllables)

B1.2 Pronunciation Module 11

 8. Combinations of letters

In English there are many combinations of letters which change the pronunciation of
one or more of the individual components that make up the combination. Often these
consist of vowels, but sometimes they can include consonants. Three of the most
common are:

• Vowels that appear in clusters within a single syllable. This is the most common
form. For example, ‘ee’ in street.

• Vowels that appear in combination with a particular consonant or consonants

which, together, represent a sound unit that is different from what you would
expect if you didn’t know the specific combination. For example, the ‘aw’ of law.

• Another common combination in English is one or two vowels followed by gh. The
gh is usually silent. It is usually easier to decode the whole unit (igh, eigh) than to
process the vowel and the ‘gh’ separately.

The following combinations are commonly mispronounced. Spanish

speakers often pronounce each letter separately but this is a mistake.
Practise with your teacher.

Vowel Combination % of Time Sound found in common English Words

ay = /eɪ/ 96.4%

1. pay
2. say
3. player
4. away
5. holiday
6. taxpayer
7. display
8. motorway
9. mayonnaise
10. anyway

Vowel Combination % of Time Sound found in common English Words

ai = /eɪ/ or /ɛə/ when followed by the letter ‘r’.
75%
1. email
2. plain
3. attain
4. straightforward
5. appraisal
6. campaign
7. fundraise
8. airline
9. affair
10. millionaire

B1.2 Pronunciation Module 12

Vowel Combination % of Time Sound found in common English Words
oa = /oʊ/ 95%

1. soap
2. road
3. approach
4. boat
5. truckload
6. raincoat
7. keyboard
8. snowboard
9. toast
10. boast

Vowel Combination % of Time Sound found in common English Words

au = /0/ 78.9%

1. automatic
2. audit
3. taught
4. applaud
5. exhausted
6. fault
7. fraud
8. autograph
9. auction
10. authorities

Vowel Combination % of Time Sound found in common English Words

aw = /o/ 100%

1. lawyer
2. awkward
3. draw
4. prawn
5. awful
6. flaw
7. pawn
8. lawn
9. hawk
10. yawn

adapted from http://blogjohn.wordpress.com/2008/

B1.2 Pronunciation Module 13

 9. Vowel - Consonant - Vowel (and the ‘silent e’)

We have seen that various combinations of letters can change the pronunciation of the
individual letters themselves. One combination that is useful to remember is the
combination vowel-consonant-vowel. Pronounce the following words with your
teacher.

rat let sit hop cut

Note! When the vowels are not part of a combination, they are normally pronounced
as above.

Now write the words below, adding a ‘silent e’ to the end of each word and identify the
V-C-V combination. The first two are done for you.

rate complete
VCV VCV

Now pronounce these with your teacher. See how the second vowel changes the
pronunciation of the first vowel.

Of course there are exceptions, but a lot of English words follow this rule! For native
Spanish speakers, this rule is particularly useful for eliminating problems with the
pronunciation of words containing the letters ‘u’ and ‘a’

Problem ‘u’ words Problem ‘a’ words

V VCV V VCV

product produce angry trade

industry supervise charge education

function introduce market labour

B1.2 Pronunciation Module 14

 10. The importance of intonation

Word stress and intonation are very important for effective

communication. Look at the examples below and underline the words that
are stressed in each line of dialogue.

Alex is trying to carry her cello out to the car.

Alex: Can you help me? This cello is kinda heavy.

Phil: That’s why we suggested the violin

Alex: The cello is more in demand in university orchestras.

Haley: You know what’s not in demand? Girls who play in university orchestras.

Haley is getting a driving lesson from Phil. Phil is fiddling with something
on the dashboard and not looking where they are going.

Phil: The navigation system is all messed up. It thinks we’re in a park. (looks up,
reacts) Oh my God, it is a park! Away from the kids. Aim for the lake!

B1.2 Pronunciation Module 15

Mitchell is upset because he thinks he’s a bad father. Cameron is trying to
cheer him up. Mitchell is holding Lily, their baby.

Cameron: Come on, you know you love this song.

Mitchell: It is a good song. (He starts to dance and accidentally bumps Lily on the
head).

Cameron: Was that her head?

Mitchell: If it was her head, I think she’d be crying

(Lily starts to cry)

Gloria and Jay are arguing about whether to let their son Manny wear a
poncho to school.

Gloria: You worry too much about all of this. I wear all sorts of daring outfits
and people admire them because I do it with confidence.

Jay: Yeah, I’m sure it’s your confidence they’re admiring.

B1.2 Pronunciation Module 16

Phil and Claire are arguing about who can run fastest.

Phil: You really think you can run as fast as me?

Claire: No. I think I can run much, much faster

(later)

Claire: You seriously want to race me? I ran a half-marathon last year.

Phil: Wow. I’m half-scared

(later)

Phil: Ready?

Claire: Are you?

Phil: I was born ready.

B1.2 Pronunciation Module 17