Shadowing: Part 1

That’s our first sentence. Did you no ce anything about my pronuncia on?

I want to point out a couple of features that will help you sound more natural when you’re shadowing.

First, I used a schwa when saying wɪl-ən-aɪ, and I elided (or dropped) the /d/ in the word ‘and’:

wɪl-ən-aɪ.

I also used a weak form of ‘were’ /wə/, ‘to’ /tə/ and the ar cle ‘a’ /ə/ before thump /ə θʌmp/.

And did you hear which word was most stressed in that sentence? THUMP! /θʌmp/ That was the most
interes ng and surprising informa on.
Shadowing: Part 2

I want to point out one feature of connected speech in that sentence:

catena on, which is when a consonant sound at the end of one word joins with a vowel sound at the
beginning of the next.

You saw this in ‘live in an old’; it almost sounds like /lɪ vɪ nə nəʊld/ and in

‘shrugged it off’ - /ʃrʌɡ dɪ tɒf/.

Shadowing: Part 3

A few things to point out here. I didn’t use a contrac on with ‘I am’ — you probably know that we
almost always use contrac ons rather than full forms when we’re speaking, especially in informal
situa ons, but here, I chose to use the full form for emphasis. I also stressed ‘not’.

Assimila on

You heard an example of assimila on with the words ‘on my’ the /n/ in ‘on’ became /m/ - /ɒm maɪ/.

Intrusion

There were also examples of intrusion in the text: ‘I am’, ‘my arms’ and ‘to inves gate’. Between ‘I am’
and ‘my arms’, I inserted a /j/ sound - /aɪjæm/ /maɪjɑːmz/. And between ‘to inves gate’, there was a
/w/ sound: /tuwɪnˈvestɪɡeɪt/.
Shadowing: Part 4

Alright, before you do your final shadowing, there are just a few things to point out. One, no ce how I
said, ‘What do you know?’ or actually, /wɒdəju nəʊ/. This is an informal contrac on, and these are
really common in speech.

The final thing is that I said, ‘tennis balls’d fallen’ - ‘balls’d’ had a weak form: /bɔːlzəd/.
FULL TEXT

VOCABULARY

thump n /θʌmp/ - a heavy, dull sound that is made when a solid object hits something The loud thump
of the door slamming shut echoed through the abandoned building

to shrug something off phr v - to dismiss or ignore something and treat it as unimportant We had heard
bad things about the airline, but we shrugged it off and bought ckets anyway.

thud n /θʌd/ - a dull sound that is produced when a heavy object falls or hits a surface The book fell off
the shelf with a thud, making everyone in the library jump.

to stand on end (of hair) phr - when hair stands on end, it rises up and away from the skin because of
cold, fear or excitement.

The howling of the wind made the hairs on my arms stand on end in the dark night.

shaken adj /ˈʃeɪkən/ - feeling upset, shocked or disturbed by an experience or event I felt shaken a er
the car accident, though thankfully, I wasn’t seriously hurt.
company n /ˈkʌmpəni/ - the fact of being with another person rather than alone My mum came to keep
me company while my husband was away.

to bound v /baʊnd/ - to run with large, energe c steps or jumps My dog bounded towards me,
delighted to see me a er a day apart.

landing n /ˈlændɪŋ/ - the area of floor at the top of a staircase that leads to rooms or another staircase
The bathroom is the third door on the right off the landing.