EC-O-NOM-IC
ekuhnomic
a lot of it
a lotuhv it
What do you want to do?
What you wanna do?
Which ones are easy to understand?
These,
the clearly articulated ones.
But
Which ones are the way people speak?
Yep
these.
The horrible ones.
Sorry.
I’m Christina and you’re watching Speak Better, Feel Great TV
The place to boost your English and boost your career.
In the last video, you learned all about the schwa.Remember?
And I promised you some interactive exercises to help you boost your comprehension
(and your pronunciation too!),
so let’s get to work.
You ready?
First, if you do watch Speak Better, Feel Great TV.on pronunciation, Syllables treast, , do that now.
Then come back to work on your comprehension.
Go on—it’s really important to watch that video first.
And If you’ve already watched it
Then , let’s start.
These exercises are great
because they kill two birds with one stone,
which saves you time
you can improve your comprehension
AND
improve your pronunciation.
at the same time
Awesome
right?
First, we’ll focus on words
then
short expressions
And After this video,
you’ll be on your way to understanding Americans the way really speak
and making it easier for them to understand you.
Today,
you’ll need a piece of paper
and
a pen or a pencil
Because
You’re going to be writing!
Let’s start with individual words.
I’ll say 5 words.
You
Write them down.
Then
underline the weak syllables,
where you hear the schwa sound.
Do you remember the schwa sound.
It’s a weak, Syllable like
“uh”
for example
the 2nd syllable in word “economic”.
E - Cuh- NOM-IC.
Cuh
That the schwa
okay here we get
Number 1
again
Number 2
celebrate
Number 3
president
Number 4
oppose
Number 5
support
Don't forget to you underline
where you here
“uh”
Go, yet
Let’s check the word and the weak syllable
again
celebrate
president
oppose
support
Notice that any vowel can represent the schwa sound.
In these words, you have each vowel
A - E- I -O - U,
but
they’re all pronounced
“uh”
Again,
celebrate,
president,
oppose,
support.
Now,
let’s try something more challenging
Short expressions
Again,
I’ll say a short expression
you
Write the expression that you hear
And I’ll say each expression twice
you i'll get
Number 1
a couple of
Number 2
do you have a
Number 3
so we can
Number 4
go to the
And
Number 5
I’m gonna be
Here are the expressions you heard
a couple of
do you have a
so we can
go to the
and
I’m going to be
Now,
say each expression to yourself,
or
go back and listen again
Put an asterisk in the place of the weak schwa sound,
like this
a couple of
You wrote
a couple of
And put an asterik in the place of the weak schwas sound
like this
* c*ple *
Pause the video while you do this
and then
come back to check
Here are the answers
d* y* have *
so we c*n
go t* th*
*’m g*nn* be
Do you see which types of words are weak?
Generally, the little words like
the
to
and
of
which become
the
to
and
up
but
sometimes, there are more important words like
can
and “do”
that are also weak
that become
can
and
do
This takes some work to get used to
And The more you listen in English
the more your ear will get used to the sounds real spoken english
so
listen to as much English as you can
series, movies, podcasts, videos, anything
Really flood your ears with English
and
If you want more practice on understanding real spoken English
check out part 2 of these interactive exercises
We’re going to increase the challenge
to help you boost your English
and boost your career
that's it for today
Now
Before you leave
go to christinarebuffet.com and sign up for the Speak Better Feel Great Newsletter
This way, you’re sure to get the next video
and
sure to find time to reach the English level that you need
to have the career you want
I’m Christina, from Speak Better, Feel Great TV
See you next time!