hi I'm Ali welcome to Oxford online
English in this pronunciation lesson you
can see everything you need to think
about in order to pronounce one English
sentence correctly you'll see that
there's a lot to think about even in
just one sentence let's look at our
example although we hadn't planned
everything perfectly it all went as
smoothly as anyone could expect try
reading the sentence is it difficult
easy let's see what you need to think
about to pronounce this sentence
naturally and clearly
the most basic thing to get right is the
sounds depending on what language you
speak you might find some English sounds
more difficult to pronounce than others
in this sentence which sounds do you
find most difficult to pronounce th
sounds are difficult for many English
learners so you might need to pay extra
attention to the sounds in although and
smoothly and the sound in everything
what else
some vowel sounds can be challenging
like the Oh sound in although or the
earth sound in perfectly
finally pronouncing sounds right isn't
just about pronouncing single sounds
sometimes sounds which are easy to
pronounce by themselves can become a
problem when you have to combine them
with other sounds again which
combinations are easy or difficult for
you will depend on your native language
for many English learners the
combination of and o in although is
difficult although although consonant
combinations like the PL implant or the
XP in expect are also challenging for
some English learners planned expect now
you have a job to do read the sentence
aloud two or three times find the sounds
or sound combinations which are most
difficult for you you can pause the
video and do this now when you know
which sounds you need to practice start
by just practicing the sound for example
if you chose the sound like the th in
smoothly then start by just practicing
the sound then take a short word with
the sound like that or this say the word
several times to
actus focus on getting the sound right
start slowly until you're sure you can
pronounce it correctly finally practice
with longer words like smoothly although
or brother again say the words several
times and start slowly to make sure you
get the sounds right in this way you can
improve your pronunciation of English
sounds which are difficult for you next
let's talk about stress and prominence
I'm guessing that most of you know what
stress is but some of you might be
thinking what's prominence prominence is
similar to stress but I'm going to use a
different name because it's not exactly
the same and I think it's useful for you
to remember that these are two different
things
stress is found in words which have more
than one syllable for example in the
word everything the stress is on the
first e-everything everything in the
word expect the stress is on the second
e expect expect now you can see the
stress in the other words of the
sentence although we hadn't planned
everything perfectly it all went as
smoothly as anyone could expect stress
is fixed it doesn't change the stress in
expect is always on the second e every
time you say expect you need to put
stress in the same place so what about
prominence prominence means that the key
words and ideas in a sentence are
emphasized it's similar to stress
because you're pronouncing some words
and syllables more strongly than others
however it's different to stress because
it's not fixed prominence depends on the
sentence and the situation the same
sentence can have different prominent
words depending on the speaker or on the
situation also words which have one
syllable don't have stress but they can
have prominence for example all could be
prominent in our example sentence you
heard before that the prominent words in
a sentence are the most important words
and ideas the prominent words are other
words with that carry the meaning of the
sentence so look at our sentence again
which words do you think will be
prominent think about it and even if
you're not sure take a guess it doesn't
matter if you get it wrong
pause the video if you want more
thinking time here's my suggestion
although we hadn't planned everything
perfectly it all went as smoothly as
anyone could expect because prominence
is flexible this is only a suggestion if
you want to emphasize different points
you might make some words more prominent
for example although we hadn't planned
everything perfectly it all went as
smoothly as anyone could expect or
although we hadn't planned everything
perfectly it all went as smoothly as
anyone could expect or although we
hadn't planned everything perfectly it
all went as smoothly as anyone could
expect which is right they all are it
depends on what you want to say this
shows you another point prominence can
have different levels some words can be
more prominent than others you can have
different levels of prominence in a
sentence stress and prominence are both
essential for your English pronunciation
when I meet English learners I generally
have no problem understanding people if
they make some mistakes with sounds but
if someone makes mistakes with stress it
can be really hard to understand them
think of stress and prominence as two
layers over the sentence the first layer
is the stress which is fixed the second
layer is the prominence which is
flexible you need to pronounce both
together although we hadn't planned
everything perfectly it all went as
smoothly as anyone could expect the
prominence might change but the stress
stays the same although we hadn't
planned everything perfectly it all went
as smoothly as anyone could expect try
reading the sentence in different ways
change the prominent words also think
about a question how does changing the
prominence change the meaning why would
you make some words prominent
and not others that's a question to
think about there are many possible
answers it's enough for now
just to think about these ideas this
will already help your English
pronunciation next you're going to think
about weak forms
weak forms are words which have a
different pronunciation when they aren't
prominent for example look at the word
as there are two these words aren't
prominent and the pronunciation in this
sentence will change it's not as its is
which other words in our sentence have
weak forms do you know could is
definitely weak its pronunciation
changes from good to good
there are other words which might be
weak forms there's a gray area where
it's hard to say if a word is definitely
a weak form or not for example if you
say the sentence very fast the
pronunciation of we might change from we
to wit the pronunciation of hadn´t might
change from hadn't - hadn't however
these changes don't always happen you'll
only use these weak forms if you're
speaking really fast for now focus on
the words which are definitely weak
forms as as an could let's read the
sentence with the weak forms although we
hadn't planned everything perfectly it
all went as smoothly as anyone could
expect weak forms are closely related to
stress and prominence to sound natural
in English you need a clear contrast
between syllables which are stressed and
syllables which are weak or unstressed
here's a tip make the contrast as clear
as possible to do this pronounce this
stressed and prominent syllables more
strongly and clearly pronounce the weak
and unstressed syllables as fast as you
can although we hadn't planned
everything perfectly it all went as
smoothly as anyone could expect you can
hear that this contrast between stressed
and unstressed gives the sentence of
rhythm this rhythm is very important if
you want to sound natural
in English there's another point which
is important for the rhythm of the
sentence intonation
intonation is how your voice moves up
and down as you talk whether your voice
goes higher or lower the easiest way to
get the intonation right is simply to
listen and try to copy it although we
hadn't planned everything perfectly it
all went as smoothly as anyone could
expect for some of you that might be
enough however in case you need more
help let's look at the intonation of
this sentence in more detail there are
six basic intonation patterns in English
high low rising falling falling rising
and rising falling each of these can be
used in different ways for example
rising falling intonation can be used to
show excitement surprise or anger also
like prominence intonation isn't fixed
remember this point because what I'll
show you here is not the only
possibility first you generally need a
rising tone to show that your sentence
is not finished
that means perfectly gets a rising
intonation to get this right you need to
start moving gradually upwards from the
beginning of the sentence start with a
falling rising tone on although then
move upwards in small steps then make a
bigger move upwards on perfectly
although we hadn't planned everything
perfectly although we hadn't planned
everything perfectly in the second half
of the sentence you need to do the
opposite you use a falling tone to show
that your sentence is finished so expect
needs a falling time again start moving
down in small steps from the start of
the clause then make a bigger move
downwards on expect it all went as
smoothly as anyone could expect it all
went as smoothly as anyone could expect
you need to think about two things here
firstly you
intonation should move on every
prominent word but not on words which
are not prominent that means you need to
move from low to high on everything not
much but a little bit you need to move
from high to low on smoothly again not a
big movement secondly the last word of
the clause should have a much bigger
movement on perfectly you also move low
to high but it's a much bigger movement
than on everything or other prominent
words in the first clause the same is
true in the second clause you need a
much bigger intonation change on expect
let's try the whole sentence although we
hadn't planned everything perfectly it
all went as smoothly as anyone could
expect one more time although we hadn't
planned everything perfectly it all went
as smoothly as anyone could expect
remember that
intonation is flexible if you change the
prominent words or emphasize different
points then the intonation will also
change this is the basic mutual
intonation Wow so much to think about
for just one sentence let's look at one
final point
linking means how you pronounce two
words together as one continuous sound
for example if one word ends with a
consonant sound and the next word begins
with the same or a similar sound you can
link the sounds together like this as
smoothly if one word ends with a
consonant sound and the next word starts
with a vowel sound you can also link the
sounds together like this planned
everything can you find any other places
in our sentence where you could link
words pause the video and think about it
you could also link it all went as as
anyone could expect generally when you
speak English
you should connect words as much as
possible connecting words together will
make your speaking more fluent and
natural sounding thinking about linking
will help you to do this let's practice
reading the sentence again focusing on
the links although we hadn't planned
everything perfectly it all went as
smoothly as anyone could expect one more
time although we hadn't planned
everything perfectly it all went as
smoothly as anyone could expect you can
see that there's a lot to think about
when you pronounce even one sentence in
English actually there are even more
points but the things you've seen in
this lesson are the most important if
you can master these your English will
sound clearer natural and fluent I have
a question for you which pronounciation
point from the lesson do you find most
challenging please let us know in the
comments don't forget that you can see
more of our free English lessons on our
website oxfordonlineenglish.com
thanks for watching and see you next
time