Sounding like a native is as much to do with pronunciation as it is to do with
Intonation and a big part of intonation is the rhythm and every language
and every accent actually has a very unique rhythm of speech and getting that
rhythm accurate is a big part of sounding natural and sounding fluent in
whichever language it is that you're speaking and one question that you
should ask yourself if you haven't already is whether your first language
is syllable timed or whether it's stress timed. Now the good news is that if it's
stress time they need you to do what we do in standard British English and so
this video will just clarify that and perhaps make you feel confident about
the fact that you should continue to use that rhythm however if you are syllable
timed then it will show you the big difference between what you currently do
and what you need to do if you want to sound a bit more authentic and a bit
more natural in terms of speech so what's the difference
well in a syllable timed language in a syllable time to patent that time it
takes you to say any thought or any phrase or sentence is based on the
number of syllables in that phrase or in that sentence if you're unsure of what a
syllable is then on to Google type in syllable it'll give you you know there's
loads of explanations real clear explanations as to what syllables are
but for instance if I said I want to go to the park where I want to go for a
walk then the time it takes me to say that is based on the fact that there are
seven syllables I want to go to the time I want to go for a walk in seven
syllables and Ezra seven syllables phrase would take me the same period of
time because as a syllable time speaker I speak almost stressing every single
syllable
I want to go for a walk I want to go to the park would take me that long because
I stress every single syllable and there are many languages do that however in a
stressed I'm patent and British English isn't stressed I'm language we the time
it takes you to say anyone phrase is based not on the number of syllables but
the amount of stressed syllables or the amount of stressed words so for instance
if I said that the most important words in that phrase were want and walk then
there are two stressed words there are two stressed syllables because walk in
park are only single syllable words and so the amount of time it takes me to say
that is is a bit quicker because there are only two stressed words I want to go
for a walk I want to go for a walk so all the other words in between someone
get contracted they are reduced I speak a little bit quicker I want to go for a
walk I want to go to the park if I said I want to go for a walk or I want to go
to the park and I was stressing three words in that phrase in the time it
takes me to say it is fractionally longer because I've got an extra
stressed word an extra stressed syllable in a phrase I want to go for a walk I
want to go to the park can hear that I mean it's not a long phrase it would be
more noticeable over a longer phrase that the amount of time it takes me to
say that phrase is based on the number of stressed words or the numbers
stressed syllables so here is some more examples of that and what I do as I say
it firstly in a syllable timed patent and then I'll say it in distress time
happen and it's the stress time patent that you need to follow and imitate to
have a listen to this what's the most important part of this training what's
the most important part of this training I'm going to the shops do you want
anything I'm going to the shops do you want anything I've never flown before
I'm quite nervous I've never flown before I'm quite nervous we all arrived
on time but tom was three hours late we all arrived on time but tom was three
hours late so if you're speaking in a syllable time to weigh and speaking in
this stress times ways very new for you then rewind this video player for those
sentences again trying to really feel what it's like to land on those keywords
and to let the other boards take this time for them to be less important and
in that way you will be sounding more like native Standard British English
speaker because you'll be getting that rhythm more accurately so I hope you
found it useful if you're on my website then scroll down now leave me a thumbs
up or thumbs down give me some kind of reaction that would be great if you're
not on my website and you're on YouTube then head over to my website its English
pronunciation roadmap dot com there's a load of three staff there's a lot more
blog posts on all sorts of aspects of British English pronunciation and
intonation so have a look through those I'm sure there'll be something that
you'll find useful
there's also a load of free downloads in fact this there's two that I've released
this year called five days many courses their audio courses and they focus on
the five main
mispronounced consonants and there's another one that focuses on the five
most mispronounced balance sounds and they're just five day courses there five
minutes of audio every day for five days
shriek of fitted into your busy life as a PDF that comes with it with an
explanation of the sounds and words and there is accompanying videos to watch as
well so head over there
download those they completely free so just enter your details and I'll email
them through to you otherwise
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speech next week