Pronunciation Training: 3 Ways to speak English MUCH more clearly!

Hello, lovely students, and welcome back to English with Lucy.

I'm very excited about today's lesson.

I am going to train you to speak more

clearly in just three simple ways.

This is going to be a pronunciation bootcamp.

It's like three mini lessons in one, and I guarantee that by the end of this

complete bootcamp, you'll be pronouncing word endings so much more accurately.

First, we're going to cover how to pronounce words ending in the letters -ed.

I have an amazing trick for this.

Then, we'll move on to words ending in -s

or -(e)s.

Again, I have another trick.

And finally, we will focus our attention on the accurate pronunciation of some

common suffixes, like the -tion in pronunciation.

So, we're going to cover why we say

danced with a /t/ at the end, loved with a /d/ at the end, and visited with an /ɪd/ at

the end.

I have an amazing trick.

I'm also going to train you how to pronounce these endings perfectly every time.

So, you'll know why we go to the shops /s/ to buy clothes /z/, and you'll know why the

plural of style is styles /z/, but the plural of spice is spices /ɪz/ .

Finally, we'll talk about suffixes, endings like -able and -tion, so you'll be

able to pronounce so many words accurately.

I want to remind you that I've created a

free PDF to go with this lesson.

In the PDF, you will find all of the

pronunciation rules that we cover in today's video with loads of extra examples.

To download it, just click on the link in the description box, enter your name and

your email address, you sign up to my mailing list, and the PDF will arrive

directly in your inbox.

After that, you will automatically

receive all of my free weekly PDFs alongside my news, course offers and updates.

It's a free service, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Okay, let's get started.

First mini lesson, we're going to focus

on -ed endings.

I like to teach through stories, so I'm

going to tell you about a trip

I took to Bangkok last year.

Listen and shadow me to practise if you like doing that.

Pay special attention to words ending in -ed.

Last year, I visited Bangkok for the

first time.

I'd always wanted to visit Thailand and

was delighted when the opportunity finally occurred.

I asked friends who'd travelled there what I needed to take.

I went totally over the top and Will watched in horror as I packed half my wardrobe.

We laughed out loud when Diego jumped in my suitcase too, adding to the chaos.

I continued getting ready and then we carried our cases downstairs ready for

the morning.

If you were shadowing with me there, feel

free to replay and try again.

Let's take a closer look at those -ed endings.

One of the most common pronunciation mistakes I hear is when students try to

pronounce the e at the end of the word, and end up saying ask-ed or travell-ed.

They should be asked, travelled.

We only add on an extra syllable when the

infinitive of the word ends in a /t/ or /d/.

So words which end in the letters d, dd,

de, t, tt, or te, add an extra syllable with the sound /ɪd/.

Here are the examples from the text. 

Visit, want and delight all end in a consonant sound /t/.

Notice how the letters ed add that extra syllable.

Visit has two syllables, visited has three.

Want has just one syllable in the

present, but two in the past, wanted.

Delight, similarly, becomes delighted.

Verbs ending in /d/ behave in the same way, need, needed.

But, and this is a big but, and we like big buts, and we cannot lie,

most -ed endings aren't pronounced this way.

In most -ed words, the e is silent, and

the letter d is pronounced  with a /t/ or /d/ sound.

How do you know which?

Well, it depends on whether the word ends in a voiced or an unvoiced sound.

If it's easier to think about it in this way, it's like the letters ed are just

represented by either /t/ or /d/.

One of the easiest ways to find out if a

sound is voiced or unvoiced is to place your fingers on your throat and check for

any vibration when you say it.

If you can feel a vibration, the sound is voiced.

If there's no vibration, it's unvoiced.

Let's give it a go.

/t/, /d/, /t/, /d/.

I can feel the vibration with /d/, but

nothing for /t/.

What about vowel sounds?

All vowel sounds are voiced.

Let's put the rest of the -ed words from

my story on screen.

In most British English accents, the word

occur ends in a vowel sound, /ɜː/, occur.

The letter r isn't pronounced.

We match voiced with voiced, so we add the voiced consonant /d/ to the end, and

occur becomes occurred.

Ask ends in the unvoiced consonant /k/.

We match unvoiced with unvoiced, so we add the unvoiced /t/, asked.

That's quite a hard consonant cluster there, asked.

In fast spoken English, we often get rid of the /k/ sound and say /ɑːst/.

I asked him a question.

Remember, we don't pronounce the letter e.

We don't add an extra syllable.

Let's practise blending those sounds together.

Repeat after me to practise.

Occur, occurred, carry, carried.

Some unvoiced ones.

Let's try and pronounce all of the

consonants together.

Ask, asked, watch, watched, pack, packed,

laugh, laughed and jump, jumped.

Okay, first mini lesson done.

Let's move on to words ending in -s or -es.

We add s, es, or apostrophe ‘s to a noun

to form the plural or possessive or to a verb to form the third person singular in

the present simple.

As you listen to the next part of the

story, try and notice the different ways I pronounce the s at the end of the words

in bold.

Again, this is another shadowing opportunity.

Let's begin.

We spent our first few days in Bangkok

going for walks along busy streets, immersing ourselves in new sights and noises.

We spent ages admiring the styles of clothes in the shops and devoured

delicious dishes for our lunches.

Will took hundreds of photographs - it's

one of his strengths - of the incredible places, flower markets, and rows of

colourful spices.

He wishes we could go back tomorrow.

I have to admit, that was a tongue twister for me.

You might not know this about me, but growing up, I was unable to properly make

the /s/ sound.

I had what we call a lisp, which is when

your tongue sticks out a little bit too far.

I would call myself Luthy instead of Lucy.

It was only as I matured that it sort of went away, unless I'm cold, then it comes

out.

Back to the pronunciation lesson.

We pronounce -s and -es endings in three

different ways: with /s/, with /z/ or with /ɪz/.

The last sound /ɪz/ adds an extra syllable

to the base form of the word, but, and this is where it gets a little bit more

complicated, we only add /ɪz/ when a word ends in /s/, /z/, /ʃ/, /tʃ/, /dʒ/ or /ʒ/.

I've included the typical spelling patterns for each sound and more examples

in the PDF.

The link's in the description box.

I think you'll find that very useful.

Spice ends in /s/, so in the plural form

we add an extra syllable, spice, spices.

Then we have noise, noises and dish, dishes.

Remember, these rules also apply to the third person singular form of the verb,

so the base form wish becomes he wishes.

Words which end with the sounds /tʃ/ and /dʒ/

also add an extra syllable, for example, watch, watches and charge, charges.

Very few words end with /ʒ/, but there are some like massage, massages.

Okay, so that covers when we add /ɪz/, but how do we choose between the remaining

two sounds /s/ or /z/?

Well, it's the same rule that we saw with

the -ed endings.

We match voiced with voiced and unvoiced

with unvoiced.

Here are the words from my story which

end with voiced sounds, so need to be matched with /z/.

Remember, there is no extra syllable; we just blend the sounds together.

There's a complete table with all of the voiced consonants, typical spelling

patterns and more examples in the PDF.

Repeat the plural forms after me now to

practise, ready?

Hundreds, ourselves, clothes, styles,

days and rows. The remaining unvoiced 

consonant sounds /p/, /t/,  /k/, /f/ and /θ/ add /s/. What

about connected speech for both the -s and -es endings and -ed endings?

When we add /s/, /z/, /t/ and /d/ to the end of a word, we often end up with many

consonant sounds together.

These consonant clusters can be really

tricky to pronounce clearly.

Let me give you a couple of tips which

are pretty much guaranteed to help you articulate these sounds like a pro.

Tip number one, when the word after /s/, /z/,/t/ or /d/ begins with a vowel sound, try

to attach the consonant sound to the vowel sound.

For example, instead of saying we laughed out loud, break up the consonant cluster

by saying we laugh tout loud.

Here are some more examples from my stories.

Listen and repeat. Will watch tin horror, Diego jump tin my suitcase,

going for walk salong, immersing ourselv sin.

Tip number two, when the word is followed by the same consonant sound, join the two

consonant sounds together.

Repeat after me, they watchtelevision,

we enjoyedancing, he walkslowly.

And now time for our final mini lesson.

Once you manage to articulate this next sound correctly, your pronunciation is

going to be so much clearer.

For the final story, focus your attention

on the highlighted word endings.

Again, this is another opportunity for shadowing.

When we got back home, friends and family quizzed us about our trip. Was the hotel

in a nice location? Was the weather pleasant? What was your most memorable moment?

Well, the delicious food was a highlight - it was incredible.

Learning about the culture was important too, but there were so many special

moments; I don't think I could pick just one.

Okay, in bold, we can see some common suffixes.

A suffix is a letter or letters that we add to the end of a word to make a new word.

All of these suffixes have something in common: they contain the schwa.

That's the sound at the beginning of the word about and at the end of the word computer.

We make this schwa sound by relaxing the mouth and the tongue.

My jaw opens a little, but it's not wide, /ə/, /ə/.

It's the most common sound in English and it never appears in stressed syllables.

Why is this sound so important for suffixes?

Well, most suffixes in English are not stressed.

Let's take this word from the story as an example: memorable, memorable.

The main stress is on the first syllable, mem.

The suffix isn't stressed and the letter

a is pronounced as a schwa.

One of the biggest pronunciation errors I

hear learners make is when they try to pronounce full, strong vowels in

unstressed suffixes.

Knowing that many suffixes are pronounced

with a schwa can massively improve the accuracy of your pronunciation.

It's not always the case, but it will help.

Let's take a look at some more examples

from the story.

I'll pronounce the suffix and then one of

the example words.

Listen and repeat after me.

/əs/, delicious, /əbl/, memorable, /əbl/ again,

incredible, /əl/, special, /ənt/, pleasant,

/ʃən/, location.

Okay, that's it for your pronunciation

bootcamp today.

I really hope you enjoyed it.

Please let me know which pronunciation tip you found the most helpful and how

you're going to apply it to your English learning journey.

Don't forget to download the PDF that goes with today's lesson.

There's so much more information in there.

This was quite a long lesson, but trust

me, there's more to learn.

The link for that is in the description box.

Also, wherever you are on your English learning journey, whether you are pre

-intermediate, intermediate or if you're working towards advanced English, I run

my beautiful British English B1, B2, and C1 courses.

They are 12-week Programmes with pronunciation woven through.

We have dedicated pronunciation lessons, but there's pronunciation throughout.

It's such an important skill.

If you want to speak real British English

and work on your pronunciation, visit englishwithlucy com, all of the

information is there.

I will see you soon for another lesson.

Bye.