美语发音phrasereductionsandintonation

Session Thirteen

1. Phrase Reductions

2. Intonation Phrase

Hi, and welcome back. Again my name is Paul Gruber and this is the Pronunciation Workshops---Thirteenth Training Session. In this session, we will cover Phrase Reductions and Intonation. Ok, what do I mean by Phrase Reductions, well, in conversational English, words are often broken down or not fully pronunciated. Two and three words are sometimes squeezed together to create easy-to-say phrases. I’ll show you what I mean. Look at this phrase. Going to try. When we reduce the phrase. It becomes Gonna try. All we do is combine the words. I’m gonna try to finish this book. Repeat with me. Gonna try. “Want to eat” becomes “Wanna eat”. Do you wanna eat at 7 O’clock. Repeat with me. Wanna eat “Have to start” becomes “Hafta start”. I really hafta start studing for that text. Repeat. Hafta start. “Has to try” becomes “Hasta try”. He hasta try harder. Repeat. Hasta try. “Got to leave” becomes “Gotta leave”.I really gotta leave in fifteen minutes. Repeat. Gotta leave. “Ought to believe” becomes “oughta believe”.She really oughta believe what he is saying. Repeat. Oughta believe. “Out of bed” becomes “outa bed”.I got outa bed when I heard the alarm clock. Repeat. Outa bed.

“Did you go” becomes “Didja go”. D idja go to the store Repeat. Didja go. “Would he help” becomes “Woody help”. Woody help me move the furniture Repeat. Woody help. “Won’t you play” becomes “Woncha play”. And don’t forget about that correct O sound in the word Won’ t. Woncha play one more s ong on the piano Repeat. Woncha play. “Didn’t you know”becomes “Didincha know”Didincha know that she was coming home tomorrow Repeat. Donincha know “Is he” becomes “Izzy” Izzy the one that called Repeat. Izzy. “What do you want” becomes “whadaya want”. Repeat. Whadaya want. “Give it to me” becomes “Gividame”. Gividame right now. Repeat. Gividame.

Very good. You’ll find the better you’re good at speaking English, the more you’ll be using these phrase reductions. The key is to still be easily understood. Yo u’ll find that almost all of the rules that I have told you, especially the ones having to do with voicing remain the same.

In the last example Gividame. The only big change comes from the Ts being pronounced as Ds and this happens because the Ts fall between two vowel sounds. If you remember an American pronunciation when Ts fall between two vowels, they become voiced and are pronounced as Ds. Now even though you may at times to speak quickly and use these reduced phrases in your conversations, y ou’ll still be easily understood as long as you continue to use the pronunciation rules that I’ve been showing you throughout this program.

Ok, now we’re going to talk about Intonation. English is a very musical language. As we speak our words and phrases go all the way up and then they come all the way down, much like the mus ic does. Now as you can see. I’m trying to give you a good example of intonation. This keeps our speech interesting and it helps to get our message across. Now, listen to this.

Many foreign-borned speakers of English use a flat intonation pattern or in monotonous tone. This can create uninteresting and misunderstood speech. Everything is very flat.

Ok, I hope you ca n see from that example what I’m talking about. Monotonous speech can be very boring and difficult to listen to. Use correct intonation to make people want to listen to you. It’s generally easy to guess what country a speaker is from just by their accent. Each language has its own characteristic rhythm and melody. Some languages use a wide range of tones and change in pitch with the melody going up and coming down. And other languages sound very flat. These characteristics of languages called intonation. Even though they distinguish one language from another, they are rarely taught. Now in American English, words that carry the highest information of value in a sentence are given more emphasis with