Fluency & Pronunciation: Kev Nair

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Kev Nair

Fluency & Pronunciation Prof. Kev Nair was born in Kerala, South India, in 1949. He’s an eminent scholar of international repute. He’s a first class LL.B. and a first class LL.M. And he was ranked first in university in both the LL. B. and LL. M. exams. • “Nair was the first person in the world to give shape to the area of study now known as ‘English fluency development’ and to systematize it into a distinct teachable subject... So he is better known as the father of fluency development.” – General Knowledge Today. • “He had been researching since 1971, and the results... led him to new discoveries... ” – THE HINDU. • “Prof. Kev Nair is regarded the world over as the father of fluency lexicography... Fluency lexicography came into existence as a separate branch of dictionary writing with the publication of Prof. Nair’s Dictionary of Active Fluency Combinations in 1986.” – Competition Success Review. • “A renowned English language lexicographer” – The New Sunday Express. • “One of the world’s most respected English language scholars...Perhaps more innovative in method than Roget and more modern in approach than Fowler, Prof. Kev Nair is... one of the foremost Indian scholars who wield great influence on the thinking of the English-educated people around the world.” – General Knowledge Today. • “A towering English language expert” – Competition Success Review. • “Prof. Kev Nair... has... reached out to thousands – judicial

2 officers, professionals, top executives, scholars – who need that comfort and ease in speech with his specialised fluency techniques.” – The New Indian Express. Prof. Nair is a lawyer by profession. He lives with his wife and children in Kochi, Kerala, an enchanting place on the earth.

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Fluent English Dictionaries1 by Kev Nair • A Dictionary of Active Fluency Combinations. • A Dictionary of Fluency Word Clusters. • The Complete Fluency Words. • A Dictionary of Essential Fluency Phrases. • Core Fluency Thesaurus. • Comprehensive Adjectival Fluency Dictionary. • Narrative Fluency Dictionary. • Thesaurus of Phrasal Verbs.

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Note: The Fluent English Dictionaries do not form part of Fluentzy: The English Fluency Encyclopedia. They’re separate publications – meant for those who want to specialize in fluency-oriented vocabulary. For details, visit www. fluencybookz.com.

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Books by Kev Nair making up Fluentzy: The English Fluency Encyclopedia • B1: Idea units & Fluency. • B2: Speech Generation & Flow Production. • B3: Teaching your Tongue & Speech Rhythm. • B4: Key Speech-initiators & Speech-unit Patterns. • S1/B13 & S2/B14: Fluency in Functional English (Vols. 1 & 2). • S3/B15: Fluency in Telephone English & Sectoral English. • B5: How to Deal with Hesitation. • B6: Oral Training in Fluency Vocabulary (Vol.1). • B7: Packing of Information. • B8: Impromptu Speech-flow Techniques. • S4/B16: Fluency Building & Mouth Gymnastics. • S5/B17: Fluency in speaking about people. • B9: Fluency in Asking Questions. • B10: Oral Training in Fluency Vocabulary (Vol.2). • B11: Fluency & Moment-to-Moment Speech-production. • B12: Oral Training in Fluency Vocabulary (Vol.3). • S6/B18 & S7/B19: Fluency in Topicwise English (Vols. 1 & 2). • S8/B20: Fluency & Pronunciation.

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Fluency & Pronunciation “Deals with the elements of pronunciation and shows how speakers can master pronunciation through independent training.” – THE HINDU. Fourh Edition

Prof. Kev Nair

TM

TM

Adult Faculties Council

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For Uma fluency and pronunciation. Copyright © Prof. K. E. V. Nair @ KevNair 1982, 1997, 2001, 2007. First published 1982. 3rd edition 2001 (11 impressions). 4th edition 2008. Prof. K. E. V. Nair @ KevNair has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this book in accordance with the Copyright Act, 1957. All rights reserved worldwide. No part of this book shall be copied or reproduced or stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or manner whatever, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission, in writing, of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations or as expressly permitted by law. All quotations from this book shall credit the author, Prof. KevNair. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published, and without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on any acquirer or the subsequent purchaser. Any violation of these terms and conditions will invite civil and criminal proceedings and will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Published in India by Mrs. Uma V. Nair, Adult Faculties Council, DP Lane, Elamakkara PO, Kochi-682 026, Kerala. Printed in India by Ayodhya Printers Ltd., Elamakkara PO, Kochi-682 026, Kerala. Adult Faculties Council’s websites: www.fluentzy.com; www.fluencybookz.com. Phone: (91)(0484) 2538449, 2408361. Fax: (91)(0484) 2408361. E-mail: [email protected]. Price: Rs.175.00

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Contents Chapter 1: How to pronounce English like a native speaker of English, 11 Connected speech and pronunciation, 11 Tongue movement and phonetic simplification, 14 Phonetic simplification and fluency, 15 Types of phonetic changes, 17

Chapter 2: Assimilation, 19 1). Anticipatory assimilation, 20 Assimilation at word junctions, 20 Assimilation of ‘t’, ‘d’, ‘n’, ‘s’, ‘z’, ‘m’, ‘∂’ (= the ‘∂’ in ‘with’, ‘breathe’, etc.), ‘T’ (= the ‘th’ in ‘both’, ‘worth’, etc.), ‘b’, ‘v’, ‘g’, 20

Assimilation within a word, 26 Assimilation: Strong & weak consonants, 26 ‘strong’ to ‘strong’, and not ‘strong’ to ‘ weak’, 27 ‘weak to weak’, and not ‘weak to strong’, 27

2). Progressive assimilation, 29 3). Coalescent assimilation, 29 (i) Coalescence of consonants, 30 (ii) Coalescence of vowels, 31

Chapter 3: Elision, 32 Elision of consonants, 32 Elision of ‘d’, ‘t’, ‘v’, ‘∂’ (= the ‘th’ in ‘the’, ‘that’, etc.), ‘l’, ‘r’, ‘k’, ‘n’, ‘h’, 33 Elision of other consonants, 43 Unpredictable elision, 44

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A general note on consonant elision, 44

Chapter 4: Elision of vowels, 45

Elision of basic vowels, 45 Elision of vowels in grammatical words, 45 Elision of vowels in lexical words, 49 Word-internal vowel elision, 49 (i) Polysyllabic lexical words, 49 (ii) Monosyllabic lexical words, 52

Vowel elision at word junctions, 55

Chapter 5: Simplification of diphthongs, 59 Simplification of ‘u@’, ‘e@’, ‘au’, ‘@u’, ‘ai’, ‘ei’, ‘oi’, ‘i@’, 59

Chapter 6: Elision within a word, 68 Elision of only one consonant, 68 Elision of ‘t’ or ‘d’, ‘d’ — special cases, ‘l’, ‘T’ (= ‘th’ in ‘asthma’), ‘∂’ (= ‘th’ in ‘clothes’), ‘f’, ‘k’, ‘p’, 68

Elision of more than one consonant or vowel, 70 Stressed & unstressed syllables and elision, 71

Chapter 7: Insertion, 73 Insertion of ‘p’, ‘t’, ‘k’, 73 Do insertions come naturally to you?, 74

Chapter 8: Overall simplification, 75

Phonetic simplification and style/speed of speech, 77 Essential points you should understand, 80

Chapter 9: Action Clusters for Practice, 82 Chapter 10: Noun Compounds for Practice, 91 Chapter 11: Idea Units for Pronunciation Practice, 100

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Preface to the 4th edition Here’s the latest edition of this book. I have now added three new chapters. They give you a very large quantity of specially collected word groups. These word groups give you a lot of practice in the pronunciation of connected, continuous speech. If you have any comments and suggestions, please do write to me care of the publishers. KEV Nair Kochi, 2008.

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Abbreviations

fml

formal

infml

informal

sb

somebody

sth

something



sw

somewhere

11 How to pronounce English like a native speaker of English

Chapter 1

How to pronounce English like a native speaker of English We’ve already dealt with the topic Flow Production Techniques in Book 2. There we saw several techniques that would help you speak English by making the end of one word flow into the beginning of the next word. While dealing with that topic, I told you that the sounds made by five of the letters in English (a, e, i, o and u) are called vowels and that the sounds made by the remaining twenty one letters are called consonants. Now, when you speak, words come together, and when words come together, four different types of junctions are formed. In Book 2, we saw that these junctions are: • Consonant-consonant junctions. • Consonant-vowel junctions. • Vowel-vowel junctions. • Vowel-consonant junctions. And in Book 2, you learnt certain important techniques that would help you utter one word after another smoothly — without the junctions between every two of them causing problems and forcing you to falter. Now this is what I am going to do through the present Book: I’m going to deal with the Flow Production Techniques at an advanced level.

Connected speech and pronunciation Let me explain. When you watch an English film, are you able to understand what the people in that film are saying? When you listen to native speakers of English having a conversation, are you able to understand what they are saying? Well, many people

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aren’t able to. And in this Book, I’m going to tell you what one of the chief reasons is. Well, simply put, this is what happens: When you listen to them, you hear several clusters of sounds that are unintelligible to you. That is, you’re not able to make out what words these sound clusters represent. Although they actually stand for everyday words that you know very well, these sound clusters don’t sound to you to be like anything you know. For example, suppose that you hear a native speaker of English say something like this: isnch@sod@man Note: As I’ve already told you in Book 3, ‘@’ stands for the ‘schwa’. This is a vowel sound — but not a distinct one. It occurs in the unstressed syllables in words. This is the sound of ‘a’ in “above”, “about”, etc., that of ‘e’ in “water”, that of ‘i’ in “possible”, that of ‘o’ in “actor”, and that of ‘u’ in “suppose”. For all practical purposes, these sounds are one and the same. What do you think was he saying? Well, if he had written the same thing down (rather than uttered it aloud), this is how it would’ve looked: He isn’t your sort of man. Or suppose that you hear him say things like these: • ’snochos. • ’so’right. • ’sipmatter? • ’kyou. • Praps. If he had written these things down, they would’ve looked as follows: • It’s not yours. • It’s all right. • What does it matter? • Thank you. • Perhaps. A foreign learner finds spoken word groups like these difficult to understand (when a native speaker of English say them aloud). This is mainly because of two reasons: 1). He (the foreign learner) has had his training mainly in written English, and his eyes are used to seeing spaces

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between every two written words. And he gets confused and somewhat disoriented when he hears a group of words uttered as a single unit — without even the briefest possible pause corresponding to those spaces. 2). He has learnt to pronounce every word individually, and he expects that a particular word would sound the same whether it’s pronounced individually (in isolation) or as part of a word group (in connected speech). As far as the first point is concerned, understand this: Blank spaces among the words in a written word group have no importance when you utter that word group in connected speech. In connected speech, there are no pauses corresponding to the spaces among written words. No. In connected speech, there are normally no pauses between two neighbouring words in a word group (except when you make use of a pause as a device in overcoming hesitation or as a device that helps you compose and speak at the same time). In general, there are only pauses between word groups, and not between words. And the words in a word group are spoken as a single, tight, well-knit unit, having no gaps among them. You can even say that, in speech, a group of words is treated as equivalent to a single word — and so the spaces you see among the words (when you write that word group down) have no relevance at all when you utter them in connected speech. Now let’s take up the second point. In a way, this entire Book is going to be a detailed study of this (second) point. At the outset, there’s something you should understand firmly: Words in English don’t sound the same when they’re pronounced individually (in isolation) as when they’re pronounced as part of a word group in connected speech. No. A word is pronounced in one way when it’s uttered in isolation — that’s its ideal pronunciation. And it’s often pronounced in a different way when it’s uttered in combination with other words — that’s its pronunciation in practice.

14 How to pronounce English like a native speaker of English

Tongue movement and phonetic simplification You see, when you utter a consonant or a vowel individually, your tongue gets into the ideal position that’s required to produce that sound. When you utter another consonant or vowel after that, the tongue will have to get back from that ideal position, and then get into the ideal position required to produce the new sound. This is only possible when you utter words individually in isolation, because then you’ll be uttering the sounds slowly, and your tongue will have enough time to move from ideal position to ideal position. But when words are combined (and uttered aloud) in speech, a cluster of consonants or a cluster of vowels come together. And your tongue will have to move from one position to another in quick succession. And in that process, the positions to which the tongue moves will not often be the ideal positions required to produce the various sounds. So the consonant sound and the vowel sound the tongue produces in connected speech will be different from the ideal sounds. (The quality of the sounds the tongue actually produces thus would depend on the nature of the neighbouring sounds.) In English, stressed syllables are normally uttered slowly and clearly, and unstressed syllables are always uttered quickly and far less clearly. So when you utter stressed syllables in speech, there’ll be time enough for your tongue to get into the ideal positions required to produce the ideal consonant sounds and vowel sounds. But when you utter unstressed syllables, your tongue won’t have enough time to get into the ideal positions required to produce those syllables, because they’re uttered quickly. So when you utter a cluster of unstressed syllables, your tongue gets into such positions as it finds easier to get into from the preceding positions, and not into the ideal positions. As a result, a cluster of unstressed syllables often sounds different in speech from what it might sound if those syllables are pronounced slowly one after another. As it’s difficult (and sometimes impossible) for the tongue to

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move from ideal position to ideal position in connected speech, it only moves from possible position to possible position, and each consonant and each vowel in a cluster will have to adjust to the sounds of the neighbouring consonants and vowels. In this process of mutual adjustment, this is what happens: The sounds of various consonant clusters, vowel clusters and consonant-vowel clusters become different from their ideal sounds — because the sounds that the tongue produces are those that it finds easier to produce rather than the ideal sounds. And that’s not all. Many consonants and vowels even get left out, and are not pronounced. In other words, in the process of mutual adjustment among neighbouring consonants and vowels, a lot of phonetic simplification (of consonant and vowel clusters) takes place. Remember this: The tongue sometimes finds that it’s easier to utter a cluster of consonants or vowels if it modifies the sounds of some of them or leave them out altogether (without pronouncing them), and that’s when all these phonetic changes happen. So if you want to understand a native speaker of English, you must never expect him to pronounce words with the same precision as he would if he were asked to pronounce them individually. Expect that the shapes of most of the words would change in speech. And you should have a clear idea of the sort of changes that can be expected. And this Book, would help you here.

Phonetic simplification and fluency Now as far as fluency development is concerned, how are these phonetic changes important? In Book 3, we noted the following points: • English is a semi-musical language. • You should speak English by uttering stressed syllables very clearly, and unstressed syllables far less clearly. • This contrast between stressed syllables and unstressed syllables is the key to the rhythm of English speech.

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• You should speak English in stress-units called “feet”. • Each “foot” is made up of a stressed syllable, and this stressed syllable may (or may not) be followed by one or more unstressed syllables. • The number of syllables a foot has varies from foot to foot within an idea unit. But you should only take approximately the same amount of time to utter each foot — no matter how many unstressed syllables a foot has. • You should utter stressed syllables at fairly equal intervals of time. Now, for example, in an idea unit that you utter, one foot may only have a single syllable (a stressed syllable), another may have two syllables (a stressed syllable and an unstressed syllable) and another may have four syllables (a stressed syllable and three unstressed syllables). How can you utter each of these feet by giving each the same amount of time? We’ve already seen in Book 3 that you can do this by doing two things: 1). You should utter the stressed syllables alone clearly, and you should play down the unstressed syllables by not uttering them clearly. 2). And you should utter the unstressed syllables (that follow a stressed syllable) as fast as is necessary to allow the next stressed syllable to come up at the next rhythmic beat. (See Book 3 for details and examples). Now when you try to utter a foot containing, say, as many as four syllables within the same length of time as a foot containing, say, a single syllable, you can imagine what’s going to happen to the three unstressed syllables in that foot. Obviously, they’ll have to be pronounced so quickly that they run into one another. And then, it’s only natural that these two things happen: 1). Some of the consonants in those unstressed syllables undergo a change in sound (to suit the neighbouring

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consonants) or get dropped altogether from the utterance. 2). And some of the vowels in them get weakened or dropped from the utterance. Phonetic changes like these are quite normal in all styles of speech in English — formal, informal (= casual) and neutral styles. You can notice them whenever a native speaker of English speaks. Yes, whenever — because all styles of speech in English are subject to the pressures of rhythm and stress, and it’s these pressures that make it difficult for the tongue to move into ideal positions during a long utterance and thus brings about the phonetic changes. These phonetic changes happen even when non-native speakers speak English, but many non-native speakers (wrongly) think that these changes are abnormal — and they try hard to deliberately avoid these changes. And this is what happens then: 1). The (unnecessary) effort they make to avoid the phonetic changes interrupts the natural flow of speech when they speak. 2). This effort takes away their concentration from what they are saying to how they are saying it, and their attention gets diverted away from the meaning of their message to the details of pronunciation. This stops them from concentrating on composing the content of their message, and they falter. So if you want to be fluent in spoken English, remember this: You should never make a conscious effort to resist the natural tendency of unstressed syllables to undergo phonetic simplification. Instead, you should give in or yield to this phenomenon.

Types of phonetic changes Now, what are the sort of phonetic changes that syllables in

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a word group can undergo when an educated speaker speaks English? These phonetic changes fall mainly into three categories: • Assimilation. • Elision. • Insertion. Let’s examine each of these types in detail now.

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19 Assimilation

Chapter 2

Assimilation Suppose that, within a word group, you use a word whose last sound is ‘t’. Suppose that, immediately after that word, you use a word whose first sound is ‘p’, ‘b’ or ‘m’. When this word group is uttered aloud as a single unit, what happens is this: The last sound of the first word (‘t’) is replaced by the sound ‘p’, that is, by a different sound. E.g. • quiet please = quiep’ please. • get back = gep’ back. • that man = thap’ man. • a fat book = a fap’ book. • it may... = ip’ may...

This tendency of a consonant (e.g. ‘t’) to get changed into another consonant (under the influence of a neighbouring consonant) is called assimilation. Most often, the tendency is for a consonant to take on the sound of the following consonant (and not of the preceding consonant) — as seen in the examples given above. Remember this: Consonants undergo assimilation in all styles of speech — formal, neutral and informal (= casual). Yes, assimilation happens even in the formal style of speech, and it’s not confined to the informal style of speech. But as your style of speech becomes less formal and more casual, consonants tend to be assimilated more frequently. This is so whether you’re speaking at the normal speech rate or faster. So remember this: Assimilation increases not when you speak faster, but when you speak more informally. Note that the process of assimilation actually involves two neighbouring consonants, and not one consonant alone. The preceding consonant influences the following consonant, and the following consonant influences the preceding one. And so, there can be three types of assimilation:

20 Assimilation 1). When the preceding consonant takes on the sound of

the following consonant, the assimilation that takes place is called anticipatory assimilation. The three examples that we saw above are examples of anticipatory assimilation. This type of assimilation is far more frequent than the remaining two types of assimilation. 2). When the following consonant takes on the sound of the preceding consonant, the assimilation that takes place is called progressive assimilation. This type of assimilation is rare. 3). When two neighbouring consonants get fused into a third consonant, the assimilation that takes place is called coalescent assimilation or coalescence. This type of assimilation is not as frequent as anticipatory assimilation, but is more frequent than progressive assimilation. We’ll now examine the three types of assimilation separately.

1). Anticipatory assimilation Assimilation at word junctions The consonants that frequently undergo anticipatory assimilation are ‘t’, ‘d’, ‘n’, ‘s’ and ‘z’. Out of these five consonants, ‘t’, ‘d’, and ‘n’ undergo assimilation more often than ‘s’ and ‘z’. The consonants ‘m’, ‘∂’ (= the ‘th’ of ‘with’, ‘breathe’, etc.), ‘T’(= the ‘th’ in ‘both’, ‘worth’, etc.), ‘b’, ‘v’ and ‘g’ also undergo assimilation, especially in informal speech — but not as often as ‘t’, ‘d’, ‘n’, ‘s’ and ‘z’.

Assimilation of ‘t’ (i) ‘t’ becomes ‘p’ when it comes before ‘p’, ‘b’ and ‘m’. E.g. • a neat person = a neap’ person. • What bothers me is… = Whap’ bothers... • that man = thap’ man. • in hot pursuit = ...hop’ pursuit.

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(ii) ‘t’ becomes ‘k’ when it comes before ‘k’ and ‘g’. E.g. • hot cake = hok’ cake. • What kind of chocolate …? = Whak’ kind of... • smart girl = smak’ girl. • a fat girl = a fak’ girl.

(iii) ‘t’ tends to become ‘p’ when it comes before ‘w’, ‘v’ and ‘f’. E.g. • compete with = compeep’ with. • not very = nop’ very. • hot weather = hop’ weather. • that view = thap’ view. • wait for me = waip’ for me.

(iv) ‘t’ tends to become ‘s’ when it comes before ‘s’. E.g. • What’s the matter? = Whass’ the matter? • Is that some kind of a…? = Is thas’ some kind of a…? • But simply because… = Bus’ simply because… • Let someone else do it = Les’ someone else do it.

(v) In fast as well as casual speech, word-final ‘t’ tends to become ‘T’ (= the ‘th’ in ‘both’) when it comes before a word beginning with ‘T’. E.g. • that thing = thaT’ thing. • but think of… = buT’ think of… • a bit thick = a biT’ thick. • couldn’t get through = ...geT’ through. (vi) In casual speech, ‘t’ sometimes tends to become ‘d’ when it comes before ‘d’. E.g. • a hot day = a hod’ day; • without delay = withoud’ delay.

But these instances can more appropriately be treated as instances of elision, and so you can find them at (iii) under Elision of ‘t’. (See also the discussion under Assimilation and strong & weak consonants a few pages below). (vii) When ‘t’ occurs between two vowels, and is not the beginning sound of a stressed syllable, ‘t’ tends to sound almost like ‘d’. This happens generally in American English and, to some extent, in British English. And this seems to be the modern trend everywhere. E.g. • water » wad’er. • better » bed’er. • butter » bud’er. • later » lad’er. • cud’ it (= cut it) there. • pud’ it (= put it) here. • That sod’ of (= sort of) paper. • He sod’ of (= sort of) shouted at me. • A lod’ of (= lot of) people… • There’s a lod’ of (= lot of) truth

22 Assimilation in that. • Whad’ll [=What’ll [= What(i)ll] they do? • Whad@’ (= What are) you doing? • ged’ing (= getting) along. • Go and ged’it (= get it).

Assimilation of ‘d’ (i) ‘d’ becomes ‘b’ when it comes before ‘p’, ‘b’ and ‘m’. E.g. • a bad pen = bab’ pen. • a bad patient = a bab’ patient. • red book = reb’ book. • scolded me = scoldeb’ me. • a sad mess = a sab’ mess.

(ii) ‘d’ becomes ‘g’ before ‘k’ and ‘g’. E.g. • hard cover = harg’ cover. • made good = meig’ good. • a sad condition = a sag’ condition.

(iii) ‘d’ tends to becomes ‘b’ before ‘w’, ‘v’ and ‘f’. E.g. • What I wanted was... = ...wanteb’ was... • good value = goob’ value. • bad for your health = bab’ for your...

(iv) In casual speech, ‘d’ tends to become ‘n’ when it comes before ‘n’. This sort of elision is quite frequent in negative words like “couldn’t”, “wouldn’t”, etc. E.g. • I couldn’t = I kunn’t. • He wouldn’t = He wunn’t. • She didn’t = She dinn’t. • They hadn’t = They hann’t. • good night = goon’ night. • bad news = ban’ news. • loud noise = loun’ noise.

(v) In fast as well as casual speech, word-final ‘d’ tends to become ‘∂’ (= the ‘th’ in ‘with’) when it comes before a word beginning with ‘∂’. E.g. • add these figures = a∂’ these... • read this book = rea∂’ this... • inside their house = insið’ their... • can’t afford those things = affo∂’ those...

(vi) In casual speech, ‘d’ sometimes tends to become ‘t’ when it comes before ‘t’. E.g. • He wanted twenty of them = He wantit’ twenty of them. • He could touch the... = He kut’ touch the...

But these instances can more appropriately be treated as instances of elision, and you can find them included at (iii) under Elision of ‘d’. (See also the discussion under Assimilation of strong

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& weak consonants).

Assimilation of ‘n’ (i) ‘n’ becomes ‘m’ when it comes before ‘p’, ‘b’ and ‘m’. E.g. • green pen = greem’ pen. • one person = wum’ person. • own buses = owm’ buses. • in bed = im’ bed. • men must = mem’ must. • ten minutes = tem’ minutes.

(ii) ‘n’ becomes ‘ng’ before ‘k’ and ‘g’. E.g. • keen competition = keeng’ competition. • modern games = modeng’ games. • Then cancel it = Theng’ cancel... • in good faith = ing’ good...

(iii) ‘n’ becomes ‘m’ when it comes before ‘w’, ‘v’ and ‘f’ — especially in casual speech. E.g. • on Wednesday = om’ Wednesday. • fine weather = fime’ weather. • Then where … = Them’ where … • When was he...? = Whem’ was ...? • in fact = im’ fact. • reason for = reasom’ for. • plan failed = plam’ failed. • vegetarian foods = vegetariam’ foods. • five men = fime’ men.

Assimilation of ‘s’ ‘s’ becomes ‘sh’ when it comes before ‘sh’ and ‘y’. E.g. • purpose should = purposh’ should. • whose share... = whosh’ share... • practise your = practish’ your. • unless you... = unless you.

Assimilation of ‘z’ ‘z’ becomes ‘sh’ or ‘zsh’ when it comes before ‘sh’ and ‘y’. (‘zsh’ is the sound ‘Z’ — that is, the sound of ‘s’ in ‘leisure’ and ‘pleasure’ and the sound of ‘ge’ in ‘rouge’) E.g. • his share = hish’ share. • use your = yoosh’ your. • these shoes = theesh’ shoes. • loose your (chance) = loosh’ your (chance). • does she…? = doesh’ she…?

Assimilation of ‘m’ ‘m’ becomes ‘ng’ before ‘k’ and ‘g’.

24 Assimilation E.g. • medium cold = mediung’ cold. • some guests = sung’ guests. • I’m coming = I’ng’ coming. • I’m going = I’ng’ going.

Here is an important point worth noting: Never assimilate ‘m’ to ‘n’ before ‘t’, ‘d’ and ‘n’. For example, “some toys” must never be pronounced as “son’ toys”, “a warm day” must never be pronounced as “a warn’ day” and “come near me” must never be pronounced as “cun’ near me”.

Assimilation of ‘∂’ (= the ‘∂’ in ‘with’, ‘breathe’, etc.) In casual speech, word-final ‘th’ (= ‘∂’ in words like ‘with’, ‘breathe’, etc.) tends to becomes ‘s’ or ‘z’ when it comes before ‘s’ or ‘z’. E.g. • with somebody = wis’ somebody. • breathe slowly = brease’ slowly. • a smooth sea = a smoos’ sea. • with zero = wiz’ zero. • with some difficulty = wis’ some… • a smooth skin = a smoos’ skin.

Here’s something important, and you must note it carefully: Though ‘∂’ can be assimilated to ‘s’ or ‘z’ in this way, the reverse can never happen. That is, ‘s’ or ‘z’ can never be assimilated to ‘∂’ when ‘s’ or ‘z’ is followed by a word beginning with ‘∂’. Thus, for example, “He’s their father” can never become “He’∂ their father”. (At a word junction like this, progressive assimilation may, however, happen: Thus “He’s their father” can become “He’s ’zeir father” in casual speech. See the discussion under Progressive assimilation below).

Assimilation of ‘T’ (= the ‘th’ in ‘both’, ‘worth’, etc.) In casual speech, word-final ‘th’ in words like ‘both’, ‘worth’, etc. tends to become ‘s’ when it comes before ‘s’. E.g. • both sets = bos’ sets. • worth some (5 million dollars ) = wors’ some… • the North sea = the Nors’ sea. • the south side = the sous’ side.

25 Assimilation

Here’s something important, and you must note it carefully: Though ‘T’ can be assimilated to ‘s’ in this way, the reverse can never happen. That is, ‘s’ can never be assimilated to ‘T’ when ‘s’ is followed by a word beginning with ‘T’. Thus, for example, “this thing” can never become “thiT’ thing”. (Note this: At a word junction like this, even progressive assimilation does not happen).

Assimilation of ‘b’ In casual speech, ‘b’ tends to become ‘m’ when it comes before ‘m’. E.g. • (Plants) absorb moisture… = (Plants) absorm’ moisture… • a superb memory = a superm’ memory. • a glib manner = a glim’ manner. • Don’t disturb me = Don’t disturm’ me. • He managed to grab my hand = …gram’ my hand. • rub my back = rum’ my back.

Here’s a very interesting point: While dealing with the assimilation of ‘d’, we saw that ‘d’ becomes ‘b’ before ‘m’. We’ve just now seen that ‘b’ itself becomes ‘m’ before ‘m’. Therefore, in casual speech, ‘d’ tends to become ‘m’ (rather than ‘b’) when it comes before ‘m’. E.g. • scolded me (= scoldeb’ me) » scoldem’ me. • a sad mess (=a sab’ mess) » a sam’ mess. • Good morning (= Goob’ morning) » Goom’ morning. • bad mood (= bab’ mood) » bam’ mood.

Assimilation of ‘v’ (i) In casual speech, ‘v’ becomes ‘m’ when it comes before ‘m’. E.g. • save money = seim’ money. • achieve much = achieme’ much. • I love my wife = I lome’ my wife. • above me = abome’ me.

(ii) ‘v’ tends to become ‘f’ before ‘p’, ‘t’, ‘k’, ‘ch’, ‘f’, ‘T’, ‘s’, ‘sh’ and ‘h’. This is very common in the sequence “have to”. E.g. • You have to do it = You haf’ to do it. • I love to do it = I luf’ to do it. • I’ve found it = I’f’found it. • Have some more = Haf’ some more. • active for his age = actif’ for his age. • a brave

26 Assimilation child = a breif’ child. • live through the war = lif’ through... • I’ve put it there = I’f’ put it... • achieve happiness = achief’ happiness. • Doesn’t that road curve sharply to the right there? = ...curf’ sharply...?

Assimilation of ‘g’ In casual speech, ‘g’ tends to become ‘ng’ before ‘n’. E.g. • a big name = a bing’ name. • dig near the… = ding’ near the… • the dog needs… = the dong’ needs…

Assimilation within a word So far, we’ve been considering assimilation at word-junctions. But you see, assimilation can take place within a word too. This is because the consonants ‘t’, ‘d’, ‘n’, etc. can occur before the consonants ‘p’, ‘b’, ‘m’, etc. not only at word junctions, but also medially within individual words. The following examples would give a clear idea: • admirable » ab’mirable; • broadcast » brog’cast; • conquer » cong’ker; • conclude » cong’clude; • conversation » com’versation; • encourage » eng’courage; • encounter » eng’counter; • football » foop’ball; • inmate » im’mate; • investigate » im’vestigate; • involve » im’volve; • outburst » oup’burst; • outgoing » ouk’going; • utmost » up’most. But remember this: These (and similar other) instances of assimilation only happen within words when the words are uttered in connected speech, and not when you pronounce them individually (in isolation). When you pronounce these words individually, don’t produce the assimilated form — produce the ideal, unassimilated form instead. And remember this, too: Though assimilation is possible within a word, this sort of assimilation is less common than assimilation at word-junctions.

Assimilation: Strong & weak consonants The consonants ‘p’, ‘t’, ‘ch’, ‘k’, ‘f’, ‘T’ (= the ‘th’ of ‘both’), ‘s’

27 Assimilation

and ‘sh’ are strong consonants, and the consonants ‘b’, ‘d’, ’j’, ‘g’, ‘v’, ‘ð’ (= the ‘th’ of ‘with’), ‘z’ and ‘zsh’ (= the sound ‘Z’ = the sound of ‘s’ in ‘pleasure’ and that of ‘ge’ in ‘rouge’) are their weak counterparts.

‘strong’ to ‘strong’, and not ‘strong’ to ‘weak’ A strong consonant can undergo assimilation before a strong consonant as well as before a weak consonant. But when it undergoes assimilation, it normally takes on the sound of another strong consonant — it won’t normally take on the sound of its weak counterpart or of any other weak consonant. Either it undergoes assimilation and takes on the sound of another strong consonant — or it won’t undergo assimilation. Thus, for example, ‘t’ may take on the strong sound ‘p’, but not the weak sound ‘b’. Therefore, in the phrase “that boy”, ‘t’ can become ‘p’, and “that boy” can become “thap’ boy”; but “that boy” must never be pronounced as “thab’ boy” by assimilating ‘t’ to ‘b’. Similarly, in the phrase “a ripe banana”, the ‘p’ sound can’t become ‘b’, and “a ripe banana” can’t be pronounced as “a ribe’ banana”. In the same way, “I like that” can’t become “I lige’ that”, and the ‘k’ in ‘like’ can’t be assimilated to ‘g’. But there’s an exception. Thus, in casual speech, word-final ‘t’ is sometimes assimilated to its weak counterpart ‘d’ when it (the word-final ‘t’) is followed by a word beginning with ‘d’. E.g. • What do you think? = Whad’ do you think? • a hot day = a hod’ day. • eight days = eighd’ days. • without delay = withoud’ delay. • “slight defects” = “slighd’ defects”.

Note: These examples can more appropriately be treated as those of elision, rather than as those of assimilation. See (iii) under Elision of ‘t’ a few pages below.

‘weak to weak’, and not ‘weak to strong’ In the same way, a weak consonant undergoes assimilation both before a weak consonant and a strong consonant. But when it

28 Assimilation

undergoes assimilation, it normally takes on the sound of a weak consonant — it won’t usually take on the sound of its strong counterpart or of any other strong consonant. But there are a few cases where a weak consonant is assimilated to its strong counterpart. These exceptions are: (i) ‘∂’ (= the ‘th’ of words like ‘with’, ‘breathe’, etc.) becomes ‘T’ (= the ‘th’ of words like ‘both’) when it comes before ‘∂’ (the ‘th’ of words like ‘with’, ‘breathe’, etc.). E.g. • wið thanks = wiT’ thanks. • Can’t they smooð things over between them? = … smooT’ things… (ii) ‘z’ tends to become ‘s’ when it comes before ‘s’. E.g. • hiz (= his) sister = his’ sister. • use (= yooz) some… = yoos’ some.

(iii) ‘v’ tends to become ‘f’ when it comes before ‘f’. E.g. • I’ve found it = I’f’ found it. • active for his age = actif’ for his age.

(iv) ‘j’ (= the initial consonant in the word ‘judge’) tends to become ‘ch’ when it comes before ‘s’. E.g. • a strange (= streinj) system = a streinch’ system. • a huge (= hyooj) sum = a hyooch’ sum.

As the speech becomes more casual, speakers tend to assimilate even other weak consonants to strong ones. Thus, in addition to the four weak consonants mentioned above (‘∂’, ‘z’, ‘v’ and ‘j’), other weak consonants like ‘d’, ‘b’, etc. also are at times assimilated to their strong counterparts (that is, ‘d’ to ‘t’, ‘b’ to ‘p’, etc.). And this assimilation can take place before their strong counterparts or other consonants. E.g. • He could touch the… = He kut’ touch the… • because (= b’cause) he was… = p’cause he was. • enjoy the (= ∂’) party = enjoy T’ party. • cut the (= ∂’) cake = cutT’ cake.

Note: From the examples of assimilation of ‘t’, ‘d’, etc., you can note one thing: It’s not unstressed syllables alone that undergo assimilation — stressed syllables also at

29 Assimilation

times undergo assimilation.

2). Progressive assimilation As mentioned earlier, progressive assimilation is very rare. That is, suppose that, in a word group, a word ending in a consonant comes before a word beginning with a consonant. Then, the initial consonant of the second word rarely takes on the sound of the last consonant of the first word. However, there’s an important exception: The word-initial ‘th’(= ∂) in the word ‘the’ often becomes ‘s’ (or ‘z’) when it comes after ‘s’ (or ‘z’ ). The ‘th’ (= ∂) in the words ‘that’, ‘this’, ‘those’, ‘these’, ‘they’, ‘their’, ‘them’ and ‘though’ also often shows this tendency (to assimilate to ‘s’ or ‘z’). Note that this only happens when the words ‘the’, ‘that’, ‘this’, etc. are left unstressed. E.g. • across the road = across ’s@ road. • discuss the issue = discuss ’s@ issue. • increase the speed = increase ’s@ speed. • recognize this photo = recognize ’sis photo. • didn’t realize these things = didn’t realize ’zese things. • What does that matter? = What does ’zat matter? • pass the salt = pass ’s@ salt. • How’s that possible? = How’s ’zat possible? • No human is their match = No human is ’zeir match. • As they say… = As ’zey say… • Is this correct? = Is ’zis correct? • Is there any... ? = Is’zere any...?

Note: Instead of treating these examples as examples of progressive assimilation, you can also treat them as examples of elision of ‘∂’ (= th). We’ll look at the elision of ‘∂’ a few pages below.

3). Coalescent assimilation We’ve so far been looking at cases of assimilation where two consonants come next to each other in speech, and one of them (usually, the first one) loses its identity and takes on the sound of the other. Let’s now look at cases that are slightly different. Here what

30 Assimilation

happens is this: Two sounds come next to each other, and they combine and form a new (third) sound. This kind of assimilation is called ‘coalescent assimilation’ or ‘coalescence’, and it affects sounds in all styles of speech: formal, neutral and informal. The examples given below would make this process clear to you.

(i) Coalescence of consonants There are four important cases of coalescence under this head:

(a) ‘t’+ ‘y’ When a word ending in ‘t’ comes before a word beginning with ‘y’, the ‘t’ and ‘y’ combine together to form the sound ‘ch’. E.g. • Put your shirt on = Pucho:’ shirt on. • First you should… = Firsch@’ should… • That yellow dress = Thachellow dress. • Most young people = Moschung people. • …didn’t you? = …dinchu? • …wouldn’t you? = …wunchu?

(b) ‘d’ + ‘y’ When a word ending in ‘d’ comes before a word beginning with ‘y’, the ‘d’ and ‘y’ combine together to form the sound ‘j’ (= the initial consonant sound in the word ‘judge’). E.g. • Could you…? = Kuju…? • Would you…? = Wuju…? • behind your… = behinjo:… • He said yes = He sejes.

(c) ‘s’ + ‘y’ When a word ending in ‘s’ comes before a word beginning with ‘y’, the ‘s’ and ‘y’ combine together to form the sound ‘sh’. E.g. • Release your grip on it = releasho:’ grip on it. • Once you told me = onsh@’ told me. • Express your feelings = Expresho:’ feelings. • As you know… = Ash@’ know… • unless you tell him = unlesh@’ tell him. • This is your seat = This isho:’ seat.

31 Assimilation

(d) ‘z’ + ‘y’ When a word ending in ‘z’ comes before a word beginning with ‘y’, the ‘z’ and ‘y’ combine together to form the sound ‘zsh’. (‘zsh’ is the sound ‘Z’ = the sound of ‘s’ in ‘leisure’ and that of ‘ge’ in ‘rouge’). E.g. • Close your eyes = Clozsho:’ eyes. • because you told me = becauzsh@’ told me.

(ii) Coalescence of vowels Coalescence of vowels happens when the diphthongs ‘au’, ‘@u’, ‘ai’, ‘ei’ and ‘oi’ come before the unstressed schwa ‘@’. We’ll take up these cases of coalescence when we deal with diphthongs later.

***

32 Elision

Chapter 3

Elision Suppose that the consonant ‘t’ comes between two other consonants. Then native speakers of English don’t normally pronounce that ‘t’, but leave it out and pronounce the other two consonants alone. E.g. • best paint = bes’paint. • a corrupt person = a corrup’person.

This happens not only to ‘t’, but also to several other consonants. And this happens to vowels, too. This process of dropping an individual sound from a group of sounds is called ‘elision’. We’ll first examine the elision of consonants, and then examine the elision of vowels. Remember this: Consonants and vowels undergo elision in all styles of speech in English — formal, neutral, and informal (= casual). But when you speak faster, elision happens in more syllables than when you speak at the normal speech-rate. (This is so not only when you speak in the informal style, but also when you speak in the formal and neutral styles). In the same way, when your speech becomes less formal and more informal, elision becomes more frequent. Thus, elision happens most frequently when you speak not only faster, but also when you speak informally.

Elision of consonants The consonants that are most often elided are ‘d’ and ‘t’. Other consonants that are often elided are ‘v’, ‘∂’ (= the ‘th’ in ‘the’, ‘that’, etc.), ‘l’, ‘r’, ‘n’ and ‘h’. Let’s now look at the elision of each of these consonants separately.

33 Elision

Elision of ‘d’, ‘t’, ‘v’, ‘∂’, ‘l’, ‘r’, ‘k’, ‘n’, ‘h’ Elision of ‘d’ (i) When ‘d’ comes between two consonants, it normally disappears and is not pronounced. E.g. • robbed people = rob’ people. • a bold move = a bol’ move. • saved money = save’ money. • moved forward = move’ forward. • in cold water = in col’ water. • acknowledged both the… = acknowledge’ both the… • discharged from… = discharge’ from… • lagged behind = lag’ behind. • disturbed their… = disturb’ their. • breathed more easily = breathe’ more easily. • used cars = use’ cars. • find time = fine’ time. • kind man = kin’ man. • harmed by... = harm’ by ...

Notes: In Book 3, we’ve already taken a preliminary look at cases where ‘d’ comes between two consonants. Suppose that in a situation like this, ‘d’ comes before a word beginning with ‘h’. In such a situation, native speakers of English generally tend to keep the ‘d’ sound and to pronounce it, rather than to leave it out. E.g. • received half the money. • engaged hundreds of… • loved hunting. • rushed home. • seemed hurt. • absorbed half… • explained how… • bald head.

(ii) In casual speech, when a consonant comes before ‘d’ and an unstressed vowel comes after it, ‘d’ tends to disappear. E.g. • accused of… = accuse’ of… • absorbed in his work = absorb’ in his work. • addressed a letter to… = address’ a letter to… • leaned against… = lean’ against… • seemed expensive = seem’ expensive. • They depend on…= They depen’ on… • I had a kind of feeling = I had a kin’ of feeling.

(iii) In casual speech, when a vowel comes before ‘d’, and ‘t’ or any other consonant comes after it, ‘d’ tends to disappear. This is so whether the vowel is an unstressed one or not. E.g. • He wanted twenty of them = …wanti’ twenty… • This could be… = This ku’ be… • He could touch the… = He ku’ touch the… • He would take it to… = He wu’ take it to… • You should tell… = You shu’ tell… • A good test of his popularity = A gu’

34 Elision test…

• couldn’t » ku’n’t (= kunt). • didn’t » di’n’t (= dint). • hadn’t » ha’n’t (= hant). • needn’t » nee’n’t (= neent). • shouldn’t » shu’n’t (= shunt). • woudn’t » wu’n’t (= wunt). • The man who’d gone to… = …who’ gone to… • shifted from…= shifti’ from… • agreed with… = agree’ with… • argued for… = argue’ for… • solid support = soli’ support. • vivid memories = vivi’ memories. • a valid licence = a vali’ licence. Notes:1). The elision of ‘d’ before ‘t’ is not as common as the elision of ‘t’ before ‘d’. See (iii) under Elision of ‘t’ below. 2). Many of these examples can also be considered as instances of assimilation. See (vi) under Assimilation of ‘d’. 3). See also (ii) Elision of ‘d’ — special cases under Elision within a word later under this topic.

Elision of ‘t’ (i) When ‘t’ comes between two consonants, it (‘t’) disappears. E.g. • next bus = nex’ bus. • last date = las’ date. • first flight = firs’ flight. • left side = lef’ side. • just for… = jus’ for… • pushed back the… (= pusht’ back) = push’ back the… • rushed forward ( = rusht’ forward) = rush’ forward. • looked back (= lookt’ back) = look’ back. • corrupt politicians = corrup’ politicians. • marched back (= marcht’ back) = march’ back. • absent from… = absen’ from… • fluent reader = fluen’ reader. • last week = las’ week. • left leg = lef’ leg.

Notes: We’ve already taken a preliminary look at cases where ‘t’ comes between two consonants in Book 3. From these examples, there’s something interesting you can note: ‘t’ is elided most often in words ending with ‘st’ and ‘ft’. Instances are rare when ‘t’ is not elided when it occurs between two consonants. Native speakers of English tend to leave out ‘t’ in this position even in slow speech. The rare cases happen

35 Elision

mainly when ‘t’ comes before a word beginning with ‘h’. In such a situation, native speakers tend to keep the ‘t’ and to pronounce it, rather than to leave it out. E.g. • left hand. • faint hope. • kept hold. • next house. • stopped hurting. • reached home. • looked hurt. • disclosed half.

And in slow speech, speakers don’t normally leave out the ‘t’ in words ending with ‘lt’ and ‘nt’. E.g. • built by… • a bent for science. • dealt with them. • can’t see.

(ii) In casual speech and fast speech, when a consonant comes before ‘t’, and an unstressed vowel comes after it, it (‘t’) often disappears. E.g. • He left in the morning = He lef’ in the morning. • escaped unhurt (= eskeipt’ unhurt) = escape’ unhurt. • in the interest of truth = in the interes’ of truth. • I want another one = I wan’ another one. • reached into (= reacht’ into)… = reach’ into… • This kind of thing… = This kin’ of thing… • She went away = She wen’ away. • This report is an improvement on his last one = … an improvemen’ on… • First of all... = Firs’ of all... • Give the last one to me = ... last won’u me. • Go and complain to the Manager = ... complain’u the Manager. • I want to go = I wantu go = I wan’u go.

(iii) When a vowel comes before ‘t’, and a ‘d’ comes after it, the ‘t’ is sometimes left out in casual speech. E.g. • What do you think? = Wha’ do you think? • a hot day = a hod’ day. • eight days = eigh’ days. • without delay = withou’ delay » withou’ d’lay. • quite determined = qui’ determined » qui’ d’termined. • Art Director = Ah’ Director.

In a way, these examples can also be treated as examples of assimilation of ‘t’ to ‘d’. [See (vi) under Assimilation of ‘t’.] But ‘t’ is a strong consonant, and ‘d’ is its weak counterpart, and normally, a strong consonant is not assimilated to a weak one. (See the discussion under Assimilation and strong & weak consonants). So if you treat these examples as examples of assimilation, note that this kind of assimilation of ‘t’ to ‘d’ is an exception to the rule against assimilating a strong consonant to a weak one.

36 Elision

Note: The elision of ‘t’ before ‘d’ is more common than the elision of ‘d’ before ‘t’. See (iii) under Elision of ‘d’ above. (iv) From the negative words “isn’t”, “wasn’t”, etc. the ‘t’ is often elided when they’re followed by another word starting with a consonant or a vowel. This is especially so in fast speech and casual speech. E.g. • He isn’t coming = He isn’ coming. • She wasn’t ready = She wasn’ ready. • We aren’t above criticism = We aren’ above criticism. • He didn’t do it = He didn’ do it. • You mustn’t ask them = You mustn’ ask them. • They wouldn’t agree = They wouldn’ agree.

Here’s a list of other important negative words: wasn’t, aren’t, weren’t, doesn’t, don’t, can’t, couldn’t, hasn’t, haven’t, hadn’t, won’t, shan’t, shouldn’t, needn’t, oughtn’t. Note: All the above negative words, other than “don’t”, “can’t”, “shan’t”, and “won’t” are disyllabic ones. These four negatives alone are monosyllabic ones. The ‘t’ in these four monosyllabic negative words is not elided as frequently as the ‘t’ in the disyllabic negatives.

Elision of ‘v’ (i) The ‘v’ of unstressed ‘have’ (pronounced as ‘@v’) and unstressed ‘of’ (pronounced as ‘@v’) generally disappears before a word beginning with a consonant. E.g. • It should have been = It should@’ been. • He and his father have been = He and his father@’ been. • A friend of mine = A friend@’ mine. • One of them = One@’ them. (ii) There are several lexical words that end in the sound ‘v’. In fast speech, the sound ‘v’ in these words tends to be elided when those words come before a word beginning with a consonant (in a word group). This is so whether the words that contain the ‘v’ sound is stressed or unstressed in speech. E.g. • achieve success = achie’ success. • active members = acti’

37 Elision members. • move the car = moo’ the car. • a brave man = a brei’ man. • Give me some more = Gi’ me some more. • to give my friend a job = to gi’ my friend… • Don’t leave now = Don’t lea’ now.

Note: See the discussion under the sub-heading Stressed and unstressed syllables and elision below.

Elision of ‘ð’ (= the ‘th’ in ‘the’, ‘that’, etc.) (i) The definite article ‘the’ often disappears when it comes between two consonants, and its place is taken by the unstressed schwa (represented by ‘@’). E.g. • keep the plan secret = keep @ plan secret; (or keep ð’ plan secret). • swallowed the food = swallowed @ food; (or swallowed ð’ food). • from the bank = from @ bank. • to relieve the pressure = to relieve @ pressure. • cut the cake = cut @ cake. • round the clock = round @ clock. • but the problem is… = but @ problem is… • I couldn’t send the letter = … send @ letter. • from the office = from @ office. So don’t think that when the word ‘the’ comes between two consonants, the element that’s always elided from it is ‘∂’. That is not so. When ‘the’ comes between two consonants, many people elide the element ‘@’, and not ‘∂’. So when ‘the’ comes between two consonants, you can elide either ‘∂’ or ‘@’ — whichever helps you pronounce the sound cluster in which it appears smoothly. But when it comes after a vowel and before a consonant, the element that’s always elided is ‘@’, and not ‘∂’. So the element ‘@’ gets elided when ‘the’ comes after a consonant or a vowel; but the element ‘∂’ only gets elided when ‘the’ comes after a consonant — as in the above examples. (For examples of the elision of ‘@’ when ‘the’ comes after a vowel, see para (iii) under Vowel elision at word junctions a few pages below). (ii) In fast casual speech, the ‘th’(= ∂) in the pronoun ‘that’ often disappears. E.g. • I think that’s their plan = I think ’@t’s their plan. • I believe

38 Elision that was a mistake = I believe ’@t was a mistake (iii) In fast speech as well as in casual speech, the ‘th’(= ∂) in ‘them’ is often left out. E.g. • Move them = Move ’em. • Get rid of them = Get rid of ’em.

Note: The words ‘the’, ‘that’, ‘this’, ‘these’, ‘those’, ‘they’, ‘them’, ‘themselves’, ‘their’ and ‘though’ (having the element ‘∂’ at the beginning) often occur in speech after a word ending in ‘s’ or ‘z’. For what happens then, see Progressive assimilation a few pages back.

Elision of ‘l’ (i) The ‘l’ in the words ‘almost’, ‘already’, ‘also’, ‘although’, ‘altogether’, ‘always’, etc. disappears completely in casual speech, and these words are pronounced as follows : • almost » a’most. • already » a’ready. • also » a’so. • although » a’though. • altogether » a’together. • always » a’ways. (ii) From the word ‘all’, the ‘l’ sound often disappears completely — in casual speech. E.g. • all right = a’ right. • put all the stuff in that room = put a’ the stuff... • all that time = a’ that time. • in all frankness = in a’ frankness.

(iii) From the words ‘certainly’ and ‘only’, the ‘l’ sound is often left out in casual speech. Eg. • That’s certainly right = That’s cert’ny right. • Certainly not = Cert’ny not. • It’ll only take a minute = It’ll on’y take a minute. • The only thing that matters is… = The on’y thing that…

(iv) In casual speech, when a word ending with ‘l’ is followed by a word beginning with a consonant, ‘l’ is often elided (especially when the syllable in which ‘l’ is final is an unstressed one). E.g. • your final decision = your fin@’ decision. • A casual remark = A casu@’ remark. • I’ll see you tomorrow = Ah (= I)’ see you tomorrow. • He’ll be there = He’ be there. • artificial sweeteners

39 Elision = artifish@’ sweeteners. • In actual fact = In actua’ fact. • He DIDN’T tell me about it = He DIDN’T te’ me about it.

Here’s something you should note here: When words like ‘bold’, ‘cold’, ‘hold’, ‘told’, etc. are followed by a word beginning with a consonant, what is elided is ‘d’ and not ‘l’ — because, in such cases, we have a situation where ‘d’ comes between two consonants. For example, the phrase “cold food” should be pronounced as “col’ food” by eliding ‘d’, and not as “co’d food” by eliding ‘l’. Similarly, “a bold move” should be pronounced as “a bol’ move”, and not as “a bo’d move”. In instances like these, you shouldn’t elide ‘l’. Of course, many native speakers of English often elide ‘l’ even in such instances, but many people consider this sort of elision as non-standard.

Elision of ‘r’ (i) In casual speech, ‘r’ tends to be elided from the word ‘for’ when that word is followed by a word beginning with a vowel. Eg. • for every two of them. = f’ every two of them. • Is it for any of us? = Is it f’ any of us? • That was for a special purpose = That was f’ a special purpose.

(ii) In casual speech, ‘r’ is often elided from the word ‘from’. E.g. • A letter from a friend = A letter f’m a friend. • Things are going from bad to worse = Things are going f’m bad to worse.

(iii) From the sequence “diphthong /vowel + ‘r’ + ‘@’ (unstressed schwa)”, the ‘r’ is often left out. This usually happens when ‘r’ occurs immediately after a stressed syllable. E.g. • an hour ago = an a:’go. • a year ago = a ye:’go. • Where are those people? = Whe:’ those...? • the star attraction = the sta:ttraction. • under warranty = under wa:nty. • That’s terrible = That’s te:ble. • European markets = Y@:’pean (= Eu’pean) markets.

Note that in these cases, the diphthong before ‘r’ gets changed into a long vowel.

40 Elision

(iv) From the sequence “ vowel + r + unstressed sound ‘i’ ”, the ‘r’ is often left out. This usually happens when ‘r’ occurs immediately after an unstressed syllable. E.g. • a good memory for names = a good mem@’ for names. • primary school teacher = prim@’ school... • ordinary people like us = ordin’ people like us. • I’m very sorry = I’m ve’ sorry. • That’s very nice of you = That’s ve’ nice... • from every side = from ev’ side. • every student = ev’ student. • That’s a mystery to me = That’s a myst’ to me. • His brother is ill = His broth@’s ill. • whether it is... = wheth@’t is...

(v) In fast casual speech, the unstressed ‘r’ at the beginning of words like ‘recruit’, ‘reduction’, ‘refuse’, ‘reject’, ‘remove’, etc. often gets elided when that word comes after another word in a word group. E.g. • They were interviewing possible ’icruits (= recruits). • a slight ’iduction (= reduction) in the price. • He can’t ’ifuse (= refuse) to help us. • Don’t ’iject (= reject) the offer. • I had to ’peat (= repeat) it.

Note: In casual speech, elision of ‘r’ happens frequently (in the five ways mentioned above) — but not as frequently as the elision of ‘l’. (vi) The sound ‘r’ is never pronounced (even in slow speech) when a consonant follows that word. No, never. This is so whether ‘r’ comes at the end of a word or within the word. ‘r’ is only pronounced when it is followed by a vowel. E.g. • after that = aft@’ that. • barber shop = barb@’ shop. • before dark = befo’ dark. • car park = ca’ park. • better than = bett@’ than. • clear weather = cli@’ weather. • Doctor John = Doct@’ John. • a peculiar smell = a peculi’@ smell. • better don’t = bet@’ don’t.

Note: See (iv)(b) under Vowel elision at word junctions below.

Elision of ‘k’ (i) In all styles of speech, ‘k’ is elided in words like ‘asked’,

41 Elision

‘risked’ and ‘whisked’ as follows: E.g. • He ast’ (= asked) about the next meeting. • She ast’ (= asked) you about it, didn’t she? • He called and ast’ (= asked) for you. • He rist’ (= risked) his life to rescue them. • The police whist’ (= whisked) him off to some secret location.

(ii) When the word ‘ask’ is followed by a word beginning with a consonant, the ‘k’ in ‘ask’ is elided. E.g. • You should ask permission before you do it = as’ permission… • Don’t ask for his help = Don’t as’ for his help.

(iii) There are several words like ‘explain’, ‘excuse’, etc. that start with the unstressed syllable ‘ex’ (pronounced ‘iks’) and followed by a consonant. In casual speech, as well as in fast speech, the ‘k’ or ‘ik’ in ‘iks’ in these words tends to get elided, and the ‘iks’ (= ‘ex’) tends to get reduced to ‘is’ or ‘s’. But don’t be under the impression that what always gets elided in ‘iks’ is ‘k’ or ‘ik’. Actually, what sometimes gets elided won’t be either ‘k’ or ‘ik’, but the vowel ‘i’ in ‘iks’. So remember this: In words like ‘explain’, ‘excuse’, etc. either ‘k’ or ‘ik’ or even ‘i’ may get elided. E.g. • explain » ’splain or ’isplain (or ’ksplain). • excuse » ’scuse or ’iscuse (or ’kscuse). • exchange » ’schange or ’ischange (or ’kschange). • exclude » ’sclude or ’isclude (or ’ksclude) • expand » ’spand or ’ispand (or ’kspand). • expect » ’spect or ’ispect (or ’kspect). • expel » ’spel or ’ispel (or ’kspel). • expense » ’spense or ’ispense (or ’kspense). • experience » ’sperience or ’isperience (or ’ksperience). • experiment » ’speriment or ’isperiment (or ’ksperiment). • explode » ’splode or ’isplode (or ’ksplode). • exploit » ’sploit or ’isploit (or ’ksploit). • export » ’sport or ’isport (or ’ksport). • express » ’spress or ’ispress (or ’kspress). • extend » ’stend or ’istend (or ’kstend) • extra » ’stra or ’istra (or ’kstra). • extreme » ’streme or ’istreme (or ’kstreme).

Here are 3 points that you must understand: 1) This kind of elision only happens in words that have a consonant immediately after the sound ‘iks’, and not in words that have a vowel after it. Thus, ‘ex’ in words like ‘exceed’, ‘excel’, ‘except’, ‘excess’, ‘excite’, etc. don’t get

42 Elision

reduced to ‘is’ or to ‘s’. 2) This kind of elision doesn’t apply to words like ‘exact’, ‘exaggerate’, ‘examination’, ‘exhaust’, etc. Note that in these words, the ‘ex’ is pronounced as ‘igz’, and not as ‘iks’ or ‘eks’. 3) Remember that the elision of ‘k or ‘ik’ or ‘i’ only happens when the words ‘explain’, ‘excuse’, etc. are uttered along with other words in speech, and not when they’re pronounced in isolation.

Elision of ‘n’ Some people find it easier to speak fluently if they leave out the sound ‘n’, when another consonant comes after it. E.g. • He’s i’ the (= in the) other room. • cert@’ reasons (= certain reasons). • She ca’ do (= can do) it. • the com@’ man (= common man). • It remai’s (= remains) to be seen… • Do they advertise o’ radio (= on radio)? • a well-know’ difficulty (= a well-known difficulty).

Note that the elision of ‘n’ is not of as much general application (that is, not noticed as much among people in general) as the elision of the other consonants we’ve seen so far. But among people who find it easier to leave out ‘n’ rather than to keep it in, elision of ‘n’ is quite frequent. So if you find it easier to pronounce a cluster of consonants by leaving out ‘n’ from it, don’t hesitate to leave it out. Note: See (viii) under Vowel elision at word junctions a few pages below.

Elision of ‘h’ ‘h’ is often elided from grammatical words like ‘has’, ‘he’, ‘her’, etc. In speech, these grammatical words get shortened as follows: • has » ‘s’, ‘z’ or ‘@z’; • had » ‘d’ or ‘@d’; • have » ‘v’ or ‘@v’; • he » ‘i’; her » ‘@’ or ‘@r’; • him » ‘im’; • his » ‘iz’; • who » ‘u’.

43 Elision

There are two important points you must note here: 1). These grammatical words are not shortened in this way when the speaker decides to stress them for emphasis. 2). When they occur at the end of a word group, ‘has’, ‘have’ and ‘had’ are not shortened, but pronounced in full by keeping the sound ‘h’. (This is so even if you don’t want to stress these words for emphasis). Thus for example, in the word groups “Yes, I have”, “Yes, he has”, “Yes, she had”, etc. the sound ‘h’ is not dropped from the words ‘have’, ‘has’ and ‘had’. But ‘h’ is dropped from the words ‘he’, ‘her’, ‘him’ and ‘his’ even when they occur at the end of a word group — provided, you don’t want to stress these words for emphasis. Thus, you must say “I like im”, and not “I like him”, so long as you don’t want to give special emphasis to the word ‘him’. Here’s a very important point: Yes, very important. Never leave ‘h’ out from a lexical word. Never. You should only leave out ‘h’ from the grammatical words listed above, and not from a lexical word. Thus, you should never pronounce ‘how’, ‘hand’, ‘hard’, etc. as ‘ow’, ‘and’, ‘ard’, etc. If you elide ‘h’ in lexical words, your speech would be considered uneducated, non-standard and even vulgar. However, there are a few exceptions: (i) Conventionally, the words ‘hour’, ‘honest’ and ‘honour’ are always pronounced as ‘our’, ‘onest’ and ‘onour’ respectively, by leaving out ‘h’; (ii) In fast casual speech, the phrase “Come here” is often pronounced as “K’mere” by leaving out the ‘h’ in ‘here’.

Elision of other consonants The consonants that are frequently elided are ‘t’, ‘d’, ‘v’, ‘∂’ (= the ‘th’ of ‘the’, ‘that’, etc.), ‘l’, ‘r’, ‘k’ and ‘n’. And we’ve seen that the consonant ‘h’ is also elided in a restricted way (that is, from grammatical words alone). The remaining consonants are ‘p’, ‘b’, ‘m’, ‘w’, ‘f’, ‘D’ (= the

44 Elision

‘th’ of ‘both’, ‘worth’, etc.), ‘s’, ‘z’, ‘ch’, ‘j’ (= the first consonant in the word ‘judge’), ‘g’, ‘sh’, ‘zsh’ (= the sound ‘Z’ = the sound of ‘s’ in ‘pleasure’ and of ‘ge’ in ‘rouge’) and ‘ng’. Native speakers of English don’t normally elide these remaining consonants on a regular basis. So the safe course for you to follow is not to elide them, and to limit elision to ‘t’, ‘d’, ‘v’, ‘ð’, ‘l’, ‘r’, ‘k’ and ‘n’. And you should also elide ‘h’ from grammatical words in the circumstances we’ve looked at.

Unpredictable elision When your speech becomes less formal and more casual, more consonants get elided. For example, elision increases in the informal conversational style. The same thing happens when you speak fast — even in the formal style. In these circumstances (that is, when you speak very casually or fast), virtually any consonant can get elided. Yes, when you speak informally or fast, in addition to the consonants that are normally subject to elision, any other consonants also may happen to undergo elision.

A general note on consonant elision From all this, you can note one thing: In general, when any consonant comes between two other consonants, the middle consonant is a candidate for elision. This is especially so in fast as well as casual speech.

***

45 Elision of vowels

Chapter 4

Elision of vowels We’ll deal with this topic in two parts: 1). Elision of basic vowels. 2). Simplification of diphthongs.

Elision of basic vowels As you know, the basic vowels in English are the sounds of ‘a’, ‘e’, ‘i’, ‘o’ and ‘u’. Whenever these vowels occur in unstressed syllables, they tend to become weak, and they sound like the unstressed schwa ‘@’ or sometimes like the short ‘i’ or ‘u’. In other words, speakers don’t pronounce the basic vowels clearly when those vowels occur in unstressed syllables. This is so whether the vowel is a short one or a long one. But note this: The vowel reduction only happens when the basic vowels occur in unstressed syllables — that is, in unstressed grammatical words and in the unstressed syllables of lexical words. In stressed syllables, the basic vowels are always pronounced clearly. And this tendency goes one step further in fast speech and casual speech. Thus when you speak fast (in any style of speech) or casually, the unstressed vowels ‘@’ and (short) ‘i’ (and sometimes the unstressed ‘u’) tend to disappear altogether. Remember this: This is not a rare phenomenon, but something that happens quite frequently.

Elision of vowels in grammatical words The words that are most affected by vowel elision are unstressed grammatical words. Here’s a detailed inventory of what happens to grammatical words in speech:

46 Elision of vowels

• a » (= becomes) ‘@’; in fast speech, ‘a’ (= ‘@’) may even disappear altogether. • am » ‘@m’; or in fast speech, ‘m’. • an » ‘@n’; or in fast speech, ‘n’. • and » ‘@nd’; or in fast speech, ‘nd’ or ‘@n’ or ‘n’. • any » ‘ni’ (esp. in fast speech). • are » ‘@’ before consonants, and ‘@r’ or ‘r’ before vowels; in fast speech, ‘are’ (= ‘@’) may even disappear. • as » ‘@z’. • at » ‘@t’. • be » ‘bi’; or in fast speech, ‘b’ — especially before words beginning with a consonant. • been » ‘bin’; or in fast speech, ‘bn’. • but » ‘b@t’. • by » ‘b@’ (esp. in fast speech). • can (when used as an auxiliary verb) » ‘k@n’; or in fast speech, ‘kn’. • could » ‘k@d’; or in fast speech, ‘kd’; • do (when used as an auxiliary verb) » ‘du’ or ‘d@’; or in fast speech, ‘d’.

• does (when used as an auxiliary verb) » ‘d@z’; or in fast speech, ‘z’ or ‘s’. • for » ‘f@’ before consonants, and ‘f@r’ or ‘fr’ before vowels. • from » ‘fr@m’; or ‘fm’ — especially in fast speech and casual speech. • had (when used as an auxiliary verb) » ‘h@d’; or in fast speech, ‘@d’ or ‘d’. • has (when used as an auxiliary verb) » ‘h@z’; or in fast speech, ‘@z’ or ‘z’ or ‘s’. • have (when used as an auxiliary verb) » ‘h@v’; or in fast

47 Elision of vowels

speech, ‘@v’ or ‘v’ or ‘@’. • he » ‘hi’ or ‘i:’ (= ‘ee’); or in fast speech, ‘i’. • her » ‘h@’; or in fast speech, ‘@:’ or ‘@’. • him » ‘im’. • his » ‘iz’. • I » ‘@’ (esp. in fast speech). • if » ’f (esp. in fast speech). • in » ‘n’ (esp. in fast speech). • is » ‘s’ or ‘z’. • it » ’t ( esp. in fast speech). • many » ‘mni’ (esp. in fast speech). • may » ‘me’ (‘e’ here stands for the short vowel ‘e’ in ‘let’) or ‘m’; reduced only in fast speech. • me » ‘mi’. • must » ‘m@st’; or in fast speech, ‘m@s’. • my » ‘m@’ (esp. in fast speech). • nor » ‘n@’ (esp. in fast speech). • not » ‘nt’ or ‘n’. • of » ‘@v’; or in fast speech, ‘v’ or ‘@’. • on » ‘@n’ (only in fast speech). • one » ‘w@n’ (only in fast speech). • or » ‘@’ (in fast speech, before consonants) and ‘@r’ (in fast speech, before vowels). In fast speech, it (= ‘or’) may even disappear altogether before a consonant. • shall » ‘sh@l’; or in fast speech, ‘shl’. • she » ‘shi’; or in fast speech, ‘sh’. • should » ‘sh@d’; or in fast speech, ‘shd’. • Sir » ‘s@’ before consonants, and ‘s@r’ before vowels. • so » ‘s@’ (esp. in fast speech).

48 Elision of vowels

• some (when used to mean ‘an unspecified quantity’) » ‘s@m’; or in fast speech, ‘sm’. • than » ‘th@n’; or in fast speech, ‘thn’. • that (when used as a conjunction or as a relative pronoun) » ‘th@t’. • the » ‘thi’ before vowels, and ‘th@’ before consonants. • them » ‘th@m’; or in fast speech, ‘@m’ or ‘m’. • then » ‘th@n’ (only in fast speech). • there (when used as an indefinite adverb) » ‘th@’ before consonants, and ‘th@r’ before vowels. • to » ‘t@’ before consonants, and ‘tu’ before vowels; or in fast speech, ‘t’, before a word beginning with a consonant. • us » ‘@s’; or in fast speech, ‘s’. • was » ‘w@z’; or in fast speech, ‘wz’. • we » ‘wi’; or in fast speech, ‘w’. • were » ‘w@’ before consonants, and ‘wer’ before vowels. • when » ‘w@n’ (only in fast speech). • who » ‘hu’; or in fast speech, ‘u:’ or ‘u’. • will » ‘l’. • would » ‘w@d’; or in fast speech, ‘@d’ or ‘d’. • you » ‘yu’ (with a short ‘u’) or ‘y@’. • your » ‘y@’ (in fast speech before consonants) and ‘yer’ (in fast speech before vowels). Here are two important points you must note: 1). The following grammatical words are all verb forms: ‘am’, ‘are’, ‘be’, ‘been’, ‘can’, ‘could’, ‘do’, ‘does’, ‘had’, ‘has’, ‘have’, ‘is’, ‘must’, ‘shall’, ‘should’, ‘was’, ‘were’, ‘will’ and ‘would’. Sometimes they occur at the end of a word group. Then you shouldn’t shorten these words, but pronounce them clearly. This is so even if you’re not stressing them

49 Elision of vowels

for special emphasis. E.g. • Yes, I am. • Yes, they are. • Yes, he has. • Yes, we do. 2).

The short vowel ‘i’ gets reduced to ‘@’ only in an unstressed syllable of a lexical word; it doesn’t get reduced to ‘@’ in grammatical words — even when they’re left unstressed. The grammatical words that contain ‘i’ are: ‘be’, ‘him’, ‘his’, ‘if’, ‘in’, ‘is’, ‘it’, ‘me’, ‘she’, ‘we’, ‘will’, ‘any’ and ‘many’. In these words, the vowel ‘i’ doesn’t get reduced to ‘@’. From many of these grammatical words, the ‘i’ sound may totally disappear in fast speech. But it never gets reduced to ‘@’. No. Thus, ‘be’ becomes ‘bi’ or even ‘b’, but never ‘b@’; ‘him’ becomes ‘im’, but not ‘@m’.

Elision of vowels in lexical words Just as grammatical words, lexical words are also often affected by vowel elision — though not to the same extent as grammatical words. First, we’ll deal with the elision of vowels within individual words, and then take up the elision of vowels at word junctions.

Word-internal vowel elision 1). Polysyllabic lexical words Lexical words that are almost always affected (when you speak at the normal speech rate) are polysyllabic words — that is, words having two or more syllables — and not monosyllabic words. (We’ll look at monosyllabic lexical words later). Elision of vowels within polysyllabic words happens in the following ways: (i) Among lexical words having two or more syllables, there are many words whose very first syllable is an unstressed one. The unstressed vowel ‘@’ or ‘i’ (short one) in this unstressed syllable is quite frequently left out in fast speech. (This is especially so when such a word follows a word ending in a vowel.) Here are a few examples:

50 Elision of vowels Eg: • b’loon (= balloon); • b’rometer (= barometer); • b’cause (= because); • b’lieve (= believe); • c’cumference (= circumference); • c’lision (= collision); • c’rect (= correct); • d’lightful (= delightful); • d’rection (= direction); • f’natic (= fanatic); • f’rocious (= ferocious); • g’rilla (= gorilla); • m’licious (= malicious); • p’haps (= perhaps); • ph’losophy (= philosophy); • ph’netics (= phonetics); • ph’tography (= photography); • p’lice (= police); • p’litical (= political); • p’tato (= potato); • s’loon (= saloon); • s’tirical (= satirical); • s’licitior (= solicitor); • s’ringe (= syringe); • s’porter (= supporter); • s’pose (= suppose); • t’rific (= terrific); • th’mometer (= thermometer); • t’mato (= tomato).

Note: In most of the words that undergo vowel elision in their unstressed initial syllable, the stressed syllable that follows the unstressed initial syllable starts with ‘l’ or ‘r’. (ii) An unstressed vowel is left out not only from an unstressed initial syllable, but also from an unstressed medial syllable (usually, an unstressed syllable that comes after the syllable carrying the main stress in the word). This happens most often when the unstressed ‘@’ or ‘i’ (or even the unstressed short ‘u’) is followed by ‘r’, ‘l’, ‘m’, ‘n’ or ‘ng’. Here are the common situations:

(a) Unstressed vowel + ‘r’

E.g. • annivers’ry (= anniversary); • cam’ra (= camera); • cat’gory (= category); • comp’rable (= comparable); • custom’ry (= customary); • dang’rous (= dangerous); • delib’rate (= deliberate); • diff’rent (= different); • fact’ry (= factory); • gen’ral (= general); • gen’rous (= generous); • hist’ry (= history); • int’rest (= interest); • int’rupt (= interrupt); • lavat’ry (= lavatory); • nach’ral (= natural); • ordin’ry (= ordinary); • pref’rable (= preferable); • robb’ry (= robbery); • secret’ry (= secretary); • suff’ring (= suffering); • temp’rature (= temperature).

You can note one thing here: In all these words, what comes after the ‘@r’ sound is a vowel (and not a consonant). For cases where a consonant comes after the medial vowel, see (j) below.

51 Elision of vowels

(b) ‘r’ + ‘@’ + ‘r’…

Suppose that a word contains not just a single unstressed ‘r’, but more than one ‘r’ in a sequence. Suppose also that these ‘r’s are separated by ‘@’. Then the sequence of the ‘r’ sounds would get reduced to a single ‘r’ sound. E.g. • murdr@’ (= murderer); • labr@’ (= labourer); • libri’ (= library); • Febri’ (= February); • litri’ (= literary); • contri’ (= contrary); • tempri’ (= temporary); • te:’rist (= terrorist). • a suffr@’ (= a sufferer).

(c) Unstressed vowel + ‘l’

E.g. • awf’l (= awful); • bach’lor (= bachelor); • caref’lly (= carefully); • eas’ly (= easily); • fam’ly (= family); • fat’list (= fatalist); • nov’list (= novelist); • prop’ly (= properly); • sim’lar (= similar); • spesh’list (= specialist); • ush’lly (= usually).

(d) Unstressed vowel + ‘m’

E.g. • gov’ment (= government); • math’matics (= mathematics); • parl’ment (= parliament); • rec’mend (= recommend); • ult’mate (= ultimate).

(e) Unstressed vowel + ‘n’

E.g. • cons’nant (= consonant); • em’nent (= eminent); • fash’nable (= fashionable); • nash’nal (= national); • op’ning (= opening); • pris’ner (= prisoner). • reas’nably (=reasonably).

(f) Unstressed vowel + ‘ng’

E.g. • ask’ng (= asking); • walk’ng (= walking); • wip’ng (= wiping); • runn’ng (= running); • danc’ng (= dancing).

(g) Vowel + -ing

When the suffix ‘ing’ is added to a word ending in a vowel/ diphthong, the ‘i’ in ‘ing’ is often elided in fast speech. E.g. • argyu’ng (= arguing); • continyu’ng (= continuing); • revyu’ng (= reviewing); • draw’ng (= drawing); • accompany’ng (= accompanying).

52 Elision of vowels

(h) Unstressed vowel + a consonant other than ‘r’, ‘l’, ‘m’, ‘n’ or ‘ng’

When the unstressed vowel is not followed by ‘r’, ‘l’, ‘m’, ‘n’ or ‘ng’, but by another consonant, the unstressed vowel is not generally elided at the normal speech rate. Thus, you shouldn’t normally shorten “ability” to “abil’ty” or “acceptable” to “accept’ble” (unless you’re speaking very fast). But there are a few exceptions. They are: • chanc’llor (= chancellor); • diff’cult (= difficult); • min’ster (= minister); • prob’bly (= probably); • talk’tive (= talkative); • univers’ty (= university). The following simplified forms are occasionally noticed even in educated speech, but many people consider them as unacceptable: • cig’rette (= cigarette); • poss’ble (= possible); • rec’nize (= recognize); • sa’sfactory (= satisfactory).

(i) ex + stress

There are several words like ‘explain’, ‘excuse’, etc. that start with an unstressed syllable ‘ex’ (pronounced as ‘iks’) and followed by a consonant. From the unstressed initial syllable (pronounced as ‘iks’), the short vowel ‘i’ is often left out in speech. For examples and more details, see (iii) under Elision of ‘k’ a few pages back.

(j) Word-internal ‘@(r)’

Suppose that the sound ‘@(r)’ comes in an unstressed syllable in the middle of a word. Then that sound is elided when a consonant (and not a vowel) comes after it. E.g. • afternoon » aft’noon. • butterfly » but’fly. • international » int’national. • kindergarten » kind’garten. • Saturday » Sat’day. • Supervisor » Sup’visor. • underline » und’line. • underwear » und’wear.

Note: For what happens to the medial ‘zr’ sound when a vowel comes after it, see (a) above.

53 Elision of vowels

2). Monosyllabic lexical words When you speak at the normal speech-rate (whether formally or informally), monosyllabic lexical words are almost always stressed, and they’re only left unstressed rarely. So the vowel in a monosyllabic lexical word is rarely elided — when you speak at the normal speech-rate. This is so whether you’re speaking formally or informally. But when you speak at a faster speech-rate in the informal style, a monosyllabic lexical word can sometimes become unstressed, and then the vowel in it may get weakened or even elided. This usually happens under the following circumstances: 1). This happens when the vowel is one of these short vowels: ‘i’ (= the vowel in the word “bit”), ‘e’ (= the vowel in the word “let”), ‘u’ (= the vowel in the word “put”) or ‘’ (the vowel in the word “but”); and 2). This happens when the (monosyllabic) word comes immediately after the most strongly accented syllable in the word group (that is, after the word that the speaker emphasizes as the most important one in the word group — especially when that word is itself a monosyllabic one). Point (2) needs some explanation: By now, you know that English is spoken by uttering a few closely connected words together at a time — as a single unit. Such a unit is often a phrase or a clause: A subject phrase or a predicate phrase — or a phrase or a clause giving extra information about the subject or the predicate. Sometimes, such a unit is a combination of a short phrase and a short clause. Often, such a unit is also an incomplete phrase or an incomplete clause. Now, an important feature of spoken English is this: When a native speaker of English delivers such a word group, he always emphasizes one word in that word group as more important than all the other words in it. He does this by stressing that word

54 Elision of vowels

and by changing his tone of voice while pronouncing it. (A word group delivered in this way is known as a tone group). Usually, the word that a speaker emphasizes in this way is the last lexical word in the word group. You see, the word group that the speaker delivers may have several grammatical words and more than one lexical word in it. As for the grammatical words, he doesn’t normally stress them. As for the lexical words, he normally stresses them all. Now as far as the last lexical word is concerned, he not only stresses it, but also changes his tone of voice on it (for example, from low to high or from high to low). This is what all speakers usually do. But sometimes, a speaker may (for some reason) want to emphasize a word other than the last lexical word. For example, he may want to emphasize a lexical word that comes earlier than the last lexical word. Or he may want to emphasize a grammatical word — instead of a lexical word. In such a case (that is, when he emphasizes a word other than the last lexical word), a monosyllabic lexical word that comes after the specially emphasized word is often left unstressed, and it undergoes elision — especially when that monosyllabic lexical word contains a short vowel ‘i’, ‘u’, ‘e’, or ‘’ and the speaker is speaking casually or fast. A few examples would make this explanation clear to you. As an example, take the word group “Don’t cut the grass”. Here, ‘grass’ is the last lexical word, and so a native speaker of English would normally emphasize that word more than the other words: “Don’t cut the GRASS”. But sometimes a speaker may want to emphasize either ‘cut’ or “Don’t”, instead. Now suppose that a speaker wants to emphasize the word “Don’t”. Then this is how the word group would sound: “DON’T cut the grass”.

55 Elision of vowels

You can see that the most strongly accented word here is “DON’T” and that the word that comes immediately after it is a monosyllabic lexical word ‘cut’. You can also see that this word contains a short vowel ‘’. (‘u’ is pronounced here as ‘’; this is the vowel in ‘but’, ‘luck’, etc.). Now if he’s speaking informally (= casually) and fast, the speaker would normally leave the word ‘cut’ unstressed (though it’s a lexical word), and this is how the word group would sound: “DON’T c@t the grass” or “DON’T c@t the grass”. Here are a few more examples: • SHE p’t (or p@t = put) the coffee on the table. • HE h’t (or h@t = hit) her on the head. • NO, he DIDN’T s’t (or s@ t= sit) down. • You CAN’T g’t (or g@t = get) him on the phone. Note: See also the discussion under Stressed & Unstressed syllables and elision later in this topic.

Vowel elision at word junctions (i) Suppose that a word ending in a consonant is followed (in a word group) by a word beginning with the unstressed ‘@’. Then the unstressed ‘@’ is left out, and not pronounced. E.g. • That alone = That ’lone. • Think about…= Think ’bout… • The people above him = The people ’bove him. • Come along = Come ’long. • child abuse = child ’buse. • What about... = What ’bout...

(ii) Suppose that a word ending in a short unstressed vowel ‘i’ or ‘@’ is followed (in a word group) by a word beginning with a consonant or an unstressed vowel. Then, in fast speech, the short unstressed vowel at the end of the first word is often left out (or is so weakened that only a trace of it would be pronounced). E.g. • angry with him = angr’ with him. • beauty spot = beaut’ spot. • He’s busy now = He’s bus’ now. • capacity crowd = capacit’ crowd. • dirty dishes = dirt’ dishes. • within easy distance = within eas’ distance. • Happy Birthday = Happ’ Birthday. • many

56 Elision of vowels things = men’ things. • in the ordinary way = in the ordinar’ way. • pretty girl = prett’ girl. • very much = ver’ much (= ve’ much; see under Elision of ‘r’). • extra day = extr’ day. • camera crews = camer’ crews. • thorough plans = thor@’ plans. • Take the umbrella with you = Take the umbrell’ with you. • agreed to come = agreed t’ come. • gone to the bank = gone t’ the bank. • went back into the room = went back int’ the room. • get into bed = get int’ bed. • and then we saw… = and then w’ saw…

About points (i) & (ii) above, here’s something interesting: When an unstressed vowel is elided between two consonants, we have a situation where either two consonants come together or three consonants come together. If the situation is one where two consonants come together, remember that a further simplification is sometimes possible in the form of assimilation. If the situation is one where three consonants come together, remember that a further simplification is sometimes possible in the form of elision of the middle consonant. E.g. • What about... = What ’bout... » Whap’ ’bout... • child abuse = child ’buse » chil’ ’buse.

(iii) The ‘@’ element in the word ‘the’ (= ∂’) often disappears when that word occurs before a consonant. This happens whether ‘the’ occurs after a vowel or a consonant. E.g. • came to the gate = came to ∂’ gate. • into the room = into ∂’ room. • agree the price = agree ∂’ price. • lay the carpet = lay ∂’ carpet. • By the way = By ∂’ way. • so the thing is… = so ∂’ thing is…

Note: These are all examples of ‘the’ coming after a vowel. For examples of ‘the’ coming after a consonant, see sl. no.(i) under Elision of ∂ a few pages back. The Note you get there is very important. (iv) (a) Suppose that a word ending in the sound ‘@r’ is followed (in a word group) by a word beginning with a vowel. Then the ‘@’ in ‘@r’ often gets elided. Here are some examples: • She didn’t off’rany (= offer any) food to… • und’ra (= under a) tree. • I found it rath’reasy (= rather easy). •

57 Elision of vowels

ov’rand (= over and) above. • a matt’rof (= matter of) some importance. • aft’rall (= after all). (b) Suppose that a word ending in the sound ‘@r’ is followed (in a word group) by a word beginning with a consonant. Then, if you’re speaking fast or casually, the ‘@r’ (and not just ‘r’) gets elided completely. But if you’re speaking slowly or at the normal speech rate, only the ‘r’ gets elided. [See (vi) under Elision of ‘r’ a few pages above]. E.g. • after that = aft’ that. • barber shop = barb’ shop. • better than = bet’ than. • Doctor John = Doct’ John. • better don’t = bet’ don’t. Note: See (vi) under Elision of ‘r’ a few pages back. (v) When the sound ‘iz’ is added to the end of a noun or a verb, and that word is then followed by a word beginning with a consonant or by an unstressed vowel, the ‘i’ in ‘iz’ tends to disappear. E.g. • the buses going in that direction = the buss’ going… • The horss’ (= horses) couldn’t… • The notiss’ (= notices) were… • The bokss’ (= boxes) are… • treiss’ (= traces) of poison. • Both pleiss’ (= places) seemed… • His shop closs’ (= closes) at 8. • If he promiss’ (= promises) to do it… • These cheinjs’ (= changes) won’t affect them • She manejs’ (= manages) both the offices. • Their charjs’ (= charges) are reasonable. • He encourejs’ (= encourages) young people to… • My neiss’ (= niece’s) birthday. • Our boss’ (= boss’s) car.

(vi) When the sound ‘id’ is added to the end of a verb ending in ‘t’ or ‘d’, and that word is then followed by a word beginning with a consonant or an unstressed vowel, the ‘i’ in ‘id’ tends to disappear. E.g. • Is everyone account’d (= accounted) for? • This is admitt’d (= admitted) to be… • He collect’d (= collected) forty books… • His explanation fit’d (= fitted) with facts… • He prevent’d (= prevented) me from doing that. • He attend’d (= attended) the meeting… • He’s decid’d (= decided) to resign. • They divid’d (= divided) into small groups. • He finally succeed’d (= succeeded) in getting the contract.

58 Elision of vowels

(vii) Many of the word groups that we use in everyday speech start with “It’s”. The ‘I’ or the ‘It’ in “It’s” is often elided in fast speech as well as in casual speech, and all that can be heard is “ ’s ”. This is especially so when such a word group is uttered immediately after another word group without a marked pause in a continuous stream of speech. E.g. • ’s (= It’s) no use complaining. • ’s (= It’s) been raining all day. • ’s (= It’s) not true. • ’s (= It’s) most unfortunate.

(viii) From the word ‘in’, the vowel ‘i’ is often elided in speech. E.g. • He’s in the other room = He’s ’n the other… • He’ll be back in an hour = ...back ’n an hour. • She was here in the morning = ...here ’n the morning. • She was dressed in black = ...dressed ’n black.

Here’s an important point you should note: While dealing with the elision of ‘n’ a few pages back, I told you that many speakers find it easier to speak fluently if they leave out the sound ‘n’ when another consonant comes after it. Yes, that’s what happens with many speakers. When they speak, they’re likely to leave out the ‘n’ in the word ‘in’ — if a word beginning with a consonant follows that word. But many other speakers find it easier to elide ‘i’ (rather than ‘n’) from ‘in’. So remember this: In the word ‘in’, some native speakers of English leave out ‘i’, and some native speakers leave out ‘n’. In fact, you can find the same native speakers leaving out ‘n’ in certain circumstances and ‘i’ in certain other circumstances.

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59 Simplification of diphthongs

Chapter 5

Simplification of diphthongs So far we’ve been looking at elision of one-unit vowels. Let’s now look at elision of vowels within a multi-unit vowel group. As you know, a combination of two vowels is called a diphthong. The diphthongs in English are: ‘u@’, ‘e@’, ‘au’, ‘@u’, ‘ai’, ‘ei’, ‘i@’ and ‘oi’. Out of these eight diphthongs, ‘u@’ and ‘e@’ are almost always simplified, and not pronounced clearly; ‘au’, ‘@u’, ‘ai’ and ‘ei’ are frequently simplified; and ‘i@’ and ‘oi’ are only simplified now and then. Let’s take up these cases separately.

(i) Simplification of ‘u@’ This diphthong is the vowel combination in words like ‘sure’ and ‘poor’. In normal conversational English, this vowel combination is often simplified as ‘o:’ (= the long vowel sound in ‘more’, ‘floor’, ‘court’, ‘saw’, ‘boat’, etc.) This is so when the diphthong occurs in a stressed as well as an unstressed syllable. Note that the simplification of ‘u@’ to ‘o:’ is very common in words containing that diphthong. Here is what often happens to words containing the ‘u@’ sound in speech: • sure » (= becomes) sho:; • surely » sho:ly; • poor » po:; • tourist » to:rist; • influence » inflo:nce; • insurance » insho:rance; • your » yo:; you’re » yo:; • bureau » byo:reau; • cure » kyo:; • curious » kyo:rious; • curiosity » kyo:riosity; • during » dyo:ring; • endure » endyo:; • furious » fyo:rious; • secure » sekyo:; • vacuum » vakyo:m; • valuable » valyo:ble.

60 Simplification of diphthongs

Remember that the simplification of ‘u@’ to ‘o:’ in words like these only happens when they occur along with other words in a word group in speech, and not when these words are uttered individually. E.g. • a po: (poor) neighbourhood. • I’m sho: (= sure) that’s him.

(ii) Simplification of ‘e@’ This diphthong is the vowel combination in words like ‘rare’ and ‘chair’. In speech, this vowel combination is often simplified as ‘e:’ — the sound you get if you lengthen the ‘e’ sound in ‘wet’, ‘bet’, etc. Just as the ‘u@’ sound, the ‘e@’ sound also gets simplified in stressed as well as in unstressed syllables. Note that the simplification of ‘e@’ to ‘e:’ is very common in words containing that diphthong. Here’s what often happens to words containing the ‘e@’ sound in speech: • bare » be:; • bear » be:; • chair » che:; • fair » fe:; • rare » re:; • rarely » re:ly; • shares » she:s; • stared » ste:d; • theirs » the:s; • there » the:; • wear » we:; • where » we:; • careful » ke:ful; • scarcely » ske:sly. Remember that the simplification of ‘e@’ to ‘e:’ in words like these only happens when they occur along with other words in a word group in speech, and not when these words are uttered individually. E.g. • a bare surface = a be: surface. • a fair amount = a fe: amount. • air travel = e:travel. • couldn’t care less = couldn’t ke: less.

(iii) Simplification of ‘au’ This diphthong is the vowel combination in words like ‘now’, ‘our’, ‘out’, ‘loud’, etc. In speech, this vowel combination often gets reduced in two circumstances: Circumstance 1: The first circumstance when ‘au’ gets reduced is when it appears in an unstressed syllable in speech.

61 Simplification of diphthongs

When it appears in an unstressed syllable, it often gets reduced to ‘’ — the vowel sound in ‘but’, ‘cup’, ‘luck’, ‘sun’, etc. Sometimes, the ‘’ sound even gets lengthened a bit and almost becomes ‘a:’ — the vowel in ‘car’, ‘father’, ‘calm’, etc. Note this: The ‘au’ sound normally gets reduced to the ‘’ sound only when it occurs in an unstressed syllable, and not when it occurs in a stressed syllable. But even when it occurs in a stressed syllable, the second element ‘u’ is not pronounced clearly — all that can be heard or felt of the ‘u’ element is just a trace of it. That’s all. It’s the first element ‘a’ alone that is prominent. Here’s what often happens to the words containing the ‘au’ sound under Circumstance 1: Eg: • They n’ (= now) live in Bombay. • He jumped a:’t (= out) of the window. • He doesn’t know ha:’ (= how) to do it. • a la:’d (= loud) bang. • the s’th (= south) of Bombay. • He has da:’ts (= doubts) about your ability. • OUR ta:’n (= town) is smaller. • DON’T al’ (= allow) him to do it. • THAT sa:nds (= sounds) good. • That’s HIS ha:’s (= house). • STOP sh’ting (= shouting) at me.

Circumstance 2: ‘au’ + ‘@’. When the ‘au’ sound is followed by ‘@’, the combination gets simplified to ‘a:’. This is so whether the combination occurs within a word or at word boundaries (within a word group). E.g. • Ha: ’bout (= How about) him? • Na: ’nother (= Now another) question. • A ca: ’n (= cow and) a goat. • have a sha:’ (= shower). • A red fla:’ (= flower). • a:’ (= our) bank. • Nowadays (= Na:’days). • He’s a ka:’d (= coward). • That’s a:’s (= ours). • a ta:’r (= tower) of strength. • a pa:’ful (= powerful) man in Delhi.

(iv) Simplification of ‘@u’ This diphthong is the vowel combination in words like ‘no’, ‘know’, ‘so’, ‘home’, ‘road’, ‘told’, etc. This vowel combination often gets reduced in four circumstances. Let’s look at these circumstances separately:

62 Simplification of diphthongs

Circumstance 1: The ‘@u’ sound gets reduced to the unstressed schwa ‘@’ when it (‘@u’) occurs in an unstressed syllable. E.g. • N@’ (= No), thanks. • …not s@ (= so) big as… • acted as th@ (= though) nothing had happened. • He was @’taken (= overtaken) by surprise. • you kn@ (= know) what I mean? • It was our @’n (= own) fault. • I d@n’t (= don’t) know. • SHE w@n’t (= won’t) do it.

Here’s something that you should understand: If a monosyllabic lexical word comes next to a strongly stressed monosyllabic grammatical or lexical word in a word group, it’s often left unstressed in fast informal speech, and if it contains the ‘@u’ diphthong, that diphthong gets reduced to the unstressed schwa ‘@’. (See also the discussion under Monosyllabic lexical words under Elision of vowels in lexical words). E.g. • DON’T g@’ (= go) away. • SHE kn@’s (= knows) you. • HE t@’ld (= told) me. • Not ONE, but TWO g@’ld (= gold) rings. Circumstance 2: In a stressed syllable containng the ‘@u’ sound, ‘@u’ is frequently pronounced almost like ‘@:’ — with only a trace of the ‘u’ element present after it. (Note that ‘@:’ is the vowel sound in ‘girl’, ‘bird’, ‘burn’, ‘purse’, ‘word’, ‘journey’, etc.). That is, in a stressed syllable, the first element ‘@’ of ‘@u’ is lengthened and given prominence (to become ‘@:’), while the second element ‘u’ is reduced to a faint trace. E.g. • He phoned me = He ph@:’ned me. • a road accident = a r@:’d accident. • I was at home = I was at h@:’m. • He told me... = He t@:’ld me… • How old is he? = How @:’ld is he? Here are a few other frequently-occurring words that contain the diphthong ‘@u’: both, soap, toe, boat, bone, blow, close, row, own, post. Circumstance 3: ‘@u’ + ‘@’. When the ‘@u’ sound is followed by ‘@’ in a word group, the combination gets reduced to ‘@:’ This is so whether the combination occurs in a stressed syllable or in

63 Simplification of diphthongs

an unstressed syllable. (But the combination ‘@u’ + ‘@’ is not as common as the combinations ‘ai’ + ‘@’ or ‘au’ + ‘@’). E.g. • G@:’way (= Go away). • Tomor@:’n (= Tomorrow and) the day after. • fol@:’ (= follow a) particular method. • sh@:’nother …(= show another…). • thr@:’t (= throw at) them. • sl@:’r (= slower). • l@:’r (= lower) than… • nar@:’r (= narrower) than… • bl@:’nto (= blow into) it. • Do you n@:’bout (= know about) his background? • He speaks English and als@:’ (= also a) little French.

Circumstance 4: When the suffix ‘ing’ is added to a word ending in ‘@u’, the ‘@u’ becomes ‘@:’ in fast speech (and the ‘i’ in ‘ing’often disappears). E.g. • blowing » bl@:ng. • flowing » fl@:ng. • going » g@:ng. • growing » gr@:ng. • showing » sh@:ng. • swallowing » swall@:ng. • throwing » thr@:ng.

(v) Simplification of ‘ai’ This diphthong is the vowel combination in words like ‘by’, ‘I’, ‘my’, ‘why’, ‘apply’, etc. In speech, this diphthong often gets reduced to the vowel sound ‘’ or ‘a:’ (‘’ is the vowel in ‘but’, ‘cup’, ‘luck’, ‘sun’, etc. and ‘a:’ is the vowel in ‘card’, ‘dark’, ‘pass’, ‘calm’, etc.). This reduction usually happens in three circumstances. Circumstance 1: The first circumstance when ‘ai’ gets reduced is when these three conditions are satisfied: (a) the word that contains the sound ‘ai’ ends with it; (b) the syllable that contains that sound is unstressed; and (c) that word is followed by a word beginning with a consonant. When these three conditions are satisfied, ‘ai’ often gets reduced to ‘’ or ‘a:’. E.g. • He reserved the tickets b’ (= by) phone. • Am ’ (= Am I) right? • Where’s m’ (= my) bag? • That’s wa:’ (= why) they… • He ma:t (= might) win this time. • I’m not trying to justif’ (= justify) myself. • We’ll have to modif’ (= modify) the plan. • occup’ (= occupy) that building. • They couldn’t qualif’

64 Simplification of diphthongs (= qualify) for the finals. • We’ll have to verif’ (= verify) the details. • satisf’ (= satisfy) the examiners.

Mind you, the sound ‘ai’ doesn’t normally get reduced when it occurs medially in lexical words. For example, ‘ai’ doesn’t normally get reduced in words like ‘time’, ‘write’, ‘height’, ‘rice’, ‘white’, etc. — ‘ai’ would only get reduced from a medial syllable in a lexical word like these if that word is left unstressed. And normally, lexical words are not left unstressed. Circumstance 2: ‘ai’ + ‘@’. When the ‘ai’ sound is followed by the unstressed schwa ‘@’, the combination gets simplified as ‘a:@’ or just ‘a:’. This is so whether the combination occurs within a word or at a word junction. (But note this: Even within a word, this sort of reduction would only occur when the word is used along with other words in a word group, and not when the word is pronounced individually in isolation). E.g. • fire (= fa:r). • tyre (= ta:r). • trial (= tra:l). • riot (= ra:t). • iron (= a:n). • buyer (= ba:r). • quiet (= qua:t). • try again = tra: ’gain. • buy another one = ba: ’nother... • by a new method = ba: ’new... • apply again = appla: ’gain. • a cry and a shout = a cra: ’n a shout. • fly at the speed of sound = fla: at the… • a cry of terror = a cra: ’f terror.

Circumstance 3: When the suffix ‘ing’ is added to a word ending in ‘ai’, the ‘i’ in ‘ing’ often disappears in fast speech, and the ‘ai’ at the end of the word becomes ‘a:’. E.g. • applying » appla:ng. • buying » ba:ng. • crying » cra:ng. • denying » dena:ng. • justifying » justifa:ng. • replying » repla:ng. • supplying » suppla:ng. • trying » tra:ng.

(vi) Simplification of ‘ei’ This diphthong is the vowel combination in words like ‘late’, ‘waste’, ‘day’, ‘aim’, etc. This diphthong gets reduced in three circumstances. Circumstance 1: In speech, ‘ei’ gets reduced to its first element ‘e’ — when it occurs in an unstressed syllable. The sound

65 Simplification of diphthongs

‘e’ is the vowel in words like ‘bed’, ‘head’, ‘let’, ‘sell’, etc. E.g. • What did the’ (= they » thei) tell you? • The’ll (= They’ll) be very happy. • He me’ (= may » mei) come tomorrow. • Far awe’ (= away » awei) from here. • You SHOULD obe’ (= obey » obei) the law. • THIS med (= made » meid) things difficult. • He did it with gret (= great » greit) difficulty. • He won’t brek (= break » breik) his word.

There’s one thing you should note here. Even in a stressed syllable, when you pronounce ‘ei’, the first element ‘e’ should be pronounced very clearly, and the second element ‘i’ should not be pronounced clearly or fully. That is, the ‘e’ element in ‘ei’ should stand out prominently, and there should only be a faint trace of the ‘i’ element. And remember these two points: (a) Don’t lengthen the ‘e’ element to such an extent that it becomes ‘e:’, a longer version of ‘e’ (except in the situation mentioned below); and (b) don’t substitute the sound ‘@:’ for ‘e’ (except in the situation mentioned below). Circumstance 2: ‘ei’ + ‘@’. Occasionally, the ‘ei’ sound may be followed by ‘@’. This can happen within a word as well as at word boundaries. When this happens, the combination ‘ei’ + ‘@’ tends to get reduced to ‘e@’ or to just ‘e:’ or just ‘@:’ (Note: See the simplification of ‘e@’ already dealt with). But note that the combination ‘ei’ + ‘@’ is not as common as the combination ‘au’ + ‘@’ or ‘ai’ + ‘@’. E.g. • They are coming = The:’ coming; or Th@:’ coming. • They are here = The:’ here; or Th@:’ here. • way above = we:’bove; or w@:’bove. • pay a large sum = pe:’large sum; or p@:’large sum. • a display of fireworks = a displ@:’ fireworks. • today and tomorrow = tode:’n tomorrow. • pay at the rate of… = pe:’t the rate of... • pr@: (= prayer). • pl@: (= player). • sk@:sly (= scarcely). • k@:fully (= carefully). • l@: (= layer). • f@:rest (= fairest). • betr@:l (= betrayal).

Circumstance 3: ‘ei’ + ‘ing’. When the suffix ‘ing’ is added to a word ending in ‘ei’, the ‘i’ in ‘ing’ often disappears in fast speech, and ‘ei’ becomes ‘e:’ or ‘e’.

66 Simplification of diphthongs E.g. • conveying » conve:ng. • decaying » deke:ng. • delaying » dele:ng. • paying » pe:ng. • surveying » surve:ng.

(vii) Simplification of ‘oi’ This diphthong is the vowel combination in words like ‘boy’, ‘enjoy’, etc. It gets simplified in two circumstances: Circumstance 1: ‘oi’ + ‘@’. When the ‘oi’ sound is followed by ‘@’, the combination often gets reduced to ‘o:@’. (But this reduction is not as common as the reduction of ‘ai’ when followed by ‘@’ or that of ‘au’ when followed by ‘@’). E.g. • enjoy a lot = enjo:@’ lot. • employ another person = emplo:@ ’nother person. • boy and girl = bo:@’nd girl. • destroy a thing like that = destro:@ thing… • anno:@nce (= annoyance). • emplo:@ (= employer). • lo:@s (= lawyers). • ro:@l (= royal). Circumstance 2: ‘oi’ + ‘ing’. When the suffix ‘ing’ is added to a word ending in ‘oi’, the ‘i’ in ‘ing’ often disappears in fast speech, and ‘oi’ becomes ‘o:’. E.g. • annoying » anno:ng. • destroying » destro:ng. • enjoying » enjo:ng. • toying (with an idea) » to:ng (with…).

(viii) Simplification of ‘i@’ This diphthong is the vowel combination in words like ‘dear’, ‘here’, ‘fierce’, etc. In speech, when it occurs in a stressed syllable, this diphthong tends to get reduced to a sound that falls between ‘@:’ and ‘’ — especially when it (this diphthong) comes at the end of a word. Often, it would be difficult to differentiate between this sound and ‘@:’, and so for all practical purposes, we can say that, in stressed syllables, ‘i@:’ gets reduced to ‘@:’ (that is, the vowel in ‘girl’, ‘bird’, etc.). In unstressed syllables, the ‘i@’ sound tends to get reduced to a weak form of ‘e’ (that is, to a weak form of the vowel in ‘let’, ‘bet’, etc.). E.g. • She’s a de’ (= dear) friend of mine. • Hes’ (= Here’s) how it should be done. • a f@:s (= fierce) attack. • a cl@: (= clear) sky.

67 Simplification of diphthongs • a s@:rious (= serious) person. • the n@:rest (= nearest) bus stop. • in a y@:’s (= year’s) time. • all ye’ (= year) round. • r@:lly (= really).

In all other diphthongs (that is, in ‘u@’, ‘e@’, ‘au’, ‘@u’, ‘ai’, ‘ei’ and ‘oi’), it’s the first element that gets prominence and length in pronunciation — when the syllable containing that diphthong is stressed in speech. • In ‘u@’, ‘u’ gets prominence and length, and ‘@’ is only lightly touched upon. • In ‘e@’, ‘e’ gets prominence and length, and ‘@’ is only lightly touched upon. • In ‘au’, ‘a’ gets prominence and length, and ‘u’ is only lightly touched upon. • In ‘@u’, ‘@’ gets prominence and length, and ‘u’ is only lightly touched upon. • In ‘ai’, ‘a’ gets prominence and length and ‘i’ is only lightly touched upon. • In ‘ei’, ‘e’ gets prominence and length, and ‘i’ is only lightly touched upon. • In ‘oi’, ‘o’ gets prominence and length, and ‘i’ is only lightly touched upon. But in ‘i@’, the situation is different. In ‘i@’, there is a tendency for the prominence and length to move away from the first element to the second element. In other words, in ‘i@’, the element that gets prominence and length is the second element ‘@’, and not the first element ‘i’. Actually, in ‘i@’, only a trace of the first element ‘i’ can be felt.

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68 Elision within a word

Chapter 6

Elision within a word Just as assimilation, elision also happens not only at word junctions, but also within individual words. We’ve already seen several instances of elision within words, but I’m dealing with this topic separately here just to draw your attention pointedly to this kind of elision. One thing you must remember about elision within words is this: It can happen because of the elision of a vowel or that of a consonant. I’ve already given a large number of examples of elision of vowels from individual words while discussing the topic Elision of vowels. (E.g. s’pose, prob’ble, gen’ral, int’rest, etc.). And so, I’m not going to give any more examples of that sort of elision here. But I’ve not given you sufficient number of examples of elision of consonants from individual words, and so here’s a collection of these examples:

Elision of only one consonant (i) Elision of ‘t’ or ‘d’

This is the most common form of elision (of a consonant) from within a word, especially, in fast speech. This sort of elision happens when ‘t’ or ‘d’ occurs between two other consonants. E.g. • accep’s (= accepts); • aspec’s (= aspects); • attemp’s (= attempts); • Chris’mas (= Christmas); • coas’guard (= coastguard); • conflic’s (= conflicts); • consis’s (= consists); • cos’s (= costs); • draf’sman (= draftsman); • dus’man (= dustman); • exac’ly (= exactly); • fac’s (= facts); • firs’ly (= firstly); • frien’ship (= friendship); • gran’mother (= grandmother); • han’some (= handsome); • han’bag (= handbag); • kin’ness (= kindness); • lan’lord (= landlord); • lan’scape (= landscape); • las’ly (= lastly); • mos’ly (= mostly);

69 Elision within a word • objec’s (= objects); • perfec’ly (= perfectly); • pos’man (= postman); • promp’s (= prompts); • protec’s (= protects); • res’less (= restless).

(ii) Elision of ‘d’ — special cases

(a) In fast speech, from unstressed words ending in ‘ds’ or ‘des’, the ‘d’ is often elided — especially when those words are followed (in a word group) by a word beginning with a consonant or an unstressed vowel. E.g. • The car needs (= nee’z) a good wash. • He needs (= nee’z) to think about all this. • Besides (= besi’z) this, he has got a… • THREE birds (= b@:’z), and not two. • THOSE seeds (= see’z), and not these. • a goods (= goo’z) train.

(b) In fast speech, ‘d’ is often elided from the negative words “didn’t”, “couldn’t”, “hadn’t”, “shouldn’t” and “wouldn’t”. E.g. • He di’nt (= didn’t) do it. • She ku’nt (= couldn’t) come. • He ha’nt (= hadn’t) seen it then. • You shu’nt (= shouldn’t) go in. • They wu’nt (= wouldn’t) agree.

Note: See also (ii), under Elision of ‘d’.

(iii) Elision of ‘l’

We’ve already seen that the ‘l’, in words like ‘also’, ‘already’, etc. is elided in fast speech: • a’most (= almost); • a’ready (= already); • a’so (= also); • a’though (= although); • a’together (= altogether); • a’ways (= always). We’ve also seen that the ‘l’ in ‘certainly’ and ‘only’ is elided in fast speech and that ‘certainly’ is pronounced as “certn’y” and ‘only’ is pronounced as “on’y”.

(iv) Elision of ‘T’ (= ‘th’ in ‘asthma’) The ‘T’ element is elided in certain words.

E.g. • as’ma (= asthma); • mon’s (= months); • fif’s (= fifths); • tableclo’s (= tablecloths). • dishclo’s (= dishcloths).

70 Elision within a word

(v) Elision of ‘∂’ (= ‘th’ in ‘clothes’) The ‘∂’ element in certain words is elided.

E.g. • clo’z (= clothes); • brea’s (= breathes); • smoo’z (= smooths).

(vi) Elision of ‘f’

The sound ‘f’ gets elided when it occurs between two other consonants. Eg. • twelfths » twel’ths (» twel’s).

(vii) Elision of ‘k’

The sound ‘k’ in ‘asked’ is always elided: asked » asd » ast.

(viii) Elision of ‘p’

From the words ‘cupboard’, the sound ‘p’ is elided, and this word is pronounced as “cu’board”. From the word “glimpse”, the sound ‘p’ is elided, and this word is pronounced as “glim’se”. From the words ‘jumps’, ‘lumps’, ‘limps’, etc., the sound ‘p’ is elided, and these words are pronounced as ‘jums’, ‘lums’, ‘lims’, etc.

Elision of more than one consonant or vowel By now, we’ve seen all the normal cases of elision of consonants and vowels (including simplification of diphthongs). There’s an important point that you should note now: In a single word, it’s not a single consonant alone or a single vowel alone that may happen to be elided. More than one consonant or one vowel, or one or more consonants, or one or more vowels, may sometimes happen to be elided. And this multiple elision affects the shape of a word group considerably. This is especially so when you speak fast or casually. For example, from the negative word “didn’t”, what is often elided is not the (second) ‘d’ alone — ‘t’ is also often elided. Thus, the word group “He didn’t do it” is usually pronounced as “He din’ do it”. Here are some more

71 Elision within a word

examples of multiple elision: • She kun’ (= couldn’t) come. • You shun’ (= shouldn’t) go in. • They wun’ (= wouldn’t) agree. • explain » ’splain. • extraordinary » ’stronry. • particularly » p@tikly. • Mister Sharma » ’st@ Sharma. • It’s not true » ’snot true. • afternoon » aft’noon » af’noon. • yesterday » yest’day » yes’day. • after that » aft’ that » af’ that. • Doctor John » Doct’ John » Doc’ John. • child abuse » child ’buse » chil’ ’buse.

Stressed & unstressed syllables and elision There’s another important point you should note about elision: When you speak at the normal speech-rate, it’s generally an unstressed syllable in a word that gets elided. A stressed syllable in a word is almost never elided at the normal speech-rate. Remember that, just as assimilation, the process of elision also takes place because of the rhythmic pressure: The characteristic rhythm of English forces you to try and squeeze all the unstressed syllables that follow a stressed syllable (in a foot) between that stressed syllable and the next stressed syllable (in the next foot). And while you’re trying to squeeze the unstressed syllables into the small space between two stressed syllables, elements of certain unstressed syllables get elided (and the elements of certain unstressed syllables get assimilated). As far as stressed syllables are concerned, native speakers of English don’t rush through them. Native speakers of English always utter stressed syllables slowly enough to be explicit and clear. They only rush through unstressed syllables. And so, the syllables that get elided would normally be unstressed syllables, and not stressed syllables. Now as far as grammatical words are concerned, they’re always left unstressed — unless the speaker wants to stress them as a special case (to give them contextual emphasis). As far as a

72 Elision within a word

polysyllabic lexical word is concerned, it’s almost always stressed, and so one syllable in it would remain stressed, and all the other syllables would remain unstressed. And as far as a monosyllabic lexical word is concerned, it’s almost always stressed, too. As you know, the sole syllable in a monosyllabic lexical word is a stressed syllable, and a monosyllabic lexical word doesn’t contain any unstressed syllable. Thus, the syllables that get elided when you speak at the normal speech-rate would be the syllables of grammatical words and the unstressed syllables of polysyllabic lexical words. In other words, the stressed syllable of a polysyllabic lexical word is almost never affected by elision. The same holds true about the sole syllable of a monosyllabic lexical word also. The stressed syllable of a lexical word may become unstressed and elided only when you speak at a rate faster than the normal speech-rate — that too, in the casual (= informal) style. Yes, this only happens in casual speech, spoken fast. And the lexical word that may be affected in this way is usually the one that comes immediately after the strongest accent in the word group. This subject has already been explained in detail in this Book. (See the discussion under Monosyllabic lexical words under Word-internal vowel elision under Elision of vowels in lexical words).

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73 Insertion

Chapter 7

Insertion We’ve seen that everyone finds it easier to pronounce a sequence of consonants if they leave out one (or even more) of them, and utter only the rest. This is the process of Elision. Now let’s look at a process that’s the reverse of elision. This process is called Insertion. Here what happens is this: Some speakers find it easier to pronounce a sequence of consonants if they add a new consonant in the middle of the sequence. Thus, for example, they find it easier to pronounce the word ‘circumference’ if they put in the sound ‘p’ between ‘m’ and ‘f’. When they make this insertion, the word ‘circumference’ becomes ‘circum(p)ference’. The listeners won’t normally notice the insertion, and even if they do, the pronunciation won’t sound strange, and there won’t be any confusion in interpreting the word as ‘circumference’ itself. The consonant sounds that are normally inserted in this way are ‘p’, ‘t’ and ‘k’. Let’s look at the possible types of insertion:

(i) Insertion of ‘p’ (a) Insertion of ‘p’ between ‘m’ and ‘f’:

E.g. • comfort » com(p)fort. • circumference » circum(p)ference. • triumph » trium(p)ph. • come(p) forward. • a time frame = a time(p)frame.

We saw while dealing with ‘assimilation’ that ‘n’ becomes ‘m’ before ‘f’. Thus the word “information” becomes “im’formation” through assimilation. In situations like this also, ‘p’ can be inserted between ‘m’ and ‘f’. Thus “im’formation” can become “im(p)formation”. Here are a few more examples: • confusion » com’fusion » com(p)fusion. • unfair » um’fair » um(p)fair. • in February = im’ February » im(p)February.

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• remain free = remaim’ free » remaim(p)free.

(b) Insertion of ‘p’ between ‘m’ and ‘T’:

E.g. • warmth » warm(p)th. • something » some(p)thing. • same theme = same(p)theme.

(c) Insertion of ‘p’ between ‘m’ and ‘s’:

E.g. • seems » seem(p)s. • forms » form(p)s. • comes » come(p)s. • themselves » them(p)selves. • from someone I know = from(p) someone... • same size = same(p)size. • extreme south = extreme(p)south.

(ii) Insertion of ‘t’ (a) Insertion of ‘t’ between ‘n’ and ‘s’:

E.g. • chancellor » chan(t)cellor; • mincing » min(t)cing; • prince » prin(t)s; • once » on(t)s; • tense » ten(t)se; • dance » dan(t)ce; • assistance » assistan(t)ce. • thin slices = thin(t)slices. • a keen sense of smell = a keen(t)sense... • plain sailing = plain(t)sailing.

(b) Insertion of ‘t’ between ‘n’ and ‘T’:

E.g. • tenth » ten(t)T. • one thousand » one(t)thousand.

(iii) Insertion of ‘k’ E.g. • She wouldn’t [= wung(k)] give it. • You can’t [= kang(k)] go in. • He didn’t [= didng(k)] come.

Do insertions come naturally to you? Just because insertions of the types mentioned at (i), (ii) and (iii) are possible, it doesn’t mean that you must make these insertions. No. You need to make insertions only if they come naturally to you. But if they come naturally to you, don’t try hard to suppress or avoid them — go ahead and make the insertions then.

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75 Overall simplification

Chapter 8

Overall simplification From the things we’ve looked at so far, we now know that the shape of a word within a word group may get changed when you pronounce it along with other words in speech. Now don’t be under the impression that, if the shape of a word is changed by the process of assimilation, the process of elision won’t apply to it, or that, if the shape of a word is changed by elision, the process of assimilation won’t apply to it. In fact, what really happens in speech is this: Some words would only be affected by assimilation, and some words would only be affected elision. But many words would be affected both by assimilation and by elision. And when a word is affected by assimilation as well as elision, its shape changes not just a little, but considerably. Thus, for example, in “went back”, the ‘t’ gets elided, and the sequence becomes “wen’ back”. Now the sound ‘n’ occurs before the sound ‘b’. So the ‘n’ readily assimilates to ‘m’. And the sequence then becomes “wem’ back”. Similarly, the word group “He isn’t coming” becomes “He isn’ coming” through the elision of ‘t’, and then becomes “He isng’ coming” through the assimilation of ‘n’. In the same way, the word “handbag” becomes “han’bag” through the elision of ‘d’, and then “ham’bag” through the assimilation of ‘n’. Here’s another example: The word “remember” in “I can’t remember where it is” becomes “rememb” by the elision of ‘er’ before the word ‘where’. Then “rememb” becomes “remem’ ” by the elision of ‘b’ between ‘m’ and ‘w’. And in fast speech, “remem” becomes “remm”, especially if you’re speaking casually. Thus, the word group “I can’t remember where it is” becomes “I can’t remm’ where it is” in fast casual speech. Now there’s another important thing I want you to note: I’ve given you a large number of examples in this Book to illustrate

76 Overall simplification

various points. But while giving an example to illustrate a particular point, I’ve generally been limiting myself to that particular point. Though the same example may have contained a feature that might illustrate another point also, I’ve generally been ignoring that feature. This was done to get all your attention concentrated on the point being illustrated, and to avoid confusing you by bringing in things that are not directly relevant. For example, I told you just now that the word group “I can’t remember where it is” becomes “I can’t remm’ where it is” in fast casual speech. When I told you that, I was drawing your attention to what happens to the word ‘remember’ within that word group. Actually, ‘remember’ is not the only word in that word group that would get phonetically simplified in speech. Normally, the words ‘I’, ‘where’ and ‘it’ would also get simplified, and the same word group can be used to illustrate the simplification of any of these words as well. When we take into consideration the changes that all these words would undergo, this is how the whole word group would sound in fast speech: “@ can’t remm’ whe:’t is”. In the same way, while dealing with Coalescent assimilation, I used the word group “because you told me” to illustrate what happens at a junction between the sounds ‘z’ and ‘y’, and I told you that this word group would become “becauzsh@ told me”. Actually, this is not the only phonetic simplification that this word group would normally undergo. Normally, this word group would undergo one more phonetic change: The ‘d’ in ‘told’ would be elided, because it comes between two other consonants. If we take this also into consideration, this is how the whole word group would sound: “becauzsh@ tol’ me”. The reason why I’m telling you all this is this: Though I’ve dealt with various types of phonetic simplification individually, you should remember that a single word group that you utter in a real-life-situation can undergo more than one type of simplification. (Here, see also the discussion under the subheading Elision of more than one consonant or vowel a few pages back.)

77 Overall simplification

Now let’s look at a few examples that’d illustrate the kind of overall phonetic simplification that a word group can undergo: • It can’t be true (= Ik’ kamp’ b’ true). • I don’t understand what you’re talking about (= ’ don’t un’stam’ whach@ talkim ’bout). • He’s going to resign (= He’s g@:ng t’ resign; or He’s g@n@ resign — when you’re speaking casually). • He wasn’t trying to take credit (= He w’sn’ tra:ng t’ take credit; or He w’sn’ try’n@ take credit — when you’re speaking casually). • Do you want to go? (= D’you want t’ go? or Ju wan@ go? — when you’re speaking casually). • I think he could be persuaded to do it. (=  thinkik@b’ persuaded t’ do it). • Nobody but he could be so selfish (= Nobod’ butik@b’ so selfish). • Is that man your friend? (= ’zzap’ man y@ friend?). • What’s happening? (= Whss’ hap’n’ng?). • Just because he told you about it… (= Jus’causi tolj@ ’bout it... • Have you seen him? (= ’vyou seenim?). • Has he been promoted? (= ’zi bim’ promoted?). • Is it a good book? (= ’st a goob’ book?). • Give me a couple of them (= Gim’me a coupl@ them…). • perhaps » praps or paps. • actually (= aksh’lly). • That was supposed to be a joke (= Thap’ w’s s’pos’ b@: joke). • What do you think I should do? (= Wha’ju think  sh’ do?).

Phonetic simplification and style/speed of speech Many people believe that native speakers of English speak too fast and that this is the main reason why it’s difficult to follow them. Now, is this true? That is, is it because native speakers of English normally speak too fast that you’re not able to follow them? Strictly speaking, the answer to this question is ‘No’. You see, there’s a normal range of speed within which most people speak (and this range can be taken to be between 3 syllables per second and 5 syllables per second). And phonetic

78 Overall simplification

simplification happens when the speech is delivered at a rate that is at the lower end of this range or at the higher end. And when a person speaks within this normal range, we can’t say that he’s/ she’s speaking too fast, because that’s how fast English speech normally is. So when a speaker speaks within the normal range of speed and you can’t follow him, it’s not the speed of delivery that actually causes the problem. And from speaker to speaker, the speed of delivery varies. So if your difficulty is in following a particular speaker alone, you may be right in blaming his speed of delivery. But if your difficulty is in following speakers generally, the speed of delivery is not the problem. Of course, what I’m trying to say is not that speed of delivery is totally irrelevant. No, that’s not so. The speed of delivery does have some relevance. But it’s relevant only to this extent: The amount of elision (not assimilation) would be greater when a person speaks at a rate faster than the normal rate, and nonnative listeners would find it more difficult to follow him/her then. Now don’t be under the impression that casual (= informal) speech is always faster than formal speech or that formal speech is always slower than casual speech. No, that’s not so. There are occasions when people speak faster in formal style, and slowly in casual style. In the same way, don’t be under the impression that phonetic simplification only happens in casual (= informal) speech. That’s not so, either. Phonetic simplification happens in casual speech as well as formal speech. But the extent of phonetic simplification is always more in casual or informal speech than in formal speech. As far as the extent of phonetic simplification is concerned, the difference between the formal style and the casual style is this: On an average, tone units in formal speech are shorter than those in casual speech. And strong forms of grammatical words

79 Overall simplification

occur more frequently in formal speech than in casual speech. So formal speech always contains more stressed syllables (and fewer unstressed syllables) per tone unit than casual speech. Because of this reason, fewer syllables are affected by assimilation and elision in formal speech than in casual speech. (Note that syllables that a speaker actually stresses are not normally affected by elision. And they’re not as often affected by assimilation as syllables that are left unstressed are. A syllable would normally be affected by elision only if it’s left unstressed). That is, at the same speechrate, assimilation and elision would be less in formal speech than in casual speech. And assimilation and elision would be more in casual speech than in formal speech. Note this: This difference is caused by the presence of fewer unstressed syllables in formal speech, and more unstressed syllables in casual speech. As far as elision is concerned, the casual style of speech increases it in the following ways: • In the formal style, the consonants that are generally affected by elision are ‘t’ and ‘d’. In the casual style too, these consonants are regularly elided. But in the casual style, even other consonants like ‘v’, ‘ð’, ‘l’, ‘r’, ‘k’ and ‘n’ are often affected by elision. In fact, in casual speech, any consonant can be affected by elision — in an unpredictable way. • In the formal style, the sound ‘h’ in grammatical words ‘had’, ‘have’, ‘has’, ‘he’, ‘his’ and ‘her’ is not elided when those words occur at the beginning of a tone unit. (In the formal style, the ‘h’ in ‘had’, ‘have’, ‘has’, ‘he’ and ‘his’ is only elided when these words occur in the middle of a tone unit. And the ‘h’ in ‘he’, ‘his’ and ‘her’ is only elided when these words occur in the middle or at the end). But in the casual style, the situation is different. In the casual style, ‘h’ in these words is elided when these words occur at the beginning of a tone unit. • In the formal style, the unstressed schwa ‘@’ is normally

80 Overall simplification

elided from a word only from the unstressed initial syllable. But in the casual style, it may often get elided from medial syllables also. (See Word-internal vowel elision). Thus even if you don’t speak faster than at the normal speech-rate, assimilation and elision increase when your speech becomes less formal and more casual. Now what happens if you speak faster? The only thing that happens is this: Elision increases. Yes, consonants and vowels in more syllables undergo elision, and thus elision becomes more frequent. This is so whether you’re speaking in the formal style or in the casual style. That is, whether you’re speaking in the formal style or in the casual style, elision increases when you speak faster. Now understand this: Elision is the only simplification process that increases when you speak faster — assimilation does not increase when you speak faster. The only circumstance when assimilation increases is when you speak casually. The amount of assimilation remains the same whether you’re speaking at the normal speech-rate or faster. Thus, on the whole, it’d be easier for listeners to identify the words and phrases used in formal speech than those used in casual speech, because in formal style, there won’t be as much assimilation or elision (especially, elision) as in the casual style.

Essential points you should understand Now think about, and make an effort to remember, the things I’ve told you in this Book. What are the essential things that you should understand about the pronunciation of connected speech? Here they are: • You shouldn’t expect English words to sound the same when you use them in connected speech (in the company of other words) as when you pronounce them separately

81 Overall simplification

(in isolation). • When you use English words in connected speech (in the company of other words), they tend to undergo phonetic simplification. There’s nothing abnormal in this. And you shouldn’t try to resist this tendency or to prevent the simplification process. Instead, you should allow the simplification process to take place. • You should have a clear idea of the types of phonetic changes that are possible in English, so that the phonetic changes that you allow to take place would be of the acceptable category, and not of the unacceptable category. As far as the third point is concerned, remember that it’s the examples that you should concentrate on. Relate the examples to the principles they illustrate, and you’ll soon be able to get a clear idea of the types of phonetic changes that are possible in English. Did you find the discussion of this topic a little difficult to understand? Don’t worry. Actually, this is not a difficult topic. But the first time you go through it, you may not grasp everything completely. What you should do is, you should pay special attention to the examples I’ve given. Yes, examples are the things you should concentrate on. Once you study the examples, the general principles they illustrate become easy to understand. After studying a set of examples, go through the explanation of the principle they illustrate once again. Try and relate the examples to the point under discussion. Establish the connection between that point and the examples in your mind. Now you’ll begin to see everything in the proper light, and you’ll find that there’s nothing difficult about this topic at all.

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82 Action Clusters for Pronunciation Practice

Chapter 9

Action Clusters for Pronunciation Practice In the three chapters that follow, you’ll be getting collections of specially chosen word groups. These word groups are ideal for practising the principles and techniques this book has covered. They have been chosen for their effectiveness and ability to give you maximum degree of pronunciation practice. Pick up each word group and say it aloud several times. Throughout the practice sessions (and even afterwards, of course), be aware of the principles and techniques this book has taught you. In this chapter, the word groups you’ll be doing practice with are specially chosen action clusters. Here we go:

Group 1 check on sb’s progress; carry out a project; come to power/ prominence; carry out a promise; deliver on a promise; live up to a promise; dispose of stolen property; invest in a hotel property; decide on the correct proportion; agree to a proposal; turn down a proposal; open up exciting prospects; rule out the prospect (of...); throw away your career prospects; weigh up the longterm prospects; break up the protest; spark off a wave of protest; walk out in protest; appear in public; speak in public; win over the public; mete out punishment; pay for the purchase; lay out your purchases (on the table); throw off your pursuers; work out a puzzle; vary in quality; call into question; come into question; reply to a question; respond to a question; fire off questions; stand in a queue; enter for a race; run in a race; run in the 100metre etc. race; listen to sth on the radio; listen to the radio; turn

83 Action Clusters for Pronunciation Practice

on/off a radio; fly into a rage; hang from the rail; lean on the rail; run along/on rails; work on the railway(s); listen to the rain; break up a rally; call for a rally (against sth); speak at a rally; come within range. speed up the rate; speed up chemical reactions; appeal to a reader; face up to life’s realities; escape from reality; wake up to reality; listen to reason; search for some reason; stand to reason; change out of all recognition; listen to a recording; bring about a recovery; hope for a recovery; agree to a reduction; ask for a reduction; bring about a reduction; call for a reduction; lead to a reduction; result in a reduction; ask for references; bring about a reform; call for a reform; carry out/through a reform; cry out for a reform; lead to a reform; press for a reform; speed up a reform; work for a reform; live in a far-flung region; work in a region; sigh with regret; abide by the statutory regulations; act against the official regulations; bring in regulations; comply with the traffic regulations; conform to regulations; draw up regulations; lay down regulations; break off diplomatic relations; break off relations; call for sb’s release (from detention); campaign for sb’s release; work for sb’s release; come as a relief; cry with relief; sigh with relief; believe in (a) religion; belong to a religion; live sw free of rent; carry out repairs; call for a report; draw up a report; build on your reputation; build up a reputation (for yourself); compromise on reputation; live up to your reputation; agree to a request; carry out a request; turn down sb’s request; comply with a requirement; comply with all legal requirements; conform to the precise requirements; fit in with the requirements; lay down the procedural requirements; come to the/sb’s rescue. rush to the/sb’s rescue; carry out (a) research; build up reserves; hand in your resignation; break down resistance; build up financial resources; draw on capital resources; rely on your resources; use up resources; call for a prompt response; lead to a quick response; meet with lukewarm response; fail in your responsibility; come to rest; lay to rest; stop for a rest; eat in a restaurant; walk out of a restaurant; aim at a high return; call

84 Action Clusters for Pronunciation Practice

for a return to the previous situation; vote for a return to civilian rule; bring in good returns; wait for the returns; carry out a review; come up for review; call for a revolution; carry out a revolution; lead to a revolution; spark off a revolution; stir up a revolution; come along for the ride; drive on the left/right; turn hard (to your) right; fight for your rights; stand up for your rights; sit in a ring; stand in a ring; spark off a riot; bring about a rise in violence; cope with a rise in unemployment; lead to a rent rise; result in a tax rise; allow for price rises; warn off a rival; stay on a road; turn into a road; turn off a road; turn onto a road; drill through rocks; sit on the rocks; turn over rocks (to look for sth); climb onto the roof; slip into the room; stay in your room. steal into a room; decide on the place (for the picnic etc.); work out a route; settle into a routine; develop into a row; spark off a row; trigger off a row; throw out rubbish; lie in ruins; play by a rule; stick to a rule; kick against rules; stick to the rules; break into a run; break into a safe; compromise on safety; dive for safety; fear for sb’s safety; run for safety; sigh with satisfaction; add up to the savings; break into your savings; build up your savings; dip into your savings; draw on your savings; live on your savings; tie up your savings; break off contact with sb; bring out the best in sb; bring out the worst in sb; call up associations for sb (with sth); come into agreement with sb; come into contact with sb; come under attack from sb; decide in favour of sb; knock all the fight out of sb; listen with (close) attention to sb; meet with the approval of sb; rule in favour of sb; apply in the name of sb/sth; live in terror of sb/sth; not have anything against sb/ sth; not have/be anything to do with sb/sth; sit in judgment on sb/sth; stand in judgment on sb/sth; stand with your back to sb/ sth; stay out of the way of sb/sth; step down in favour of sb/sth; move down/up the social scale; rise up the pay scale; rise up the salary scale; step up the scale (of a programme etc.); appear on the scene; arrive on the scene; pick up a scent; adhere to the schedule; arrive ahead of schedule; depart from schedule; draw up a schedule; run ahead of the schedule; run behind

85 Action Clusters for Pronunciation Practice

the schedule; run to schedule; stick to the schedule; work to a schedule; learn at/in school; return to school; stay after school; stay at school; stay in school; stay on at school/university; pay off a score; act as a screen; come to the screen; drift out to sea; travel by sea; call off a search; carry out a search; come into season; jump from your seat. rise from your seat; dwell in seclusion; live in seclusion; rest in seclusion; come (a poor) second; finish (a close) second; finish in seconds; act as a secretary; resign as a secretary; work as a secretary; play in the wind section (of the orchestra); single out a section; come from the poor sections (of the society); compromise on security; step up security; carry out a selection; choose from a selection; come to your senses; appeal against a sentence; hand down a sentence; arrange in a sequence; prepare for the series (against a team); spark off a series (of events); come into service; ring for room service; lead by two sets; bring about a settlement; consent to sex; engage in sex; find out the sex (of your baby); throw off the yoke/shackles; emerge from a shadow; loom up out of a shadow; lurk in a shadow; move into a shadow; shrink into a shadow; slip (back) into a shadow; step out from/of a shadow; wait in a shadow; jump out of the shadows; laugh till your sides shake; die of shame; live with shame; keep in shape; lose its shape; stay in shape; deal in shares; invest in shares; trade in shares; begin with a clean sheet; sing from the same song sheet; run for cover/shelter; bring about a sudden shift; call for a fundamental shift; lead to a shift (towards sth); result in a shift; break up a ship; disembark from a ship; fit out a ship; jump a ship; tie up a ship; travel in a/by ship; come as a complete/ terrible shock (to sb); come as a shock; recover from a shock; suffer from shock; lace up your shoes; try for a close-up shot (of sb/sth); come up to sb’s shoulder.

Group 2 ride on sb’s shoulders; lie on your side; run to sb’s side; stand to one side; walk at/by sb’s side; come in/within sight; come

86 Action Clusters for Pronunciation Practice

into (sb’s) sight; come into view; disappear from sight; shoot at/on sight; stay out of sight; stress on the significance of sth; argue about a situation (with sb); bring about a situation; cope with a situation; deal with a situation; lead to a situation; run into a situation; grow in size; grow to a considerable size; try for size; vary in size; come in all shapes and sizes; come in different shapes and sizes; die in his sleep; drop into a deep sleep; drop off to sleep. settle down to sleep; talk in your sleep; break into a smile; play in the snow; stamp off the snow (from the boots); belong to a society; fit into a society; live in a society; move in high society; resign from a society; enlist as a soldier; serve as a soldier; come up with a solution; search for a solution; bring up a son; break into song; burst into song; lose its soul; listen for sounds; come from a source; cut off a source; find out a source; refer to a source; rely on a source; back out of a parking space; stare into space; wipe out a species; lead to much speculation; pick up/ gather speed; enter into the true spirit (of sth); ward off evil spirits; lead to a split; excel at sport; dance on the spot; hop on the spot; run on the spot; break out in spots; employ over 100 etc. staff; lay off your staff; race up/down the stairs; end in a stalemate; compromise on standards; meet with standards; come to a standstill; rise to fame/stardom; shoot to stardom; sit up with a start; wake up with a start; lie in state; work yourself into a state; grow in stature; rise in status; walk with slow steps; act as a check on sth; sell off the stock; aim at the development of sth; ask for news of sth; call for the development of sth; call for the strict regulation of sth; call off a strike; carry out a study of sth; come as low as sth; come level with sth; come out in favour of (doing) sth; come to do sth; come under pressure to do sth; complain about the lack of sth; depend on the discovery of sth; find out the real worth of sth; focus on the development of sth; lay down strict conditions for doing sth; lead to the development of sth; lean in the direction of sth; lie at the heart of sth; live in constant/daily fear of sth; pick up a knowledge of sth; place sb

87 Action Clusters for Pronunciation Practice

in charge of sth; play down the importance of sth; react to shifts in sth; recover from the effects of sth; result in serious injury to sth; run through the (main) body of sth; speculate on the cause of sth; speed up the development of sth; stem from a lack of sth; step up the export of sth; stick to doing sth; stick to the letter of sth; strike at the heart of sth; strike at the root(s) of sth; suffer from a lack of sth; suffer from the effects of sth; talk about the importance of sth; vote in favour of sth; walk with the assistance of sth; kick up a stink. add to the stock; pile up the stock; lie on your stomach; change into stone; come to a dead stop; come to a stop; draw to a stop; lie in store; crack under the pressure/strain; walk through the streets; build up your (physical) strength; grow in strength; add to the stress; cope with stress; live under stress; work under stress; call off a strike; come out on strike; dangle (sth) on a string; shore up a structure; carry out a study; bring up a subject; end in success; meet with success; act on (sb’s) suggestion; act on a suggestion; agree to a suggestion; approve of a suggestion; bridle at a suggestion; bristle at a suggestion; brush aside a suggestion; carry out a suggestion; laugh at a suggestion; play down a suggestion; scoff at a suggestion; shrug off a suggestion; throw out a suggestion; turn down sb’s suggestion; work out a sum; shut out the sun; sit in the sun; arrange for medical supplies; ask for office supplies; build up supplies; cut down/off supplies; draw on supplies; run out of supplies; rely on an adequate supply (of sth); step up the supply (of sth); ask for sb’s support; drum up support; rely on sb’s support; come to the surface; float to the surface; rise to the surface; come as a big surprise (to sb); come as a complete surprise; come as a surprise (to sb); come as no surprise; cry (sth) in surprise; recover from a surprise; stare at sb in surprise; carry out a survey; conduct a survey; struggle for survival; come under scrutiny; come under suspicion; come from the direction of sw; stop for meals sw; break into a sweat; bring about flu-like symptoms; bang on the table; climb onto the table; come to the negotiating table; knock against a table; rise from

88 Action Clusters for Pronunciation Practice

the table; sit at a table; sit round the table; wait on tables; come down tails; break off talks; enter into talks; meet for talks; tie up with tape; aim at a target; find its target; carry out a task; cope with a task; rise to the task; cater for sb’s taste(s); pay for the taxi; pay off the taxi; ring for a taxi; come to tea; pass on (sb’s) teaching; play for a team; work in a team; break down in tears; break into tears; choke back tears; come near to tears.

Group 3 end in tears; fight back (the) tears; fill with tears; wipe away your tears; try out a technique; work at/on a technique; work out a technique; invest in the latest technology; lie through your teeth; hang up the telephone; pick up the telephone; switch off a television; switch on a television; switch off a television; turn off/ on a television; work in television; act in a fit of temper; fly into a temper; compete on equal terms; fill with terror; carry out a test; do a test; revise for a test; add to the text; dispose of the stock; refer to the text; stray from a text; come to the conclusion that...; work in theatre; deal with a theme; draw on a theme; elaborate on a theme; launch out into a theme; pick up a theme; revert to a theme; stick to a theme; try out a theme; work on a theme; write about a theme; subscribe to a theory; work on a theory; carry out a threat (to do sth); come out as a threat; come under threat; carry out a promise. swim against the tide; swim with the tide; end in a tie; finish in a tie; result in a tie; arrive on time; come at the right/wrong time; die before your time; fill in (the) time; run on time; stay for a long time; work against time; date from ancient times; move with the times; pass on a tip; pick up a tip; stand on the tips (of your toes); respond to a title; aim for the top; come out on top; come to the top; rise to the top; stay on top (of sb/sth); bring up a topic; deal with a topic; dwell on a topic; elaborate on a topic; embark on a topic; focus on a topic; return to a topic; speak on a topic; stick to a topic; think of a topic; touch on a topic; write

89 Action Clusters for Pronunciation Practice

on a topic; range over various topics; carry out the torture; resort to torture; drive away tourists; frighten away tourists; drive into town; live in (the) town; walk into the town; walk round the town; disappear without trace; vanish without trace; stop in your tracks; break with tradition; end in tragedy; lead to a tragedy; climb into a train; come by train; jump off the train; meet on the train; ride on a train; step down from the train; travel by train; travel on the same train; enter into a transaction; engage in a transaction; speed up the transfer (of information etc.); walk into a trap; respond to treatment; climb up/down a tree; cut down a tree; lean against a tree; run into a tree; grow on trees; come to trial; wait for your trial; call off a trip; call off your trip; bring in troops; call out the troops; send in the troops; break into a trot; ask for trouble; keep out of trouble; prepare for trouble. run into trouble; stay out of trouble; stir up trouble; place sth in trust; arrive at the truth; find out the truth; dance to sb’s tune; speak out of turn; turn on/off the TV; print in bold type; arrive at an understanding; come to an understanding; bring down unemployment; cope with unemployment; deal with unemployment; lead to unemployment; live together in perfect union; appeal for unity; bring about unity; call for unity; lead to unity; work for unity; apply for university; apply to a university; drop out of university; drive prices up; stress on urgency; come into use; decrease in value; drop in value; grow in value; increase in value; rise in value; stress on value; believe in family values; think about variety; cut up vegetables; tow away a vehicle; travel in a vehicle; bring out a new version; come forward with a different version; come out/up with an improved version; roll out a customized version; finish off a victim; stroll to victory; turn off the video; come into view; come to a view; come within view; confirm you in your view (that…); disappear from view; pass out of view; deal with violence; engage in violence; lead to violence; resort to violence; turn to violence; test for a virus; come for a visit; lift up your voice; shout at the top of your voice; decrease in volume; double in volume; grow in volume; increase

90 Action Clusters for Pronunciation Practice

in volume; rise in volume; turn down the volume; turn up the volume; decided by (a) vote; ask for votes; bring in votes; canvass for votes; bring in a high wage; force down wages; live on small wages; drop into a walk; slow to a walk; jump off a wall; jump over a wall; knock down a wall; lean against a wall; slip over the wall; stand against the wall. tear down a wall; add to a fund; draw on a fund; subscribe to a fund; add to your funds; appeal for funds; build up funds; cut back the funds; run out of funds; fly into a fury; not have much of a future; plan for the future; result in great gains; break into a gallop; lose in a game; lay out a garden; cook on a high/low gas; cook on a medium gas; turn on the gas; climb over a gate; live for generations; lose by a goal; believe in God; hope to God; pan for gold; prospect for gold; bring down the government; resign from the Government; apply for a grant; live on a grant; qualify for a benefit; qualify for a grant; slip from sb’s grasp; play on grass; sit on the grass; walk on the grass; weep with grief; come to the ground; jump onto the ground; jump to the ground; lie on the ground; live on the ground; sit on the ground; turn up the ground; work in groups; come with a guarantee; refer to a guide; serve as a guide; lay down guidelines; stick to your guns; pick up a habit; break with old habits; pick up bad habits; clutter up the hall; crowd into a hall; file into a hall; lead to a hall; come to a halt; draw to a halt; slow to a halt; die by sb’s hand; eat out of sb’s hand; reach for sb’s hand; reach out your hand (for sb/sth); find its way into sb’s hands; pass into sb’s hands; stand on your hands; throw up your hands (in despair); search for happiness; cry with happiness; cry with joy; come to no harm; lead to serious harm; hang over your head; stand on your head (to do sth); call heads; fail in health; return to health; cry from the heart; speak from the heart; suffer from the heat; turn down the heat; turn up the heat; turn on the heating.

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91 Noun Compounds for Pronunciation practice

chapter 10

Noun Compounds for Pronunciation practice Here’s another chapter giving you collections of specially chosen word groups that are ideal for practising the principles and techniques this book has covered. In the same way as the word groups in the previous chapter, these word groups have also been chosen for their effectiveness and ability to give you maximum degree of pronunciation practice. Pick up each word group and say it aloud several times. Throughout, be aware of the principles and techniques this Book has taught you. In this chapter, the word groups you’ll be doing practice with are specially chosen noun compounds. Here we go:

Group 1 background music; band music; church music; computer music; country music; dance music; film music; guitar music; period music; rock music; sheet music; soul music; theme music; world music; code name; company name; family name; file name; place name; second name; stage name; street name; trade name; member nation; business need; community need; health care need; information need; peace negotiation; trade negotiation; news network; radio network; road network; business news; city news; home news; Sunday newspaper; dance night; election night; Friday night; Saturday night; wedding night; winter night; case note(s); love note; programme note; account number; call number; house number; identity number; phone number; record number; community nurse; day nurse; hospital nurse; night nurse; school nurse; staff nurse; student nurse; business objective; policy objective; family obligation; state occasion;

92 Noun Compounds for Pronunciation practice

land occupation; service occupation; air offensive; job offer; peace offer; area office; branch office; council office; district office; government office; head office; newspaper office; press office; air force officer; army officer; duty officer; investigation officer; police officer; press officer; training officer; bank official; company official; council official; court official; government official; party official; state official; baby oil; bath oil; body oil; engine oil; fish oil; fuel oil; hair oil; motor oil; vegetable oil; heart operation; knee operation; police operation; relief operation; security operation; minority opinion; business opportunity; job opportunity; market opportunity; policy option; advance order; court order; export order; repeat order; word order; world order; government organisation; class origin; plant origin; car owner; home owner; land owner; part owner; business package; business page; problem page; title page; labour pain; oil paint; figure painting; life painting; oil painting; wall painting; body panel; control panel; wall panel; cigarette paper; computer paper; discussion paper; evening paper; examination paper; identity paper; kitchen paper; quality paper; question paper; research paper; Sunday paper; test paper; toilet paper; writing paper; city park; country park; state parliament; bit part; business partner; business partnership; dinner party; garden party; Communist party; majority party; minority party; opposition party; search party; surprise party; side passage; child patient; hospital patient; interest payment; part payment; tax payment; world peace; tax penalty; company pension; state pension; business people; country people; business performance; school performance; time period; business person; second phase; market philosophy; car phone; office phone; action photo; air photo; colour photo; cover photo; family photo; group photo; newspaper photo; press photo; quality photo; school photo; security photo; team photo; wedding photo; air photograph; colour photograph; cover photograph; family photograph; group photograph; school photograph; team photograph; colour picture; centre piece; air force pilot; market place; meeting place; school place; university place; action plan;

93 Noun Compounds for Pronunciation practice

business plan; career plan; development plan; marriage plan; master plan; peace plan; travel plan; family planning; town planning; assembly plant; car plant; food plant; garden plant; house plant; power plant; production plant; treatment plant; side plate; radio play; bridge player; star player; love poem; war poem; assembly point; match point; meeting point; pressure point; reference point; security police; state police; company policy; conservation policy; energy policy; government policy; housing policy; insurance policy; life policy; motor policy; party policy; transport policy; office politics; party politics; world politics; air pollution; oil pollution; water pollution; car pool; labour pool; school population; student population; world population; family portrait; group portrait; business position; management position; second position; army post; government post; police post; university post; air power; enemy power; fire power; sea power; water power; wind power; world power; business practice; group practice; police presence; stage presence; club president; company president; party president; state president; university president; air pressure; blood pressure; water pressure; consumer price; cost price; electricity price; energy price; food price; fuel price; house price; land price; market price; oil price; property price; purchase price; sale price; share price; school principal; market principle; number one priority; life prisoner; attitude problem; drink problem; drug problem; health problem; heart problem; housing problem; knee problem; court procedure; management process; peace process; planning process; production process; selection process; film producer; oil producer; radio producer; beauty product; consumer product; end product; food product; household product; meat product; quality product; software product; car production; film production; food production; oil production; school production; stage production; health (care) professional; group profit; record profit; action programme; assistance programme; building programme; care programme; conservation programme; crash programme; defence programme; degree programme; development programme; education

94 Noun Compounds for Pronunciation practice

programme; exercise programme; government programme; health programme; improvement programme.

Group 2 investment programme; match programme; news programme; party programme; pilot programme; race programme; radio programme; recovery programme; relief programme; research programme; television/TV programme; theatre programme; training programme; record progress; building project; community project; development project; history project; research project; campaign promise; election promise; book promotion; health promotion; trade promotion; business property; council property; family property; peace proposal; research proposal; development prospect; election prospect; job prospect; child protection; police protection; street protest; student protest; country pub; business publication; government publication; trade publication; house purchase; land purchase; business purposes; research purposes; tax purposes; paper qualification; air quality; product quality; service quality; water quality; stock question; test question; boat race; dog race; horse race; master race; motor race; road race; World Cup race; army radio; car radio; community radio; police radio; state radio; road rage; electric railway; peace rally; age range; price range; product range; accident rate; bank rate; base rate; crime rate; death rate; exchange rate; group rate; growth rate; inflation rate; interest rate; market rate; marriage rate; success rate; tax rate; health reason; security reason; government recognition; accident record; club record; course record; health record; police record; safety record; school record; speed record; track record; world record; music recorder; test recorder; price recovery; reference number; land reform; law reform; tax reform; class register; land register; school register; government regulation; price regulation; state regulation; building regulations; school regulations; class relations; labour relations; power relations; race relations; trade relations; business relationship; family relationship; power

95 Noun Compounds for Pronunciation practice

relationship; family relative; book release; news release; interest relief; tax relief; state religion; world religion; ground rent; house rent; housing rent; land rent; office rent; accident report; case report; committee report; company report; crash report; government report; law report; magazine report; market report; news report; newspaper report; police report; press report; progress report; radio report; research report; school report; status report; survey report; television report; weather report; club representative; committee representative; community representative; company representative; council representative; government representative; industry representative; public representative; student representative; trade representative; union representative; business requirement; food requirement; information requirement; labour requirement; cancer research; market research; space research; family resemblance; army reserve; food reserve; oil reserve; country residence; staff resource; oil resources; water resources; family responsibility; family restaurant; degree result(s); election result(s); football result(s); research results; surprise result; survey results; test results; class reunion; family reunion; book review; film review; government review; policy review; world revolution; car ride; film rights; race riot; price rise; tax rise; health risk; security risk; business rival; access road; coast road; country road; mountain road; ring road; service road; side road; slip road; country rock; film role; television role; title role; car roof; breakfast room; committee room; conference room; control room; engine room; family room; guest room; hotel room; incident room; interview room; leg room; meeting room; news room; press room; reading room; recovery room; staff room; store room; treatment room; air route; trade route; club rules; company rules; competition rules; home rule; Communist rule; majority rule; safety rule; school rules; union rules; air safety; child safety; food safety; home safety; road safety. furniture sale; house sale; share sale; summer sales; world sales; car sales; house sales; land sales; trade sanctions; cost

96 Noun Compounds for Pronunciation practice

saving; life savings; time scale; world scale; action scene; art scene; city scene; club scene; country scene; drug(s) scene; fight scene; love scene; music scene; street scene; world scene; business schedule; art school; business school; dance school; day school; drama school; film school; language school; state school; summer school; Sunday school; training school; village school; food science; life science; school science; food scientist; government scientist; research scientist; music score; record score; test score; body search; police search; car seat; child seat; Communist seat; split second; family secret; state secret; trade secret; branch secretary; club secretary; company secretary; district secretary; group secretary; press secretary; school secretary; shadow secretary; business section; history section; business sector; health sector; industry sector; market sector; service sector; state sector; company securities; government securities; home security; job security; state security; number one seed; team selection.

Group 3 business sense; dress sense; horse sense; life sentence; action sequence; film sequence; radio series; test series; afternoon service; church service; community service; customer service; evening service; fire service; health service; library service; news service; police service; prison service; quality service; security service; support service; taxi service; telephone service; train service; family session; hospital session; land settlement; peace settlement; body shape; market share; answer sheet; fact sheet; information sheet; news sheet; day shift; night shift; policy shift; action shot; air show; art show; family show; film show; game show; radio show; road show; stage show; trade show; business side; east side; home side; league side; management side; marketing side; birth sign; danger sign; direction sign; plus sign; pound sign; pub sign; road sign; shop sign; star sign; street sign; traffic sign; warning sign; hand signal; radio signal; baby sister; kid sister; building site; development site; home

97 Noun Compounds for Pronunciation practice

site; hospital site; school site; crisis situation; work situation; world situation; class size; family size; foot size; group size; life size; market size; business skill; research skill; study skill; January sky; night sky; class society; consumer society; village society; design software; foot soldier; government soldier; baby son; country song; love song; guitar sound; speech sound; food source; government source; information source; police source; power source; water source; air space; office space; plant species; conference speech; air speed; community spirit; party spirit; team spirit; country sport; minority sport; team sport; water sport; food spot; number spot; term spring; city square; market square; town square; bar staff; hospital staff; hotel staff; kitchen staff; teaching staff; centre stage; committee stage; design stage; development stage; planning stage; information stand; market stand; trade stand; health standard; evening star; film star; football star; movie star; screen star; TV star; member state; nation state; police state; government statement; radio station; hospital stay; dance step; food stock; department store; food store; cover story; crime story; life story; love story; news story; success story; city street; side street; village street; police strength; union strength; air strike; body structure; class structure; committee structure; family structure; power structure; price structure; tax structure; college student; engineering student; history student; law student; research student; school student; university student; business studies; art studio; film studio; case study; field study; language study; pilot study; research study; study subject; business success; business suit; record sum; August sun; food supplies; office supplies; air supply; food supply; labour supply; money supply; oil supply; power supply; water supply; air support; child support; community support; family support; government support; price support; state support; party supporter; government supporters; ground surface; land surface; road surface; water surface; land survey; market survey; number one suspect; power switch; time switch; conference table; peace talk(s); radio talk; team talk; trade talk; army tank;

98 Noun Compounds for Pronunciation practice

oil tank; water tank; music tape; paper tape; ground target; car tax; company tax; council tax; energy tax; fuel tax; income tax; investment tax; land tax; property tax; purchase tax; road tax; vehicle tax; art teacher; class room; class teacher; head teacher; history teacher; music teacher; school teacher; Sunday school teacher; university teacher; woman teacher; music teaching; university teaching; campaign team; design team; development team; dream team; foot ball team; home team; investigation team; management team; marketing team; production team; project team; research team; youth team; research technique; information technology; office telephone; radio telephone; colour television; state television; air temperature; April temperature; body temperature; room temperature; water temperature; family tension; college term; contract term; prison term; school term; spring term; teaching term; university term; peace terms; home territory; state terrorism; achievement test; blood test; breath test; drug test; eye test; field test; flight test; language test; memory test; road test; safety test; screen test; sight test; skin test; community theatre; music theatre; street theatre; campaign theme; conference theme; research theme; second thought; air ticket; day ticket; family ticket; season ticket; club tie; school tie; business ties; family ties; arrival time; departure time; journey time; record time; summer time; travel time; book title; film title; job title; world title; design tool; development tool; hand tool; power tool; research tool; bottle top; hill top; roof top; table top; tree top; research topic; record total; world total; city tour; study tour; world tour; border town; country town; holiday town; home town; market town; university town; car track; race track; book trade; export trade; tourist trade; wine trade; world trade; family tradition; air traffic; city traffic; foot traffic; radio traffic; road traffic; night train; job training; staff training; bank transfer; information transfer; land transfer; air transport; city transport; ground transport; land transport; road transport; water transport; air travel; business travel; car travel; time travel; world travel; drug treatment; hospital treatment;

99 Noun Compounds for Pronunciation practice

water treatment; peace treaty; state treaty; test ban treaty; union treaty; market trend; home trial; day trip; school trip; study trip; world trip; family trouble; girl trouble; man trouble; family trust; hospital trust; home truth; city type; product type; control unit; family unit; policy unit; power unit; research unit; research university; drug use; business user; car user; drug user; end user; home user; rail road user; service user; family values; police van; police vehicle; road vehicle; cover version; stage version; attack victim; child victim; election victory; home video; music video; police video; security video; minority view; mountain view; sea view; side view; world view; country village; home village; night vision; home visit; hospital visit; research visit; school visit; state visit; study visit; trade visit; business visitor; health visitor; home visitor; hospital visitor; country walk; garden wall; kitchen wall; sea wall; side wall; stone wall; air war; class war; price war; trade war; world war; food waste; hospital waste; plant waste; night watch; sea water; spring water; radio wave; body weight; oil well; war widow; cup final win; house wine; hospital wing; Cup winner; election winner; match winner; race winner; business woman; career woman; boy wonder; house-hold word; loan word; art work; building work; community work; course work; group work; office work; paper work; research work; road work(s); assembly-line worker; care worker; charity worker; community worker; construction worker; council worker; factory worker; farm worker; field worker; health worker; hospital worker; metal worker; office worker; production worker; railway worker; relief worker; rescue worker; research worker; shift worker; transport worker; woman worker; youth worker; development workshop; music workshop; research workshop; art world; business world; dream world; fashion world; plant world; business worry; health worry; film writer; music writer; report writer; staff writer; woman writer; report writing; election year; record year; school year; tax year; security zone; time zone; war zone.

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100 Idea Units for Pronunciation Practice

Chapter 11

Idea Units for Pronunciation Practice I’m now going to give you another collection of specially selected spoken sentences and phrases for more pronunciation practice. Pick up each of them and say it several times — ALOUD. Here we go:

Group 1 • Are there any oranges? • Are there any shops near here? • Are these my books? • Are those your keys on the table? • Can I hire a car? • Can I see you tomorrow? • Could we go to a restaurant tomorrow? • Could we have coffee, please? • Could we have some more bread, please? • Could you call a taxi, please? • Could you call me at half past eight? • Could you leave me alone, please? • Could you tell me when we get there? • Do you like Agra? • Do you like going to the cinema? • Do you want a map? • Do you want some oranges? • Do you want to visit your friends? • Follow the signs for Pune. • Go straight on. • Have you got the suitcases? • Have you got an apple? • Have you got any money? • He’s got very good security. • Here it is. • Here we are. • How are you? • How do you do? • How do you feel? • How long have you been here? • How many are there? • How many would you like? • How much are they? • How much do they weigh? • How much does it cost? • How much does it weigh? • How much is it? • I can’t get through. • I can’t understand you. • I cannot give you this garment without some identification. • I cannot tolerate nuts. I’m allergic. • I come from Delhi. • I come from Brazil. • I didn’t go to Goa last year. • I didn’t have breakfast this morning. • I don’t like the colour. • I don’t like watching television. •

101 Idea Units for Pronunciation Practice

I don’t need a copy. • I don’t really want to go. • I don’t really want to meet them. • I don’t want them to go at all. • I don’t want to ask them. • I don’t want to go alone. • I don’t want to hear a(nother) peep out of you! • I don’t want to hear any more. • I don’t want to play. • I don’t want to wear out my welcome. • I feel better. • I feel fine. • I feel hot and cold. • I feel sick. • I find that hard to believe. • I find that hard to swallow. • I find the report encouraging. • I follow you. • I forgive you. • I gave him a piece of my mind. • I gave him a pound to pay the bill. • I gave him five pounds. • I gave them back to you. • I gave you a list of all colours. • I had no idea how to get there. • I hate it. • I hate to eat and run. • I have a reservation. • I have an appointment with Mr. Felix. • I have complete faith in you. • I have confidence in you. • I have coupons. • I have empty pockets. • I have excellent vision. • I have faith in you. • I have good eyesight. • I haven’t got any presents. • I haven’t got the receipt. • I hope that you feel better soon. • I hope to see you again.• I hope you enjoy our country. • I hope you’re satisfied. • I hope you’re sorry. • I hoped you’d be there earlier. • I intend to stand my ground. • I just can’t afford a car. • I just can’t make up my mind.• I just daren’t pick it up. • I know it backwards and forwards. • I know it for a fact. • I know it inside and out. • I know my math/carpentry/cooking/history/computers. • I know what I’m talking about. • I like the buildings. • I love the food. • I must get some money. • I must go to New York. • I need a guide book. • I need some money. • I need to go to London. • I really love you. • I really must be off. • I really must go now. • I really need it now. • I regret it now. • I remain skeptical. • I shouldn’t have said that. • I simply daren’t think about it. • I simply don’t understand her. • I slept from dusk to dawn. • I smell gas. • I sold the carpet today. • I still can’t find it. • I still don’t understand. • I stopped smoking a long time ago. • I suppose I must write to him, then. • I think Alfredo broke it. • I think my leg is broken. • I think my watch needs a new battery. • I think that this is your last one. • I think there was a mistake in my last

102 Idea Units for Pronunciation Practice

pay-cheque. • I think they’d all agree. • I think this is Sheila’s umbrella. • I thought it was a huge success. • I thought of going for a walk. • I thought she was in Los Angeles. • I thought she’d never calm down. • I thought they all look one. • I thought we were going to the cinema. • I thought you didn’t drink at all. • I thought you didn’t drink coffee. • I tried quitting. • I trust you completely. • I trust you implicitly. • I understand what you’re saying. • I used to live in Tokyo. • I waited there two solid hours. • I want it back in one piece. ( = unbroken/unharmed). • I want the steak thoroughly cooked. • I want them now. • I want this back. • I want this place spotless. • I want those shoes mended quickly. • I won’t be coming after all. • I won’t be coming. • I won’t go shopping tomorrow. • I won’t have anything, thank you. • I wonder if the train will be late. • I wonder if this train has got a buffet. • I wonder what the time is. • I’d better go home. • I’d better write to him. • I’d like a room at the rear. • I’d like a room, please. • I’d like a ticket to Mumbai, please. • I’d like just a trim. • I’d like some coffee, please. • I’d like three, please. • I’d like to buy a 5-rupee stamp, please. • I’d like to buy a book of stamps, please. • I’d like to close my checking account. • I’d like to do some shopping. • I’d like to have this coat cleaned. • I’d like to have this film developed. • I’d like to make a motion. • I’d like to make a withdrawal. • I’d like to move that we accept the proposal. • I’d like to open a checking account. • I’d like to order a back issue. • I’d like to order a cake. • I’d like to pick up a package. • I’d like to purchase a certificate of deposit. • I’d like to try it on. • I’d love to go France. • I’d love to see your flat. • I’d prefer a quite room, please. • I’d prefer tea. • I’d prefer to go to the cinema.

Group 2 • I’ll be going there sometime. • I’ll be gone just a few minutes. • I’ll be home late. • I’ll be in touch. • I’ll be right with you. • I’ll be seeing Sharma later on. • I’ll be seeing you. • I’ll be

103 Idea Units for Pronunciation Practice

there after dinner. • I’ll be there by seven. • I’ll be there by six at the latest. • I’ll buy the coffee. • I’ll go shopping tomorrow. • I’ll have some soup, please. • I’ll have the duck, please. • I’ll leave it. • I’ll sing you my song. • I’ll sit up and wait. • I’ll stand by you. • I’ll stay up for you. • I’ll sue him. • I’ll take it when you’re ready. • I’ll take it. • I’ll take the rap. • I’m a teacher. • I’m afraid I forgot to return it. • I’m afraid I have to be going. • I’m afraid I’m late. • I’m afraid I’ve bought lots of things. • I’m afraid that we haven’t got any. • I’m fine, thanks. And you? • I’m fine. • I’m glad to say she’s safe. • I’m glad you started without me. • I’m going around to Ahmed’s. • I’m going crazy. • I’m going for a walk. • I’m going numb. • I’m going on vacation. Can you hold my paper for two weeks? (= stop delivery of my paper). • I’m going right to the top. • I’m going to be a little late with the rent. • I’m going to bed. • I’m going to visit a friend tomorrow. • I’m going to write a letter. • I’m here if you want to talk about it. • I’m here to see Mrs. Varma. • I’m hungry. • I’m in big trouble. • I’m in deep trouble. • I’m in (too) deep. • I’m in love with you.• I’m in love. • I’m in the doldrums. • I’m in the market for a van. • I’m in the red. • I’m looking for a German-made car. • I’m looking for a one-room apartment. • I’m looking for a studio (apartment). • I’m looking for something for my husband. • I’m looking for something for my wife. • I’m looking forward to next year’s holiday. • I’m looking forward to the play. • I’m losing my mind. • I’m mad at the world. • I’m madly in love (with you). • I’m more than willing to meet you halfway. • I’m moving, and I’d like to give you my new address. • I’m not going to Berlin next week. • I’m passionately in love with you.• I’m Rahul Mehta. • I’m so excited. • I’m so happy. • I’m so pleased you’re coming. • I’m sorry I don’t understand. • I’m sorry that you’re feeling ill. • I’m sorry you’re ill. • I’m sorry, I can’t meet you tomorrow. • I’m sorry, I’m hard of hearing. • I’m sorry, I’m hearing-impaired. • I’m sorry, I’ve never done this before. • I’m sorry, there are no tickets available. • I’m telling (Mom). • I’m telling you this in confidence. • I’m telling you this in strictest confidence. •

104 Idea Units for Pronunciation Practice

I’m terribly sorry about that. • I’m terribly sorry. • I’m terribly worried about it. • I’m there with you. • I’m thinking of having central heating. • I’m to call back at lunch time. • I’m to stay there six weeks. • I’m very well, thank you. • I’ve been cut off. • I’ve got a broken arm. • I’ve got a cold. • I’ve got a friend in Paris. • I’ve got a headache. • I’ve got a hotel in Ooty. • I’ve got a temperature. • I’ve got some cigarettes. • I’ve got the tickets. • I’ve left you a few. • I’ve lent him your newspaper. • I’ve lost Nizam’s watch. • I’ve never met them. • I’ve resigned. • I’ve said I’ll meet you. • I’ve said I’m sorry. • I’ve seen better days. • I’ve sold my house. • I’ve travelled the globe from pole to pole. • I’ve turned up at last. • I’ve walked ten miles today. • I’ve written all my letters. • If anyone calls, please take a message. • If I can help you, just let me know. • If I could only turn back the clock. • If I don’t go now, I’ll be late. • If I go now, I’ll be early. • If I had gone then, I would have been early. • If I hadn’t gone then, I would have been early. • If I hadn’t gone then, I would have been late. • If your payment comes in past the fifth, a late charge will be added. • Is that the Qutab Minar over there? • Is there a bank near here? • Is there any tea? • Is this the bus for London? • It doesn’t fit. • It doesn’t matter. • It fits very well. • It isn’t long enough. • It made my flesh crawl. • It makes no difference. • It was my fault. • It weighs two hundred grams. • It’s a good fit. • It’s a nice day today, isn’t it? • It’s bright and sunny. • It’s broken. • It’s certain. • It’s cinched. • It’s cold in here. • It’s cold. • It’s common knowledge. • It’s dreadful. • It’s due in June. • It’s easy as ABC. • It’s easy to be wise after the event. • It’s eight o’clock. • It’s eighty degrees. • It’s engaged. • It’s entirely up to you Fred. • It’s exactly three o’clock. • It’s fabulous. • It’s fate. • It’s fine. • It’s fit for the junkyard. • It’s foggy. • It’s for sure. • It’s four hundred feet tall. • It’s getting late. • It’s going to be a scorcher. • It’s going to freeze tonight. • It’s going to happen. • It’s going to snow. • It’s good enough. • It’s good to have friends,

105 Idea Units for Pronunciation Practice

isn’t it? • It’s got a good rhythm. • It’s got a zip. • It’s got five pounds in it. • It’s great to be alive! • It’s half past ten. • It’s half past three. • It’s half past. • It’s harder than it looks. • It’s harder than you think. • It’s hideous. • It’s hot in here. • It’s hot. • It’s humid. • It’s ideal. • It’s impossible. • It’s in a league of its own. • It’s in the bag. • It’s in the repair shop. • It’s in the stars. • It’s just after three. • It’s just as I expected. • It’s left my head. • It’s like an oven in here. • It’s made of plastic. • It’s nearly six o’clock. • It’s nice to see you again. • It’s no use buying that clock. • It’s no use ringing Priya. • It’s none of my business. • It’s noon. • It’s not a very difficult game. • It’s not all that serious. • It’s not as bad as all that. • It’s not as easy as it looks. • It’s not as easy as it seems. • It’s not fair. I lost. • It’s not for me. • It’s not important. • It’s not in my job description. • It’s not much farther. • It’s red. • It’s ringing. • It’s round. • It’s small. • It’s too long. • It’s seven hundred and fifty. • Let’s go to the cinema. • Let’s have a drink. • No, I don’t want any. • No, I don’t want to. • No, I don’t. • No, it costs too much. • No, it isn’t. • No, let’s watch television instead. • No, thank you. • No, there aren’t. • No, there isn’t. • No, you can’t. • Not long, about ten minutes. • Not that way! • On the left. • On the right. • Over there. That’s it. Bye for now.

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