The letter r is not sounded in the following cases:
1. when it appears last before a pause. eg. car /kɑ:/, door, floor, fear, fair
2.before a consonant. eg. card /kɑ:d/, park, heart, form, party, forty
3. the final ‘re’. eg. care /kɛə/, rare, dare
clear L: used before a vowel or semi-vowel
eg. light /lait/, lute /lju:t/
dark L: used before a consonant or at the end before a pause.
eg. milk /milk/ (say /mil/ first, then add a ‘k’, /milk/), all /ɔ:l/, table, people, pupil
okay, i like this one as much as i like schwa.. let’s go straight to examples..
/m/:
some of it—> ‘sʌməvit (sum-merv-vit) (take note all the ‘i’ is not ‘i:’)
let him in—> ‘leti:m’ in (let-tim-min)
what time is it—> wɔ’ taimizit (wot-time-mi-zit)
ask kim again—>’ɑ:ski:mə’gen
/n/:
in a minute—> inə’minit
which tin is it—>witʃ ‘tinizit
in and out—>’inən’ ɑut
normally we say we need to pronounce the “r”, but it’s actually /ə/..
/ɛə/:
air, pair, pear, bare, care…
/uə/:
poor, tour, cruel, curious, sure…
many of us really dont care about the stressing in english, just like we dont when we speak chinese.
schwa, or/ə/, is pronounced like/ə:/, but shorter, lighter, and it only appears in a unstressed position.
/ə/:
a’gain (the syllable before ‘ is the unstressed syllable, the syllable after ‘ is the stressed one.)
a’bove (ə-bove)
for’get (fər-get)
ca’thedral (cə-thedral)
one 0’clock (one-nə-clock. you bring the “n” to join with the schwa to get “nə”)
half an ‘hour (half-fən hour)
boys and ‘girls (boys-sən girls)
cut a ‘cake (cut-tə-cake)
unlike the chinese 轻声, the english schwa appears everywhere haha.. it makes speaking so much smoother, fluent
/ə:/ (read as the “a” in “about”) is easy, you hear it all the time, it’s the unstressed “schwa” (/ə/) we dont often notice, but that’s the next lesson..
raise the centre of your tongue, spread your lips, you get /ə:/.
examples: her, stir, year, skirt, hurt…you get the idea.
Oh my favourite.. singaporeans have alot of variations for the “u” sound. do you say “during” as in
1)”diu+ring”, or 2) “du+ring”, 3) “ʤu+ring” (or “dju+ring”)
so we hear diurians/djurians(durians), opport-chu-nity/opport-tu-nity and en-di-ure/ en-djure (endure)..
such a mess!
first we clarify all the /u/ and /u:/sounds, I’ll get to the ʤ sound next time.
it’s actually the same as /i/-/i:/.
1) /u:/ is longer, /u/ is short
2)say “pool” (/u:/)and open your mouth wider, let down the tongue a little and relax a bit and you’ll have /u/.
/u:/ /u/
luke look
food foot
fool full
pool pull
new –
tune –
– book
“new” and “tune” is read as /nju:/ and /tju:n/..
say “pen” or /e/ like the last post, then lower your jaw a little and you have “pan” or /æ/.
1./æ/ is longer then /e/.
2./æ/ is tense and /e/ is lax.
3. different lip shapes as mentioned above. compare below:
/e/ /æ/
pen pan
men man
lend land
set sand
bed bad
dead dad
said sad
peddle paddle
“my dad said he’s sad because the pig is dead.”
it’s all about /e/.
/e/ is the sound in the “A” in “ABC”.
so we have:
bet; get; let;
bed; head; Ted;
beg; egg; leg;
pen; ten; men;
many; twenty; ready (“r+air+dy”; not prnounced “ray+dy”)
So from above it’s quite clear how we should pronounce bed, head (listen to the tv shows!), and egg, leg, but from what happened to Ris Low when she said “red” (r+air+d, anyway it’s r-A(as in ABC that A)-d), i think i better go the singy way.
I’m in love with phonetics and pronunciations, and would always babble away if my friends ever give me the slightest chance of bringing up the topic. It’s not that I like “correct pronunciations”, because there’re none, it’s that I find it incredibly interesting that there are so many different various sounds out there, just waiting for you to notice them, which we usually don’t. let’s start with the difference between /i:/ and /i/, which most Singaporeans ignore.
/i:/ is the same “i” in hanyu pinyin “ji”, “qi”, “xi”. “:” means the timing is longer.
/i/ is the same “i” in hanyu pinyin “zhi”, “chi”, “shi”. Open your mouth a little wider, hold your tongue loosely, say it in a short and lax manner.
/i:/ /i/
Seat sit
Sheep ship
Eat it
Feat fit
Read rid
Deed did
Green grin
Heel hill
Feel fill
Peace piss
ONLY THE ENGLISH COULD HAVE INVENTED THIS LANGUAGE
We’ll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes,
But the plural of ox becomes oxen, not oxes.
One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,
Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.
You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice,
Yet the plural of house is houses, not hice.
If the plural of man is always called men,
Then shouldn’t the plural of pan be called pen?
If I speak of my foot and show you my feet,
And I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?
If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,
Why shouldn’t the plural of booth be called beeth?
Then one may be that, and three would be those,
Yet hat in the plural would never be hose,
And the plural of cat is cats, not cose.
We speak of a brother and also of brethren,
But though we say mother, we never say methren.
Then the masculine pronouns are he, his and him,
But imagine the feminine: she, shis and shim!
Let’s face it – English is a crazy language.
There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger;
neither apple nor pine in pineapple.
English muffins weren’t invented in England ..
We take English for granted, but if we explore its paradoxes,
we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square,
and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.
And why is it that writers write but fingers don’t fing,
grocers don’t groce and hammers don’t ham?
Doesn’t it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend.
If you have a bunch of odds and ends
and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?
If teachers taught, why didn’t preachers praught?
If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?
Sometimes I think all the folks who grew up speaking English
should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane.
In what other language do people recite at a play and play at a recital?
We ship by truck but send cargo by ship.
We have noses that run and feet that smell.
We park in a driveway and drive in a parkway.
And how can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same,
while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites?
You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language
in which your house can burn up as it burns
down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out,
and in which an alarm goes off by going on.
And, in closing, if Father is Pop, how come Mother’s not Mop?
I WOULD LIKE TO ADD THAT IF PEOPLE FROM POLAND ARE CALLED POLES THEN
PEOPLE FROM HOLLAND SHOULD BE HOLES AND THE GERMANS GERMS!!!
最近在一个朋友的公公的丧事上，再次发现许多人若不是不清楚公公婆婆、爷爷奶奶怎么用，就是以为自己很了解怎么用，所以就开始去纠正他人了。
一般人的理解/误解：
公公–〉妈妈的父亲？若是用作爸爸的父亲就是用错？
爷爷–〉爸爸的父亲？
公公/婆婆：
1）你的丈夫的父亲/母亲叫公公/婆婆，这就是所谓的婆媳关系。
2）公公婆婆指祖父祖父，也就是爸爸的爸爸和妈妈。（用在男方一边是因为方言的关系，后来就沿用了下来）
3）公公婆婆也指外祖父外祖母，也就是妈妈的爸爸和妈妈。（方言关系）
爷爷/奶奶：
1）指祖父祖母
2）爷爷也可以指父亲–〉爷娘（多在中国用）
外公/外婆：仅指外祖父/外祖母。
所以如果要称呼可以叫：
爸爸的爸爸/妈妈 ： 妈妈的爸爸妈妈
公公婆婆 ： 外公外婆 （这个组合是我惯用的）
爷爷奶奶 ： 外公外婆
爷爷奶奶 ： 公公婆婆 （这个组合是我觉得新加坡人惯用的）
最后再说点“爷”这字。有一次在翻译课上，听老师用“老爷/姥爷”、“姥姥”，指自己的外祖父/外祖母，谁知道有些学生却嗤之以鼻笑了几声，显然是不以为然。唉，真觉得本地学生少见多怪，还偏偏幼稚地表现出自己的无知。
姥爷/姥姥和外公外婆一样，都指外祖父外祖母，只不过多用于中国罢了！
Things have come to a pretty pass
Our romance is growing flat,
For you like this and the other
While I go for this and that,
Goodness knows what the end will be
Oh I don’t know where I’m at
It looks as if we two will never be one
Something must be done:
You say either and I say either,
You say neither and I say neither
Either, either neither, neither
Let’s call the whole thing off.
You like potato and I like potahto
You like tomato and I like tomahto
Potato, potahto, tomato, tomahto.
Let’s call the whole thing off
But oh, if we call the whole thing off
Then we must part
And oh, if we ever part, then that might break my heart
So if you like pyjamas and I like pyjahmas,
I’ll wear pyjamas and give up pyajahmas
For we know we need each other so we
Better call the whole thing off
Let’s call the whole thing off.
You say laughter and I say larfter
You say after and I say arfter
Laughter, larfter after arfter
Let’s call the whole thing off,
You like vanilla and I like vanella
You saspiralla, and I saspirella
Vanilla vanella chocolate strawberry
Let’s call the whole thing off
But oh if we call the whole thing of then we must part
And oh, if we ever part, then that might break my heart
So if you go for oysters and I go for ersters
I’ll order oysters and cancel the ersters
For we know we need each other so we
Better call the calling off off,
Let’s call the whole thing off.
I say father, and you say pater,
I saw mother and you say mater
Pater, mater uncle, auntie let’s call the whole thing off.
I like bananas and you like banahnahs
I say havana and I get havahnah
Bananas, banahnahs havana, havahnah
Go your way, I’ll go mine
So if I go for scallops and you go for lobsters,
So all right no contest we’ll order lobseter
For we know we need each other so we
Better call the calling off off,
Let’s call the whole thing off.
Other non-album lyrics by ELLA FITZGERALD
ps: the video below is not by the original singer but it sings the full version, which includes verse 3. but then, he cant really pronounce the two versions, like for eg., for per-jam-mus VS per-jah mus, he pronounced them as per-jah mus VS per-jar-mus. same thing for the promounciation of the female singer.
This is actually quite humorous. I like how they make fun of each other, those sarcastic remarks, quite a getaway from my usual 低笑點 and 低級幽默, hoho..
That’s House from “House Medical Diagnosis”!
Many of us, and when i say “us” i mean Singaporeans, cannot pronounce the “th” sound in english. I myself cant do it very well either, but I’m still trying.. The first two clips below focus on how to pronounce “th” when it appears at the front, like “three”, in the middle, like “something”, at the back, like “both”, and in names, with exceptions, like cynthia and thomas. It also tells us how to pronounce when 2 “th”s come together, like “both things”. The third clip mainly teaches us the difference between a voiced “th” and an unvoiced “th”, like “things” and “these”. Enjoy 🙂
23 