Basic Word Stress

The BBC published a video about the discovery of a new planet. The surprising thing is, not only is it close to Earth, but it could be capable of supporting life. As you can imagine, this is an interesting and surprising news story. The Science Correspondent uses basic word stress to emphasise certain words. These words are the most important to the meaning she wants to give to what she is saying.

Scientists Have Discovered an Earth-Like Planet

Published by BBC News on 24th August 2016

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HOW TO PRONOUNCE FUR GIRL WORK

Unlike with the spellings of other sounds I think three spelling combinations can claim more or less equal status as representing the sound /ɜ:/. I would say that ‘er’ seems the most obvious choice as in ‘jerk’ /dʒɜ:k/, but there are plenty of words with ‘ur’ or ‘ir’. Take ‘curl’ /kɜ:l/ or ‘dirt’ /dɜ:t/. I tend to assume that any of these three combinations would make the /ɜ:/ sound. Of course, they can make other sounds too, but that’s for another day. Today is about how to pronounce fur girl work and other such words.
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Understand Native English Speakers When They are Laughing

You may find it difficult to understand native speakers when they are laughing. Sometimes when we start laughing we cannot stop – we say that we ‘have got the giggles’ and usually this is happens to children. But adults go through it too. When we laugh we can find it difficult to pronounce even simple words. I thought it might be a challenge for you to try and make out what the weather reporter is saying in this clip from the BBC. Read the notes on maintaining composure when broadcasting on live TV then try the short gap fill exercise below. Beneath that you will find the full transcript to the weather report.

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HOW TO PRONOUNCE FRIEND ANY SAID

A lot of my students have problems pronouncing ‘friend’. Even when I tell them the correct pronunciation they still make the mistake of pronouncing the ‘i’ and the ‘e’ separately. They have been saying friend like that for so long that they can’t lose it and don’t manage to say /frend/. Essentially the /e/ is not a difficult sound to make. However, we are not just looking at how to pronounce friend any said but other ways of spelling the /e/ sound.

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