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In this exercise you have to talk to the computer. Well, close to anyway, you have to practise saying different words and sounds out loud and never mind if there is somebody else in the room! Read the sentences below out loud. If you click on the sentences you can listen to an American reading them out loud. |
The first difficulty:
"Veronica Watson was wearing a very white
veil while visiting
Vienna."
That was not a tongue-twister, just a sentence to test your pronunciation of "v" and "w". If you click on it you can listen to it, to make sure you got it right.
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Check yourself |
Make up a sentence of your own with words beginning with "v"
and "w". Read it out loud at least five times. Submit
it to your project discussion. |
The second difficulty:
"His eyes were cold as ice when I told him I'd
lost our two cars
in a game of poker."
What was the difficulty here? My guess is it was the "s". Should it be voiced or unvoiced (tonande eller tonlöst)?
The voiced "s" is quite difficult. Listen carefully to a news broadcast, a film or something on the Net. What is your deduction? Is there a rule for this? If you can't come up with one, you have to find the answer somewhere (looking in your grammar might not be a bad idea).
| Check yourself | If you had difficulties with this ask yourself when the "s" is voiced. Is there a simple rule that would be useful to you? |
The third difficulty:
"Tea for two in London is something to dream
about on a dull
December evening."
The consonants are important, if you don't get the "t", "l", "d" and "r" correct you will not get the vowels right either! Say the following words out loud and think about how you pronounce them. Do you sound English?
| tea, London, drum, dull, roses, tower, lobby, lamp, ticket, tools |
Practise this every chance you get! Listen carefully to native speakers and imitate! We will do pronunciation exercises when we meet.