PLOSIVE STORY /p/ /b/ /t/ /d/ /k/ /g/

A stop, plosive, or occlusive is a consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the vocal tract.

• Use the consonant chart on the right to hear and repeat each one of these plosive consonant phonemes /p/ /b/ /t/ /d/ /k/ /g/ in isolation as many times as you need to. To help you produce the sounds correctly, place a sheet of paper in front of you, you will probably notice that the paper moves (if you do it properly) as the air streem is released in the manner of a mini-explosion. Keep trying until the paper moves, it should move more with the voiceless consonants /p/ /t/ /k/ than with the voiced equivalents /b/ /d/ /g/.
  

• You can now listen to the song The story composed by Brandi Carlile.Pay special attention to the pronunciation of plosive consonants. Once you have finished listening, you can do the matching activity just underneath the video. If you want to see the lyrics as you listen, click on this link: version with the lyrics superimposed on the video.

• Do this matching puzzle activity for more practice of -ed form.
• For more listening practice on pronunciation of -ed  regular past verbs, click here.

FRICATIVE LOVE. SHE /f/ /v/ /θ/ /ð/ /s/ /z/ /ʃ/ /ʒ/ /h/ /r/

Fricative consonants are produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together which produces friction, this air flow is called frication. Click on each of these fricative consonants /f/ /v/ /θ/ /ð/ /s/ /z/ /ʃ/ /ʒ/ /h/ /r/ in the chart on the right and repeat these sounds as many times as you need to.The fricative song She, well-known thanks to the film Notting Hill, starring Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant, sung by Elvis Costello, was, however, composed by the Armenian Charles Aznavour, who made it number one in England in 1974.

1. Listen to the song on this video and do the gap-fill activity just underneath by typing the missing words as you listen.

1. Once finished you can do the following crossword activity with words taken from the lyrics.

1. Compare Elvis Costello's She from the film Notting Hill to Charles Aznavour's original version. Which version do you prefer?
2. Try to imagine the story of the two people featured in the video posted on this page.

PAST OR PRESENT? /s/, /d/ or /t/? RUN BABY RUN

Here's a song, Run Baby Run, by Sheryl Crow to  help you identify present and past verb forms from the pronunciation of final consonants /s/,  /z/,   /d/  or  /t/.  Also to homage a good friend.

Listen to the song and fill in the gaps with the correct verb form, present or  past, according to what you hear. Click first on the clue, the infinitive of the verb written phonetically.


To practice with -ed form of regular past verbs, click here

GLOTTAL STOP /ʔ/ AND LITTLEST THINGS

(By Rosa Maté Ibáñez and Ana López Pozo)

It's the little things that make the difference.


In this song, Littlest Things by Lilly Allen (made popular by the viral power of the net), you can learn to identify and practice glottal stop, represented in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ʔ/. This is produced by obstructing the airflow in the vocal tract. In certain positions  it may be used as an allophone of the phoneme / t/; This is known as glottalling or glottal replacement of 't'. See tutorial on glottal stop .
  
T Glottalisation is one of the features of Cockney English. See Cockney rhyming slang. The term Cockney has both geographical and linguistic associations. Geographically and culturally, it often refers to working class Londoners, particularly those in the East End. Linguistically, it refers to the form of English spoken by this group. It used to be looked down on by some people but today it is becoming more common and accepted. Due to the influence of  television series and some presenters, Cokney has spread. This has led to the adoption of a mock Cockney (Mockney) accent by some celebrities  looking for street credibility.

• Listen to the song and do the gap-fill exercise while listening. Click on the clue button to get a phonetic transcription of the missing words. The clues in the gap-fill exercise for this song, Littlest Things, focus on the t glottlalisation. 

• Can you find any more words containing glottal stop in the song apart from the gapped ones?

COMMUNICATION. Linking consonants to vowels

 

 

Not understanding can be  a good reason to disconnect, both in daily communication and in life.

The clues in the gap- fill exercise for this song, Communication by the Cardigans, can help you  recognise linking features of connecting consonants to vowels and identify flap or tap t, /ɾ/, in order to understand  speech better, so that you don't have to disconnect!

• In General American, International English and colloquial British English,  /t/ can be pronounced as the so-called flap or tap t, /ɾ/,  which sounds like a short d or, more precisely, like the quick, hard r sound heard  in Spanish pero. So letter  can be heard as /leɾə/.

Within words,  /ɾ/ must be followed by a weak unstressed vowel, i.e.  /ə, i /. The /t/ is tapped    in átom  /ˈæɾəm/ ,  but not in atómic /əˈtɒmɪk/.

In connected speech, across words, this stress-sensitivity ceases to exist, and  /t/ followed by any vowel undergoes this t- to- r process; not only do we find tapping in get alóng  /ˈɡeɾəˈlɒŋ/ , where the next vowel is unstressed, but in get úp /ˈgeɾʌp/ too.

• Listen to the song and do the gap-fill exercise while listening. Click on the clue button to get a phonetic transcription of the missing letters. Be aware that in the gap you have to write the ending of a word, a space and the  next word or beginning of  it.

THE LOGICAL SONG FOR SYLLABIC CONSONANTS

This post is dedicated to all those Spanish State Teachers, colleagues of mine, who  are suffering the consequences of the regional governments  education cutbacks  in various Spanish Communities and to all those thousands of now unemployed teachers who have not been contracted by these regional governments in order to transfer the public money, thus saved,  to Private Education.  A tough situation for the teaching community  only sustainable thanks to the teachers' professionality and generosity. My  support  for their patience and excellence of their work in such difficult times.

• The Logical Song by Supertramp, a British rock band with major hits throughout the 1970s and 1980s,  can serve as  food for thought this time on the subject of State Education. The song was inspired by the experience of Roger Hodgson, the singer and composer of this song, who was sent to a private boarding school as a boy.

• Before listening to the song, read the quotations by Spanish poet Antonio Machado and philosopher and writer Miguel de Unamuno translated into English.

"Regarding culture and knowledge, you only lose what you save; you only gain what you give" Antonio Machado.

"True science teaches, above all, to doubt and to be ignorant". Miguel de Unamuno.

 This is also a perfect song to practise Syllabic Consonants,  a phonetic element that normally patterns as a consonant, but may fill a vowel slot in a syllable. A weak, unstressed syllable often has a schwa /ə / in it. But if the schwa is omitted, we are left with a syllabic consonant,  a syllable where the vowel and the consonant have merged into one.

The syllabic consonants  n, l,  r, m  are phonetically represented  as  / n̩ /   / l̩/  /m̩/   /r̩ / 

Here are some examples:
button     /ˈbʌtn̩/
widen    /ˈwaɪdn̩/
able        /ˈeɪbl̩ /
bottle      /ˈbɒtl̩ /

blossom   /ˈblɒsm̩/ 

Syllabic r occurs in words like

history      /ˈhɪstr̩i/
Hungary   /ˈhʌŋɡr̩i/ 

• Listen to the song and do the gap-fill activity designed for intermediate and advanced  students. fill in the gaps using the "Clue" button, where the missing word is transcribed.

• What's the song about? Can you find a connection  between the quotations and the song. 
• Discuss the subject of Private vs State Education in your country.

THAT DAY. /S/ INITIAL POSITION

Some latin based languages tend to add an intrusive 'e' sound before the /s/ sound when it is followed by a consonant in initial position.

eg: 'e'Steve 'e'speaks 'e'Spanish.

The song That Day by Natalie Imbruglia will help in the practice of the sound /s/ in initial position as well as the practice of this sound in connected speech. Try to hear the language as chunks of speech rather than individual words. In this way you will soon be able to hear (and then hopefully produce) language as it is really spoken rather than as you think it is spoken.

• Listen to the song and fill in the gaps with the missing words, most of them are adjectives connected by commas. As you fill in the gaps remember to write the commas when needed or your answer will be seen as incorrect. If you need help click on the ? button and you will get the words transcribed phonetically.

• Further practice in phonetic transcription for advanced students. Try the following matching exercise:

These two activities have been made with the help of PhoTransEdit, a programme for transcribing ordinary English into phonetics

WISH YOU WERE HERE. APPROXIMANTS (LIQUID AND GLIDE CONSONANTS) /l/ /r/ /j/ /w/

Liquid consonants /l/ /r/ are sounds where the airstream is obstructed, but not so much as to either stop it or create friction. Pronounce all or are very slowly and hear the difference between the vowel and the liquid consonants. Some languages trill r's, of course. In American English the /r/ is considered a retroflex because of how the tongue flexes back toward the alveolar ridge (in most dialects). /l/ is considered a lateral liquid because it is made by putting the tip of the tongue against the alveolar ridge, then letting the airstream flow around the sides of the tongue - laterally.

Glide consonants, also known as semivowels /j/ /w/. Sounds with little or no obstruction to the airstream in the mouth.
Glides and Liquids are the closest things to vowels among the consonants - in fact, in some languages they function almost as vowels; Sanskrit, for example, has syllabic 'l' and 'r' .

1) Click on the phonemes /l/ /r/ /j/ /w/ in the consonant chart on the right before you listen to the song.

Take into account that the graphemes that stand for /j/ are:

• 'y' in initial position as in yellow, yes, you.

• 'u' and 'eu' + consonant in initial position as in university, united, Europe.
• Compression in connected speech as in tell me a story /ˈtelmjəˈstɒri/

The graphemes that stand for /w/ are:

• 'wh' as in white, where, whiskey.
• 'w' as in win, wet, wish.
• Compression in connected speech as in about to arrive /əˈbəʊtwəˈraɪv/

2) Do the gap- fill activity as you listen to the song by the legendary English rock band Pink Floyd. Use the clues (the liquid and glide consonants /l/ /r/ /j/ /w/ the words contain) as you need them, but remember you will lose points. You can repeat the activity as many times as you need to. Use the scroller on the right to move up or down.

3) Do the matching activity. Read the instructions before you do it.

SING A NASAL SONG /n/ /m/ /ŋ/

Nasal consonants /n/ /m/ /ŋ/ are produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. A nasal consonant is also called nasal stop or nasal continuant.

• It is advisable to click on the phonemes /n/ /m/ /ŋ/ in the consonant chart on the right before you listen to the song. To produce /ŋ/ you obstruct the air stream through your mouth by bringing the back of your tongue into contact with the soft palate. The spellings for /ŋ/ are:
  
  • 'ng' as in sing, crying, long
  • 'nk' as in rank, thanks, think
• Paying special attention to these sounds, listen and sing along with Sing, a song composed by the Scottish band Travis

• Do the gap- fill activity as you listen again. Use the clues (the nasal consonants /n/ /m/ /ŋ/ the words contain) as you need them, but remember you will lose points. You can repeat the activity as many times as you need to. Use the scroller on the right to move up or down.

• For more activities with nasal consonants click here
• Do you like seafood? List all the food you can see in the video.

LOVE PROFUSION /ʃ/ /ʒ/

The sounds /ʃ/ /ʒ/ can create confusion when associating them to their graphemes (letters) as they are very similar. Madonna's Love profusion is a song very prolific in both these two sounds.

1. First, use the phonetic chart on the right and click on the sounds /ʃ/ and /ʒ/ to hear and repeat the sound in isolation as many times as you need to.
2. Listen to the song and do the gap-fill exercise by writing in the space provided. Use the bar on the right to help you move up or down. Don't worry if you don't get all your answers right, the next activity, the quiz, will help you identify the sounds /ʃ/ and /ʒ/, and complete your gap-fill exercise.
   
   

1. Try this quiz activity. If you haven't scored all your answers right in the previous activity, this can help you identify the sounds /ʃ/ and /ʒ/. Once finished, try to complete the gap-fill exercise again. If you can't, send a comment at the end of this article.

ACROSS THE CONSONANTS /k/ /tʃ/ /dʒ/ /f/ /θ/ /ð/ /ʃ/ /ŋ/ /w/ /j/

Get lost into the Universe of Consonants and across the 5 activities proposed. The Beatles song, Across the Universe, interpreted here by the American singer-songwriter Fiona Apple might give us an insight into some of the most difficult consonant phonemes to identify in English /k/ /tʃ/ /dʒ/ /f/ /θ/ /ð/ /ʃ/ /ŋ/ /w/ /j/ .

• Listen to the song and, if you know it, sing along as you read the lyrics just underneath focusing on the pronunciation of consonants.Dedicated to my teachers and my cousin in Brazil.

• Do the matching exercise by dragging the words taken from the song on the right to the corresponding phonetic symbol they contain on the left. Use the bar to move up or down and check your score once you've finished. GOOD MATCHING!

• What do the Sanskrit words Jai guru deva om mean?
• Here's the original Across the Universe Beatles' version and another interesting version interpreted by The Scorpions. Which of the three versions do you like best?

SO CALLED FRIEND /s/ /z/

This time the song So called friend, composed by the Scottish band Texas, is going to help us identify the phonemes /s/ and /z/ through a gap-fill activity you can do as you listen to the song.

• Read the instructions in the gap-fill activity below, then listen to the song and write your answers in the gaps provided. Use the bar on the right of the box to move the text up or down.

• Send a comment if you haven't been able to get all the words.
• The song is about a friend, is the friend a good one? Think about the 5 most important qualities a friend should have in your opinion, use the following structure:

           ie, a friend is someone who listens to you

• Some more on /s/ and /z/ click here