IF YOU WERE A SAILBOAT. CONDITIONAL SONG. Vowels and diphthongs

The song If you were a sailboat composed and interpreted by the  Georgian-British singer, songwriter and musician  Katie Melua, will help us this time to sail through vowels /ɪ/  /ɪː/  /ʌ/  /ɑː/  /ɒ/  /ɔ:/  /ʊ/  /uː/, diphthongs  /aɪ/  /eɪ/  /aʊ/ and conditional sentences.

This post has been inspired by the work of the English teacher  José Álvaro Álvaro, who participated in the course  Phonetics Through Songs and the programme PhoTransEdit, used for the transcriptions in the matching activity.

 

There are two activities. Elementary and intermediate students should only do the first one, the gap-fill activity.  Upper-intermediate and advanced students can do both activities:

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

• A matching activity directed at upper-intermediate and advanced students. Once you've listened to the song and completed the gap-fill activity, try to remember the lyrics and  match the transcribed main clauses on the left with the conditional clauses on the right.

• Listen now to the official version of he same song and an alternative version with different lyrics. Can you spot the differences?
• For practice on conditional sentences, click here. 

CHASING PIRATES. DIPHTHONGS /eɪ/ /aɪ/ /əʊ/ /aʊ/

Norah Jones' swirling singing will, this time, take us into the slippery world of some diphthongs /eɪ/ /aɪ/ /əʊ/ /aʊ/ (phonemically analyzed as a sequence of a semivowel and a monophthong) with her song Chasing pirates.
WARNING: don’t confuse /əʊ/ and /aʊ/ (they are often mixed up!). Click first on the phonetic chart on the right to hear the difference.

I have to admit I chose this song because I like it, nevertheless, it does serve the purpose of showing the difference between these very diphthongs. American English is commonly described as having wide diphthongs, made with less oral tension. This is quite evident in the song where the singer (born in New York) makes little distinction between /əʊ/ /aʊ/, but she does make it.

Native-Burmese speakers find it almost impossible to pronounce diphthongs and triphthongs. The same is true of native-Caribbean speakers.

Listen to the song and fill in the gaps (using ordinary spelling, not phonetics) as you listen to it. 


For further practice with diphthongs, try this game

DO THEY KNOW IT'S CHRISTMAS (FEED THE WORLD)

This song was written  by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure in reaction to television reports of the 1983–85 famine in Ethiopia. It was first recorded in 1984 by Band Aid , a group of British and Irish  singers who got together to raise money for Ethiopia. Diphthong sounds are exploited this time in this song /aɪ/  /eɪ/  /əʊ/  /ɪə/  /ɒɪ/. 

-  Watch and listen to Do they Know it's Christmas and fill in the         gaps with  the missing words.

-  Can you guess who the singers are?

PURE AND SIMPLE

Listen to Pure by Liverpool band, The Lightning Seeds,  to help you identify some vowel and diphthong sounds  /ɑː/  /e/  /ɪː/  /ɪ/  /əʊ/   /aɪ/  and /uː/ and  also to celebrate the birth of a new pure and growing webpage  Habla Idiomas EOI intended to gather and share information and material for teachers and students at the State  School of Languages in Spain, EOIs (Escuelas Oficiales de Idiomas).


As you listen to the song,  fill in the gaps by clicking on the clue buttons which help you identify the vowel or diphthong sounds the missing words contain.

DECEMBER /ɪ/ /iː/ /ʌ/ /əʊ/

Inspiring month for a rainy song, December by Norah Jones. The front vowels /ɪ/ /iː/and central vowel and diphthong /ʌ/ /əʊ/ mix harmonically in this almost syllabic song sung with nearly every syllable distinctly pronounced.

• Listen to the song and complete the gap fill activity using the words in the box and the clues given in the ? buttons.

• Here's a version with lyrics and a live version. Can you spot any differences between the lyrics of the two versions?

THINK OF ME /θɪŋkˈəvˌmi:/

• A long awaited post for those who asked for a song rich in the contrasting front-close vowels /i:/ and /ɪ/ and the diphthong /aɪ/. Andrew LLoyd Webber's Think of me can serve as an example.

• Listen to the song and complete the gap fill activity using the clues given in the '?' buttons.

• Here's an amateur version and a version with lyrics.
• For more practice with minimal pairs /i:/ and /ɪ/.