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.

VIVA LA VI DA. VOWELS /iː/ /ɪ/ /ʊ/ /uː/ /e/ /ɜː/ /ɔː/ /æ/ /ʌ/ /ɑː/ /ɒ/

This post has been designed principally for Spanish speakers, but it can also be useful for other nationalities by skipping the first activity and doing the rest.

 There are 46 sounds in the English sound system, 22 of which are vowel sounds. Compare this with Spanish, which has 5 vowel sounds, none of which are equivalent to any vowel sound in English. English vowels are difficult to identify and produce in most latin based languages.

• First of all, note where the vowel chart is placed in the mouth cavity (Fig B) and then observe where each vowel is produced (Fig A) . Click on the chart on the right to hear and repeat the following vowel sounds /iː/ /ɪ/ /ʊ/ /uː/ /e/ /ɜː/ /ɔː/ /æ/ /ʌ/ /ɑː/ /ɒ/ as many times as you need to.

The British band Cold Play will help to introduce some of the most confusing vowels /iː/ /ɪ/ /ʊ/ /uː/ /e/ /ɜː/ /ɔː/ /æ/ /ʌ/ /ɑː/ /ɒ/ with their song Viva la vida.

• Listen to the song and do the matching exercise by dragging the words taken from the song on the right to the corresponding vowel sound they contain, on the left. Only one answer can be correct.

• For more practice with vowel sounds.

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. 

LAMH, LAMH EILE - A Song in Irish (parts of the body)

From working inside the walls of Trinity College Dublin, some Irish words were heard. 
Would you like to learn a few Gaelic words and how to pronounce them? 
All a challenge!

• Have a guess on how to pronounce these Irish words, some parts of the body. Choose the right phonetic transcription for every word. 

• Listen to this song in Irish and touch the parts of the body as they are mentioned.

• Now listen  and watch this video of a different version of the same song sung by kids, it's on the weird side, but I couldn't find any other version, sorry. 

Now you have a few Irish words on you!!!

(By Hajnalka Szerdi, Dora Gonda, Ewa Kozikowska and Ana López Pozo)

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.

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?

THE SOUND OF FRUIT

Match the phonetic transcriptions to the fruit. Send your answers in your comment and say which fruit tastes and sounds best in your opinion.

A /ˈɒrɪndʒ/
B /ˈæpəl/
C /ˈwɔ:ʈəˌmelən/