English help
4 Basic English Pronunciation Rules
Here we show you several basic English pronunciation rules to help you during your classes at your ESL school and in your practice time alone. Make your practice a dynamic and effective one by looking for new words these rules apply to:
1. Pronunciation of the “Y”
“Y” is pronounced as ‘ai’ or ‘i:’.
- In one-syllable words, “Y” is pronounced as ‘ai’. For example: my, by, fly, shy, sky, dry, cry, fry, and try.
- In two-syllable words, “Y” is pronounced as ‘i:’. As example: happy, funny, baby, bony, puppy, party, tiny, city, candy, berry, penny, and turkey.
2. Pronunciation of the “C”
“C” is pronounced as ’s’ or ‘k’. For example: city, cider, circle, and country.
- When an “E” or “Y” follow the “C”, it is pronounced as ’s’. Good examples are: cellar, center, cent, ice, cycle, cell, cypress, and cyclone.
- When an “O”, “U”, or “A” follows the “C”, it is pronounced as ‘k’. Some examples are: cold, country, computer, couple, cup, curb, cut, cap, can, and cat.
Read these sentences aloud and compare both sounds:
_ The city is cloudy.
_ The center is covered.
_ We cycle in the city but drive the car in the country.
3. Pronunciation of the “G”
- When an “E”, “I”, or “Y” follows the “G”, it is pronounced as ‘ʤ’. Examples are: gym, giant, gem, gorgeous, and George.
- When a “U” or “A” follows the “G”, it is pronounced as ‘’ or ‘æ’. For example: gun, gum, gas, garden, and gap.
4. Pronunciation of vowel letters
- The long “A” and the short “A”, for example: cape and gap.
-at: bat, cat, hat, fat, sat, rat
-ad: bad, had, mad, sad
-ag: tag, wag, rag, bag
-an: fan, pan, can, ran
-am: jam, ham, ram, yam
-ap: map, tap, nap
When the word ends in “E”, the “A” is pronounced as a long vowel. Examples of this are: rake, gate, face, base, cage, wave, and take.
When the word ends in “R”, the “A” sound is as in: tar, jar, car, and far.
- The long “I” and the short “I”.
-id: bid, kid, lid, did
-ig: big, rig, wig, pig, dig
-in: pin, fin, tin, win, bin
-ip: tip, lip, hip, rip, dip
-it: kit, hit, fit, sit, pit
When the word ends in “E”, the “I” is pronounced as a long vowel. For example: kite, bike, dime, ride, and vine.
- The long “O” and the short “O”.
-og: fog, hog, dog, jog, log
-op: mop, pop, hop, top
-ot: hot, pot, got, not
-ob: mob, cob, job, sob
When the word ends in “E”, the “O” is pronounced as a long vowel. As examples: rose, pole, and hope.
- The long “U” and the short “U”.
-ut: pup, cup, put, up, rut, hut, cut, nut
-ub: cub, tub
-us: bus, pus
-un: fun, sun, run, bun, gun
-ug: mug, bug, tug, hug
When the word ends in “E”, the “O” is pronounced as a long vowel. Examples: tune, cube, and cute.
If you liked this article, tell all your friends about it. They’ll thank you for it. If you have a blog or website, you can link to it or even post it to your own site (don’t forget to mention our ESL blog as the original source).
11 Good Reasons Why Teachers Skip Certain Exercises in the Textbook
Many students sign up for classes at an ESL school and expect to work through their textbooks without missing anything. It could be because they want to make sure they are investing their money wisely or because they trust the textbook more than the teacher. However, most teachers won’t follow the textbook literally, and there are 11 good reasons they don’t do so:
1.Too easy
Textbooks are designed to be used by a range of students with somewhat different levels, strengths, weaknesses, and backgrounds, thus, some exercises may be too easy for a certain class and the teacher may decide to use time more productively in other ways.
2.Too difficult
In the same way, some exercises may be too hard for a specific class, and thus, it is not constructive to complete them at the moment.
3.Complex instructions
Some exercises just take too much time to understand and thus, you are not able to concentrate on what you should really be learning.
4.Repetition
Some exercises are very similar to the current lesson, the homework, or the previous lesson, making them less effective than learning the same thing but in a different way or through a new activity.
5.Incorrect
It may be that the exercise is plain incorrect in the grammar explanation, the information it provides, or the stereotypes in regards to nationality or other groups of people.
6.Not accepted
Maybe previous students have not liked the exercise, thus, the teacher knows it won’t work.
7.Best for homework
Many exercises are better done as homework in order to use class time to reinforce speaking, pronunciation, and grammar theory.
8.Timing
Sometimes, time won’t allow for every exercise to be done if the teacher wants to finish the lesson or course fully.
9.Sticking to the program
The course’s program may differ from the book’s content.
10.Changes
The English information, language, or format may have changed since the textbook was first published.
11.Bad staging
The exercise may be right, but by using it, the teacher could be stopping the next stages of the class from running smoothly.
If you liked this article, tell all your friends about it. They’ll thank you for it. If you have a blog or website, you can link to it or even post it to your own site (don’t forget to mention www.englishlci.com as the original source).
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