When is Of Not Of? https://youtu.be/iJDvTOsiFe8 The Script Many teachers of English don’t seem to be aware of an important feature of British English pronunciation.The feature I speak of is the different pronunciation of strong and of weak syllables in sentences.The word of is a preposition which means that it is a function word.Function words are most commonly found in the weak positions in sentences.To tell students that of is always pronounced of is wrong.By the end of this video you will be saying “of course of is not always of”.And, of course, your pronunciation will improve because of this fact.You have probably never thought of it before, have you?If you listen again to that sentence, you will hear that the of was not pronounced of but … [Read more...]
When Is To Not To? – A Common Mistake Made by Teachers of English
When Is To Not To? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4CoitzWmpQ The Script Words are rarely spoken in isolation, except when students are being drilled by a teacher in pronouncing a list of words.This is a very artificial way of teaching, as it fails to take into account important features of British English pronunciation.To tell a student that to is always pronounced as to is to make a mistake.It is a mistake which could be avoided by actually listening to how we say the word to.To is a preposition, and as such it is a function word, not a content word.Function words are usually the weak syllables in a sentence.The strong form of to is indeed to, because the vowel is strong, but we rarely hear it in the strong form.I hope to make this clear to you.Did you … [Read more...]
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When is The Not The? A Common Mistake Made By Too Many English Teachers
When is the not the? https://youtu.be/utmZ_LM-StE The Script Some teachers seem to think that it’s okay to drill the pronunciation of the word the as the, as if the is always the.I’m here to tell you that the is not always pronounced as the.The is not the when it comes before a vowel.When the comes before a vowel sound it’s pronounced as the not the.For instance, the apple, the elephant, the ice cream, the onion, the umbrella.Notice that I said it is the when it comes before a vowel sound, not a vowel letter.Some words which begin with a vowel letter do not begin with a vowel sound.Take unicorn, for instance.Unicorn begins with the letter U, but it begins with the consonant sound J.So the before unicorn is the, as in the unicorn. It’s the same for the … [Read more...]
Ancient England Under the Early Saxons
A Child's History of England is a work by Charles Dickens. It first appeared in serial form in Household Words, running from January 25, 1851 to December 10, 1853.Dickens dedicated the book to "My own dear children, whom I hope it may help, bye and bye, to read with interest larger and better books on the same subject".The history covered the period between 50 BC and 1689, ending with a chapter summarising events from then until the accession of Queen Victoria. Chapter 1 – Ancient England Under the Early Saxons The second chapter and Study Pack is available now. This chapter looks at the period between the withdrawal of the Romans through to the Saxon invasion and establishment of the Saxon heptarchy. It ends with the death of Ethelred, Saxon king of … [Read more...]