Pronunciation and Spelling in English

                                                                                                  

FINISH

 

Ex. 5.17 Group the words below according to the pronunciation of the stressed vowels. Compare the meanings of single vowels and vowel combinations. What principle of reading vowel digraphs do the given words illustrate?

 

Antennae, beg, beige, believe, brooch, bruise, boy, buy, by, coin, die, dine, either, got, in, key, made, maiden, needle, neutral, obey, pay, people, receive, seat, she, shoulder, soap, sold, soup, steak, tune, true.

Ex. 5.18 Practice reading the following words.

The letter "a":

pale, dale, rake, navy, table, ladle, staple, cradle, apron, sabre, latch, rack, jacket, quack, yank, jag, carry, parrot, garret, sparrow, barrel, rattle, tangle, sample, angry, fare, Mary, snare, daring, age, sharing, air, hairy, chair, repair, affair, farce, arch, jar, market, scarf, alarm, call. all, also, chalk, walk, tall, augur, sauce, pause, aught, author, caught, taught, claw, crawl, law, yawn, hawk, jaw, draw, day, nail, rain, wait, gait, quail, chain, away, praise, lay;

 

The letter "o":

nose, probe, Joe, quote, drove, wove, phone, noble, ogre, cobra, joke, ogle, yoke, jog, lodge, wrong, knock, knot, strong, core, shore, wore, oral, score, story, storm, mort, orchard, thorn, force, pork, lorry, horror, borrow, porridge, goggle, jostle, bottle, scallop, foam, coal, load, toast, roach, throat , coach, oak, roam, hold, cold, gold, jolt, stroll, roll, scold, pillow, show, window, snow, glow, crow, yellow, row, know, own, hook, hoys, coil, coy, choice, enjoy, roil, voice, destroy, cook, book, wood, look, stood, rook, coo, wool, soon, moon, zoo, broom, coop, hover, too, wooed, roof, ooze, sooth, out, about, mouth, south, scouts, count, down, town, crowd, crown, clown, howl, jowl, fowl, tower, power, flower, shower, coward, towel, trowel;

 

The letter "u":

cute, cube, humour, purple, unit, super, student, bugle, bugler, duty, computer, tunic, cure, Ural, pure, dual, obscure, endure, fury, curious, furious, jury, plural, cruel, rural, flue, true, rule, jute, truce, June, lunar, plume, chute, under, cut, run, jump, thunder, just, hungry, hurry, current, burrow, humble, struggle, bungle, uncle, buckle, crumple, cur, hurl, turkey, gurgle, curtains, Thursday, lurch, further, turn;

 

The letter "e":

bead, these, cede, Eve, recent, scene, secret, legal, sere, zero, sphere, cero, hero, mere, inhere, severe, era, well, text, vet, wet, zest, length, theft, gentle, error, cherry, sherry, Jerry, where, terror, derrick,  kettle,   temple,   nettle,  verse,   germ,  perch,   concern,   German, mercy, thermos, leap, knead, gleam, streak, teach, quean, streak, easy, wreak,  veal,   creek,  cheep,   screed,  jeep,   breeze,  meeting,   kneel, seethe,   queer,   wheedle,   ear,  tear,   clear,   weary,  hear,   rear,  beard, smeary, beer,  cheer,  fleer,  jeer,  queer, pioneer, few,  hew,  news,  yew, view, stew, newspaper, flew, grew, drew, blew, chew, threw, seize, deceive, conceit, conceive, receive, ceiling;

 

The letters "i/y":

nice, knife, fly, type, stifle, trifle, fibre, nylon, idle, hydra, cycle, quite, fire, lyre, tyre, quire, wire, byre, require, pick, quick, think, crypt, symbol, myth, system, gym, gyps, with, griddle, little, wiggle, sizzle, scribble, thimble, mirror, chirrup, squirrel, shirk, chirp, thirty, birch, smirch, sir, circle, quirt, Myrtle, bind, kind, mind, wind, grind, behind, high, light, might, knight, bright, thigh, tight, sigh, dial, trial, lion, diary, triumph, pioneer, flyer, giant, quiet, violin, field, grieve, believe, achieve, thief, thieve , piece.

 

Vowel Letter Combinations

ay, ai

says, quay, certainly, always, holiday, Sunday, certainty, Monday, portrayal, play, clay, aid, straight, against, fair, chair, rain, air, said, aisle, balalaika, curtain, claim, certain, pay,  again, plait, plaid, plaintiff, plaintive, quay age, clay

ea

eagle, stream, sea, deal, bread, meal, lean, feather, sweat, breath,  breakfast, heaven, pleasure, break, great, steak, fear, idea, tear, theatre, clear, earthly, rear,  earthworm,  Earn, earn, ear-splitting,  Earn Shaw, earring,  earnest, eaglet,  each, eager, Easter, leave

ee

eel, needle, agree, addressee, employee, peer, beer, beetle, teenager, teem, teetotal, returnee

ei, ey

veil, convey,  receive, key, height, eye, either, seismograph,  sleight, money, heifer, Reynolds, atheism, deity, heir, heirloom, leitmotif, beige, donkey, eight, Leicester,  weight, leisure, ceiling, receive, seize, geyser, they,  survey, bogey, monkey, whiskey, weird

eu, ew, iew

feudal, few, masseuse, sew, Freudian, masseur, lieutenant, euphemism, feudalism, queue, pseudonym, neutral, Europe, leukocyte, rheumatism, leukemia, leucotomy, Lucite,  Peugeot,  Reuter,  Reuben,  reunion, reusable,  Seurat, chew,  Tewkesberry, mew, mewl,   fewness, Newton, New-York

eo

jeopardy, leopard, Geoffrey,  Leonard, people, theory, peony, theology, theorem, reorganize, reopen, Seoul,  Leo, Leonardo, Leopold,  Leonora, deodar, deoxyribonucleic, deodorant, ,  Neo-Latin, neologism, neoplasm, neonatal.

ie

piece, tie, fierce, tried, studied, dries, fries, friend, flies, sieve, handkerchief,  science, pliers, society, acquiesce, Viennese, happiest, Vietnam, viewpoint, achieve, chief, species, series, mischief, auntie, Freddie, brier, fiery, diet, field,  fiesta

oo

food, good, blood, flood,  door, moor, poor, brooch, zoology, cooperate, cook, book, wood, floor, ooze, boost, boot, foolish, too, woo, kangaroo, foot, boost, boor, boomerang, boondocks, soothe

oi, oy

noise, boy, patois, turquoise,  coin, oily, turmoil, boil, connoisseur, tortoise, loiter, loin, soiree, Boyd,  boysenberry, boycott, toy

ou

round, soul, touch, group,  could, should, would, thought, through, bough, through, rough, cough, thorough, flour, tourist, four, journey, courage, courier, ounce, oust, house, thousand, account, sound, fountain, youth, soup, boulevard, goulash, you, nourish,  trouble, poultry, mould, shoulder, bought, slough, house, wound

 

Ex. 5.19 Spot the homophones:

Homophones are words (or combinations of words) which sound the same, but are spelled differently and have different meanings: meet and meat, seen and scene. Find the pairs of homophones hidden in the list below.

Side, balls, bear, bowled, cue, ducked, fort, work grate, hair, hare, bales, week, dally, bald, hold, fought, weekly, stoke, walk, missed, air, pure, packed, pear, pore, where, pour, duct, bore, seam, quiet, sought, please, shake, wade, sheikh, pleas, weakly, bold, past, sighed, piece, mist, wear, seem, sight, slay, wake, win, steak, stalk, stroke, stork, daily, stake, weak, bare, holed, wine, pact, bawls, passed, wane, queue, great, heir, pair, whine, grant, sleigh, same, weighed, site, peace.

Some of these words do not form pairs of homophones.

 

Ex. 5.20 Read the following proverbs:

1. The cook stood still and looked the bush was full of good wood.
2. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
3. A sound mind in a sound body.
4. A green wound is soon healed.
5. I wouldn’t like to be in your shoes.
6. Too many cooks spoil the broth.
7. New brooms sweep clean.
8. The proof of the pudding is in the eating.
9. Too good to be true.
10. A little pot is soon hot.

 

Ex. 5.21 Try to read these tongue-twisters s quick as possible:

1. A tutor who taught on the flute

Tried to teach two young tooters to toot.

Said the two to the tutor,

Is it harder to toot or

To tutor two tooters to toot?

2. Whatever one toucan can do

Is sooner done by toucans two,

And three toucans (it’s very true)

Can do much more than two can do.

3. How many cookies could a good cook if a good cook could cook cookies?

A good cook could cook as much cookies as a good cook who could cook cookies.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

TEST I

 

1. Transcribe the following words: 
Four, boot, cook, young, couple, good, proud, round, look, foolish, food, sour, moon, loose, pronoun.

 

2. Sort out the words according to the reading of vowel digraphs:

 

Borough, brought, tough, bough, thorough, ought, drought, dough, though, bought, sough, slough, pool, root, room, sooth, tootle, took, wooden, hooves, hook, foolhardy, footer, bootlegger, booklet.  

 

3. Translate the following utterances and transcribe the words in bold type:

 

1. After that she divorced from her husband and left her work, she was in a slough.
2. The wound was fatal and there was no hope for his rescue.

 

 

TEST II

 

1. Transcribe the following words: 
Nutritious, food, young, neighbour, childhood, fourteen hours, joyous 
cousin, wooden house, took, roomy, would.

 

2. Sort out the words according to the reading of vowel digraphs:

 

Ooze, poor, floor, enough, choose, soul, book, southern, ounce, blood,

should, account, poultry, flood, too, could, mould, youth, rough,

trouble, mould, broach, bloom, tooth, tourist.

 

3. Translate the following utterances and transcribe the words in bold type:

 

1. The little girl very was very frightened, when she saw a slough of a snake on a stone.
2. A man was injured, he had a wound.

 

6. Reading of Unstressed Vowels

 

     Vowels in unstressed syllables in disyllabic and polysyllabic words usually denote the neutral sound [ə] and short [ı].

1. The letters ‘e’, ‘i’, ‘y’ denote the sound [ı]: rocket, bandit, funny.
2. The letters ‘a’, ‘o’, ‘u’ denote the sound [ə]: Poland, bottom, cactus.

BUT -age [ı] (message), -ate [ə/ı] (delicate), -ible [ı/ə] (terrible).

3. The letter combinations ‘vowel + the letter ‘r” give the neutral [ə]: dollar, dinner, doctor, nature.
4. In the letter combination ‘vowel + vowel + consonant’ (-ial, -ion, -our, -ous etc.) we pronounce the neutral [ə]: initial, division, labour, generous.
5. In the letter combinations ‘vowel + consonant + consonant  
   (+ consonant/vowel)’ (-able, -ance, -ent etc.) we pronounce [ə]: capable, attendance, student.
6. In the letter combinations ‘consonant + vowel + consonant (+ vowel)’ we can pronounce:

a) the neutral [ə]: freedom;

b) the neutral [ə] or short [ı]: careless;

c) the neutral [ə] or short [υ]: awful.

7. The letters ‘o’ and ‘u’ in an open syllable and after a stressed syllable have their primary long meanings: sambo [əυ], costume [ju:].
8. An unstressed vowel is not pronounced, as a rule, in the following cases:

      a) e+ l\n (at the end of a word): seven [^\sevn];

      b) i+l (at the end of a word): pupil [^\pju:pl];

      c) o+n (at the end of  a word): lesson [^\lesn]

 

Ex. 6.1 Read the riddles. Try to guess the right answer. Transcribe the underlined words, explain the rules.

1) A man looks at the photo and says: “Brothers and sisters I have none, but this man’s father is my father’s son.” What relation is the man in the photograph to the man who is looking at it?

2) There is a question to which you never answer “yes”. What question is it?

3) What is it that looks like a ball,

But stands still and does not fall

off its thin and graceful leg?

Children like to turn it round,

Lakes and rivers are there found.

Countries, states and their towns

You can see on it all round.

 

Ex. 6.2 ( , track 6)

a) Listen to the poem. Circle the words which rhyme.

 

Mr. Porter loves his pasta.  

No one else can eat it faster.

Mr. Porter’s sister Rita,

Buys the pasta by the metre.

Mr. Porter’s older daughter,

Boils it all in tubs of water.

 

b)Learn the rhyme.

 

   The Time-table of Lazy-bones Grundy

 

        Lazy-bones Grundy

        Must do sums for Monday.

        “And today it is Thursday”,

        Says lazy-bones Grundy,

        “So I’ll do it on Wednesday,

        If not – then on Thursday,

        Or even on Friday”,

        Says lazy-bones Grundy.

        Not very soon comes Friday

        And Saturday comes,

        But lazy-bones Grundy

        Has no time for sums.

        “Never mind”, says Grundy,

        “I’ll do it on Sunday.”

        So this time-table

        Of lazy-bones Grundy.

 

Ex. 6.3 Transcribe the following words and divide them into three columns: [ju:], [əυ], [ə]

Tribune, monotony, statue, samba, cactus, attribute, customs, gratitude, ambulance, monogram, common, also, tempo, recognize.

 

Ex. 6.4 Pay attention to the full quality of the unstressed vowels and explain the rule:

a) mambo, canto, tempo, dingo, banjo, fresco, motto, tango, salvo, stucco, Plato, photo, solo, memo, credo, veto, Pluto, silo;

b) commune, costume, capsule, formula, circular, occupant.

Ex. 6.5

a) Listen. In each sentence or phrase there are two vowels which are not [ə]. Circle them ( , track 7)

Example:  an apple and a banana

1. from Canada to China
2. The parrot was asleep.
3. The cinema was open.
4. the photographer’s assistant
5. a question and an answer
6. a woman and her husband
7. a pasta salad

b) Write the words in the correct part of the table. Then listen and check ( , track 8)