Phonetics and Phonology 21 22 ST Updated

ENGLISH PHONETICS & PHONOLOGY- A COURSEBOOK
OVERALL DESCRIPTION OF THE COURSE

I. DESCRIPTIONS OF THE COURSE
This is a 30-period-course that is specially designed for English-majored third-year-
students. It aims to offer them with a basic foundation of phonetics and phonology in the hope
to help them understand thoroughly about the notions of phonetics and hence they can apply
these rules for an effective and natural spoken production with people across the world.
Specifically, this course will cover the following sections:
1. Chapter 1: The Descriptions of Speech
2. Chapter 2: Sound
3. Chapter 3: Stress
4. Chapter 4: Aspects of Connected Speech
5. Chapter 5: Intonation
6. Chapter 6: Weak Forms
7. Revision for Phonetics
8. Sample Tests (Test 1, Test 2)
9. References
II. Requirements for students
Students are required to attend class regularly and do all the assignments as requested by
the lecturer in charge. At the same time, they are asked to take the mid-term and final exam.
The detailed descriptions and requirement of the test and the exam formats will be informed to
students during the course.
III. Assessments
Students will be assessed on the following criteria:
1. Regular attendance: 10%
2. Participation and contribution during the class hours: 10%
3. Mid-term test: 10%
4. Final exam: 70%
IV. Materials for References
1. Avery , P; & EhrLich. (2002, 9th Ed). Teaching American English Pronunciation. Oxford
University Press.
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2. Hancock, M. (?). English Pronunciation in Use. Culture & Informatics Publishing House.
3. Kelly, G. (2000). How to Teach Pronunciation. Longman Group.
4. Min, H, & Gordon, A, J. (2009). Essential Phonetics for IELTS. HCMC General
Publishing House.
5. Smith, J; & Margols, A. (2009). Pronunciation: English for Academic Study: University
of Reading‟s Centre for Apllied Language Studies, The University of Reading, and
the Authors.
6. Roach, P. (1998). English Phonetics and Phonology: A Practical Course: Cambridge
University Press.
Bien Hoa City, May 18th, 2015
Updated 26 June, 2021
Compiled by: Trương Phi Luân
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INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER
PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS IN THE TEACHING OF PRONUNCIATION
(Excerpt from Peter Avery & Susan Ehrlich,
Teaching English American pronunciation, OUP, 2002)
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSIONS
 Questions
1. According to the reading, what factors may affect to the pronunciation of the ESL/EFL
learners? Write them out. Briefly explain each factor.
2. What do the phrase “ESL” & “EFL” stand for?
3. What do you understand about the “biological factor” affecting the acquisition of English
pronunciation of adult second language learners & second language learners?
4. What do you understand about the “socio-cultural factor” affecting the acquisition of English
pronunciation of ESL & EFL learners?
5. What do you understand about the “personality factor” affecting the acquisition of English
6. What do you understand about “the linguistic factor” affecting the acquisition of English
7. In your opinion, which factors severely affects to the Vietnamese learners of English?
Explain your reasons.
6. In your opinion, in order to learn English pronunciation effectively, what should we do?
(You can refer back to the reading for your answer)
7. Describe the levels of your pronunciation: a) Acceptable, b) unacceptable, c) fluency, d)
accuracy, e) Comprehensible, f) Incomprehensible.
8. What sounds in English do you find the most difficult? What do you do to overcome this?
9. Tell us about your previous experience in learning the English pronunciation in your
previous classes.
10. What do you understand the phrase “set realistic goals” when learning the English
pronunciation?
11. is it realistic or unrealistic to expect ourselves to reach/ obtain native-like pronunciation?
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12. According to the passage, what errors should teachers of English correct for the learners of
English?
13. According to the passage and based on your personal experience, what kind of learners
learn English more successfully?
14. In your opinion, what are the purposes of teaching & learning pronunciation?
15. List three factors of mother tongue interference that can affect learners‟ acquisition of L2
(second language) pronunciation according to the text.
 SOME STATEMENTS FOR THOUGHT
1. Some hold the view that a child learning English has the big chance of having better
pronunciation than does an adult learning English. “However, it is also true that some adult
learners do achieve native-like pronunciation, and among other adult learners, the degree
of pronunciation accuracy varies considerably from individual to individual.” Do you
agree with that statement? Why?
2. “It has been claimed that the more strongly the second language learners identify with
members of second language culture, the more likely they are to “sound” like members of
that culture.” Do you agree?
3. Some people are unable to succeed in English pronunciation because they are not ready to
get rid of their native accent even though they live in an environment where English is spoken
as a first language. Such speakers rarely lose their “accent” primarily because their accent
serves as a strong marker of their social identity.
NOW READ & FIND OUT
Let us begin by considering two opposing views on the teaching of pronunciation in the
ESL classroom. One view holds that the purpose of teaching pronunciation is to eradicate all
traces of “foreign” accent through pronunciation drills. The other view holds that the teaching
of pronunciation is futile (=useless) after a certain age due to a decreasing ability among
learners to develop native-like pronunciation in a second language. In this section, we will
point out that neither of these views is completely accurate by considering biological, socio-
cultural, personality and linguistic factors (các nhân thuộc về tố sinh học, văn hóa xã hội,
tính cách và ngôn ngữ) which are known to affect the acquisition of the sound system of a
second language (mà được xem là ảnh hưởng đến việc lĩnh hội/ nắm bắt ngôn ngữ thứ hai).
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This will lead to the understanding that while practice in pronunciation may not make perfect,
ignoring pronunciation totally can be a great disservice to ELS learners.
 Biological Factor
A common observation made by people involved in the field of second language
learning is that adult second language learners almost always have “foreign” accent while
child second language learners almost always attain native-like pronunciation. One
hypothesis that has been proposed to explain this difference between adults and children is
the “critical period hypothesis”. This hypothesis holds that languages are learnt differently by
children and adults, and this is a direct result of the maturation of the brain.
As all experienced ESL teachers know, adult learners do have difficulty in acquiring
native-like pronunciation in a second language. Thus, there may be some truth to the critical
period hypothesis. However, it is also true that some adult learners do achieve native-like
pronunciation, and among other adult learners, the degree of pronunciation accuracy
varies considerably from individual to individual. The critical period hypothesis, therefore,
does not absolve (miễn) ESL teachers of the responsibilities of teaching pronunciation.
The very fact that variability exists among adult learners mean that ESL classroom time can
profitably be devoted to improving students‟ pronunciation.
 Socio-Cultural factor
The great variability in pronunciation accuracy of adult learners has led other researchers
to conclude that it is socio-cultural factors that largely determine this success or lack of
success in achieving native-like pronunciation. More specifically, it has been claimed that the
more strongly the second language learners identify with members of second language
culture, the more likely they are to “sound” like members of that culture. Conversely, if it
is important for learners to preserve their own cultural identity, they may hold on to their
foreign accent as a marker of identity.
We can see examples of this phenomenon in our own experience with native speakers of
English who speak a different dialect (British English, Jamaican English, Australian English,
etc.) Such speakers rarely lose their “accent” primarily because their accent serves as a
strong marker of their social identity. This is especially true when accent is viewed
positively by members of the society in which they live. However, even when the particular
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accent is viewed negatively by members of the culture at large, the accent may be retained
because the speakers may feel at a social distance from the members of that culture.
 Personality Factor
Other factors affecting the acquisition of the sound system of a second language are
related to the personality of the learners. Learners who are out-going, confident, and willing
to take risks probably have more opportunities to practise their pronunciation of the
second language simply because they are more often involved in interactions with native
speakers. Conversely, learners who are introverted, inhibited, and unwilling to take risks
lack opportunities for practice.
ESL teachers should be aware that such personality factors can affect progress in a
second language and should strive to create a non-threatening atmosphere in their classrooms
so that student participation is encouraged. Furthermore, students should not be forced to
participate if they are not ready, as the pressure to perform can be paralyzing (= harmful) for
some students.
 The Role of the Native Language
The nature of foreign accent is determined to a large extent by a learners‟ native
language. Thus, speakers of English are able to recognize Spanish accents, Russian accents,
Chinese accents, etc. This is an indication that the sound patterns of the native language
are being transferred into the second language. Every language has a different inventory of
sounds, different rules for combining these sounds into words, and different stress and
intonation patterns. The pronunciation errors that second language learners make are not just
random attempts to produce unfamiliar sounds. Rather, they reflect the sound inventory,
rules of combination, and the stress and intonation patterns of the native language.
The sound system of the native language can be seen to influence our students’
pronunciation of English in at least three ways. First, difficulties may arise when a learner
encounters sounds in English that are not part of the sound inventory of the learners’
native language. As we will show in the following sections, the pronunciation of sounds
depends on the proper use of the musculature in the mouth (cơ miệng). Thus, adult learners
may be unable to produce new sounds because they have never exercised their mouth in the
particular way required to pronounce certain English sounds. Secondly, difficulties may arise
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because the rules of combining sounds into words are different in the learners’ native
language. This type of difficulty can occur even when a particular sound is part of the
inventory of both English and the native language. Thirdly, the patterns of stress and
intonation, which determine the overall rhythm and melody (nhịp và giai điệu) of a language,
can be transferred from the native language into a second language.
The native language not only affects the ability to produce English sounds but also the
ability to hear English sounds. Experienced teachers certainly know the frustration involved in
having students continually repeat a mispronounced word in the same way. Students may seem
impervious to correction but, in fact, the problem often arises because the word is heard
through the sound system of the native language. Thus, sounds which occur in the native
language will be heard rather than the actual sounds of English which are being produced by
the teachers. This highlight the very important point concerning the influences of the native
language. It is as if learners hear the second language through the “filter”, the filter being the
sound system of the native language.
One question that a teacher might ask concerns the degree of the difficulty that different
native languages pose for learning the pronunciation of English. For example, because the
sound system of English and Cantonese differ more than the sound system of English and
Polish, is it more difficult for a Cantonese speaker to acquire pronunciation than for a Polish
speaker? If so, does this mean that it is more important to teach pronunciation to Cantonese
speakers than for Polish speakers? The answer to these both questions is “perhaps”. Cantonese
speakers‟ pronunciation problem may cause their speech to be more incomprehensible than the
speech of Polish learners. This, of course, would suggest that this is more important to teach
pronunciation to Cantonese speakers. However, it is not necessarily the case that their English
will be more incomprehensible than Polish speakers‟ English. Socio-cultural and personality
factors such as those discussed above will also determine the degree of a learner‟s
pronunciation problems. In other words, the native language of a learner is not the only factor
affecting pronunciation ability in a second language. It is one of several factors, suggesting
that teachers cannot decide, without first listening to their students, which learners will
necessarily need more pronunciation practice.
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 Setting Realistic Goals

Given that biological, socio-cultural, and personality factors may prevent a student from
ever attaining native-like pronunciation in a second language. It is important that teachers set
realistic goals. Attempting to completely eradicate a foreign accent is an unrealistic goal.
However, this is not to say that pronunciation should be ignored in the ESL classroom. We
know that it is possible for adult learners to improve their pronunciation. And sometimes these
improvements can be quite dramatic.
What the teacher must focus on in the pronunciation class are critical errors, features
of students’ speech most responsible for incomprehensibility. This requires work into two
areas. First, students must be made aware of aspects of their pronunciation that result in
other people being unable to understand them. Students will not necessarily have this
awareness before entering the classroom due to the “filter- Bộ lọc ngôn ngữ” of their native
language. In other words, they may not hear the points at which their pronunciation does not
correspond to that of a native-English speakers. Secondly, students must be given the
opportunity to practice aspects of the English sound system which are crucial for their
own improvement. It is important that this be done in meaningful contexts as students
often produce sounds correctly in isolation but are unable to carry this over into their
every day speech.
2. Definitions of Terms Used in this Coursebook- Adapted from: Peter Avery & Susan
Ehrlich
1. Manner of Articulation : The way in which the airstream is obstructed or altered in the
production of speech sounds.
2. Place of Articulation: The location of the obstruction of the airstream; especially in the
articulation of consonants
3. Affricate (âm tắc xát): Complex consonant sound (các phụ âm kép) composed of a stop
followed immediately by a fricative
( một phụ âm xát [f, v, s, z, θ, etc] , e.g. the initial consonant sound of “chug” made up of
/t/&/∫/
4. Alveolar (âm răng): Describe sounds where the tongue either touches or approaches the
alveolar ridge in their production, e.g. /t/, /d/, /l/, /n/.
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5. Alveolar Palatal (âm vòm miệng ngạc cứng): Describe sounds made with the blade of the
tongue approaching the hard palate just behind the alveolar ridge, e.g. /∫/ & /ʒ/.
6. Aspiration (bật hơi): Burst of air which accompanies the voiceless stop consonants (/p/,
/t/ & /k/)
7. Voiced: Describe sounds made with the vocal cords vibrating, e.g. /z/
8. Unvoiced/ voiceless: Describe sounds made without vibration of the vocal cords, e.g. /s/.
9. Vowel: Sounds produced by air passing unobstructed through the mouth.
10. Consonant: Sounds which involve a narrowing in the mouth, causing some obstruction of
the airstream.
11. Consonant clusters: Two or more adjacent consonants together, occurring at the
beginning (Initial consonant clusters) or end (final consonant cluster) of a syllable
12. Content words = lexical word: từ nội dung/ từ mang nghĩa: Words which express
independent meaning, usually stressed in a sentence
13. Bilabial (âm môi): Describe sounds where both lips are involved in production (/p/, /b/,
/m/)
14. Contractions (rút gọn): shortened forms of auxiliary verbs where the initial consonants
and sometimes vowels are lost, e.g. “I’ll”, “I’ve’
15. Function words: Grammatical words: Words which have little or no meaning in
themselves, but which express Grammatical relationships, usually unstressed in a sentence
16. Fricative [f, v, s, z, θ]: Consonant sounds which involve a partial obstruction of the
airstream. The articulator approaches another part of the mouth but does not touch it.
Fricatives can therefore be prolonged, e.g. /s/.
17. Interdental (âm răng): Describe sounds where the tip of tongue obstructs the airstream by
being placed between the teeth, or behind the upper teeth, e.g. /θ/ & / δ/
18. Intonation Patterns or Contours (ngữ điệu): Patterns of rise and fall of the pitch (âm
vực) of an utterance.
19. Intonation rising: Characteristic of Yes-No questions in English. The pitch of voice
rises at the major sentence stress and continues to rise.
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20. Intonation rising-falling: The most common intonation patterns in English, characteristic
of simple declarative sentences, commands, and questions that begin with a wh-question
words. The pitch rises towards the end of the sentence, then falls.
21. Information focus: Part of sentence to which the speaker is drawing attention. Usually
indicated through the use of stronger stress.
22. Segmentals (đoạn tính/ bộ phận): Desrcibes aspect of speech concerned with individual
sounds.
23. Suprasegmental (siêu đoạn tính): Desrcibes aspect of speech above the level of the
individual sounds: rhythm, stress, intonation.
24. Stress: Emphasis on a particular syllable or word. In English, this involves making vowels
longer, louder and higher in pitch.
25. Major stress: The strongest level of stress in a word or in a sentence
26. Minor stress: A level of stress which is not as strong as the major stress in a word or in a
sentence.
27 Unstressed word: Lack of stress on a syllable or word.
28. Velar (âm vòm/ ngạc mềm): Describes sounds involving the back of the tongue and the soft
palate of velum, e.g. /k/, /g/, / ŋ/
29 Labial dental (âm môi răng): Describe sounds where the obstruction to the airstream is
made by the top teeth touching the lower lip, e.g. /f/ & /v/
30. Minimal Pairs (cặp từ khác nhau ở một âm): Pairs of words that differ in only one sound.
The sound occurring in the same position in each member of pair, e.g. /pit/ & /bit/
31. Nasal (phát âm qua mũi/ âm mũi): Sounds made with the air passing the nose, e.g. /m/, /n/
32. Lateral consonant (âm biên): /l/ sound as made by some English speakers, with air passing
out of the mouth over the sides of tongue.
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CHAPTER 1 THE DESCRIPTION OF SPEECH

This section focuses on answering these questions
1. What are the main features of Pronunciation?
2. Pronunciation & Spelling
3. Phonetics and Phonology
In details:
1. What are the main features of Pronunciation?
In order to study how something works it is useful to break it down (phân tích nó
thành) into its constituent parts (các bộ phận cấu thành của nó). The following diagram
shows a breakdown (phân tích) of the main features of pronunciation.
Features of Pronunciation
Phonemes
Suprasegmental Features
Consonants Vowels
Intonation Stress
Voiced Unvoiced Diphthong Single Word Word Stress Sentence Stress

s
Short Long
Phonemes (âm vị)

Phonemes are the different sounds within a language. Although there are slight
differences in how individuals articulate the sounds, we still describes reasonably accurately
how each sound is produced. When considering meaning, we see how using one sound rather
than another can change the meaning of the word. It is this principle which gives us the
total number of phonemes in a particular language. For example, the word rat has the
phonemes /ræt/. If we change the middle phoneme, we get /rɒt/ rot, a different word.
Sounds may be voiced or unvoiced (sometimes refer to as voiceless). Voiced sound
occur when the vocal cords in the larynx are vibrated. It is easy to tell whether the sound is
voiced or not by placing one or two fingers on your Adam’s apple. If you are producing a
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voiced sound, you will feel vibration; if you are producing an unvoiced sound, you will
not. The difference between /v/ and /f/, for example can be heard by putting your top teeth on
your bottom lip, breathing out a continuous stream to produce /f/, then adding your voice to
make /v/. hold your Adam‟s apple while doing this and you will feel the vibration.
The set of the phonemes consists of two categories: Vowel sounds and Consonant
sounds. However, these do not necessarily correspond to the vowel letter and consonant letter
we are familiar with in the alphabet. Vowel sounds are all voiced, and may be single (like /e/
in let) or combination involving a movement from one vowel sound to another (like /eI/ as
in late), such combination is known as diphthongs (nhị trùng âm/ nguyên âm đôi). An
additional term used is triphthongs (nguyên âm ba/ tam trùng âm) which describes the
combination of three vowel sounds (like /auә/ in our, power). Single vowel sounds may be
short (like /ɪ/ and long /i:/).
Consonant sound may be voiced or unvoiced. It is possible to identify many pairs of
consonants which are essentially the same except for the element of voicing (for example /f/
in fan, and /v/ in van). The following table lists English phonemes, giving examples of words
in which it appears.
Vowels (Total: 12) Diphthongs (Total: 8) Consonants (Total: 24)
/ i: / Bead / eI / Cake /p/ Pin /s/ Sue
/ɪ/ Hit / ɔI / Toy /b/ Bin /z/ Zoo
/u/ Book / aI / High /t/ To /∫/ She
/ u: / Food / Iә / Beer /d/ Do /ʒ/ Measure
/e/ Left / uә / Fewer /k/ Cot /h/ Hello
/ә/ About / eә / Where /g/ Got /m/ More
/ З: / Shirt / әu / Go / t∫ / Church /n/ No

/ ɔ: / Call / au / House / dʒ / Judge /ŋ/ Sing
/ æ/ Hat /f/ Fan /l/ Live
/Ʌ/ Run /v/ Van /r/ Red

/ a: / Far /θ/ Think /j/ Yes
/ɒ / Dog /δ/ The /w/ Wood
 In brief, English has 44 phonemes which are classified into: 24 consonant phonemes, 12
simple vowels and 8 diphthongs.
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The list of Phonemes according to voiced and voiceless

Voiceless p, t, f, k, θ, s, ∫, t∫
Voiced Consonants b, d, v, g, δ, z, ʒ, dʒ, l, m, n, ŋ, w, r, h, j
Voiced Vowels ɪ, i:, e, æ, a:, Ʌ, ә, З:, ɒ, u/ʊ, u:, ɔ:

eI, aI, ɔI, eә, ʊә, Iә, aʊ, əʊ
Suprasegmental Features (siêu đoạn tính)
Phonemes, as we have seen, are units of sounds which we can analyse. They are also
known as segments (các bộ phận/ đoạn tính). Suprasegmental Features, as the name
implies, are features of speech which generally apply to groups of segments or phonemes.
The features which are important in English are stress, intonation, and how sounds
change in connected speech.
With regard to individual words, we can identify and teach intonation as well as
stress. Usually one syllable in a word will sound more prominent than the others, as in
Paper, or Bottle. The stresses in words are usually indicated in dictionaries.
With regard to utterances (liên quan đến phát ngôn), we can analyse and teach
intonation as well as stress, although as features they can at times be quite hard to consciously
recognize and to describe. Stress give rhythm to speech. One or more words within each
utterance are selected by the speaker as worthy of stressing, and thus made prominent to
the listener. Intonation, on the other hand, is the way in which pitch of the voice goes up or
down in the course of an utterance. (When discussing speech the term utterance is used rather
than “sentence”, as it refers to anything we say including grammatically incomplete
sentences, and to different ways of saying the same sentence.)
Utterance stress and intonation patterns are often linked to the communication of
meaning. For example, in the following utterance the speaker is asking question for the first
time, the intonation always goes down at the end of the question:
↓Where do you live?
However, if the speaker should ask the question for the second time (having already
the given information, but having forgotten it), then the voice falls on the word where and
rises again towards the end of the question. This indicates to the listener that the speaker is
aware that they should know the answer.
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The next examples display how stress can have an equally significant role to play in the
communication of meaning. The most stressed syllables within the utterances are in
capitals. Changes to which syllable is stressed in the same sentence changes the meaning
of the utterance in various ways. The implied meaning is given in brackets after each
utterance.
Ex.
I‟d like a cup of herbal TEA. (a simple request)
I‟d like a cup of HERbal tea (not any other sort of tea)
I‟d like a CUP of herbal tea (not a mug; ca, chén, vại)
Explanation:
The first example is like the default choice, a first time request, while in the other two examples
there is an apparent attempt to clear up some misunderstanding between the speaker and the
listener.
2. Phonemic Transcription
When writing in English, we use 5 vowels and 21 consonant letters. When speaking
English, we typically use 20 different vowel sounds (i.e. 12 simple vowels & 8 diphthongs),
and 24 consonant sounds.
In some languages, there is essentially a one-to-one relationship between spelling
and pronunciation, and there will be (with the occasional exception) the same number of
phonemes used in the language as there are letters in the alphabet.
The lack of a one-to-one relationship between spelling and pronunciation in English,
while by no means being unique, presents learners with many problems. A typically cited
example is the pronunciation of ough, which has at least eight distinct sound patterns
attached to it.
cough / kɒf /: Ho through / θru: /: Qua, xuyên qua
rough / rɅf /: Thô, ráp, gồ ghề bought / bɔ:t /: Mua
bough / bau /: cành cây thorough / ´θɅrә /: Hoàn toàn, kĩ lưỡng, thấu
đáo, triệt để
although / ɔ:l´δәu /: dầu cho, mặc dù Lough / lɒx /: Hồ, vịnh (ở Ai Len)
Examples abound of spellings and pronunciations which can cause difficulties for learners:
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 Why don‟t you read / ri:d / this book?

 Oh, I‟ve already read / red / it.
 Look over there! I can see / si: / the sea / si: /
Phonemic transcription (phiên âm) can give both teachers and students a way of
accrurately recording the pronunciations of words and utterances.
However, it is not suggested that teachers should introduce their students to all of the
phonemic symbols at once. It makes far more sense to work on those sounds which cause
difficulty at first, and introduce other phonemic symbols as appropriate later on.
3. Pronunciation & Spelling
George Bernard Shaw, in a possibly idle moment (trong một giây phút hoàn toàn nhàn
rỗi), created the nonsense word ghotti, saying it should be pronounced in the same way as fish
/ fɪ∫ /. He explained this by demonstrating how the pronunciation of gh could be taken from the
words tough / tɅf /; the o could be taken from women / wɪmɪn /, and the ti could be taken from
the words like notion /nәu∫n/. What he was showing was that there is not a one-to-one
correspondence between spelling and pronunciation in English. The 44 different sounds
we use when speaking English are written down using only use 26 letters. This means that
although there obviously is some correspondence between sounds and letters, many letters can
represent more than one sound. This is seen, for example, in the letter a, which can
represent /æ/, as in apple, or /a:/ as in ask, among numerous numbers of possibilities.
With consonants too, the letter c can be pronounced as /k/ as in can, or /s/ as in cinema.
To add to the complication, many sounds can be represented by more than one letter or
combination of letters; for example, /u/ appears in put, book, could.
Since the relationship between spelling and pronunciation is more complex in English, it
is not always easy for learners of whaterver L1 to see how a written English word should be
pronounced, or how a word they have only heard shoud be written. But it is not the case that
learners will always have to make a complete guess in such circumstances, not that they have to
learn the spelling and pronunciation of thousands of words without recourse to any general
rules. This is because English spelling is not as irregular as it seems. Surveys of the system
have shown that over 80% of English words are spelled according to the regular patterns, and
that there are fewer than 500 words (out of an estimated total of over half a million
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words) whose spelling can be considered completely irregular. The fact that some of these
words also happen to be amongst the most common ones (e.g. said, come, how, what,
could) gives a distorted impression of irregularity in the system. Proficient readers, as well as
applying sounds to individual letters, can also successfully recognize and apply sounds
associated with groups of letters. For example, the pronunciation of “could” might seem
quite irregular, but it can appear quite regular, following exactly the same pattern as
“should and would”.
By typing spelling closely in with pronunciation work, teachers can show rules and
patterns to students which they can then apply when they come across new words, be they
heard or read. Regular features of English spelling and pronunciation can be shown to apply to
individual letters of the alphabet and also across many different words.
Regular Features of English Pronunciation & Spelling
A. Letter Combinations and Sounds (các chữ cái kết hợp và âm phát ra)
Some pairs of letters are associated with a particular sound, as in the link between ph
and the sound /f/, as in photo, photograph and phone. Such letter-pairs are known as digraphs
(chữ ghép). In certain cases, a digraph can have two or three different sound associations,
depending on the words in question (tùy thuộc vào từ mà ta đang xét): ch, for example, can
be pronounced as /t∫/ (i.e. chip, change, hunch), /k/ (character, technique) or /∫/ (machine). Note
that there is rule in operation here; it is generally not possible, for example, for ch to have the
sound /∫/ when it appears at the beginning or end of a word except in borrowed words like
charlatan (lang băm/ lừa bịp), chignon (búi tóc), and charabanc (xe buýt chuyên chở
khách đi tham quan).
With vowel digraphs (các chữ ghép nguyên âm), it is possible to identify primary and
secondary values for particular pairings. For example, in the majority of words containing ea,
the pair will be pronounced as /i:/ (as in eat, beat and cheap) which is therefore the primary
value, while secondary values include the less frequent /eI/ (great and break) and /e/
(dead, weather, breakfast)
B. English Letters Behave According to the Environment
Many English letters fit comfortably into certain environments, behaving in certain
predictable ways when they are there. For example, many vowel letters, when sandwiched
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(được đặt xen vào giữa) between consonant letters (as in cap, cut and corn), will have the
short vowel sound most commonly associated with the letter: /æ/, /Ʌ/, /ɒ/. The addition of a
final letter e, will usually lead to change to either longer sound or a diphthong; Cape /eI/,
cone /әu/
C. Environmental restriction
Sometimes the environments that single letters or paired letters can exist in are
restricted. For example, wh usually appears at the beginning of a word (as in where, what),
sometimes appears at the middle of compound words (nowhere, somewhere), but does not
appear at the end. Similarly, ng, and nk appears at the end of the words like sing and sink.
D. Common Patterns
In addition to the above, there are a number of sound/spelling patterns which can be
presented to students as safe and reliable. Here are some useful ones.
1. When talking about the incidence of /ә/, it can be noted that /ә/ occurs only in unstressed
syllables. Spellings which students find difficult to pronounce can in fact be made much easier
by concentration on this sound. It can be very useful to draw students‟ attention to its use in
prefixes and suffixes, as they are usually unstressed: Technical, production, explanatory,
bigger
2. Common suffixes are usually consistent in their pronunciations, for example, -tion is
pronounced /∫әn/ as in explanation, pronunciation, promotion; cial is /әl/ as in special, official,
prejudicial; -cious is /∫әs/ as in precious, vicious, suspicious.
3. Certain vowels are usually elided (thường được đọc nuốt đi) in particular words: Secretary,
vegetable.
4. Certain spellings are usually assimilated (đồng hóa) in connected speech: Would you,
could you using /dʒ/.
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E. Root Words and Derived Words (Từ gốc và từ phát sinh)

Root Word Derived words
Speak Speaks, speaker, loudspeaker (spelling & Pronuncation stays the same)
Sign /aI/ signal, signalman, signature- người đánh tìn hiệu /sig/ (different)
Invíte Invitátion (different stress)
E. Spelling & Pronunciation Table
Table 1 to Table 5 analyse the links between the spelling and the pronunciation of consonants.
Table 6 to table 7 analyse vowel letters and sounds, and table 8 looks at the interplay of
vowels and consonants. Where there is a significant variation in “General American”
English (the standard form in the USA), there is noted in the tables. “G.A.” is used as an
abbreviation.
Table 1: “Simple consonants”
The following consonants have one main association
Letter Sound Examples
b /b/ Beach, cabbage, cab
d /d/ Do, oddity (sự kì quặc), cod (cá tuyết/ cá thu)
f /f/ For, coffee, off
h /h/ Hello, behind
j /j/ Judge, major
k /k/ Kick, making, take
l /l/ Leg, hello, poll (cuộc trưng cầu dân ý/ thăm dò ý kiến)
m /m/ Me, coming, plum
n /n/ No, any, plain
r /r/ Run, carrot
s /s/ Sit, missing, kiss
t /t/ Tub (chậu/ bình), butter, but (letter t between vowel sounds is often voiced in G.A.
(it is read like /d/)
v /v/ Very, having, brave
w /w/ We, towards
z /z/ Zebra, lizard, maze (mê cung)
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Table 2: “Silent Consonants” (phụ âm câm)

Letter Silent in
b Subtle, doubt, climb
c Scissors, scene, muscle
d Wednesday, Sandwich, handkerchief
g Gnaw (gặm nhấm/ ăn mòn), ought, long
h Hour, what, ought
k Know, knee
l Talk, half, could
n Autumn, column
p Psychology, pneumonia, cupboard, receipt (hóa đơn tính tiền)
r Car, more, core, bother
s Island, aisle (lối đi giữa các ghế trong nhà thờ/ rạp hát/ máy bay)
t Listen, whistle, often (though some speakers pronounce it in often /)
w Write, wrong, two, answer, yellow
Table 3. Consonant with different flavors (Phụ âm với các đặc thù khác)
Some consonants can be pronounced in different ways. (There are exceptions to the rules here,
but the following examples illustrate the most common alternative pronunciations.
Letter Alternative Pronunciation
c / k / cat
/ s / when followed by e, i or y: cent (mùi hương), cinema, cycle
/ ∫ / before certain suffixes (trước các tiếp vị ngữ(: delicious, prejudicial (có thành kiến)
g / g / go
/ dʒ / when followed by e, i, or y: gentle, gin, gym, refrigerate (Some exceptions are very common words
(ngoại lệ): Get, give and girl.)
/ dʒ / before a suffix, contagious, prestigious
/ ʒ / in certain originally borrowed words (trong một số từ vay mượn gốc): prestige, mirage (ảo ảnh/ ảo
tưởng/ ảo vọng).
s / s / sun, sleep, loss, eats, sleeps
/ z / when between two vowels (khi đặt giữa hai nguyên âm): present, losing
/ z / at the end of a word after a voiced consonant (đặt cuối một từ theo sau một phụ âm hữu thanh (e.g.
hands/ minds) or after a vowel (hay theo sau một nguyên âm) (e.g. loses/ houses)
/ ∫ / between a consonant and a following i: mansion, pension
/ ʒ / between two vowels (giữa hai nguyên âm): Vision, measure, lesion /li:ʒn/: vết thương/ thương
tích/phần da bị nhiễm trùng)
t / t / cat, too
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/ ∫ / when followed by a letter i in many suffixed words (trong nhiều từ có tiếp vị ngữ): information,
substantial, ambitious
/ t∫ / in words ending in –ure (picture, furniture, denture- răng giả) and when followed by the sound /u:/
(Tuesday, tumour (khối u/ bướu), tumultuous – hỗn độn/ dữ dội)
x / ks / fix, mix, fixture, mixture
/ gz / between vowels: exam, exact
/ z / at the beginning of words: xylophone (mộc cầm) and xenophobe (kẻ bài ngoại)
y / j / at the beginning of words: Ye, yellow
/ I / between consonants: gym, bicycle
/ i: / at the end of words: city, busy (in connected speech this can be pronounced as /i/)
/ aI / in short words (why, my, by) and in stressed final syllables (apply, deny)
/ aI / in words ending in –fy (satisfy, beautify)
Table 4: Double Consonants (các phụ âm đôi/ kép)

Most doubled consonants do not change from their single sound value (e.g. rub, rubber, fat,
fatter, thin, thinner). The following doubles, however, can undergo changes described below:
cc / ks / when followed by e or i: success, accident, succinct (cô đọng/ xúc tích)
/ t∫ / in borrowed Italian words: cappuccino (cà phê sữa)
gg / dʒ / when followed by e or i: suggest, exaggerate
ss / ∫ / when followed by –ion (passion, permission) and –ure (pressure)
zz / ts / In some borrowed Italian words: pizza, mozzarella: Phô mát trắng của Ý
Table 5: Consonant Digraphs/ Other combinations (chữ ghép phụ âm)

ck / k / pick, kick, pickle (dưa muối)
ch / t∫ /: chip, change
/ k /: cháracter, techníque
/ ∫ /: machine
gh / g /: ghost, ghastly
/ f /: tough, cough
Silent: ought, though
ng / ŋ /: sing, thing, singing
ph / f /: phone, photógraphy, grap´hology (khoa nghiên cứu chữ viết)
qu / kw /: queen, quiz, antiquated (cổ xưa/ cũ kĩ/ không hợp thời)
/ k /: in a word ending in: -que (antique, oblique –không đối xứng) or at the beginning of some borrowed words
(quiche- bánh trứng)
sh / ∫ /: Ship, Sheep, cash, fashion
tch / t∫ /: watch, catch, matching
th / θ /: Theatre, bath
/ δ /: this, brother, bathe
wh / w /: what, where, nowhere
/ h /: who, who
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Table 6: “The basic menu” of Vowel letters (bản chọn cơ bản về các chữ cái nguyên âm)
The five vowel letters may be seen to have their most basic sounds when they occur in very
short words, between two single consonant letters. Some dialects of English may have other
variations to the ones listed below
Letter Pronounced as
a / æ /: cat, hat, fat
/ a: /: In Southern British English before some two-consonant letter combinations: bath, grass but not
before the others: bank, mass
e / e /: let, met, set
i / ɪ /: sit, lit, kit
o / ɒ /: hot, got, lot (o is pronounced as /a:/ in G.A.)
u / Ʌ /: cup, bus, but
Table 7. Vowel Digraphs / Other combination (các chữ ghép nguyên âm)
Letter Pronounced as
ai / eI /: raid, train
ea / i: /: dream, neat
/ eI /: break, great
/ e /: dead, ready
/ З: /: learn, heard
/ eә /: bear, tear (verb)
/ Iә /: near, tear (n)
/ a: /: heart, hearth (lò sưởi/ cung điện nhà vua)
ee / i: /: tree/ need / I /: Weak form as I been /bIn/
ei / i: /: seize, either, receive / eI /: eight, reign
/ aI /: height, either
ie / aI /: die, pie, cried / i: /: piece, believe
/ e /: Friend / Iә /: pierce, fierce
oa / әu /: coat, goal, approach / ɔ: /: abroad, board
ou / әu /: soul, shoulder / u: /: soup, routine
/ au /: house, sprout (mẩm/ chồi / ɒ /: cough
/ Ʌ /: double, trouble, tough / ɔ: /: bought, nought
ui / u: /: fruit, suit, juice / i: /: building, biscuit
/ju:/: suit (for some speakers) / aI /: guide
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Table 8: Some combinations of vowel letters do not follow the “naming” rules, as follows
au / ɔ: /: daughter, cause (these tend towards /a:/ in G.A)
/ a: /: aunt, laugh, laughter (these are pronounced as /æ/ in G.A.)
/ ɒ /: Because
eu / u: /: or /ju:/: neutral, neuter
/ jɔ: /: or / juә /: for some speakers: neuralgic, neurosis, Europe
oi / ɔI /: coin, join, disappoint
oo / Ʌ /: blood, flood
/ u: /: food, boot
/ u /: book, foot
aw / ɔ: /: jaw, flaw (these tend towards /a:/ in G.A.)
ay / eI /: today, way, say
ew / u: / or/ju:/: new, knew, threw
ey / i: /: key
/ eI /: obey
ow / әu /: own, thrown
/ au /: town, crown
oy / ɔI /: toy, boy, enjoy
3. Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of language. It consists of 6 branches: Phonetics &
Phonology (ngữ âm học & âm vị học), lexicology (từ vựng học), Morphology (hình vị/ hình
thái học), syntax (cú pháp), semantics (ngữ nghĩa học), & sociolinguistics (ngôn ngữ xã hội
học)
Phonetics & Phonology
The study of pronunciation consists of two fields, namely, phonetics and phonology.
Both of them study sounds or phonemes, but phonetics is different from phonology. Phonetics
deals with theoretical aspect of sounds or the study of speech. A phonetician usually works in
one or more area of the following areas (Physiological phonetics, articulatory phonetics/
acoustic phonetics, auditory phonetics, perceptual phonetics). Meanwhile, phonology deals
with a practical aspect of sound. The study of the phonology of English looks at the vowels,
consonants and suprasegmental features of the language. That is how people use these to help
them produce the sound, utterance in their everyday speech.
THE END OF THE THEORETICAL PART!
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Practical Exercise
1. How many English letters and English sounds are there in English?
2. How many English vowel letters and English consonant letters are there in English? Write
them out.
3. How many English vowel sounds are there in English? What are they? Give examples in
words for each type of vowel sounds.
4. How many English consonant sounds are there in English? How to distinguish between
voiced consonants and voiceless consonants?
5. Draw a diagram for features of pronunciation? Explain this diagram in details.
6. What do we mean by saying there is no a one-to-one relationship between spelling and
pronunciation in English? Give an English letter which has more than one pronunciations in
English.
7. Give some examples in which a consonant letter has only one sound in English.
8. Give some examples in which a consonant letter has more than one sounds in English.
9. Please give some vowel sounds which have a primary value and secondary value.
10. Look at the following lists of words. Each list includes a particular combination of letters.
How many different sounds can you find represented in each list?
Ea ch Ou Ei
Beach Microchip Flout Height
Break Machine Trouble Perceive
Weather Mechanic Cough Reign
Learn Boulder Heir
Bear Soup Heifer
Hear Thought Heist
Heart Tour
11. Comment on the role played by the letters (e, y, r) in the following words
a. e: hat / hate: The addition of / e / turns the short vowel / ᴂ / into the diphthong / eI /
b. y: tin / tiny
c. r: ham / harm
d. w: not / now
12. Transcribe the root and the derived words. Notice the sound changes
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a. Sign Signal
b. Invite Invitation
c. Courage Courageous
d. Photograph Photographer
SELF-PRONUNCIATION (OVER TO YOU)

1. Try to practice speaking these following questions
a. What are the benefits of studying overseas?
b. Why do you want to live in another country?
c. What difficulties do you think you‟ll face?
d. How will you overcome the difficulties?
e. Do you think you will have a better life? Why?
f. Is it important to learn about a new culture? Why?
2. Read the following dialogue with one of your classmates
DIALOGUE 1
A: What‟s your favorite British drinks?
B: Well, I usually drink tea here in Britain. It‟s better than British coffee.
DIALOGUE 2
A: Is there anything you find hard about living here?
B: Well, I can‟t get used to the weather!
DIALOGUE 3
A: Have you found it easy to adapt to the British way of life?
B: In general yes, but I still find driving a car here difficult. I suppose it‟s because I can‟t get
used to driving on the left.
DIALOGUE 4
A: Was there anything you found strange about Britain before you come here?
B: Yes, I used to think double-decker buses were very strange before I came to London. But
now I find them quite normal.
DIALOGUE 5
24
A: Did you find bacon and eggs for breakfast strange?

B: Yes, but gradually I am getting used to it. I like the bacon now, but I still find fried egg a bit
heavy first thing in the morning.
DIALOGUE 6
A: Have your tastes changed in other ways since coming to Britain?
B: Yes, back at home I didn‟t use to drink warm beer, but now I drink it a lot and actually like
it.
3. Try to find out the misunderstanding in these following dialogue
a. Mary: So, Xiao Hong, how‟s the shepherd’s pie (món thịt băm nấu với khoai tây chiên)?
Xiao: Well, it‟s quite good and different from anything in China!
Mary: Would you care for some more?
Xiao: No, thanks, I‟m fool (full)
Mary: How‟s that possible? You don‟t mean that, surely!
b. At an English Lesson
Teacher: Who can make a sentence with “there is” or “there are”?
Pupil A: Let me try. There are four widows (quả phụ) in our class.
Teacher: What did you say? Who are the widows here?
Pupil B: Well, I suppose he meant to say, “There are four windows in our classroom.” He has
trouble saying the sound /n/.
c. A self-introduction
Net me introduce myself. My name is Yang Jingbang. I‟m a fool professor of nor at Nanzhou
Uniword-city. I used to be a nor student specianizing in neighbour capital renations. I solved a
knot of neighbour disputes. As a result, I was engaged as a wise professor. All this has helped
me a great deal in my study of neighbour nor
Ghi Chú:
Tiếng Anh bồi (Street English) có rất nhiều nhược điểm phát âm và sai sót trong cách dùng từ.
nó thường lấy /n/ thay cho /l/ , /u:/ thay thế cho /u/, /w/ thay thế cho /v/, v.v. và đôi khi gây ra
các tình huống dở khóc, dở cười. những phần được ghạch dưới ở trên là những lỗi trong phát
âm và dùng từ. nếu bạn hiễu được lỗi phát âm đến từ đâu thì bạn sẽ hiểu được sự khôi hài của
câu chuyện. ngoài ra tiếng Anh thường dùng từ vice để biểu thị chức “phó” như vice minister
25
(thứ trưởng), vice president (phó tổng thống). nhưng nó có phạm vi sử dụng nhất định, không
được dúng tùy tiện. Dùng vice trong “phó giáo sư” là sai, phải dùng associate. Người dùng
tiếng Anh bồi không hiểu được sự việc, phát âm sai nên nó có câu chuyện cười wise professor.
 THẢO LUẬN
Hãy thử tìm trong tiếng Việt có những từ nào mà người Việt tùy theo vùng miền hay sử dụng
sai. Ta hay gọi đó phương ngữ/ hay tiếng địa phương (dialect/ vernacular). Ví dụ người miền
Nam hay phạm lỗi gì về phát âm/ người miềnBắchay phạm lỗi gì về phát âm.
Khi người Việt học ngôn ngữ thứ hai/ ở đây là tiếng Anh, họ thường chuyển âm tiếng Việt sang
ngôn ngữ tiếng Anh dưới dạng chuyển di tiêu cực (negative transfer of mother tongue). Hãy
thử liệt kê các lỗi mà người Việt thường gặp phải và cà kinh nghiệm trong việc học Tiếng Anh
của bạn nữa
26
CHAPTER 2 SOUNDS
 General remarks:
Generally speaking, there are two distinct sounds (âm rạch ròi) in English, namely,
vowel sounds and consonant sounds.
- The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA): One symbol for one sound and used in many
good dictionaries.
- Consonant clusters:
• English has many consonant clusters
• Some are simplified in conversation.
• The most important ones are those formed when a suffix is added:
+ The / ed / which forms the past tense.
+ The / s / which forms the plural.
 These should never be dropped
Some common consonants are:

a. Combinations of consonants: books, students, groups
b. Consonant clusters: tr, dr: tree, tray, trick, track, true, try, travel, dream, drink, dress,
drag, drop, dry, draw, drew.
- English Vowels
Vowels can be described in terms of three features:
- How far front or back the tongue is
- How open and closed the mouth is
- How rounded and spread/flat the lips are
1. VOWELS (classified according to The British English sounds)
In terms of vowels, English has 20 vowels which are, in turn, classified into 12
pure/simple vowels (nguyên âm đơn) and 8 diphthongs (nguyên âm đôi hay nhị trùng âm) and
some triphthongs; totally six types. Specifically, there are 7 short vowels, 5 long vowels and
8 diphthongs.
1.1. PURE VOWELS: In terms of pure vowels, they are sub-divided into two vowel
sounds, namely, short vowel and long vowel.
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1.1.1. SHORT VOWEL

The symbols for the short vowels are: /ɪ/, /e/, /æ/, /Ʌ/, /ɒ/, /u/, /ә/. Short vowels are
relatively short. Vowels can have different lengths in different context.
Some examples of the short vowels are: /ɪ/ as in bit, bin and fish, /e/ as in bet, men,
yes, /æ/ as in bat, man, gas, /Ʌ/ as in but, some, rush, / ɒ / as in pot, gone, cross, /u/ as in put,
pull, push, /ә/ as in about, teacher
1.1.2. LONG VOWEL
The long vowels tend to be longer than the short vowels in similar contexts. It is
necessary to say in similar context because the length of all English vowel sounds varies very
much according to context (such as the type of sounds that follow them) and the presence or
absence of stress. The symbols consist of vowel symbols plus the length-mark made by
two dots: Thus, we have: i:, з:, a:, ɔ: , u:
Some examples of long vowels are: /i:/ as in beat, mean, peace, /з:/ as in bird, fern,
purse, /a:/ as in card, half, pass, /ɔ:/ as in board, torn, horse, /u:/ as in food, soon, loose.
To know more, please look at the chart below:
TWELVE VOWEL EXAMPLES
SOUNDS
/ i: / see, cheese
/ɪ/ big, thick
/e/ led, fed
/æ/ cat, sad
/ з: / fur, shirt
/ә/ teacher, about
/Ʌ/ cut, ton
/ u: / fool, June
/ɒ/ top, pot
/u/ book, good
/ ɔ: / door, short
/ a: / car, dark
Table 1: English Pure vowels
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1.2. DIPHTHONGS: A sound which consists of a movement or glide from one vowel to
another is called diphthongs. In terms of length, diphthongs are like the long vowels
described above. Perhaps the most important thing to remember about all the diphthongs is
that the first part is much longer and stronger than the second part; for example, most of the
diphthongs “aI” (as in the word “eye””I”) consists of a vowel, and only in about the last quarter
of the diphthong does the glide at to “I” become noticeable. As the glide to “I” happens, the
loudness of the sound decreases. As a result, the “I” part is shorter and quieter.
The total number of diphthongs is eight. The easiest way to remember them is in
terms of the three groups divided as in this diagram.
Diphthongs
Centring closing
Ending in ә ending in ɪ ending in u
Iә eә uә eI aI ɔI әu au
Examples:
/ Iә /: (example words: beard, fierce)
/ eә /: (example words: scarce, aired, cairn)
/ uә /: (example words: moored, tour)
/ eI /: (example words: paid, pain, face
/ aI /: (example words: tide, time, nice)
/ ɔI /: (example words: void, loin, voice)
/ әu /: (example words: load, home, most)
/ au /: (example words: loud, gown, house)
In brief, there are three glides in diphthongs; moving towards /I/, moving towards /u/ and
moving towards /ә/ respectively.
To know more, please look at the table two below:

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EIGHT DIPHTHONG SOUNDS EXAMPLES

/ әu / go, boat
/ au / now, shout
/ aI / buy, like
/ eI / say, face
/ ɔI / toy, boy
/ eә / air, share
/ Iә / ear, hear
/ uә / poor, tour
Table 2: Diphthongs
A SUMMARY OF ENGLISH VOWEL CHARTS

VOWELS DIPHTHONGS
HIGH
Front Back End at front End at back

i: ɪ u/ʊ u: eI Iә әu
TONGUE
e Ә з: ɔ:
æ Ʌ a: ɒ ɔI uә au
Lips can be aI eә
LOW
Spread Neutral Rounded Closing Centring Closing

Note: Rounded / Spread / neutral: unrounded:
1.3. Triphthongs: The most complex sounds of the vowel types are the triphthongs. They can
be rather difficult to pronounce and very difficult to recognize. A triphthong is a glide from
one vowel to another and then to a third. All produced rapidly and without interruption.
For example, a careful pronunciation of the word “hour” begins with a vowel quality similar to
a:, goes on to a glide towards back close rounded area (for which we use the symbol /u/), then
ends with a mid-central vowel (schwa- âm yếu (weak forms) /ә/). We use the symbol /auә/ to
represent the way we pronounce “hour”.
We have six types of triphthongs and they are described as follows:
eI + ә = eIә/ examples: layer/ player
aI + ә = aIә/ examples: liar/ fire
ɔI + ә = ɔIә/ examples: loyal/ royal
әu + ә = әuә/ examples: lower/ mower
au + ә = auә/ examples: power/ hour
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1.4. English Vowel Sound Chart

English Vowel Sounds are classified according to these four standards:
o Tongue Height: High, mid, and low.
o Tongue Position: Front, central, and back.
o Lip Shaping: Rounded or Unrounded.
o Mouth Muscle: Tense or Lax.
 In Details:
Tongue Position Front Central (unrounded) Back
(unrounded) (rounded)
Tongue Height
Tense / i: / (beat) / u: / (moon)
High Lax / ɪ / (bin) / u / or / ʊ / (book)
Tense / З: / (bird)
Mid Lax / e / (bed) / Ʌ / (but)
/ ә / (machine)
Tense / ɔ: / (door)
Low / a: / (car)
Lax / æ / (man) / ɒ / (pot)
 EXPLANATION:
1. /i:/: high front unrounded tense vowel
2. /ɪ/: high front unrounded lax vowel
3. /e/ mid front unrounded lax vowel
4. /æ/ low front unrounded lax vowel
5. /a:/ low back rounded tense vowel
6. /ɔ:/ low back rounded tense vowel
7. /u/: high back rounded lax vowel
8. /u:/: high back rounded tense vowel
9. /Ʌ/: mid central unrounded lax vowel
10. /ә/ mid central unrounded lax vowel
11. /З:/ mid central unrounded tense vowel
12. /ɒ/ low back rounded lax vowel
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2. CONSONANTS
2.1. DEFINITION
A consonant is a sound when produced the airstream from the lungs is obstructed in a
certain way before coming out of the mouth. A consonant is voiced when there is the
vibration of the vocal cords. When there is no vibration, it is voiceless or unvoiced.
English has 44 phonemes which are classified into: 24 consonants, 12 vowels and 8
diphthongs as mentioned in the preceding chapter.
Voiceless p t f k s t∫ ∫ θ
b d v g z δ dʒ
l m n w r h j ŋ
ɪ i: e a: Ʌ æ
Voiced ә ɒ ɔ: З: u: u/ʊ
 ɪә eә u ә eɪ
aɪ ɔɪ әu au
 In details:
In terms of consonants, English has 24 consonants and they are briefly described in
the following table
SOUNDS THE EQUIVALENT EXAMPLES EXCEPTIONS
LETTERS
/p/ P pig, pen, lap, cap
/b/ B boy, bind, pub, debate
/t/ T toy, heat, station, story
/d/ D date, audio, add, mad Schedule
/k/ K /c/ que kid, lake, candy, unique, technique, Chemistry,
scholarship, choir, Christmas, chrome, chord,
chaos, chronicle, chorus
/ kw / Que quit, quick, quite, quarrel
/ɡ/ G/gh go, gulf, guess, ghost, ghetto
/f/ F/ph, gh flower, roof, phase, graph, laugh, rough, enough,
tough, cough
/v/ V video, vine, novel, live
/θ/ Th thank, think, thought, three, theatre, thing, faith,
breath, path, month, bath, truth
/δ/ Th This, that, these, those, than, father, weather,
booth, smooth, breathe, bathe
/s/ S/ss/se, c (before e, I and y) so, sister, glass, house, horse, chance, glance, soccer /k/, ocean /ʃ/
ceiling, receive, citizen, civil, cycle.
/z/ S (between 2 vowels) music, nose, rise, lose, season base, case /s/
/ʃ/ Sh, c, ch, cian, tion, tial, cial, shoe, she, should, wash, crash, fashion, ocean,
tious, cious ancient, champagne, chef, chemise, machine,
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musician, physician, magician, education, nation,

exception, discussion, compulsion, pressure,
cocksure, essential, special, cautious, conscious
/ʒ/ sion/sure (after vowels), ge television, decision, explosion, measure, pleasure,
closure, garage, massage, rouge
/h/ H house, happy, hood
/ tʃ / Ch, tion (after s), ture chair, chin, watch, church, question, suggestion, choir /kw/
nature, culture, lecture
/ dʒ / G, ge gee, gentle, ginger, change, strange, fridge, just,
jar, jail, rejoice, enjoy
/m/ M make, move, home, ham
/n/ N (after k) nose, news, hen, tone
/ŋ/ Ng sing, living, finger, single,
/l/ L line, decline, table, girl, full
/r/ R road, ride, arise, carrot
/w/ W we, toward, between, twice
/j/ U, ew, ue new, few, dew, due, cue sew / әu/
2.2. Classification: English consonants are classified according to these four standards:
(1) place of articulation (Vị trí của âm), (2) manner of articulation (Đặc tính của âm), (3)
voicing (âm): Voiced or unvoiced, and (4) aspiration (độ bật, độ rung): aspirated or
unaspirated.
We use the consonant chart to describe or recognize different kinds of consonants
Place of articulation Bilabial Labiodental Interdental Alveolar Alveorpalatal Palatal Velar Glottal
Manner (âm môi) (môi răng) (răng) (Vòm ngạc (Ngạc (ngạc (âm tắc
cứng) cứng) mềm) thanh hầu)

Of articulation
Vcls /p/ /t/ /k/
Stops (âm Vd /b/ /d/ /g/
tắc)
Vcls /f/ /θ/ /s/ /∫/ /h⃰/
Fricatives (Depending
(âm xát) on the
Vd /v/ /δ/ /z/ /ʒ/
context)
Affricates Vcls / t∫ /
(âm tắc xát)
Vd / dʒ /
Nasals (âm mũi) /m/ /n/ /ŋ/
Lateral(âm
biên) Vd /l/
Semi-vowels/
gliding/ /w/ /r/ /j/
approximant
(bán nguyên âm)
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 EXPLANATION:
[p]: voiceless bilabial stop
[b]: voiced bilabial stop
[t]: voiceless alveolar stop
[d]: voiced alveolar stop
[k]: voiceless velar stop
[g]: voiced velar stop
[f]: voiceless labio-dental fricative
[v] voiced labio-dental fricative
[θ]: voiceless dental fricative
[δ] voiced dental fricative
[s]: voiceless alveolar fricative
[z]: voiced alveolar fricative
[∫]: voiceless palato alveolar fricative
[ʒ] voiced palato alveolar fricative
[h]: voiceless / voiced glottal fricative.
[m]: voiced bilabial nasal
[n]: voiced alveolar nasal
[ŋ]: voiced velar nasal
[l]: voiced alveolar lateral
[w]: voiced bilabial gliding
[r]: voiced palato-alveolar gliding
[j]: voiced palatal gliding
[t∫]: voiceless palato-alveolar affricative
[dʒ]: voiced palato-alveolar affricative
A sound is aspirated when it is at the beginning of a word or in a stress syllable. It is
unaspirated in unstressed syllables or after /s/
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2.3. Parts of the Mouth and Sounds we can make

2.3.1. Parts of the mouth, nose & throat
Alveolar ridge
(vùng trước lưỡi)
Nose
Hard palate
Lip Soft palate/vela
Teeth
Tongue
Vocal cord
Throat
2.3.1.1. Where are the parts of the mouth?

• Some of the parts of the mouth that come together to make sounds are at the top and
some are at the bottom.
• At the top of the mouth:
– the upper lip – the upper teeth
– the alveolar ridge (ngạc ứng) – the hard palate (vòm miệng cứng)
– the soft palate (vòm miệng mềm)
• At the bottom of the mouth:
– the lower lip – the tongue (lưỡi)
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2.3.1.2. Names of sounds made by bringing parts of the mouth together

• 2 lips – bilabial
• Lower lip and upper teeth – labiodentals
• Tip of the tongue and upper teeth – dental
• Tip of the tongue and alveolar ridge
• Blade of the tongue and hard palate – palatal
• Back of the tongue and soft palate – velar
2.4. Consonant practice (some difficult sounds)
1. The English consonant [∫]
Words: She, shall, should, shoes, sure, sugar, share, shave
Sentences:
She sells the seashell on the seashore.
I wished my shoes were shined.
2. The English consonant [ʒ]
Words: Measure, vision, pleasure, division, confusion, conclusion, collision, decision, leisure,
garage, television, Asia.
Sentences:
I have to measure the garage.
It‟s a pleasure to see you.
3. The English consonant [t∫]
Words: Choke, Cheap, cheese, change, check, chair, chin, choose
Sentences:
The children have vegetables and meat for lunch.
George bought chair last week.
4. The English consonant [dʒ]
Words: germ, general. Vegetables, subject, engine, language, June
Sentences:
Did Charles and Joe enjoy the lecture?
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June, July and January begin with J.
2.5. Vowel Practice

1. I saw him saw a saw
2. ear/ hear/ near/ tear/ dear/ rear/ fear/ beer/ cheer/ mere
3. Shakespeare‟s King Lear showed here last year.
4. Don‟t walk near the deer.
5. Dear dear I fear the beer is dearer and dearer this year.
THE END OF THE THEORETICAL SESSION!
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EXERCISES ON VOWEL AND CONSONANT SOUNDS

Theory:
1. Draw the English vowel sound chart classified according to its four major
degrees/standards as introduced and explained in your English phonetic class.
2. Draw a summary chart of vowel sounds including diphthongs.
3. Draw the English consonant sound chart also classified according to its four major
4. Give a definition of a Diphthong, its classification, & its illustrative examples.
5. Give a definition of a Triphthong & its classification, & its illustrative examples.
6. Write down the phonetic symbols representing the following descriptions, and illustrate
each of the sounds with two English words.
a. A voiced labiodental fricative f. A high front tense unrounded vowel
b. A voiceless alveolar fricative g. A low back tense rounded vowel
c. A voiced bilabial semi-vowel h. A mid central tense unrounded vowel
d. A voiced bilabial nasal i. A mid front lax unrounded vowel
e. A voiced velar nasal j. A high back lax rounded vowel
7. Transcribe the following words. In each line, circle the word(s) that begin(s) with a
consonant that meet(s) the description on the left.
Alveolar Meat pat Sit Boat Rate
Velar Green tool Case Hot Knot
Labiodentals Cat this Chat Vat Fat
Bilabial Brick thick Lick Sick Pick
Dental Pay thank Witch Thought Tough
Palato-alveolar Sigh clay Tie Sure Judge
Affricate Church garage Noon Jury Touch
Lateral Boat late Pray Never Love
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8. Transcribe the following words and circle the one(s) that contain(s) a vowel that
fits the description on the left.
Low Small Bat Weed Car Flea
Front River Song Tell Trap Put
Back Coop Cop Left Mud Trip
High Shore Shop Bank Fall Moose
Rounded Meet Coarse Such Group Mat
PRACTICAL EXERSISES
1. Write the phonetic symbols for the vowels & diphthongs in these following words
1. broad 6. team 11. style 16. hair 21. rough
2. ward 7. err 12. way 17. why 22. cough
3. calf 8. seal 13. out 18. they 23. foot
4. learn 9. curl 14. beer 19. bread 24. mat
5. cool 10. tone 15. coil 20. pull 25. hymn
2. Circle the words that contain

a. A low vowel: weed, wad (chem., lót), load, lad (chàng trai trẻ), rude.
b. A high vowel: sat, suit, got, meet, mud.
c. A back vowel: maid, weep, coop (nhốt vào chuồng), cop (cảnh sát/ tên cớm), good
d. A front vowel: gate, caught, cat, kit (1 bộ), put
3. Write a symbol that corresponds to each of the following descriptions; then give an
English word that contains this sound.
a. Low front vowel
b. Long high back vowel
c. Short front high vowel
4a. Give the phonetic symbols for the first sound in the following words
Example: Bomb /b/
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Now do the same with:

1. City 2. Physics 3. Pneumonia 4. Quick 5. Jug
6. Cake 7. Shoot 8. Zone 9. What 10. Thick
11. Thames 12. Usually 13. English 14. Choice 15. Knee
4b. Give the articulatory description for each of these first sounds
Example: Bomb /b/: Voiced bilabial stop
5a. Give the phonetic symbol for the final sound in the following words.
Example: Rock /k/
5a.
1. Ridge 2. Is 3. Bomb 4. Garage 5. Sonic
6. Moth 7. Gauge 8. Bathe 9. Wife 10. Relax
11. Traipse 12. Though 13. made 14. Log 15. Dogs
b. Give the articulatory description for each of these sounds
Example: Rock / k / Voiceless velar stop
6a. Give the phonetic symbol for the vowel sounds in the following words.
Examples: Meat / i: /
1. head 2. I 3. late 4. meat 5. fun
6. may 7. Don 8. boat 9. ham 10. dawn
11. dawn 12. toy 13. ice 14. strange 15. hill
16. food 17. thing 18. took 19. Stop
6b. Give the articulary description for each of these sounds
Example: Meat /i:/: High front tense unrounded vowel.
 The same for description
7. Write the following words (in full) in phonetic transcription.
Example: Lunge /lɅndʒ/
1. church 4. thrive 7. yelled 10. pew
2. compass 5. stop 8. feud 11. caught
40
3. campus 6. awful 9. possess 12. huge

8. For each error provided below describe what the student has done wrong in
articulatory terms.
A. CONSONANT ERRORS:
Example: A Cantonese speaker pronounces “thought” as “fought”.
Answer: The Cantonese speaker has substituted a voiceless labiodental fricative for a voiceless
interdental fricative. This is an error in place of articulation.
Note: substitute something/ someone for something/ someone: Thay thế cái gì/ ai cho cái gì/ ai
a. a Polish speaker pronounces “log” as “lock”
b. A Canadian French speaker pronounces “Those” as “doze”
c. A Korean speaker pronounces “Rip” as “Lip”
d. A Greek speaker pronounces “sheet” as “seat”
e. A Vietnamese speaker pronounces “march” as “marsh‟
f. A Spanish speaker pronounces “vowel” as “bowel”
g. A Cantonese speaker pronounces „Right” as “White”
h. A Portuguese speaker pronounces “mass” as “mash”.
i. A Spanish speaker pronounces “Chip” as “Ship”
j. A German speaker pronounces “Grieve” as “grief”
VOWEL ERRORS:
Example: A Japanese speaker pronounces “live” so that it sounds like “leave”
ANSWER: The Japanese speaker has substituted a high front tense unrounded vowel /i:/ for a
high front lax unrounded vowel /i/. This is an error in the tense/lax distinction.
a. A Cantonese speaker pronounces “man” so that it sounds like “men”
b. An Italian speaker pronounces “cut” so that it sounds like “cot”
c. A French speaker pronounces “full” so that it sounds like “fool”
d. A Spanish speaker pronounces “met” so that it sounds like “mate”
e. An Arabic speaker pronounces “bought” so that it sounds like “boat.”
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9. Circle the words that begin with

1. A bilabial consonant: mat, gnat, sat, bat, rat, pat
2. A velar consonant: knot, got, cut, hot, pot
3. A labio-dental consonant: fat, cat, that, mat, chat, vat
4. An alveolar consonant: zip, nip, lip, sip, tip, dip.
5. An alveolar-palatal consonant: sign, shy, tie, thigh, thy
10. Write the symbol that correspond to each of the following descriptions; then give an
English word that contains this sound
Example: Voiced alveolar stop: [d]: dog.
a. Voiced bilabial stop.
b. Voiceless alveolar stop.
c. Voiceless alveolar fricatives.
d. Voiced affricative
e. Palatal glide.
f. Voiced interdental fricative
g. Voiceless labio-dental fricative
11. Transcribe [phiên âm] these words and sentences

Words:
1. should 2. sugar 3. nation 4. germ 5. subject 6. measure
Sentences:
7. She sells the seashells on the seashore
8. Did Charles and Joe enjoy the lecture?
9. Where is the peck of pickled pepper Peter Piper picked?
10. bake 11. goat 12. doubt 13. bought 14. tick
15. bough 16. bored 17. guard 18. peak
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ADDITIONAL EXERCISES
1. Write each of the following words in phonetic transcription.
1. heat 6. shrink
2. stroke 7. toque
3. phase 8. attentive
4. chump 9. flop
5. loonie 10. wrath
2. The following is a phonetic transcription of an excerpt of the poem "The Walrus and the
Carpenter", from Lewis Carroll's book Through the Looking Glass. Each line of the poem
contains one word that is transcribed incorrectly, at the phonemic or "broad" level of
transcription.
Task 1: Identify the word that has been transcribed incorrectly (mà phiên âm không chính
xác), and then write the correct form of the transcription (sau đó hãy viết hình thức phiên
âm chính xác).
Task 2: Write each line in normal English orthography (hãy viết mỗi dòng theo hình thức
chính tả thông thường.
1: [δә taIm hæz cʌm]
2: [δә wɑlrәs sed]
3: [tu tɑlk әv meni θɪŋz]
4: [әv ʃuz ɑnd ʃɪps]
5: [ænd silɪŋ wæx]
6: [әv kæbәgәz ænd kɪŋz]
7: [ænd wɑI δә si ɪs boIlɪŋ hɑt]
8: [ænd weδәr pɪgz hæv wɪŋz].
3. Write the symbol that corresponds to each of the following phonetic descriptions, then
give an English word that contains that sound.
0. Example: voiced alveolar stop: [d] “dough”
1. Voiceless bilabial stop
2. Low front vowel
3. Voiced lateral liquid
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4. Voiced velar nasal

5. Voiced interdental fricative
6. Voiceless post-alveolar affricate
7. Voiced palatal glide
8. Mid lax front vowel
9. High back tense vowel
10. Voiceless labio-dental fricative
4. For each of the following consonants, state whether it is voiced or voiceless, its place of
articulation, and its manner of articulation.
1. [m] 2. [r] 3. [ʒ] 4. [h] 5. [s]
5. List the phonetic properties of each of the following vowels (height, front/backness,
rounded/unrounded, and tense/lax).
1. [ɒ] 2. [ɪ] 3. [ʊ/u] 4. [ɑ:] 5. [ʌ]
B. Oral Exercises
A. English short vowels
Exercise 1: Practice saying loudly these words
1. Bit Bid Him Miss
2. Bet Bed Hen Mess
3. Bat Bad Ham Mass
4. Cut Bud Bun Bus
5. Pot Cod Tom Loss
6. Put Wood Pull Push
Exercise 2:
Practice saying loudly these words
1. Mad 7. Put
2. Mud 8. Pot
3. bit 9. Men
4. bet 10. man
5. cut 11. fun
6. cot 12. Fan
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Exercise 3: Short vowel contracted.

i and e e and æ æ and u
bit Bet hem ham Lack Luck
tin Ten set sat Bad Bud
fill Fell peck pack Fan Fun
built Belt Send Sand Stamp Stump
lift Left Wreck Rack Flash Flush
Ʌ and ɔ ɔ and u
Dug Dog Lock Look
Cup Cop Cod Could
Rub Rob Pot Pull
Stuck Stock Shock Shoot
Luck Lock Crock Crook
B. Long Vowels diphthongs and triphthongs
Exercise 4:
Practice saying loudly these words.
Beat Bead Been Beef
Heart Hard harm Hearth
Caught Cord Corn Course
Root Rude Room Roof
Hurt Heard Earn Earth
Exercise 5:
1. Heard 6. Heart
2. Been 7. Cord
3. Root 8. Beef
4. Hearth 9. Rude
5. Caught 10. Earn
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Exercise 6: Long-short vowel contrasts.

Feel fill Calm Come Part Pat
Bead Bid Cart Cut Lard Lad
Steel Still Half Huff Calm Cam
Reed Rid Lark Luck Heart Hat
Been Bin Mast Must Harms Ham
Caught Cot Pool Pull Hurt Hut
Stork Stock Suit Soot Turn Ton
Short Shot Luke Look Curt Cut
Cord Cod Wooed Wood Girl Gull
Port pot Fool Full Bird Bud
Dark Dock
Part Port
Lark Lock
Balm Bomb
Large Lodge
Exercise 8 (Diphthongs): Repetition
Mate Made main mace
Right Ride Rhyme Rice
Quoit Buoyed Boyne Royce
Coat Code Cone Close
Goat Loud Gown Louse
Feared Lan Fierce Cared
Cairn Scarce Moored Fuel
Exercise 10: Triphthongs
Repetition:
Layer liar Lower tower Loyal
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THE END OF CHAPTER 2!

CHAPTER 3 STRESS
 Introduction to stress:
1. Stress is the degree of force used in producing a syllable.
2. Words of more than 2 syllables usually have one syllable which receives more force
than the other. It is called primary/ major stress.
3. There are three types of stress in English: word stress, phrase stress and sentence
stress.
4. We can use the symbols OO for word stress, phrase stress and sentence stress in which
the symbol O is used for stressed syllables or primary stress; the symbol O stands for
the unstressed syllables and / or minor / unstressed words.
5. The word stress can cause the lexical ambiguity.
2.1. WORD STRESS
Words of more than 2 syllables usually have one syllable which receives more force than
the other. It is called primary/ major stress.
Ex:
 (n): 'current, 'system, 'effort, 'campus
 (adj): 'decent, 'instant, 'rural, 'suburb
In addition to the primary / major stress, we can observe another type of stress that
is weaker than primary stress which is called secondary stress/ minor stress.
Ex:
(adj) Photographic: /,fәutә'græfik/
(n) anthropology: /,ænθrә'pɔlәdʒi/
 Some important things to remember about word stress:
 Words of Two Syllables
 A good example of the difference in stress on nouns and verbs involves related
noun-verb pairs in English (Các cặp danh từ-động từ trong Tiếng Anh có liên hệ). These are
words that function as nouns when stressed on the first syllable, and as verbs when stressed on
the second syllable. Consider the following examples, paying attention to the placement of
stress in the italicized words.
47
a. The unhappy customer may in´sult the manager

b. That‟s an ińsult.
In (a), the verb “insult” receives major stress on the second syllable. In (b), the noun
“insult” receives major stress on the first syllable. There are many types of this type. Here are
some more examples.
* Noun & Verb Pair
Nouns Verbs
'Research: Sự nghiên cứu Re'search: Nghiên cứu
'Convert: Người cải đạo Con'vert: Cải đạo
'Present: Món quà Pre'sent: Trình bày
'Convict: Người bị kết án Con'vict: Kết án
'Import: Hàng nhập khẩu Im'port: Nhập khẩu
'Export: Hàng xuất khẩu Ex'port: Xuất khẩu
'Refuse: Vật không có giá trị Re'fuse: Từ chối
'Desert: Sa mạc De'sert: đào ngũ, bỏ đi
'Permit: Giấy phép Per'mit: Cho phép
'Object: Vật thể Ob'ject: Phản đối
'Rebel: Kẻ nổi loạn R'ebel: Nổi loạn, chống đối
'Record: hồ sơ, kỉ lục, đĩa hát Re'cord: Ghi chép, thu
Cónflict: Xung đột Con´flict: Xung đột / mâu thuẫn / đối lập
Cóntract: Hợp đồng, giao kèo Contráct: Ký kết hợp đồng
Cóntrast: Sự tương phản Cont´rast: Làm tương phản / đối chiếu
Pérfect: Hoàn thành Per´fect: Hoàn hảo
P´roject: Đề án/ kế hoạch Projéct: phóng (tên lửa) / chiếu ra (tia sáng
* Adding Suffixes
a. Suffixes that attract/receive stress:
'major major'ette
Tai'wan Taiwan'ese
Note: The suffixes ending in “ette” & “ese” will receive stress
48
b. Suffixes that cause stress to shift:

'photograph pho'tography
'legal le'gality
Note: When the suffixes ending in “y” or “ity”, the stress will fall on the syllable right before it
c. Suffixes that do not affect stress:
at'tain at'tainment
re'fuse re'fusal
* Stress Placement in Compound Words:
** In compound nouns, stress is on the first syllable:
- ' Classmate - Airplane - Bedtime
– ' Tablecloth - Armchair - Birthplace
– ' Bookshelf - Farmhouse - backache
– ' Underwear - Doorbell - File clerk
– Bookstore - Haircut - Gold-dust
– Classroom - Hair-style - Gold mine
Note: In order to illustrate further the stress patterns of compounds, it is helpful to consider the
differences between adjective-noun phrases and compound noun. In the adjective- noun
phrases below, major stress falls on the noun and minor stress falls on the adjective
NOUN PHRASE
 That‟s a black bóard (- a board that is black)
 He works in a green hóuse (- a house that is green)
 I saw a black bírd (- a bird that is black)
In the adjective-noun compounds below, however, major stress falls on the adjective and minor
stress falls on the noun.
COMPOUND NOUN
 That‟s a b´lack board (- a board for writing on- green or black)
 He works in a gréen house (- a place to grow plant)
 I saw a bláck bird (- a kind of bird)
49
** Compounds with which the first element is a number in some forms tend to have
final stress:
 Three-´Wheeler
 Second-Ćlass
 Five ´Finger
** Compounds functioning as adverbs are usually final-stressed:
 Head-´First
 North-Éast
 Down´Stream
** Compounds which functions as verbs and have an adverbial first element take
final stress:
 Down΄Grade
 Back ΄Pedal
 Ill΄ Treat
** Compounds with an adjectival first element and the “ed” morpheme (hình vị) at
the end have second stress on the second element:
Bad-΄tempered → but a ΄bad-tempered ΄teacher
Half-΄timbered → but a ΄half-timbered ΄house
Heavy-΄handed → but a ΄heavy-handed ΄sentence
* Some words are written as a phrase but behave like compounds:
 ' field trip
 ' car park
 ' fire drill
* Phrasal verbs are written as two words but represent a single unit of meaning: Các động
từ kép được viết như hai từ nhưng biểu đạt một đơn vị nghĩa duy nhất / trong trường hợp này
dấu nhấn rơi vào tiểu từ (particles: Prep or adverbs)
 get ' up
 come a' cross
 turn ' on
 take ' off
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* Some common patterns of English word stress: Một số kiểu mẫu phổ biến của dấu nhấn từ
1. Words of two syllables:
['dada]: 'Father, 'any, 'enter, 'envy
[dada']: be'gin, a'way, ass'ist
2. Words of three syllables:
['dadada]: Sáturday, Bálcony
[da'dada]: Tomáto, Septémber
[dada'da]: Understánd, afternóon.
3. Words of more than three syllables:
['dadadada]: Télevision, kíndergarten
[da'dadadada]: Labóratory, refrígerator
[dada'dadada]: conversátion, internátional.
[dadada'dadada]: organizátion, responsibílity.
In detail:
A. Two-syllable word:
Here the choice is very simple: either the first or the second syllable will be stressed-
not both. We will look first at verbs. The basic rule is that if the second syllable of the verb
contains a long vowel or diphthong, or if it ends with more than one consonant, that
second syllable is stressed. Thus:
Applý /aI/, ar´rive /aI/, attr‟act/kt/, assíst /st/
Note: trong apply âm tiết thứ hai kết thúc là một nhị trùng âm /aI/, arrive kết thúc bằng nhị
trùng âm /aI/, attract và assist kết thúc bằng hai phụ âm lần lượt là /kt/ & /st/, vì thế dấu nhấn
rơi vào âm tiết đầu của từ.
If the final syllable contains a short vowel and one (or no) final consonant, the first
syllable is stress. Thus:
 Énter
 Ópen
 Énvy
 Équal
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Two-syllable simple adjectives according to the same rule, giving:

 ´Lovely
 Éven
 ´Hollow
 Divíne
 Co´rrect
 A´live
Note:
As with most rules, there are exceptions, for example, honest”, “Perfect”, both of which ends
with two consonants but are stressed on the first syllables.
Nouns require different rule: If the second syllable contains a short vowel, the stress
will usually come on the first syllable. Otherwise, it will be on the second syllable.
Money ['mʌnI] → but: e´state
Product ['prɒdәkt] → but: ba´lloon
Larynx ['lærIηks] → but: de´zaIgn
Other two two-syllable words such as adverbs and preposition seem to behave like verbs
and adjectives
B. Three-syllable words
Verbs: If the final syllable contains one a short vowel and ends with not more than one
consonant, that syllable will be unstressed, and stress will be placed on the preceding syllable.
Thus:
 Encounter /In'kauntә/
 Determine /dI'tЗ:mIn]
If the final syllable contains a long vowel or diphthong, or end with more than one
consonant, that final syllable will be stressed. Thus:
 Entertáin
 resur´rect
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Nouns require different rule. Here, if the final syllable contains a short vowel or /әu/,
it is unstressed. If the syllable preceding this final syllable contains a long vowel or diphthong,
or if it ends with more than one consonant, that middle syllable will be stressed. Thus:
 Mi´mosa
 disáster
 potáto
 synópsis
If the final syllable contains a short vowel and the middle syllable contains short vowel and
ends with no more than one consonant, both final and middle syllables are unstressed and
the first is stressed. Thus:
 ´Quantity
 Émperor
 Ćustody
 Ćinema
 Íntellect
 Álkali: Chất kiềm
 ´Stalactite
 ´Marigold
Adjectives seem to need the same rule, to produce stress patterns such as:
 Ópportune
 Ínsolent
 ´Derelict
 Ánthropoid
2. Sentence Stress
2.1. Content Versus (VS) Function words
English words can be divided into two groups:
Content words and function words. Content words are those words that express
independent meaning. Included in this group are:
 Noun
 Main verbs
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 Adverbs / Adjectives
 Question words (e.g. why, when, what)
 Demonstratives (this, that, these, those)
 Content words are usually stressed.
Function words are words that have little or no meanings in themselves, but which express
grammatical relationships. Function words include:
 Article
 Preposition
 Auxiliaries
 Pronouns
 Conjunction
 Relative pronouns
 Function words are usually unstressed, unless they are to be given special
attention.
2.2. Placement of Main Stress in Sentence:
While all content words receive major word stress, one content word within a
particular sentence will receive greater stress than all the other. We refer to this as the Major
Sentence Stress (dấu nhấn trọng tâm của câu). In most cases the Major Sentence Stress
falls on the last content word within a sentence. Consider the pronunciation of the sentences
below:
Note:
 (O): Unstress syllable/word; (O): Minor stress word/ (O): Major stress word or major
sentence stress.
 Susan (OO) bought (O) a (O) new (O) sweater (OO) at (O) Creeds (O)
 I (O) walked (O) home (O) in (O) the (O) rainfall (OO)
 Peter (O) likes (O) your (O) suggestion (OOO)
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Note: In some cases major sentence stress will not fall on the major stressed syllable of the
final content word of a sentence. That is, when a speaker wishes to direct the hearer‟s attention
to some other content word in the sentence; This word will receive major sentence stress.
Consider the following dialogue.
Speaker A: What did you buy at Creeds? (O O O O O O)

Speaker B: I bought a new sweater at Creeds ( O O O O O O O O)
Notice the second sentence does not receive major sentence stress on “Creeds”, but rather
on the stressed syllable of “sweater”. This is the element of the sentence that speaker B is
directing the speaker A‟s attention to. We call this the information focus of the sentence.
Generally, it is the stressed syllable of the content word representing information focus that
receive major sentence stress. Most often, the information focus occurs at the end of the
sentence. Indeed, a more natural response to speaker A‟s question above would be: I bought a
new sweater”, or simply “a new sweater.”
2. Word stress can cause the lexical ambiguity
2.1. Noun + Noun
 Toy shop (OO): A not valuable shop; Một cửa hàng không đáng giá/ một gian hàng xép
 Toy shop (OO): A shop that trades in toy: Cửa hàng kinh doanh đồ chơi
 English teacher (OO): A teacher who comes from England; Giáo viên người Anh
 English teacher (OO): A teacher who teaches English: Giáo viên dạy Tiếng Anh
2.2. Adj + Noun
 Green house (OO): A house that is painted green: Ngôi nhà màu xanh
 Green house (OO): A house in which vegetables are kept for growth: Nhà kính để trồng
rau quả
 White house (OO): A house which is painted white; Nhà sơn màu trắng
 White house (OO): A house where the American president lives and works: Dinh tổng
thống Mỹ.
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2.1. Present participle/Gerund + Noun

Dancing doll (OO): A doll that is dancing: Búp bê đang nhảy
Dancing teacher/ master (OO): A teacher who teaches dancing: Thầy dạy nhảy/ khiêu vũ
2.2. A pause between words or phrases may cause the lexical ambiguity; Ngắt câu giữa
từ và cụm từ có thể tạo ra sự hiểu lầm. Read these two funny English stories.
1. One day, as a teacher walked into his classroom, he heard Tommy Andrew whisper to the
boy next to him: “Here‟s the teacher. I‟ll bet the silly donkey is going to talk about putting in
commas.” The teacher didn‟t say anything but he began to talk about putting in commas, and
explained how important they could be. To show what he meant, he wrote on the blackboard
the sentence:
“Tommy Andrew says the teacher is a silly donkey”
The class laughed and Tommy Andrews looked very red. “Now,” said the teacher, “I will show
you how important commas are.” He put two commas into the sentence, and it now read:
“Tommy Andrew, says the teacher, is a silly donkey.”
2. I like the story about the barber who put the notice outside his shop:
What do you think I
shave you for nothing
and give you a drink
Of course he soon had his shop full of men all expecting to be shaved for nothing and then
given a glass of beer. But the barber explained that that wasn‟t what he meant. A little
punctuation made all the difference, for the notice then read:
What! Do you think I
shave you for nothing,
and give you a drink?
3. Hãy thử phân tích câu trong Tiếng Việt:
Mỗi gia đình có hai con vợ chồng hạnh phúc
3. Sentence Stress and Weak Forms
There are a number of words in English which can have a full form and a weak form. For
example, compare the use of the word can and from in the following sentences.
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 She can /kәn/ swim faster than I can /kæn/ (the first can is the weak form, and the
second can is the strong/full form)
 She‟s from /frәm/ Scotland. Where are you from /from/? (the first from is the weak
form, and the second from is the full form)
As these words can be pronounced differently, it is important that learners are taught the
possible forms of these words when they are introduced. These words are most often the
function words, filling in between content words, making sentences work grammatically.
Receptive exercises can be used to attune (hướng) students‟ minds to the idea, and to
work towards recognition of the different forms. Productive exercises can also be used to help
students towards their target of pronunciation. The most frequently cited examples of these
words are as outlined in the following table:
Grammatical category Word Full Form Weak Form Example of Weak
Form
Verbs am æm m That‟s what I‟m trying
to say
are a: ә Where are you from?
is Iz әz z s Where‟s he from?/
Where is he from?
was wɒz wәz That‟s where he was
born
were wЗ: wә That‟s where my
children were born?
do du: dә Where do you live?
does dɅ dәz Where does he live?
have hæv әv/v He will have left by
now/They‟ve gone
Has hæz hәz/әz/z/s The baby has
swallowed a stone/he‟s
gone
had hæd hәd/әd/d He had already gone
can kæn kәn I‟m not sure if I can
lend it to you.
could kud kәd Well, what could I say?
would wud wәd/әd Well, what would you
have done?
should ∫ud ∫әd/∫d Well, what should I
have said?
Pronoun you ju: jә How do you do?
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your jɔ: jә What does your boss

think?
he hi: hI/I Where does he work?
him him im I‟ll give it to him later
she ∫i: ∫I She‟s leaving tomorrow
her hЗ: ә I‟ll give it to her later
us Ʌs әs They‟ll give it to us
later
them δem δәm I‟ll give it to them later
Preposition to tu: tә He‟s already gone to
work
at æt әt He‟s at work, I think
of ɒv әv That‟s the last of the
wine
for fɔ: fә He‟s away for two
weeks
from from frәm She‟s come from
Scotland
Conjunctions and ænd әnd/әn She‟s tall and fair
but bɅt bәt She‟s here by Juan isn‟t
than δæn δәn She‟s older than you
Article a eI ә He‟s a doctor
an æn әn She‟s an architect
the δi: δә She‟s the person I told
you about
Indefite adjectives any eni: әni:/ni: Have we got any
biscuits?
some sɅm sәm There‟s some tea in the
pot
such sɅt∫ sәt∫ It‟s not such a big deal,
really.
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THEORY
1. Name three stress placements in the addition of suffixes to the root words. Give illustrative
examples for your presentation
2. Make a distinction between content words and functions in stress placement. Give examples
to make it clear.
3. Some rules of stress placement of the two-syllable words and the three-syllable words in
English.
EXERCISES ON WORD STRESS
WRITTEN EXERCISES
1. Write the two ways of transcriptions for these following words, paying special attention
to the primary stress. Explain what the words mean according to the stress you give.
1. Abstract
2. Conduct
3. Contrast
4. Desert
4. Escort
5. Export
6. Import
7. Import
8. Insult
9. Object
10. Perfect
11. Permit
12. Present
13. Produce
14. Protest
15. Rebel
16. Record
17. Subject
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2. WRITE THE STRESSES FOR THESE WORDS

1. Entertain
2. Ascertain
3. Refugee
4. Mountaineer
5. Evacuee
6. Portuguese
7. Unique
8. Comfortable
9. Anchorage
10. Refusal
11. Amazing
EXERCISES ON PHRASE AND SENTENCE STRESS
WRITTEN EXERCISE
1. Write the stress for these compound nouns in two ways and explain what these
compound nouns mean according to the stress you use.
a. Baby doctor f. Black board
b. paper bag g. Red cap
c. Stone hammer. h. Cheap jack
d. Leather jacket i. Burning building/burning point
e. Dark room j. sleeping baby/sleeping car
k. walking stick l. flying horse/riding horse
2. Use the rhythm to separate the words and/or phrases in one of the following sentences
and explain the meanings according to rhythm separated.
a. If you want to get something good for nothing, you will get something good for nothing
b. It is dangerous for him to drive a car.
c. His habit of speaking rapidly impressed the audience.
d. Who do you want to choose?
e. They don‟t know how good meat tastes
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f. He fed her dog biscuits.

g. Lanlan the panda is sick.
3. Analyze the reasons leading to the misunderstanding of the clerk in this small piece of
conversation. Suggest the way to correct it.
At the post office
Lady: Must I stick it on myself?
Clerk: Please stick it on the envelope, madam.
4. Make the stress on the following sounds:
Verbs:
a/ protect e/ bellow
b/ clamber f/ menace
c/ festoon g/disconnect
d/ detest h/ entering
Nouns:
a. language b. event
c. Captain d. jonquil (cây trường thọ)
e. career f. injury
g. paper h. connection
5. Put an accent mark over the main stressed syllable of the following words.
1. Politician 6. Benefit 11. Family
2. Democratic 7. Mechanic 12. Telegraph
3. Personality 8. Mechanization 13. Telegraphy
4. Photograph 9. Contemplate 14. Diplomat
5. Photographical 10. Meteorology 15. Diplomatic
Contemplate: suy ngẫm/ thưởng ngoạn
6. Transcribe these words. Remember to mark the stress
1. Monotonous 4. Nobility 7. Generosity 9. Comedian
2. Autonomy 5. Particular 8. Secretary 10. Grammatical
3. Manipulate 6. Geography
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7. Put stress marks on the following words (try to put the secondary stress marks on as
well) and write the words in phonemic transcription for each (p.101)
1. Shop-lifter 2. Open-ended 3. Javanese
4. Birth-mark 5. anti-clockwise 6. confirmation
7. eigth-sided 8. fruit-cake 9. defective
10. roof-timber
8. Number the words with the appropriate stress patterns
1 OO 2 OO 3 OOO 4 OOO 5 OOO
6 OOO 7 OOOOO
Student Essential Pronounce Import (verb)

Understand Computer Introduce Accurate
Surrounding Persevere Rebel (noun) Analyze
Rebel (verb) Learner Including Cassette
Don‟t forget What‟s your name? That‟s the man That could be the man
9. Match the utterances to the possible meanings. The tonic syllables (âm tiết chứa ngữ
điệu) are underlined
Utterances Possible Meanings
1. I‟ll walk with you to the station a. I don‟t want to bring my car
2. I‟ll walk with you to the station b. But not back again
3. I‟ll walk with you to the station c. But not as far as the back
4. I‟ll walk with you to the station d. But I am not going with him
5. I‟ll walk with you to the station e. Nobody else has offered
10. Put these words into the correct columns according to the stress patterns
OO OOO OOO OOOO OOOO
Plumber electrician Doctor Journalist Musician Shop Assistant Teacher Soldier

Novelist Architect Carpenter Actor Policeman Fireman Lecturer Florist Businessman Artist Farmer Scientist
Researcher Gardener Designer
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SELF-PRACTICE
Practice reading these following stories, focusing on the word stress & sentence stress
THREE HUMOROUS STORIES
Christmas Cards
It was two weeks before Christmas, and Mrs. Smith was very busy. She bought a lot of
Christmas cards to send to her friends and to her husband‟s friends, and put them on the table in
the living room. Then, when her husband came home from work, she said to him, “Here are the
Christmas cards for our friends, and here are some stamps, a pen and our book of addresses.
“Will you please write the cards while I am cooking the dinner?”
Mr. Smith did not say anything, but walked out of the living room and went to his study.
Mrs. Smith was very angry with him, but did not say anything either.
Then a minute later he came back with a box full of Christmas cards. All of them had
addresses and stamps on them.
“These are from last year,” he said, “I forgot to post them.”
“ENJOY YOUR VEGETABLES”
Mrs. Brown had a small garden behind her house, and in the Spring she planted some
vegetables in it. She looked after them very carefully, and when the summer came, they looked
very nice.
One evening Mrs. Brown looked at her vegetables and said, “Tomorrow I am going to
pick them and then we can eat them.”
But early the next morning, her son ran into the kitchen and shouted, “Mother, Mother!
Come quickly! Our neighbor‟s ducks are in the garden and they are eating our vegetables!”
Mrs Brown ran out, but it was too late! All the vegetables were finished! Mrs. Brown
cried, and her neighbor was very sorry, but that was the end of the vegetable.
Then a few days before Christmas, the neighbor brought Mrs. Brown a parcel. In it was
a beautiful, fat duck, and on it was a piece of paper with the words, “enjoy your vegetables!”
3. A STRANGE TELEPHONE CALL
Mrs. Jones‟s telephone number was 3464, and the number of the cinema in her town was
3463, so people often made a mistake and telephoned her when they wanted the cinema.
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One evening the telephone bell rang and Mrs. Jone answered it. A tired man said, “At
what time does your last film begin?”
“I am sorry,” said Mrs. Jones, “but I have the wrong number. This is not the cinema.”
“Oh, it began twenty minutes ago?” said the man. “I am sorry about that. Goodbye!”
Mrs. Jones was very surprised. She told her husband. He laughed and said, “The man‟s
wife wanted to go to the cinema, but he was feeling tired, so he telephoned the cinema. His
wife heard him, but she didn‟t hear you. Now they will stay at home this evening, and the
husband will be happy!”
2. It‟s your turn to tell a story, focusing on the word stress & sentence stress.
3. Find a topic & present verbally about it.
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CHAPTER 4 ASPECTS OF CONNECTED SPEECH

This section will focus on:
1. Rhythm (nhịp)
2. Assimilation (sự đồng hóa âm)
3. Elision (nuốt âm)
4. Linking (nối âm) and Intrusion (nhập âm)
5. Juncture (âm nối)
6. Contractions (Rút gọn)
7. Should we Teach these aspects of connected speech?
8. Practical exercises
Definition of Terms:
1. Assimilation is when a speech sound changes, and becomes more like another sound
which follows it or precedes it. This is called assimilation.
For example, in English the negative prefix appears as im- before words such as possible:
impossible. As possible starts with a bilabial sound, the prefix im-ends in a bilabial sound.
Before words like tolerant, however, the prefix is in-: intolerant. As tolerant starts with an
alveolar sound, the prefix in-ends in an alveolar sound. As the following sound brings about
the change, this process is called Regressive Assimilation. On the other hand, the difference
between the /s/ in the English word cats and the /z/ in the English word dogs is an example of
Progressive Assimilation because the preceding sounds bring about the change.
2. Elision is the leaving out of the sounds in speech. For example, in rapid informal speech in
English, suppose is often pronounced as [spәuz/, factory as [fæktrI] and mostly [mәuslI]
3. Intrusion is when an extra consonant is added at the end of a word or link it to a following
word starting with a vowel, this is known as intrusion. In English, an intrusive /r/ is often
added, especially before and. For example: China and Japan [t∫aInәrәn d∫әpæn]; Lina and Sue
[li:nәrәn su:]
4. Contraction is the reduction of a linguistic form and often its combination with another
form. For example: I shall into I‟ll/ they are into they‟re/ did not into didn‟t.
5. Juncture is a type of boundary between phonemes. Often juncture helps the listeners to
distinguish between pairs such as see Mill and seem ill in Did he see Mill and Did he seem ill?
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In Details:
1. Rhythm:
The notion of rhythm involves some noticeable events happening at regular intervals of
time: One can detect the rhythm of a heart-beat, of a flashing light or of a piece of music. It has
often been claimed that English speech is rhythmical and that the rhythm is detectable in the
regular occurrence of stressed syllables, of course, it is not suggested the timing is as regular as
a clock – the regularity of occurrence is only relative. The theory that English has stress-timed
rhythm implies that stressed syllables will tend to occur at relatively regular intervals whether
they are separated by unstressed syllables or not.
Note: The foot begins with a stressed syllable and includes all following unstressed
syllable up to (but not including) the following stressed syllables.
We can illustrate the rhythm of an English sentence under the feet symbols as follows.
W΄alk ‫ ٳ‬down the ‫ٳ‬p΄ath to the ‫ٳ‬e΄nd of the ca ‫ٳ‬n΄al
Or a tree-diagram of the rhymical structure where s stands for “strong” and w stands for
“weak”
S w W s
Twen ty
S w s w
Twen ty pla ces
Or by using primary accent stress only: I th΄ink he wa΄nts to go΄ tomo΄rrow
2. Assimilation
Assimilation is only found in the most rapid and casual speech; generally speaking, the
tendency is again for regressive assimilation (đồng hóa âm thoái bộ/ dịch lùi) and the
change in manner is most likely to be towards an “easier” consonant – one which makes less
obstruction to the airflow. Thus it is very possible to find cases where a final plosive (phụ âm
bật cuối) becomes a fricative (âm xát) or nasal (âm mũi).
Ex:
 That side: /δ´æs saId/ → /t/ assimilates into /s/ (regressive assimilation)
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 good night /gun náIt/ → /d/ assimilates into /n/ (regressive assimilation)
 in the /Ińner/ → /δ/ assimilates into /n/ (progressive assimilation: đồng hóa âm tiến lên)
 get them /ge´ttә/ → /δ/ assimilates into /t/ (progressive assimilation)
 read these /rí:ddi:z/ → /δ/ assimilates into /d/ (progressive assimilation)
* Some Rules for Assimilation
1. The phonemes /t/, /d/, and /n/ often become bilabial before the bilabial consonants /p/, /b/
and /m/
Ex. He‟s a rather fat boy. (/t/ assimilates to /b/)
She‟s got an apartment in Mahattan. (/t/ assimilates to /m/)
He‟s a very good boy (/d/ assimilates to /b/)
There are ten men in the class, and two women. (/n/ assimilates to /m/)
2. /t/ assimilates to /k/ before /k/ or /g/. /d/ assimilates to /g/ before /k/ and /g/
Ex.
Where has that cat been all night? (/t/ assimilates to /k/)
Can you see that girl over there? (/t/ assimilates to /g/)
It was a very good concert (/d/ assimilates to /k/)
3. /n/ assimilates to /ŋ/ before /g/ or /k/
Ex. I‟ve been going out too much lately.
He‟s bringing his own car
4. /s/ assimilates to /∫/ before /∫/
I really love this shiny one over there.
5. /z/ can assimilate to / ʒ/ before /∫/
We found this lovely cheese shop in Paris.
The above examples are cases of anticipatory assimilation where one sound changes to
another sound because of the sound which follows.
Here are some cases of coalescent assimilation (đồng hóa âm kết hợp), where two sounds
combine to form a different one.
Ex. /t/ and /j/ coalesce to form /t∫/:
You went to France last year, didn‟t you?
/d/ and /j/ coalesce to form /dʒ/
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Would you like a cup of tea?

3. Elision
The nature of elision may be stated quite simply: under certain circumstances sound
disappears: one might express this in more technical language by saying that in certain situation
a phoneme may be zero or have zero realization or be deleted. As with assimilation, elision is
typical of rapid speech, casual speech; the process of change in phoneme realizations produced
by changing the speed and casualness of speech is sometimes gradation. Producing elisions is
something which foreign learners need to learn to do, but it is important for them to be aware
that when native speakers of English talk to each other, quite a number of phonemes that the
foreigner might expect to hear are not actually pronounced. We will look at some examples,
though only a small number of the many possibilities can be given here.
1. Loss of weak vowels after p, t, k. In words such as potato, tomato, perhaps, today
2. Weak vowel + n, l or r. Examples: tonight, police, correct
3. Avoidance of complex consonant clusters: George the sixth throne.
4. Loss of final v in “of” before consonant: lots of them, waste of money
* Some Rules for Elision
a. The most common elisions in English are /t/ and /d/, when they appear within a consonant
cluster.
Ex: We arrived the next day. (/t/ elided between /ks/ and /d/)
When we reached Paris, we stopped for lunch. (/t/ elided between [t∫] and /p/, and between /p/
and /f/)
We bought a carved statuette. (/d/ elided between /v/ and /st/)
b. Complex consonant clusters are simplified
Ex: She acts like she owns the place. (/ækts/ can be simplified to / æks/)
Teachers use authentic texts to teach from (/teksts/ can be simplified to /tesks/)
c. /ә/ can disappear in unstressed syllable
Ex. I think we should call the police. (/ә/ can disappear in the first syllable of police)
I‟ll love you forever, promise, well, perhaps. (/ә/ can disappear)
It‟s a question of collective responsibility (/ә/ can disappear)
Are you coming out tonight. (/ә/ can disappear)
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That‟s an interesting idea. (/ә/ may not be pronounced by many speakers of English, reducing
the numbers of syllables in words)
Have we got any vegetable? (/ә/ is not pronounced by most speakers, reducing the number of
syllables in words)
d. /v/ can disappear in of, before consonants.
Ex. My birthday‟s on the 11th of November.
It‟s a complete waste of time.
That‟s the least of my worries.
4. Linking and Intrusion
In real connected speech, we sometimes link the words together. The most familiar case is
the use of linking r; the phoneme r cannot occur in the syllable-final position, but when a
word‟s spelling suggests a final r, and a word beginning with a vowel follows, the usual
pronunciation must be linked to that vowel
When two vowel sounds meet, speakers often link them in various ways.
a. Linking /r/
Some accents of English are described as rhotic / ´rәutik/, which means that when the
letter r appears in the written word after a vowel (as in car or carve), the /r/ phoneme is used in
the pronunciation of the word (as in /ka:r/ and /ka:rv/. Examples are most dialects of English,
Irish English and certain regional British accents. Other accents are non-rhotic, and do not
pronounce the /r/, so we get /ka:/ and /ka:v/. RP (received pronunciation) is non-rhotic. When,
however, there is a written /r/ at the end of the word and it occurs between two vowel sounds,
speakers with non-rhotic accents often use the phonem /r/ to link the preceding vowel to a
following one:
Ex.
Her English is excellent (/r/ is pronounced)
Her German is absolutely awful, though! (/r/ is not pronounced)
My brother lives in London (/r/ is not pronounced)
My brother always phones at the wrong time (/r/ is pronounced)
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b. Intrusive /r/
When two vowel sounds meet and there is no written letter r, speakers with non-rhotic
accents will still often introduce /r/ phoneme in order to ease the transition. This happens
when the first word ends in /ә/, /a:/, or / ɔ:/. Speakers with rhotic accents tend not to do this:
Ex.
Princess Diana was a victim of media exploitation. / әre/
The media are to blame. (/әra:/)
It‟s a question of law and order (/ ɔ:rәn/)
I saw it happen. (ɔ:rI)
Some speakers also let an /r/ intrude within words like drawing (pronouncing it as
/drɔ:riŋ/
Linking /j/
When a word ends in /i:/, or a diphthong which finishes with /I/, speakers often
introduces a /j/ to ease the transition to a following vowel sound:
Ex:
I agree, wholeheartedly. /aIjә/
I think therefore I am (Descartes) /aIjæm/
I am, therefore I ought to be. (G. Kelly) / aIjæm, aj ɔ:t/
They are, aren‟t they? (δeIja: ra:nt/
Linking /w/: When a vowel ends in /u:/, or a diphthong which finishes with /u/, speakers often
introduces a /w/ to ease the transition to a following sounds:
Ex: Go on! Go in! /gәuwɔn/ / gәuwin/
Are you inside, or are you outside /ju:win/ /ju:waut/
Who is? /hu:wIz/
You are /ju: wa:/
6. Juncture
Read aloud these pairs of sentences
1. The clock keeps ticking / the kids keep sticking on the wall
2. That‟s my train / it might rain.
3. The great apes / the grey tapes.
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4. Can I have some more ice? / Can I have some more rice?
7. Contraction
I am into I‟m / I am not into I‟m not, etc.
8. Should we teach these aspects of connected speech?
In the same way that working on sentence stress and intonation can help students to
better understand spoken English, so can working on the other features of connected speech. In
many cases, the simple awareness of their existence can help enormously in enabling students
to better understand the language they hear. In so saying, the question for this section is
answered or Is it? There are two further questions that arise. Firstly, how far should we actively
encourage and indeed train students to produce these features of connected speech, and
secondly, should we give the different features equal weight in teaching?
Over recent years there have been significantly different views expressed on whether to
attempt to teach a productive ability in areas such as assimilation and elision. Some take the
view that these areas should not be taught because to expect their successful production in
students‟ speech is asking too much. Other commentators take the view that simply
exposing students to the features of connected speech is enough in itself since students will
then naturally and without prompting incorporate them into their own speech. If the latter view
is true then it will be more likely to occur when the same features occur in the students‟ L1 (as
can be the case of assimilation, for example.)
Others also say that these features should be ignored because if students do not
produce them, this will not have a damaging effect on the intelligibility of what they say, or
because such features will sound out of place in speech that is not entirely fluent. A further
reason that has been expressed is that students see such forms as not “correct” and will be
unwilling to overcome their reluctance to use them as a result. Indeed some commentators
take the view that a student is right to be reluctant as they see features of connected speech as
simply signs of laziness and lack of education, and feel that they should be discouraged among
native speakers, let alone being taught to students.
The reverse set of views is that these features of connected speech should be taught to
students and encouraged in their production, particularly in the case of young children, who
tend to be excellent mimics (bắt chước) of new language, and better able to adopt unfamiliar
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pronunciation patterns. Others assert that adult learners should be trained in a productive
capacity in these features of connected speech, since not to do so will leave students
sounding overtly formal and somewhat stilted (Khoa trương) in their speech.
Overall the most common feeling seems to be that some of the features of connected
speech are worth working on for productive use and others rather less so. It is possible to gauge
which features are generally considered more worthy of attention, and which less, from a
review of what items generally receive attention in course books (and supplementary materials
and which do not.)
 Contractions (and to some degree weak forms) are often addressed in published
materials; these features seem to be readily accepted as standard teaching points, and
useful aspects of language to focus on.
 Linking sounds and intrusive sounds are also focused on in materials but to a lesser
degree than contraction.
 Assimilation is also dealt with, but usually in relation to very specific examples like
don‟t you? Didn‟t you? Both with resulting in /t∫/
 Elision is also taught in the coursebooks, but again largely through very specific
examples like Do you live in London?, where do you live? Both with a resulting in /d /.
Other examples of elision (and indeed assimilation are not easy to find.)
Contractions are probably given the greatest amount of attention of all the features of
connected speech because they are represented differently in writing from full forms (aren‟t
versus are not, for example). Since contractions are easy to represent in a written form, and as
students have to develop a written competence in them, they might as well develop a spoken
one as well.
The other features of connected speech have no conventionally written forms, so what
other measures can we use to decide their value to students as productive tools? The degree to
which they contribute to “intelligibility” is possible measure of their value. However, it is true
to say that students who do not use these features but whose English is otherwise clear and
correct are likely to be perfectly intelligible. An alternative measure is the issue of
“naturalness” of speech. It seems to be the case that native speakers tend not to notice features
of connected speech when they are used, but do notice when they are not. Speech without the
72
use of contractions can sound rather over formal in certain situations and indeed at times
unfriendly. Certain features have become standadised within words so that it sounds odd if an
established assimilation and elision is not used; for example, people who pronounce sandwich
as /sændwit∫/ are in the minority, and the absence of any /t/ in words like castle and whistle is
expected. With regard to word boundary, on the other hand, we are unlikely to consider the full
realization of /d/ in good concert as “wrong”, for example, just as we are unlikely to pay
much attention to its assimilation to /g/.
Finally, there is the measure of “relevance‟. Is the productive capacity in the faintness of
connected speech relevant to the students‟ needs and personal pronunciation targets? These are
determined usually by the environment in which the students use their language outside the
classroom. A student who lives and/or works in a relatively informal English-speaking
environment is more likely to come across these features and to benefit from working on
them both receptively and productively. A further aspect to relevance is how relevant the
features of connected speech are to the particular language item being dealt with in a lesson.
This is important when it comes to thinking about the full integration of pronunciation into
language teaching.
Ultimately, every teacher has to make their own judgements based on above criteria, of
how much attention to give to the various features of connected speech. But to return in a way
to the original point in this section, attempting to teach a productive competence in connected
speech, however successful this turns out to be, is a very good way of enhancing students‟
understanding of fast and fluent connected speech.
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THEORY
1. Present shortly about assimilation, types of assimilation and illustrative examples for each
type of assimilation in “aspects of connected speech.”
2. Present shortly about intrusion and some illustrative examples for the intrusion in “aspects of
connected speech.”
3. Present shortly about elision and some illustrative examples for the intrusion in “aspects of
4. Present shortly about juncture and some illustrative examples for the intrusion in “aspects of
5. Present shortly about linking sounds and some illustrative examples for the intrusion in
“aspects of connected speech.”
Practical Exercises
Exercise 1: Decide what the assimilations are in the following sentences
00. example: It‟s in that box.
The /t/ at the end of that assimilates to /p/
Explanation: Why not changing into /b/: That is /t/ belongs to voiceless alveolar, so /t/ has to be
changed into /p/: voiceless bilabial (see: The chart of consonant)
1. There are eleven players in a soccer team.
2. Can you see that kid over there?
3. There are ten cups on the table.
4. I‟m going to give up smoking this year.
Exercise 2: Decide what the elisions are in the following sentences
00. Example: We finally arrived the next day. /nekst/ becomes /neks/
1. This is Everton‟s last chance to win the league.
2. We had a cold lunch in a small bar.
3. If you visit Britain, you must try some fish and chips.
4. Her mum always served sherry on Christmas morning.
Exercise 3: Decide which sound intrudes or links sounds in the following sentences.
1. It was an important media event /r/ intrudes between
2. You can park the car over there.
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3. Trevor‟s weird. He eats raw onion for breakfast.

4. He was way over the speed limit.
5. Did you go out on New Year‟s Eve?
Exercise 4: Write the transcription for the following words, paying special attention to the
elision. Write the two ways of pronunciations if possible.
1. Carefully. 9. I used to
2. Dictation 10. I want to
3. History 11. Blind man
4. Factory 12. Kind nurse
5. Family 13. Last month
6. Easily 14. I must go
7. University 15. Next door
8. Just now 16. Give me some more
The same with
1. awfully
2. medicine
3. comfortable
4. reasonable
5. every
6. several
7. natural
8. national
9. perhaps
Exercise 5: Write the transcriptions for these phrases, paying attention to the linking
sounds.
1. This is 5. There is
2. Thank you 6. After all
3. That is 7. For us
4. Get up 8. In a minute
9. An old worker 10. Political affair
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11. A man of forty 12. Go all out

13. Next year 14. This ship
15. Last year 16. Nice shoes
17. The first-year students 18. Won‟t you?
19. I‟m glad to meet you 20. Did you like it?
21. There are four chickens in the courtyard
22. Don‟t miss your train
23. He has to go
24. Would you come along?
25. Come in/work out/read it again/all of us/one of them/in an hour/in our class/put it off/look
at it/pick it up/take it away/leave it alone/put it off/get it in/a bottle of ink/all over the world/a
map of China/sing us a song once a week/have a rest/take a seat/above all/after all/for
ever/more over/far away/far and wide/here and there/there is/there are/later on/for example/for
instance/more or less/sooner or later/a pair of shoes/wait for us.
Exercise 6:
Divide the following sentences up into feet using the !as a boundary symbol. If a sentence
starts with an unstressed syllable, leave it out of consideration- it does not belong to the
foot.
1. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush
2. Over a quarter in a century has elapsed since his death.
3. Computers consume a considerable amount of money and time.
4. Most of them have arrived on the bus.
5. Newspaper editors are invariably underworked
Exercise 7: Try to draw treediagrams of the rhythmical structure of the following
phrases.
1. Christmas present
2. Rolls Royce
3. Pet food dealer
4. Rolls-Royce rally event.
THE END OF CHAPTER 4
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Chapter 5 INTONATION
1. Intonation is the rise and fall of voice or changing the pitch of voice: high voice,
medium and low.
2. Intonation is closely connected with stress.
3. There are different ways to mark intonation.
4. Symbols used in describing intonation
Intonation marking: (dấu ngữ điệu)
‫׀‬stressed mark
↓: Falling mark
↑: Rising mark
 Some points to remember about tone and their functions
1. THE STRUCTURE OF A TONE UNIT:
• One function of tonic stress is to show the most important item of information in an
utterance.
• There are several different tones and each can have specific meanings:
Falling
Definitely: It won‟t hurt
Questioning: It won‟t hurt

Rising
Questioning: It won‟t hurt

Falling-Rising
2. Tone unit: (prehead) + head + Tonic syllable + (tail)

 Prehead (PH): Unstressed syllables before the 1st stressed syllable; Gồm âm tiết không
nhấn trước âm tiết được nhấn
 H: Extends from the first stressed syllable up to (but not including) the tonic syllable:
Mở rộng từ âm tiết nhấn đầu tiên cho đến hết nhưng không bao gồm âm tiết chứa ngữ
điệu
 TS: Main stressed syllable on which the movement begins: âm tiết nhấn chính trên đó cử
động của ngữ điệu bắt đầu.
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 T: all stressed and unstressed syllables after TS: Gồm tất cả các âm tiết nhấn và không
nhấn nằm sau âm tiết chứa ngữ điệu.
Examples:
Notice that statement & wh-questions have falling intonation & “yes-no” questions have rising
one.
The ´birds are ´singing on the \tree branches
PH H TS T
´When did the áccident \happen?
H TS T
´Does she ´like /cof fee?
H TS T
Note: \: Falling intonation v.s. /: Rising intonation
3. Types and Functions of Intonations
Some types of intonations can be found in English and have the functions as follows:
3.1. ↓ Falling intonation:
 Used for Information Questions with Question Words such as: Who, what, where, etc.
 Used for Statements
 Used for Imperatives
 Used for tag questions expecting confirmation
Examples:
Information Questions
 What‟s your name?↓
 What‟s the time?↓
 Where do you live?↓
Statements
 He lives in the house on the corner↓
 It‟s over there↓
Imperatives
 Sit down↓
 Put it on the table ↓
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Tag Questions
 You‟re French, aren‟t you? ↓
 He‟s tall, isn‟t he? ↓
3.2. ↑ Rising Intonation: Use for
 “Yes/No question”
 “Tag-questions” used for tag questions showing less certainty
Examples
“Yes-No” Questions
 Is it the blue one? ↑
 Have you got a pen? ↑
Tag-questions
 You‟re French, aren‟t you? ↑
 Your train leaves at six, doesn‟t it? ↑
3.3. ↑↑↓Rising, rising and finally falling: Used for lists of the items.
Examples
 You need a ↑pen, a ↑pencil, and some papers ↓
 The stall sells ↑ribbon, ↑beads, ↑elastic and buttons ↓
In details:
* Fall ↓Yes ↓ No
This is the tone about which least needs to be said and which is usually regarded as more or
less neutral. If someone is asked a question, and replies ↓yes or ↓ no it will be understood that
the question is now answered and that there is nothing more to be said. The fall could be said
to give an impression of finality (Chấm dứt cuộc đàm thoại).
* Rise ↑ Yes ↑ No
In a variety of ways, this tone conveys an impression that something more is to follow
(nhiếu thứ khác ẩn ý theo sau); a typical occurrence in a dialogue between two speakers
whom we shall call A and B might be the following:
A: (wishing to attract B‟s attention): Excuse me!
B: ↑ yes? (B‟s reply is, perhaps, equivalent to “What do you want?)
Another common occurrence would be:
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A: Do you know John Smith?

B: ↑ yes?
 B‟s reply may be explained in the sense that he invites A to continue with what she
intends to say about John Smith after establishing that B knows him. To reply instead
↓yes would give a feeling of finality or the end of the conversation.
We can see similar invitation to continue in someone‟s response to a series of instructions of
direction. For example:
A: You start off on the ring road …..
B: ↑Yes? (tôi vẫn đang lắng nghe/ to show he/she engages in the conversation)
A: Turn left at the first roundabout …
B: ↑ yes?
A: And ours is the third house on the left
Whatever B replies to this last utterance of A, it would be most unlikely to be /yes again since
A has clearly finished her instruction and it could be pointless to prompt her to continue.
3.3. Fall-rise v yes, v no
The fall-rise used in a lot in English and has rather special functions. In the present context we
will only consider one fairly simple, which could perhaps be described as limited agreement
or response with reservations (phản hồi với sự dè dặt). Example may make it clear:
A: I heard that it is a good school.
B: v yes.
 B‟s reply would be taken to mean that he would not completely agree with what A said,
and A would probably expect B to go on to explain why he was reluctant to agree.
Similarly:
A: It is really an expensive record, isn‟t it?
B: v no
 The fall rise in B‟s reply again indicates that he would not completely agree with A.
Fall-rise in such contexts almost always indicate both something “given” or “conceded-
thừa nhận” and at the same time some “reservation” or “hesitation: do dự”.
3.4. Rise-fall ~yes ~ no
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 This is used to convey rather strong feelings of approval, disapproval or surprise. It

is not usually considered to be an important tone for foreign learners to acquire, though
it is useful to practice learning to distinguish it from other tone. Here are some
examples.
A: You wouldn‟t do an awful thing like that, would you?
B: ~ No
A: Isn‟t the view lovely?
B: ~ Yes
A: I think you said it was the best so far.
B: ~ Yes
INTONATION IN CONTEXT
 OPEN QUESTION & CHECK QUESTION
We pronounce an open question differently from a check question. An open question is where
we ask for information we didn’t have before, and the voice usually goes down at the end.
A check question (câu hỏi kiểm tra lại thông tin) is where we make sure that the information
we have is correct. The voice usually goes up at the end. Listen to the examples in this
conversation.
A: What‟s your name?↓ (Open Question)
B: Sonia.
A: And where were you born?↓ (Open Question)
B: Surinam.
A: Is that in South America?↑ (check Question)
B: Yes, that‟s right.
A: And how long have you lived here?↓ (Open Question)
B: Five years.
A: I see. Are you married?↓ (Open Question)
B: No, I am not.
A: And what do you do?↓ (Open Question)
B: I am a boxer.
A: You‟re a boxer?↑ (Check Question)
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 OLD INFORMATION & NEW INFORMATION

In conversation we often refer back to something we said before. This is old information,
and the voice normally goes up at the end. We also tell the listeners things we haven’t
mentioned before. This is new information, and the voice normally goes down at the end.
Listen.
In conversation 1 below, the voice goes up at then end, because the last word “tomorrow” has
already been mentioned. In conversation 2, the voice goes down, because the last word
“tomorrow” has not been mentioned.
1. A: I‟ll come in tomorrow
B: We‟re closed tomorrow↓
2. A: When are you closed?
B: We‟re closed tomorrow↑
Listen to this example. They are talking about buying a television. Notice how the voice goes
up on the words in bold (ngữ điệu đi lên tại từ in đậm vì đây là thông tin cũ). This is because
these are words which have been mentioned before, so they are old information.
A: Let‟s get the Viewmaster. It‟s really nice.
B: But the Megavision is nicer.
A: But the viewmaster has guarantee.
B: They both have the guarantee.
A: Anyway, the Megavision is too expensive.
B: I know it‟s expensive, but it‟s better quality.
A: They‟re both good quality.
B: The Megavision has access to the internet.
A: We have access to the internet on the computer
THE END OF THE THEORETICAL SESSIONS!
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THEORY
1. Present shortly about intonation, some types of intonation contours normally found in
English and illustrative examples for each type of intonation.
2. What do you understand about open question, check question, old information and new
information in intonation contours? Design a short dialogue between two conversational
participants to illustrate your presentation; remember to give each of your given dialogue an
appropriate intonation marking.
PRACTICAL EXERCISES
1. Look at the symbols marked by /(rising intonation) and \ (falling intonation) and
explain what it means in the following specific situation.
1. A: Have you seen Ann?
B: ֻNo
2. A: Have you seen Ann?/B: ֻno
3. A: Do you know what the longest balloon flight was?/B:ֻ No/B: ֻNo
Answer 1
 [1&2] If B replies \NO, he implies quite clearly that he has no interest in continuing with
that topic of conversation. But a reply of / NO would be an invitation to A to explain
why she is looking for Ann, or why she does not know where she is.
 [3] If B replies ֻ/ NO he is inviting A to tell him, while a response of ֻNo could be
taken to mean that he does not know and is not expecting to be told. This is in fact a
common cause of misunderstanding in English conversation, when a question on such
A‟s above might be a request for information or an offer to provide some.
INTONATION EXERCISES
1. Write the symbols for the tone units for these following utterances in terms of PH, H,
TS and T
1. Would you like some more milk?
2. Only when the wind blows
3. When did you say?
4. What was the name of the place?
5. Which was the cheap one did you say?
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6. I only want to taste it.

7. The monkeys mocked at the audiences.
8. It was raining heavily.
9. What are the children playing?
10. Did the book interest you?
2. Write the intonation markings for the following sentences.
1. You must take him home.
2. I supposed it couldn‟t happen again.
3. They had dinner at the restaurant and then went to a show.
4. Where have you put it?
5. Get on with your dinner.
6. Don‟t forget to send me a postcard.
7. Remember to lock the car door.
8. Why didn‟t she come to my wedding party?
9. The man didn‟t keep his promise.
10. My father works in the big factory.
11. Did you have a good holiday?
12. Must you go now?
13. That‟s right.
14. Please sit down.
15. Shall we have to meet again?
16. Are they going to have a meeting?
17. Stay here for lunch.
18. If you like, I‟ll send the car for you.
19. I prefer red if you‟ve got it.
20. You are wondering who I am, aren‟t you? (falling)
21. You can drive a car, can‟t you?
22. Before I went to school, I had had dinner.
3. In the following sentences and bits of dialogue, each underlined syllable must be given
an appropriate tone mark. Write a tone mark just in front of each of the syllables.
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1. This train is for Leeds, York, Darlington and Durham

2. Can you give me a lift?
Possibly where to?
3. No certainly not! go away!
4. Did you know he had been convicted of (Bị kết tội) drunken driving?
No!
5. If I gave him money, he goes and spends it.
If I lend him the bike he loses it
He‟s completely unreliable
4. For each word, phrase and/or sentence as printed below, please give the two intonation
transcripted to show the contrasting meanings (ý nghĩa tương phản). Then explain what
they mean.
a. Yes. d. I think so
b. Here e. I beg your pardon
c. Stand up
85
Chapter 6 WEAK FORMS

Introduction:
In this lesson, we will consider some certain words that can be pronounced in two different
ways, which are called strong forms and weak forms. As an example, the word “that” can be
pronounced as δæt for strong form and δәt for weak form. The sentence “I like that” is
pronounced [ai laik δæt] (strong form); the sentence “I hope that she will” is pronounced / δәt/
(weak form). There are roughly forty such words in English. It is possible to use only strong
forms in speaking, and some foreigners do it. Usually they can be understood by other speakers
of English, so why is it so important to learn how weak forms they are used? There are two
main reasons; firstly, most native speakers of English find “all strong form” pronunciation
unnatural and foreign-sounding, something that most learners would wish to avoid. Secondly,
and more importantly, speakers who are not familiar with the use of weak forms are likely to
have difficulties understanding speakers who do use weak forms; since practically all native
speakers of British English use them, learners of the language need to learn about these weak
forms to help them to understand what they hear.
We must distinguish between weak forms and contracted forms. Certain English words are
shortened so severely (usually to a single phoneme) and so consistently that they are presented
differently in formal writing, e.g. it‟s, we‟ve, don‟t.
Almost all the words which have both a strong form and a weak form belong to a category
that may be called function words-words that do not have a dictionary meaning in the way that
we normally expect nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs. These function words are words
such as auxiliaries, prepositions, conjunctions, and etc., all of which are in certain contexts
where only the strong forms are acceptable, and others where the weak forms are normal
pronunciation. To repeat the table used in the preceding chapters.
Grammatical Word Full Form Weak Form Example of Weak
category Form
Verbs am æm m That‟s what I‟m
trying to say
are a: ә Where are you from?
is Iz әz z s Where‟s he from?/
Where is he from?
was w ɒz wәz That‟s where he was
86
born
were w З: wә That‟s where my
children were born?
do du: dә Where do you live?
does dɅz dәz Where does he live?
have hæv әv/v He will have left by
now/They‟ve gone
has hæz hәz/әz/z/s The baby has
swallowed a
stone/he‟s gone
had hæd hәd/әd/d He had already gone
can kæn kәn I‟m not sure if I can
lend it to you.
could kud kәd Well, what could I
say?
would wud wәd/әd Well, what would
you have done?
should ∫ud ∫әd / ∫d Well, what should I
have said?
Pronoun you ju: jә How do you do?
your jɔ: jә What does your boss
think?
he hi: hI / I Where does he work?
him him Im /әm I‟ll give it to him
later
she ∫i: ∫I She‟s leaving
tomorrow
her hЗ: ә I‟ll give it to her later
us Ʌs әs They‟ll give it to us
later
Them δem δәm I‟ll give it to them
later
Preposition To tu: tә He‟s already gone to
work
at æt әt He‟s at work, I think
of ɒv әv That‟s the last of the
wine
for fɔ: fә He‟s away for two
weeks
87
from frɒm frәm She‟s come from

Scotland
Conjunctions and ænd әnd/әn She‟s tall and fair
but bɅt bәt She‟s here by Juan
isn‟t
than δæn δәn She‟s older than you
Article a eI ә He‟s a doctor
an æn әn She‟s an architect
the δi: δә She‟s the person I
told you about
Indefite adjectives any eni: әni:/ni: Have we got any
biscuits?
some sɅm sәm There‟s some tea in
the pot
Such sɅt∫ sәt∫ It‟s not such a big
deal, really.
In the following cases, the most common weak-form words will be used.
1. “The”
Weak form: [δә] (before consonants): Shut the door [´∫Ʌt δ ә ´d ɔ:r]
[δI] (before vowels): Wait for the end [wéIt fɔ δI eńd]
2. “A”, “An”
Weak forms: [ә]: (before consonants): Read a book [rí:d ә bú:k]
[әn]: (before vowels): Eat an apple [i´:tәn æ´pl]
3. And
Weak form: [әn] (sometimes n after t, d, s, z)
Come and see [kɅ´m әn sí:]
Fish and chips [fI´∫ n t∫Íp]s]
4. But
Weak forms: [bәt]: It‟s good but expensive [Its gu´d bәt Iks pénsive]
5. That (This word only have a weak form when used in a relative clause; when used with
demonstrative sense, it is always pronounced in its strong forms)
Weak form: That [δәt ]: The price is the thing that annoys me [δә praÍs Iz δә ´θIŋ δәt әńɔIz mI]
6. Than
Weak form: than [δәn]: Better than ever. [be´tә δәn e´vә]
88
7. His (when it occurs before a noun)

Weak form: [Iz] (his at the beginning of a sentence)
Take his name [teÍk Iz neÍm]
Another sense of his as “it was his”, “his was late” always have strong forms.
8. Her (when used with possessive case, preceding a noun; as an object pronoun, this can also
occur at the end of the sentence)
Weak forms: [ә] [ before a consonant] Take her home [teÍk ә hәúm]
[әr] [before a vowel] take her out [teÍk әr aút]
9. Your
Weak form: [jә] [before consonants]: Take your time [teÍk jә taÍm]
[jәr] [before vowels]: On your own [ɒn jәr әún]
10. She, we, he, you
She: [∫I] Why did she say this? [wáI dId ∫I rí:d It]
Who is she? [´wu: Iz ∫I]
He: [I] (The weak form is usually pronounced without h except at the beginning of the
sentence]
Which did he choose? [wÍt∫ dId I t∫ú:z]
He was late, isn‟t he? [I wәz le´ It, wɒ´znt I]
We: [wI] How can we get there? [haú kәn wI ge´t δeә]
We need that, don‟t we? [wI ni:d δæt dәunt wI]
You: ju: What do you think? [wat dә ju δiŋk]
11. “him”
Weak form: [I] Leave him alone [li:v Im әlәun]
I‟ve seen him [aIv si:n Im]
12. Her [ә], [hә, when sentence-initial]
Ask her to come [á:sk ә tә k´Ʌm]
I‟ve met her [aIv me´t ә]
13. Them [δәm]: Leave them here. [´li:v δәm h´ Iә]
14. Us [әs]: Write us a letter [ráIt әs ә létә]
15. At
89
[әt] “I‟ll see you at lunch” [aIl sí: ju әt l´Ʌnt∫]

In final position [æ]: What‟s he shooting at? [´wɒts I ∫u´tIŋ æt]
16. For
Weak Form: [fә] (before consonants): Tea for two [´ti: fә tú:]
fәr (before vowels): Thanks for asking [θ´æŋks fәr æ´skIŋ]
[fɔ] (in final position): What‟s she for? [´wots ∫I fɒ]
17. From
Weak form: [frәm]: I am home from work. [aIm hәúm frәm w´З:k]
In final position: [frɔm]: here‟s where it comes from [´hIәz wéәr It k´Ʌmz frɔm]
18. Of
[әv] Most of all [mәúst әv δәm]
In final position [ɒv] Someone I‟ve heard of [sɅmw´Ʌn aIv h´З:d ɒv]
19. To
[tә] Try to stop [t´raI tә s´tɒp]
[tu] before vowel: Time to eat [taÍm tu í:t]
In final position [tu]: I don‟t want to [aI dәúnt w´ɒnt tu]
20. As
Weak form [әz]: As much as possible [әz m´Ʌt∫ әz p´ɒsIbl]
In final position [æz]: That‟s what it was sold at. [δ´æts w´ɒt It wәz s´әuld æz]
21. Some
[sɅm]: I think some animals broke it [aI θÍŋk sɅm æńIml br´әuk It]
[Sәm]: Have some more tea [h´æv sәm mɔ: tí:]
22. Do/does
Weak forms: [dә] (before consonants)
Why do they like it? [wáI dә δeI laÍk It]
[du] (before vowels)
Why do all the cars stop? [wáI du ɒl δә ká:z st´ɒp]
[dәz]: When does it arrive? [wén dәz It әráI:v]
In final position: [du:] [dɅz]
We don‟t smoke but some people do [wI dәúnt sm´әuk, bɅt sɅm pí:pl dú:]
90
I think John does [aI θIŋk dʒәun dɅz]

23. am, are, was, were.
Weak forms: [әm]: Why am I here? [wáI әm aI hI´ә]
[ә] (before the consonants): here are the plates [hI´әr ә δә pléIt]
[Әr] (before vowels): The coats are in there [δә kәúts әr iIn δéә]
[wәz]: He was here a minutes ago.
[wә] (before consonants): The papers were late. [δә peÍpә wә leÍt]
[wәr] (before vowels): The questions were easy [δә kwe´st∫әn wәr i´:zI]
In Final position: æm, a:, wɒz, wз:
She is not as old as I am [∫I Iz nɒt әz әúld әz aI æm]
I know the Smiths are [aI kn´әu δә smÍθs a:]
The last records were [δә lá:st rékɔ:dz wɒz]
They weren‟t as cold as we were [δeI wЗ:nt әz kәúld әz wi: wз:]
THE END OF THE THEORETICAL SESSIONS!
91
EXERCISES ON THE WEAK FORMS

Exercise 1
Write the transcription for the following sentences, paying attention to the weak form
words (p.109)-English Phonetics and Phonology
1. I want her to park that car over there.
2. Of all the proposals, the one that you made is the silliest.
3. Jane and Bill could have driven them to and from the party.
4. To come to the point, what shall we do for the rest of the week?
5. Has anyone got an idea where it came from?
6. Pedestrians must always use the crossings provided for them.
7. Each one was a perfect example of the art that had been developed there.
8. There it is.
9. Put it there.
10. There should be a rule.
11. There is
12. There isn‟t any, is there?
13. They can wait.
14. I think we can.
15. Most of them could.
16. Which have you seen?
17. Which has been best?
18. Most had gone home.
19. Ye, we have.
20. I think she has.
21. I thought we had.
22. We shall need to hurry.
23. I should forget it.
24. I think we shall.
25. So you should.
92
Exercise 2: Write the phonemic transcription of the underlined words as they are
pronounced
1. What am I doing?
2. Yes, I am.
3. Those shoes are lovely!
4. Yes, they are.
5. I‟ll see you at the party.
6. What are you looking at?
7. I can swim faster than you!
8. Oh, yes I can!
Exercise 3
Write a phonemic transcription for the following weak-form words. Then give an
illustrative sentence which manifests this weak-form
1. Some
2. Can/could.
3. Have/has/had
4. Must
5. Do, does
THE END OF THE CHAPTER 6
93
CHAPTER 7: REVISION
THEORY
1. Draw a diagram to describe in detail the main features of pronunciation.
4. Give a summary of the Vowel Chart including diphthongs.
5. Name three stress placements in the addition of suffixes to the root words. Give
illustrative examples for your presentation
6. Make a distinction between content words and functions in stress placement.
7. Present shortly about assimilation, types of assimilation and illustrative examples for
each type of assimilation in “aspects of connected speech.”
8. Present shortly about intrusion and some illustrative examples for the intrusion in
“aspects of connected speech.”
9. Present shortly about intonation, some types of intonation contours normally found in
English and illustrative examples for each type of intonation.
10. What do you understand about open question, check question, old information and new
information in intonation contours? Design a short dialogue between two conversational
participants to illustrate your presentation; remember to give each of your given
dialogue an appropriate intonation marking.
EXERCISES
1. Write down the phonetic symbols representing the following descriptions, and
illustrate each of the sounds with two English words
f. A voiced labiodental fricative f. A high front tense unrounded vowel
g. A voiceless alveolar fricative g. A low back tense rounded vowel
h. A voiced bilabial semi-vowel h. A mid central tense unrounded vowel
i. A voiced bilabial nasal i. A mid front lax unrounded vowel
j. A voiced velar nasal j. A high back lax rounded vowel
k. Low front vowel l. Long high back vowel
94
2. Give the phonetic symbols for the underlined sounds in the following words; then give
the articulatory description for each of these sounds
1. City 2. Physics 3. Pneumonia 4. Bomb
5. Cake 6. Shoot 7. What 8. Thick
9. That 10. English 11. Choice 12. Relax
13. Dogs 14. Log 15. Gauge 16. Iz
3. All the words and expressions in each group has the same number of syllables. Circle
the one with stress in a different place.
a. Saturday Holiday Tomorrow Yesterday
b. Morning Fifty Fifteen August
c. He told me I like it She finished Close the door
d. Go to bed Don‟t worry! What‟s the time? Fish and chips
e. Table Tourist Tunnel Today
f. Mistake Famous Become Remove
g. Playground Shoe shop First class handbag
h. Economics Economy Education Scientific
i. It isn‟t true I‟ll see you soon No, it isn‟t He‟s not at home
4. Add the consonant sound to the word to make another word
a. /k/ + aim = e. /s/ + eyes =
b. /k/ + ache = f. /h/ + eye =
c. /l/ + eight = g. /b/ + air =
d. /r/ + owes = h. /b/ + earn =
5. Circle the word if one of the consonant letters is not pronounced
a. Lamb Label Cable Cab
b. Recipe Repeat Receipt Rope
c. Listen Winter Eaten After
d. Hour Hate Home Hill
e. Old Pile Half Help
f. Cold Calm Color Film
g. Hurry Hairy Hungry Here
95
6. Which word has a different number of syllables from the others? Circle it
a. Likes Wants Talks Washes
b. Wanted Walked Saved Brushed
c. Chicken Chocolate Afternoon Different
d. About Around Asleep Asked
e. Fourteen Forty Fortieth Hundred
f. Builds Rebuilt Builder Building
g. Supermarket Waterfall Holiday Hairdresser
h. School Texts Over Sports
7. Circle the words that begin with
a. A bilabial consonant: mat, gnat, sat, bat, rat, pat
b. A velar consonant: knot, got, cut, hot, pot
c. A labio-dental consonant: fat, cat, that, mat, chat, vat
d. An alveolar consonant: zip, nip, lip, sip, tip, dip.
e. An alveolar-palatal consonant: sign, shy, tie, thigh, thy
8. Decide what the assimilation, elisions, linking or intrusions applied in these following
sentences. (2 points)
a. It‟s in that box.
b. We finally arrived in the next day.
c. It was an important media event.
d. If you visit Britain, you must try some fish and chip.
e. I am going to give up smoking this year.
f. I saw it happen.
g. Teacher use authentic texts to teach from.
h. Her English is excellent.
9. Write the phonemic transcription of the underlined words as they are pronounced
a. What am I doing?
b. Yes, I am.
c. I‟ll see you at the party.
d. What are you looking at?
96
e. I can swim faster than you!

f. Oh, yes I can!
g. Those shoes are lovely!
h. Yes, they are.
10. What two words you get if you move the consonant from the end of one word to the
beginning of the next and vice versa Complete the table. Remember: think about the sound,
not spelling.
a. _______able → fell table b. known you → no _______
c. cooks _______ → cook steak d. seen you → ______ new
e. faced _______ → face told f. an ocean → a ______
g. stop _______ → stopped earning h. escaped error → escape ______
i. _______ cheer → meant year j. learn chess → ______ “yes”
97
CHAPTER 8: SAMPLE TESTS

TEST 1
1. Draw the English consonant sound chart classified according to its four major
degrees/standards (1 point).
2. Name three stress placements in the addition of suffixes to the root words. Give
illustrative examples for your presentation. (1 point)
3. Present your understanding about assimilation in terms of definition, types of
assimilation and illustrative examples. (1 point)
4. Present your understanding about intonation, some types of intonation contours
normally found in English and illustrative examples for each type of intonation (1 point)
5. Add the consonant sound to the word to make another word (1 point)
a. /k/ + aim = e. /s/ + eyes =
b. /k/ + ache = f. /h/ + eye =
c. /l/ + eight = g. /b/ + air =
d. /r/ + owes = h. /h/ + earn =
6. Circle the words that begin with: (1point)
a. A bilabial consonant: mat, gnat, sat, bat, rat, pat
b. A velar consonant: knot, got, cut, hot, pot
c. A labio-dental consonant: fat, cat, that, mat, chat, vat
d. An alveolar-palatal consonant: sign, shy, tie, thigh, thy
7. Write the possible words and possible sounds for the underlined words and/or
phrases below (1 point)
a. You taught yourself French
b. I‟m not sure I‟d agreed with you.
c. It‟s starting to ache.
d. The sun came up over the mountain.
8. For each of the following words and/or sentences, provide a short dialogue
between two conversational participants with the different intonation markings
either rising or falling. Interpret the meanings of these intonation markings in
the light of the situations you provide (1 point)
98
a. Yes d. I think so
9. Write the intonation markings for the words and/or phrases in bold and explain
reasons for your choice of this intonation marking (1 point)
a. A: Where‟s the deadline for the new building project?
B: The deadline? I think it‟s next Thursday.
b. A: Why do these prices fluctuate?
B: Changes in the exchange rate cause this variation.
10. Write the phonemic transcription of the underlined words as they are
pronounced (1 point)
i. What am I doing?
j. Yes, I am.
k. I‟ll see you at the party.
l. What are you looking at?
_________________ THE END _________________
99
TEST 2
degrees/standards as introduced and explained in your English phonetic class. (1 point)
degrees/standards as introduced and explained in your English phonetic class. (2 points)
3. Write down the phonetic symbols representing the following descriptions, and illustrate
each of the sounds with two English words. (1 points)
a. A voiced labiodental fricative f. A high front tense unrounded vowel
b. A voiceless alveolar fricative g. A low back tense rounded vowel
c. A voiced bilabial semi-vowel h. A mid central tense unrounded vowel
d. A voiced bilabial nasal i. A mid front lax unrounded vowel
e. A voiced velar nasal j. A high back lax rounded vowel
4. Number the words with the appropriate stress patterns (1-7) (1 point)
1 OO 2 OO 3 OOO 4 OOO 5 OOO
6 OOO 7 OOOOO
Student Essential Pronounce Import (verb)
Understand Computer Introduce Accurate
Surrounding Persevere Rebel (noun) Analyze
Rebel (verb) Learner Including Cassette
Don‟t forget What‟s your name? That‟s the man That could be the man
5. Write the phonetic transcriptions for these phrases and sentences, paying special attention to
the aspects of connected speeches and the weak forms (2 points).
a. This ship.
b. The first-year student.
c. Won‟t you?
d. Would you come along?
e. Potato.
f. Lots of them.
g. Waste of money.
h. I want her to park that car over there.
100
i. Of all the proposals, the one that you made was the silliest.
j. I‟ll ask her.
6. In the following sentences and bits of dialogue, each underlined syllable must be given an
appropriate tone mark. Write a tone mark just in front of each of the syllables. Please
explain the reasons why you put the intonation markings like that. (1 point)
a. This train is for Leeds, York, Darlington and Durham.
b. If I gave him money, he goes and spends it. If I lend him the bike he loses it. He‟s
completely unreliable.
c. A: “Have you seen Ann?
B: “No!”
d. I beg your pardon.
e. Yes.
7. Use the rhythm to separate the words and/or phrases in one of the following sentences in
the two different ways and then explain the meanings in your mother tongue according to
the rhythms you separate (2 point)
a. If you want to get something good for nothing, you will get something good for
nothing.
b. It is dangerous for him to drive a car.
c. Tommy Andrew said the teacher is a silly donkey
d. May I stick it on myself?
e. They don‟t know how good meat tastes.
_________________ THE END _________________
THE END OF THE COURSE
101
REFERENCES
1. Avery , P; & EhrLich. (2002, 9th Ed). Teaching American English Pronunciation. Oxford
University Press.
2. Hancock, M. (?). English Pronunciation in Use. Culture & Informatics Publishing House.
3. Kelly, G. (2000). How to Teach Pronunciation. Longman Group.
4. Min, H, & Gordon, A, J. (2009). Essential Phonetics for IELTS. HCMC General
Publishing House.
5. Smith, J; & Margols, A. (2009). Pronunciation: English for Academic Study: University
of Reading‟s Centre for Apllied Language Studies, The University of Reading, and
the Authors.
6. Roach, P. (1998). English Phonetics and Phonology: A Practical Course: Cambridge
University Press.
102

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ENGLISH PHONETICS & PHONOLOGY- A COURSEBOOK

OVERALL DESCRIPTION OF THE COURSE

 Setting Realistic Goals

CHAPTER 1 THE DESCRIPTION OF SPEECH

Voiced Unvoiced Diphthong Single Word Word Stress Sentence Stress

Phonemes (âm vị)

/ә/ About / eә / Where /g/ Got /m/ More

/ З: / Shirt / әu / Go / t∫ / Church /n/ No

/ æ/ Hat /f/ Fan /l/ Live

/Ʌ/ Run /v/ Van /r/ Red

/ɒ / Dog /δ/ The /w/ Wood

The list of Phonemes according to voiced and voiceless

Voiced Vowels ɪ, i:, e, æ, a:, Ʌ, ә, З:, ɒ, u/ʊ, u:, ɔ:

 Why don‟t you read / ri:d / this book?

E. Root Words and Derived Words (Từ gốc và từ phát sinh)

Table 2: “Silent Consonants” (phụ âm câm)

Table 4: Double Consonants (các phụ âm đôi/ kép)

Table 5: Consonant Digraphs/ Other combinations (chữ ghép phụ âm)

SELF-PRONUNCIATION (OVER TO YOU)

A: Did you find bacon and eggs for breakfast strange?

Some common consonants are:

1.1.1. SHORT VOWEL

Ending in ә ending in ɪ ending in u

To know more, please look at the table two below:

EIGHT DIPHTHONG SOUNDS EXAMPLES

A SUMMARY OF ENGLISH VOWEL CHARTS

Front Back End at front End at back

Spread Neutral Rounded Closing Centring Closing

1.4. English Vowel Sound Chart

musician, physician, magician, education, nation,

cứng) cứng) mềm) thanh hầu)

2.3. Parts of the Mouth and Sounds we can make

Lip Soft palate/vela

2.3.1.1. Where are the parts of the mouth?

2.3.1.2. Names of sounds made by bringing parts of the mouth together

June, July and January begin with J.

2.5. Vowel Practice

THE END OF THE THEORETICAL SESSION!

EXERCISES ON VOWEL AND CONSONANT SOUNDS

2. Circle the words that contain

Now do the same with:

3. campus 6. awful 9. possess 12. huge

9. Circle the words that begin with

11. Transcribe [phiên âm] these words and sentences

4. Voiced velar nasal

Exercise 3: Short vowel contracted.

Exercise 6: Long-short vowel contrasts.

THE END OF CHAPTER 2!

a. The unhappy customer may in´sult the manager

b. Suffixes that cause stress to shift:

Two-syllable simple adjectives according to the same rule, giving:

 Peter (O) likes (O) your (O) suggestion (OOO)

Consider the following dialogue.

Speaker A: What did you buy at Creeds? (O O O O O O)

2.1. Present participle/Gerund + Noun

your jɔ: jә What does your boss

THE END OF THE THEORETICAL SESSION!

2. WRITE THE STRESSES FOR THESE WORDS

f. He fed her dog biscuits.