Silver Spoon

Being one of the 7 metals of antiquity, silver has long been valued as a precious metal. As currency, a conductor or as decoration, it has been used by humans since prehistoric times.

And you may recall that we use the word ‘silver’ as our reference point for a particular vowel sound. In primary school they called this sound the ‘short i’ (as opposed to the ‘long i’ that you hear in white). But the sound is not always represented by the letter ‘i’ as in business, build and women.

And to make matters worse, you probably don’t have this sound in your first language, so you have to learn it. So, today I have a special treat for you. I asked my dear friend and colleague, pronunciation expert Peggy Tharpe, to give us some tips on how we can master this sound. Here is what she explains:

The first thing we have to be aware of is that in the place of the silver sound, you are using the ‘green’ sound. Say /Ey/ (the vowel sound in ‘green’). Your tongue moves up diagonally from the bottom of your mouth, coming to touch your bottom teeth. The lips and jaw are tensed. Repeat a few times until you can identify where your tongue is.

From this sound, Peggy takes us to what is called the schwa, or as I like to call it, ‘mustard.’ This sound is easy to make … imagine you arrive home from a long day at work, you plop down on the sofa and you say ‘uh.’ This is the mustard sound. Practice this sound a few times. The lips and jaw are totally relaxed and your tongue rests at the bottom of your mouth.

Now we can try the silver sound. Your jaw and lips are relaxed. Your tongue moves up to touch your top teeth. To help your tongue learn this new trick, try standing in front of a mirror and as you say the first syllable of the word ‘silver’ bring your shoulders up towards your ears. This action is what Peggy calls a ‘Body Buddy:’ a large muscle movement that coaches it’s little brother, the tongue muscle.

Peggy describes the tongue as a rebellious teenager who doesn’t listen to its parents … the brain. Intellectually, you can understand the concept, but the tongue itself resists cooperation. But for some reason, the tongue does listen to a bigger sibling. This is why the Body Buddy will help you.

Peggy’s website is chockfull of pronunciation solutions for speakers of many different languages so I guarantee you’ll find the answers you’re looking for:

Every cloud has a silver lining,

Jennifer

Silver vs. Green

By now you must know that I’m a big fan of sound. I married a music promoter. My whole family either sings or plays a musical instrument (we have guitars, ukuleles, harmonicas, a piano, diverse percussion instruments … ) I even have my own radio station!

Perhaps it’s part of my culture … have you ever noticed that anglos can’t stand silence? We even have music for a 10 second elevator trip!

Now, I’ll bet my bottom dollar that you and I hear some of the same sounds differently. For example, to me the word ‘silver’ sounds like /sil-vEr/. To a Spanish speaking ear it sounds like /sEyl-vEr/, the same sound that’s in the word ‘green’. This is completely unintelligible to a native English speaker because the tonic (the vowel sound of the important syllable) isn’t correctly pronounced. It is not a question of accent reduction, but rather accent neutralisation. This involves learning to hear the sounds so that you can reproduce them correctly.

We learn to distinguish between the different sounds our mothers make when we are still in the womb. Those sounds are ingrained in our brain like a statue carved in stone. This makes learning a new sound as an adult so challenging. I remember trying to learn the Catalan ‘ll.’ My tongue did all kinds of weird tricks until it figured out where it was supposed to be.

Reading and writing won’t help you with this. You need to listen and speak. I’ve put together a collection of videos for you to watch that are perfect for your level. Just go to my youtube channel:

There are different playlists according to what you’re looking for. Don’t forget to subscribe to receive notifications of new videos!

To the Silver Tongue,

Jennifer

Pronunciation of the Final 'ed'

Oooh! I’m excited because I have a really cool tip to share with you today. It’s about pronunciation … a subject I know is of great interest to you!

I talked a bit about the pronunciation of the final ‘ed’ of regular verbs in the past simple and in the participle forms in my book (Speak English Once and for All), but today I have a graphic for you that I think is going to make the patterns a whole lot clearer. (Drum roll, please …)

As the number ‘1’ indicates, start at the top of the diagram. Answer the questions and you will be pronouncing the regular verbs in the Past Simple perfectly in no time! I know it takes a little getting used to, but then again, so did driving a car and now it’s second nature to you.

I’ve got lots of info-bites like this in my courses, so why don’t you have a look at them. There is a package available to suit your budget, schedule and level. Don’t be shy! Click the button and take a peek, there’s no obligation to buy:

Best regards,

Jennifer

From Reading to Speaking

I’m guessing you learned to read and write English before you learned to speak it. You likely have few difficulties with written documents, but perhaps you feel unsure about the correct pronunciation. Let me tell you, that’s perfectly normal. And the reason for this is, as my good friend and colleague Judy Thompson says, English is Stupid. Unlike some other languages that sound exactly the way they are written, English has this tendency to sound any way it feels like.

This is due to the history of Modern English. During its early years it did not exist in a standardised, written form. It wasn’t until 1476 (less than 200 before Shakespeare) that the written version of English we know today was galvanised by a London businessman named William Caxton. Unfortunately Caxton perhaps lacked the competences to invent a written language … he was more of a technician than a writer or a poet or a linguist. Changes in pronunciation from the Middle to Modern English periods and the borrowing of spelling patterns from other languages make orthography a challenge for both native and English as a Second Language speakers. Oh boy!

The one tool that can help us navigate this seemingly unmappable ocean is the Thompson Vowel Chart. All sixteen English vowel sounds are here to reference in this handy printout. Remember, each word has a tonic and each tonic has a color (Speak English Once and for All). If you say the tonic right, you will be understood. Get your Thompson Vowel Chart here:

Thanks to Judy for letting me share this with you!

Enjoy and happy learning!

Jennifer

Go with the Flow

Welcome to this space! You’ve come here because you want to take your English fluency to the next level. But what exactly is this elusive ‘fluency?’

From the Latin word fluentia meaning flow, the Oxford Dictionary defines it as the ability to speak or write a foreign language easily, accurately and articulately. These are great adverbs, but I suspect they make you think of a massive vocabulary, grammar rules or a conversation with a pundit.

In reality, a native speaker uses the same 1000 words 80% of the time, throws grammar out the window and our conversations are with family, friends and coworkers. I prefer this profile:

You are creative in your speech, you have the ability to think of many diverse ideas quickly, there is flexibility and originality in your speech and you are readily capable of elaborating on any topic.

Let’s get back to flow. The English language is like a river. It takes the easiest, surest path to the sea, the listener. That’s why we contract (eg. that is = that’s), ignore grammar (“coffee?”) and link (“wanna coffee?”).

What we do care about quite a bit are the sounds, especially the tonic. The tonic (aka stressed, but I don’t like that word) is the most important syllable in the word. ‘Avilable’ (/a-vi-la-bul/) means nothing, but ‘vailable’ (/vAy-la-bul/), even though we’re missing a syllable here, tells the listener that you are indeed available for that meeting next week.

English is riddled with unexpected pronunciations, odd rules and a myriad of exceptions. The rules are crap. Ignore them. They will only serve to confuse you and undermine your confidence. What I aim to illustrate are the patterns. These are infallible and we can use them to draw direct lines from your first language, connecting the dots that will give you the big picture.

I started this post talking about your fluency level. I would like to invite you to test your level with this simple Fluency Questionnaire. The results are generated and sent to you within seconds of completion, tell you your current level and, using my modal for language acquisition, how long it will take you to reach the fluency level you so desire. It’s absolutely free, so go ahead and click here:

May your fluency take flight,

Jennifer