One of the most difficult things about the English language is its pronunciation. Students focus their attention on the ponetic symbols and, sometimes, forget about other important elements such as intonation and, above all, stress.

1. English pronunciation, intonation
and stress

2. Topics
 Stress.
 IPA.
 Pronunciation.
 Intonation.
 Strong and Weak forms.
 To know more.

3. Stress
 Phonemic.
 Louder, longer and higher.
 Fuller realisation.
record
n. v.
holiday, alone, admiration, confidential, degree and weaker

4. Stress
 Grammatical words
Auxiliary verbs
Prepositions
Pronouns
etc.
 Stressed-timed.
 Lexical words
Nouns
Verbs
Adjectives
etc.

5. IPA
 International Phonetic Alphabet.
 Received Pronunciation (RP).
 Symbols:
 Monophthongs (vowels).
 Conosonants.
 Diphthongs (2 vowels).
 Triphthongs.

6. IPA. Monophthongs
Front Central Back
long short long short long short
Close :  : 
Mid  :  :
Open   : 

7. IPA. Monophthongs
:



:


:

:
:


8. IPA. Consonants
Bilabial
Labio-
dental
Dental Alveolar
Post-
alveolar
Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasal m n 
Plosive
p
b
t
d
k

Affricate
t
d
Fricative
f
v


s
z


(x
)
h
Approximant r j w
Lateral l

9. IPA. Diphthongs
RP Australian
American
GA Canadian
low /əʊ/ /əʉ/ /oʊ/
Loud
/aʊ/ /æɔ/ /aʊ/
/aʊ/
lout [əʊ]
lied
/aɪ/ /ɑe/ /aɪ/
/aɪ/
light [əɪ]
lane /eɪ/ /æɪ/ /eɪ/
loin /ɔɪ/ /oɪ/ /ɔɪ/
leer /ɪə/ /ɪə/ /ɪɚ/
lair /ɛə/ /eː/ /ɛɚ/
lure /ʊə/ /ʊə/ /ʊɚ/

10. IPA. Triphthongs
 Stress on the first element.
 /  /
 /  /
 /  /
 /  /
 /  /

11. Pronunciation
 Pronouncing every word correctly…
 Stressed language vs Syllabic language.
 Example:
 The beautiful mountain appeared transfixed in the
distance.
 He can come on Sundays as long as he doesn’t have to do
any homework in the evening.

12. Intonation
 Content words.
Nouns
(Most) Main verbs
Adjectives
Adverbs
 Function words.
Determiners
Auxiliary verbs
Prepositions
Conjunctions
Pronouns

13. Intonation. Practice
Mark the stressed words in the following sentences. After you have found the stressed words, practice reading the sentences
aloud.
 John is coming over tonight. We are going to work on our homework together.
 Ecstasy is an extremely dangerous drug.
 We should have visited some more castles while we were traveling through the back roads of
France.
 Jack bought a new car last Friday.
 They are looking forward to your visiting them next January.
 Exciting discoveries lie in Tom's future.
 Would you like to come over and play a game of chess?
 They have been having to work hard these last few months on their challenging experiment.

14. Strong and Weak forms
 Dictionary transcription.
 /  /
 Function words.
 Little or no semantic content.
 Closed class.
 Weak forms do not usually appear in
sentence-final position or in
contrastive/emphatic use.

15. Strong and Weak forms
orthography strong form(s) weak form(s)
the  , 
a/an e, n , n
some sm sm, sm̩
 Determiners and Quantifiers.

16. Strong and Weak forms
 Pronouns.
orthography strong form(s) weak form(s)
his hz z
him hm m
her h 
you j j, j
your j j
she  
he h h
we w w
them m m, m
us s s, s

17. Strong and Weak forms
 Conjunctions
orthography strong form(s) weak form(s)
and nd
nd, n,
n̩d, n̩
but bt bt
that t t

18. Strong and Weak forms
 Prepositions / ‘Particles’.
orthography strong form(s) weak form(s)
than n n
at t t
for f f
from frm
frm,
fm, fm̩
of v v, v
to t t, t
as z z, z
there  

19. Strong and Weak forms
 Auxiliaries.
orthography strong form(s) weak form(s)
can kn kn, kn̩
could kd kd
have hv v, v
has hz z, z
had hd d, d
will wl l
Shall l l, l, l
Should d d
must mst mst, ms
do d d, d
does dz dz, z
am m m, m̩
are  
was wz wz
were w w

20. To know more…
 Listen&Read along
(http://www.manythings.org/listen).
 Listen&Repead podcast
(http://www.manythings.org/repeat).
 Minimal pairs
(http://www.manythings.org/pp).
 Daily Pronunciation Practice
(http://www.manythings.org/lar).
 Sounds&Letters
(http://www.rafamoreno.com/Materiales/Sounds_Letters.pdf).
 Pronunciation Drill
(http://www.rafamoreno.com/Materiales/Pronunciation_Drill.pdf).