Pronunciation problems

March 27th, 2009

The other day I was with a class of adult students who worry about their English pronunciation. We were doing an exercise to practise linking sounds. For example:

"My sister's son is seven years old."

I was trying to demonstrate that some of the 's' in the sentence are pronounced /z/ (as in "years old") and that when there are two 's' ("sister's son") we only pronounce one of them.

But then it struck me that a lot of correct pronunciation comes naturally. If you allow your mouth to "make the decisions", your pronunciation is correct. For example, it's almost impossible to pronounce the 's' in "years old" as an 's' without pausing the sentence – the mouth naturally makes a /z/ sound to make the sentence flow.

In some cases, I think that trying to remember pronunciation rules can be counter-productive. Instead, trust your mouth to find the right sounds!

Talking about transport

March 21st, 2009

I often get questions about prepositions and means of transport. Here are some rules:

You get in and out of
- a car
- a taxi

You get on and off
- a bus / a coach
- a tram
- a train
- a plain
- a ferry / a boat
- a bike / a motorbike / a scooter
- a horse

You can also board transport for which you have got a ticket. So you board a plane, a train and a bus.

Praising in English

March 15th, 2009

Vishal asked if I could write about praising people in English. I like to praise my students, and here are some of the phrases I use:

Good job!
Well done!
Excellent work – keep it up!
Nice one! (This is slightly more idiomatic, and you'd be more likely to use it in speaking, rather than writing.)
Fantastic! / Great!
You're really improving.

The Cambridge exams

March 7th, 2009

How important are the Cambridge exams in your country? (Some of the more popular Cambridge exams are KET, PET, FCE, CAE and CPE.) Do many people do these exams, and are they recognised by universities / companies etc?

Blowing your own trumpet

March 1st, 2009

To blow your own trumpet means that you tell everyone about your achievements (rather than waiting for other people to praise you). It's not considered very polite to do this, but today we're delighted to blow our own trumpet, because english-at-home.com has been chosen as ESL site of the month by English Club. You can read more about the award here.

If you haven't already visited English Club, take a look today. There are lessons, forums, games, quizzes – something for everyone.