Tag Archives: vowel sounds
The Many Problems with Tomatoes Posted by Gary Locke on Jun 24, 2021
There are several problems with tomatoes. I don’t mean that growing them is a problem (although they are susceptible to blights, worms, and pests of all kinds.) Rather, pronouncing, spelling, and even defining tomatoes in English are among the most irksome and debatable issues in our language. Songs have been written about this. The Supreme…
Some English Tongue Twisters Posted by Gary Locke on Jun 18, 2020
Recently, one of our subscribers suggested that tongue twisters can be both helpful and fun when learning a language and I couldn’t agree more! Thanks for the suggestion, Amy! I also believe that tongue twisters are a great way to exercise your ability to enunciate, or pronounce, properly. You may know that actors and singers…
Where’d You Get That Drawl, Y’all? Posted by Gary Locke on Mar 17, 2017
Where did the famous Southern drawl of the American South come from, and why is it so often imitated? As I’ve mentioned before, I sometimes work in the theater. Lately, I’ve been in rehearsal for All the Way, a play about President Lyndon Johnson, and the passage of the United States Civil Rights Bill. I’m…
IPA ælfəbɛt Part I – Vowels (Video) Posted by Gabriele on Jan 15, 2013
Watch this video and learn more about the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) and how to look up new English words in the dictionary and pronounce them correctly!
Vowel sounds: Is the letter y a vowel? Posted by Gabriele on Oct 13, 2012
If you ask an elementary school child who speaks English to tell you the vowels they will likely say “a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y.” This is what I was taught about vowels as a child, it is what I have taught my ESL students, and it is still what children who are…
Vowel sounds: Looking at the letter u Posted by Gabriele on Oct 12, 2012
To continue our look at vowel sounds, today we will investigate the letter ‘u.’ I wanted to learn more about this letter to share with you and so I turned to Wikipedia for some help and found some very interesting information about how the vowel ‘u’ and consent ‘v’ were once connected. Apparently during late…
Vowel sounds: Looking at the letter o Posted by Gabriele on Oct 9, 2012
To continue our look at vowel sounds, today we will investigate the letter ‘o’. What is there to say about this letter. Well it is the fifteenth letter of the alphabet and along with the capital letter H, I, and X, the letter O is one of the few letters that look the same if…