Fingers’ Pronunciation

AUDIO DR FINGERS’PRONUNCIATION

Hello, everybody, and welcome to my pronunciation course! (The answers to the exercise are on page 51)

Irregular Participles

This is another part of our series on irregular participles and their pronunciation. Just to start, I would like to perform another rap to help you with the pronunciation of these words. Once again, I asked my good friend DJ Stokes to lay down another drum ‘n’ bass line. I hope you enjoy my little rap, especially as the language focus of my rap is based on the pronunciation of these words.

Dr Fingers’ Rap - “I Hate Change”

There was a time, when all was fine, But now it makes me want to cry, I often dream of good old days, When traditions ruled and skies were grey.

I used to smoke in my favourite bar, And drive across the town by car, But now they’ve begun to ban the smoke, And the roads have become a terrible joke.

I didn’t use to pay too much, And one hour’s work could fix my clutch, But now they’ve cut my lunchtime subsidy, And shut down the village factory.

I used to run around the park, And visit the zoo to see the shark, But they’ve turned the park into a sty, And let the poor old shark die.

All these things make me so sad, And now I feel so awfully bad, So I need to sit and think, And to have a lovely drink.

By Dr Fingers

Listen & Repeat

Now let’s get on with some pronouncing. This month we are looking at some participles that are different to the infinitive, and another category of participles that stay the same as the infinitive. Listen and repeat these verbs and their irregular pasts and participles:

Infinitive Past Past Participle

Begin Began Begun Come Came Come Drink Drank Drunk Sing Sang Sung Cost Cost Cost Cut Cut Cut Hit Hit Hit Hurt Hurt Hurt Let Let Let Put Put Put Shut Shut Shut Spread Spread Spread

Connected Speech

Now, let’s look at these participles in connected speech. As you can see, many of these participles end with consonants. Now, when the following word starts with a vowel, these consonant sounds connect with the following vowel to form a new sound. For example: “I’ve begun a new course”, which is like this if you say it in connected speech, “I’ve begu na new course”. Listen to some more examples: 1. She hurt a dog = she hur ta dog. 2. They put it down = they pu tit down. Exercise

Now let’s do an exercise. Listen to the following sentences and repeat them with me. Then, listen again and try to write the sentence normally and in connected speech. We’ve done the first one for you. Good luck! (answers on page 50) 1. It cost a lot = it cos ta lot. 2. ____________________________ 3. ____________________________ 4. ____________________________ 5. ____________________________ 6. ____________________________ 7. ____________________________ 8. ____________________________ 9. ____________________________ 10. ____________________________

OK, that’s all for today. Bye for now, and happy talking!

G L O S S A R Y

to drive across the town exp to drive from one side of the town to the other to ban vb to prohibit to fix vb to repair; to make something work again a clutch n an object in a car. When you put your foot on the clutch and press it, you can change gear a lunchtime subsidy n money you receive to help you pay for your lunch to shut down phr vb to close permanently to run around a park exp to go from one point in a park to another point, running along the edge of the park a shark n a large fish with big teeth. They sometimes eat humans a sty n a place where a pig lives. Also, a word to describe a dirty, horrible room awfully adj terribly