Ever wonder why those Ang Mohs (English native speaker) can speak so fast that we could hardly understand what exactly are them talking about? We're speaking the same English language with the same ABC's, but somehow the way they speak sounds like Greek to us. Today, I'm going to share a bit on the secret of fast speaking.
Recently, I took up short English course to polish up my English. After not learning English for so many years, I really can feel that something is missing and my English seems to have become rusty. In one of the phonetics classes, I was dished with the way to pronounce short words (a, of, or).
Short words like articles (a, the), conjunctions (and, or) and prepositions (to, of) are usually unstressed.Every line has the stress pattern oOoO. They have this rythm because the first and third words are all unstressed.. These words are: some, and, a, of, a, for, the, to, or, as.
Shopping List
Some milk and eggs,
A tin of peas,
A snack for lunch,
Some fruit and cheese.
The loaf of bread,
A jar of jam,
Some juice to drink,
A piece of ham.
Some pears or grapes,
Some beans and rice,
A can of beer,
As cold as ice
Here's the tips. When a word is being stressed, it's being pronounced a bit louder, but the unstressed word is being pronounced lightly and quickly. Let's look at the phonetics for these unstressed words (credit to Merriam-Webster).
| Phonetics | |
|---|---|
| a | /ə/ |
| and | /ən/ |
| some | /səm/ |
| for | /fə/ |
| of | /əv/ |
You'll notice that in fast speech, these words aren't being pronounced as clearly as they are being pronounced alone. Take the word "some" for example, when it's pronounced alone, the pronunciation is very close to the word 'sum', but in fast speech, the pronunciation is close to "serm". You might notice this while watching movies.
Another example for fast speech:
and sounds like an: an apple and an orange and an onion of sounds like a: a bit of this and a bit of that |
|---|
*** Edited on 29th October upon request on expanding the explaination for the second part ***
and sounds like an:
an apple and an orange and an onion
- Note that in fast speech, you'll hear this sentence like "n apple n n orange n n onion". Yes, you'll hear both "and" & "an" sounds similar to the letter "n".
of sounds like a:
a bit of this and a bit of that
- Note that in fast speech, you'll hear this sentence like "a bit a this n a bit a that". Uh huh, the word "of" sounds almost like the word "a".
That's all, I'll post up more interesting things on English if I come across in the future. Till then, stay tune :)
