Vowels, Consonants and Stress
Distinguish English sounds and place stress on the right syllable.
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Sounds in English
English has about 44 sounds: vowels and consonants. Letter a,e,i,o,u usually represent vowels; the rest are consonants. But English spelling can be tricky!
Vowel sounds differ. Compare "bit" (short i) and "beat" (long i), or "cot" and "caught". Changing one sound can change meaning.
Syllables and Stress
A word is split into syllables (beats): RE-cord (noun, stress on first) vs re-CORD (verb, stress on second). Stress is shown in writing with a mark before the stressed syllable.
Examples: EL-e-phone? No — tel-e-PHONE? No — TE-LE-PHONE? Actually "TEL-e-phone". Say PHO-to-graph but pho-TO-graph-ic.
Practice
Say these aloud and mark the stressed syllable: doctor, arrive, computer, Nigeria, jealous. Compare with a dictionary.
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Course contents
Oral English
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