pronuncation of "TH" + "S"

Paolo asked the following question:

I bought a copy of your dvds.. you mentioned that sometimes the "th sound" is silent, in words such as: "months" or "clothes" so that months sounds like mons am i right? and clothes should sound like close.. but there are also other words you haven't mentioned... like deaths,, truths, smiths.. so my question is: how should i pronounce these other words? and also is there a steady rule for the silent th?
thanks
Paolo

Hi Paolo,

Good speakers of English always pronounce the "th" followed by an "s" as in words like "strengths" and "Smiths." This is a very difficult combination of sounds to create. You have to practice moving your tongue quickly and smoothly from the tip of the tongue for the "th" (with a vibration of air) to the position slightly behind your upper teeth (the gum ridge) for the "s."
However, in today's speech it has become pretty standard to not do this with the words "months" and "clothes." Most people drop the "th" and just say "mons" and "close." Those are the only two words that I can think of where it's standard and acceptable to take short cuts in pronouncing both of these consonants. Otherwise, standard, educated speech requires that you not take those short cuts.

10 Tips for Public Speaking

Make a New Year's resolution to improve your speaking skills. I recommend that you join Toastmasters.

Toastmasters International is a non-profit educational organization that teaches public speaking and leadership skills through a worldwide network of meeting locations. Find one in your area.

The organization has nearly 250,000 members in more than 12,500 clubs in 106 countries. Since 1924, Toastmasters International has helped people of all backgrounds become more confident in front of an audience.

Here is an article from Toastmasters to help you gain confidence speaking in front of people:

1. Know your material. Pick a topic you are interested in. Know more about it than you include in your speech. Use humor, personal stories and conversational language – that way you won’t easily forget what to say.
2. Practice. Practice. Practice! Rehearse out loud with all equipment you plan on using. Revise as necessary. Work to control filler words; Practice, pause and breathe. Practice with a timer and allow time for the unexpected.
3. Know the audience. Greet some of the audience members as they arrive. It’s easier to speak to a group of friends than to strangers.
4. Know the room. Arrive early, walk around the speaking area and practice using the microphone and any visual aids. Read the rest of the article here: http://www.toastmasters.org/tips.asp
   

Accent Reduction Practice with Audio Books - part 2

A reader of my blog asked the following question:

Hi Lisa,

My name is George, I just read your blog, could you please recommend me which audio book is better for learning English? Could you please give me some names of these audio books?

I appreciate it.

George:

Regarding your question about which audio books I recommend for learning English and reducing your accent:

I don't have any recent names of books that I recommend. There are so many good ones available. It's best to find a topic that you enjoy and that will hold your interest.

But here are some tips to keep in mind:

It's best to get a non-fiction book, preferably a "self-help" or a "how to" type of book. With such topics, the speaker usually speaks at slower rate. It's still very natural, but not as rushed as in fiction books. The speech can also be more clear because it's got a more instructional tone. It could also be beneficial if you are able to find books related to your field of work. For example, if you are in the business or financial field, you might be able to find audio books related to that topic. This way, you will come across a lot of words that you need to use regularly at the workplace.

Stay away from fiction books. These sometimes have an actor who does too much "performance" with his voice, or they might use British actors/readers.

I hope that helps.

Best wishes with your accent.

Lisa Mojsin

Babies Cry In Their Mother Tongue

An article in today's LA Times states that babies are found to cry in their native tongue. They hear the melody and intonation while they are still in the womb and imitate it once they are born.

Read the article: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-sci-baby-cry7-2009nov07,0,3709302.story

The Benefits of Speaking Two Languages from a Young Age

Do you have young children who are learning both English and your native language? Here's a very interesting article which discusses the benefits of speaking two languages.

For adults, it also states: "New research even indicates that the onset of Alzheimer's disease in bilinguals is, on average, delayed by four years compared to monolinguals."

Read it: http://tinyurl.com/q757lm

How to improve your accent with audio books

Here is a great way to work on improving your American accent:

Buy a book on audio. I suggest a non-fiction topic because the speech is generally better suited for this type of practice.

Listen to a sentence or a phrase, then pause it and repeat what the speaker said. At the same time, record this so that you can listen back and compare how you sound versus the speaker on the audio. Keep in mind that this is not a memory test. If you don't remember things word for word once in a while, just keep going. Some phrases will be longer than others.

It's a good idea to also have the hard copy of the book so that you can sometimes just play it while reading the text. This is especially valuable if you read the text first, only a few pages for example, and underline the difficult or new words. That way you can later pay close attention to how these words sound in context. Also try to listen to the intonation and word stress. Do this often. It will help you a lot!

I DON"T recommend Amazon's product, Kindle, which seems to be a computer generated voice and not an actual human reading. The speech sounds artificial without any rhythm nor melody.

S or Z?

Alex asks:

Hello Lisa,

You say in your book that the final "s" in the words "is" and "has" is pronounced as /z/. Then what if when "it is" and "it has" are contracted to "it's", does the "s" remain /z/ sound?

Many thanks,
Alex

Hi Alex,

When "it is" is contracted to "it's" the S sounds like /s/, not /z/. This is because it comes after the "t", which is a voiceless consonant. (Rule #1 on page 59 of my book, "Mastering the American Accent.") Good observation Alex. Make sure you memorize that list (on page 60) of common words that end in /s/ which is pronounced as a /z/. I regularly have students that make this mistake. Even today I was correcting my Italian student who was saying "wasss" instead of "wazzz."
I wish it were simpler. In most other languages these kinds of changes don't occur.