2024年3月13日发(作者：)
美式英语中的连读和略读
同化
同化是两个音相互作用，导致最后产生另外一个音的现象，这样可以使句子显得更流畅。
1.
/s/+/j/→/ʃ/ 如：this year等
(1)
(2)
I guess you’re right. 我想你是对的。
I miss you. 我想念你。
2.
/z/+/j/→/ʒ/
(1)
(2)
What brings you here? 什么风把你刮到这儿来了？
I’m not gonna lose you again.
3.
/t/+/j/→/ʧ/ 如：congratulation、last year等
（1） Nice to meet you.很高兴见到你。（第二次见面就说Nice to see you.）
（2） What you doing? 你在做什么？
4.
/d/+/j/→/ʤ/ 如：education等
（1）Pinned ya. 压在你身上了。（《狮子王》中的一句台词，听起来是/ˈpinʤə/。这两个单词包含的发音规则有弱读+同化。）
（2）How did you like it? 你觉得怎样？
连读
在正常英语口语中，连读现象比比皆是。有些较短的句子听起来简直就像一个单词，所以学好连读是通向流利英语必经之路。
1.词尾辅音+词首元音
这种连读最常见也最简单，把相邻的两个单词想象成一个单词即可。
（1） I’m so fed up with him. 他让我烦透了。
（2） I’ve already made up my mind. 我意已决。
（3） That is so gross [ɡrəus].太俗了。
（4） Turn on the juice. 合上开关，恢复通电。（juice也有电的意思）
2.词尾元音+词首元音
A：以/u/、/ʊ/、/au/、/o/结尾的单词与跟在后面的元音连读时，两个元音之间加上一个较轻的/w/,这样过渡就会很自然。
（1） Just do it. 尽管去做吧！
（2） It’s snowing. 下雪了。
（3） Don’t blow it. 别搞砸了。
（4） So easy. 太简单了。
B：如果单词结尾是/i/、/ai/、/e/结尾并与其后的元音连读，则两个元音见带上一个较弱的/j/。
（1） My aunt will come to see us today.姑妈今天回来看我们。
（2） I hate to say it， but you really should pay me back the money. 我真的不想说这个，但是你借我的钱应该还给我了。
不完全爆破
发音方法为：第一个爆破音不发声，只需做出发音的姿势，稍作停顿马上过渡到下一个音。例如，Goodbye中的/d/就不能发出声来，如果读成/gud’bai/就会显得很生硬。
(一) 爆破音+爆破音
6个爆破音中任意两个紧挨在一起，则第一个爆破音失去爆破。
大家一起来学习下面的例子：
hot day
red coat
good time
old picture
sit down
football
cheap book
blackboard
1. What are we supposed to do? 我们该怎么办？
2. Let’s get down to business. 我们开始说正事。
（二） 爆破音+摩擦音/破擦音
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outside good friends last Sunday big change
1. You’re a beautiful person inside and outside. 你真是秀外慧中。
2. I’m not fat, I’m big boned. 我不胖，我只是骨架大。
（三） 爆破音+破擦音
picture lecture Fat chance ancient China
1. I’m going give you one last chance. 我在给你最后一次机会。
2. Good-bye to this dead-end job! 别了，这份没前途的工作！
（四） 鼻腔爆破
其发音要领为：/t/或/d/与/n/同时发音，两者相互作用导致鼻腔爆破，最后发出的音既不是/t/或/d/,也不是单独的/n/。
garden Britain important certain bread and butter
1. I feel like I am not important to you. 我感觉我对你一点也不重要。
2. I lost my student ID card. 我的学生证丢了。
（五）
mostly
舌边爆破
absolutely bustling unlikely
1. You are absolutely right. 你完全正确。
2. We are free at last! 我们终于自由了！
弱读
对于大多数同学，弱读是一个很陌生的概念，因为我们的英语老师很少讲这个知识，所以大家说英语时几乎对每个英语单词（除了the和a）都采用的了强读形式。可是真正说英语时全部都是强读，则整个句子必然没有节奏，没有婉转的感觉，枯燥无味。
弱读的一半规则：元音一次弱化之后主要是变为/ə/，二次弱化后这个音就消失了；辅音弱化后也消失了。
下面介绍常用单词的弱读形式
单词
and
弱读音标
/n/
疯狂操练
You n’ me are pretty good friends.
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can
are
was
/kən/
/r/
/wəz/
I can drive a car.
We’re from Hunan.
How was your winter break?
1. Kill ‘em.（kill him也弱读为/ˈkiləm/）
2. God bless him.
them/him
/əm/
her
at
to
of
/ər/
/ət/
I’ll tell ‘er. (连读)
At the same time.
/tə/或/t/
I have ta go.
/əv/
/ə/
1. Do you want a cup of water?
2. It’s kinda funny. (a kind of)
I will be right here waiting for you.
1. See ya.
2. Let me tell ya.
for
you
/fər/
/yə/
缩读
大部分的缩读情况可以理解为弱读+连读。如果能够灵活运用弱读和缩读的话，那么你的口语又会更上一层楼了。
标准形式
because
缩读形式
‘cause /kəz/
实用例句
‘Cause I don’t give a damn.
Sorry, I don’t know.
1. Gimme five.
That’s I was gonna say.
1 I gotta go.
2. You gotta move on with your life. 你得继续你自己的生活。
don’t know dunno /də’no/
give me
going to
go to
gimme /gɪmɪ/
gonna /’ganə/
gatta /’gatə/
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want to wanna /’wanə/ 1. I wanna be different.
2. I wanna change my life!
-ing
-in’ /ɪn/(一般1. What’s goin’ on?
用于进行时)
2. What’s happenin’?
Let’s get outta here.
That’d be great. 那太好了。
I’ve heard so much about you.
out of
had/would
have
口语要素
outta /’autə/
‘d /d/
‘ve /v/
1. You can say that again. 你说的没错。
2. Give me a break. 别逗了。
3. I’ll say. 的确。（Yes, definitely.）
4. Nothing doing! 没门！
5. Call him off. 叫他收手吧。
BONUS and的弱读
我们读英语时每当碰到and时，一般都会读作/ænd/，殊不知，在美语口语里面，and通常只需弱读为/ən/,甚至是一个简单的鼻音/n/。当说话者需要强调时则会把and读作/ænd/.如果能够掌握好这个发音规则，我们的口语将更加流畅，听力理解也更加畅听无阻。
1. Struggle n’ strife come before success. 成功之前必有一番挣扎和竞争。
2. I have traveled through time n’ space to find you. 我穿越了时空找到了你。
3. Without you, my life will be blank n’ white. 没有你，我的生活将暗淡无光。
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连读、加音、爆破、同化、省音、弱读、浊化
——英语常见语流现象
1. 连读：
两个相邻单词首尾音素自然的拼读在一起，中间不停顿，被称为连读。连读只发生在同一意群之内，即意思联系紧密的短语或从句之内。
1）词尾辅音+词首元音，如：
Standˆup.
Notˆatˆall.
Putˆitˆon, please.
Please pickˆitˆup.
I'mˆanˆEnglish boy.
Itˆisˆanˆold book.
Let me haveˆa lookˆatˆit.
Ms Black worked inˆanˆoffice.
I called you halfˆanˆhourˆago.
2）词尾不发音r或re+词首元音，词尾r发音/r/。如：
farˆaway
Hereˆis a letter for you.
Hereˆare fourˆeggs.
whereˆis my cup?
Whereˆare your brotherˆand sister?
They're my fatherˆand mother.
I looked forˆit hereˆand there.
Thereˆis a football underˆit.
Thereˆare some books on the desk.
注：当有意群进行停顿时不可连读。如：
Isˆit a hat orˆa cat?（hat 与or 之间不可以连读）
Thereˆisˆa good book in my desk. （book 与in 之间不可以连读）
Can you speakˆEnglish or French? （English 与or 之间不可以连读）
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Shall we meet atˆeight or ten tomorrow morning? （meet 与 at，eight 与or 之间不可以连读）
She opened the door and walkedˆin. （door 与and 之间不可以连读）
2. 加音：
在连贯的语流中，人们往往会在两个元音之间加入一个外加音帮助发音，从而更加流畅地表达意思。
1）词尾元音/ʊ,u:/+词首元音，在词尾加上一个轻微的/w/。如：
Go w away.
How w and why did you come here?
The question is too w easy for him to answer.
2）词尾元音/ɪ,i:/+词首元音，在词尾加上一个轻微的/j/。如：
I j am Chinese.
She can't carry j it.
I j also need the j other one.
He j is very friendly to me.
She wants to study j English.
It'll take you three j hours to walk there.
3. 失去爆破与不完全爆破：
1）失去爆破：爆破音+爆破音
当两个爆破音/p,b,t,d,k,g/相邻时，前一个爆破音只按其发音部位做好发音口形、形成阻碍，而不爆破出来，稍微停顿后即发出后面的辅音。前一个爆破音被称为失去爆破。失去爆破产生的原因大体上是由于省力原则造成的。如：
Kept/Blackboard/Notebook/Goodbye/September/Suitcase
Big boy
Sharp pencil
What time
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You must pay.
Ask Bob to sit behind me.
She took good care of the children.
2）不完全爆破：
A）爆破音+摩擦音
爆破音/p,b,t,d,k,g/与摩擦音/f,v,s,z,ʃ,ʒ,θ,ð,r,h/相邻时，产生不完全爆破。发摩擦音时，发音器官并不形成阻碍而只形成一个很狭小的缝隙，让气流从缝隙中摩擦而出。如果一个爆破音与摩擦音相接，它爆破冲出的气流只能从狭小的缝隙中通过，这种爆破是不完全的。失去爆破产生的原因大体上是由于省力原则造成的。如：
Advance/Success
A good view
Old friends
Just then
Get through
Make sure
Night show
Keep silence.
Keep that in mind.
B）爆破音+破擦音
爆破音与破擦音/tʃ,dʒ,tr,dr/相邻时，产生不完全爆破。如：
Picture/Object
That child
Good job
Sweet dream
Great changes
A fast train
C）爆破音+鼻辅音
爆破音与鼻辅音/m,n,ŋ/相邻时：在词中，不完全爆破；在词尾，鼻腔爆破。如：
Utmost/Admit/Midnight/Certain/Button/Garden
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Good morning
Good night
Start now
I don’t know
Just moment
A good neighbor
D）爆破音+边辅音
爆破音与边辅音/l/相邻时：在词中，不完全爆破；在词尾，舌侧爆破。如：Lately/Badly/Mostly/Friendly
A bit louder
I’d like to
Straight line
Good luck
At last
At lunch
4. 同化：
人们在说话的时往往会不自觉地让一个音受相邻音的影响，使它们变得与其相同或相似；或者两个音互相影响，变为第三个音。这两种现象被称为音的同化。同化可以发生在同一个词、复合词内或者句子相邻词之间。
1）因声带的影响而发生的同化：
A）浊辅音可变为清辅音，如：of(v→f) course，his(z→s) pen，with(ð→θ) pleasure。
B）清辅音可变为浊辅音，如：like(k→g) that。
2）因发音部位的影响而发生的同化：
A）/t/+/j/→/tʃ/。如：
Don’t hurt yourself!
I’ll let you go this time.
Don’t you do that again.
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It’s very nice to meet you.
B）/d/+/j/→/dʒ/。如：
Did your sister come?
Would you please come in?
Could you read this for me please?
You didn’t like English, did you?
C）/s/+/j/→/ʃ/。如：
I miss you.
May God bless you.
We will come this year.
D）/z/+/j/→/ʒ/。如：
Here’s your ticket.
I love you because you are you.
Don’t expect he tells you the truth.
5. 省音：
在快速、随便的言语中，一些音素被省略掉，被称为省音。省音能提高语速，使说话省力。在正式场合和语速慢的情况下，省音不是必须的。
1）同一单词内元音的省略，主要是非重读音节中的/ə/和/ɪ/，如：ord(i)n(a)ry。
2）当前一单词以辅音结尾，后一单词以/ə/开头时，/ə/常被省略，如：walk (a)way。
3）当前一单词以否定形式-n't结尾，后一单词以辅音开头时，/t/常被忽略，如：
She isn'(t) there.
I didn’(t) hear you.
He can’(t) believe that.
4）任何一个辅音，若后面紧跟着/h/，/h/可以不发音。如：
Come (h)ere!
Must (h)e /ti/ go?
What will (h)e /wili/do?
Has (h)e done it before?
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Tell (h)im to ask (h)er…
5）将多个单词利用连读爆破等拼和在一起。如：
gotta(got to)
gonna(going to)
kinda(kind of)
lotsa(lots of)
gimme(give me)
6. 强读式和弱读式：
在一个句子，有些词说得又轻又快，而且较为含糊，有些词则说得又重又慢，而且较为清晰。那些说得响亮而清晰的词就是句子重音所在。实词（包括名词、实义动词、形容词、副词、数词疑问词等）一般都接受句子重音，为重读词，采用强读式；虚词（包括介词、代词、连词、冠词、助动词、情态动词等功能词）一般都不接受句子重音，为非重读词，采用弱读式。
6.1 一般规律：
1）弱读式只出现在句子的非重读词中。如：Pass me/mɪ/ the/ðə/ book. me、the弱读。
2）单词单独出现或在句首或句尾时，都采用强读式。如：What are you listening
to/tu:/?
3）被特别强调的词，无论实词还是虚词都采用强读式。如：I am/æm/ Peter. 我就是皮特。
6.2 虚词弱读规律：
1）长音变短音，如：she/ʃi:/弱读/ʃɪ/。
2）元音前面的辅音被省略，如：him/hɪm/弱读/ɪm/。
3）辅音前面的元音被省略，如：am/æm/弱读/m/。
4）元音一般弱读为/ə/，如：can/kæn/弱读/kən/。
5）部分虚词有多种弱读式，如：would/wʊd/弱读/əd,d/。
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7. 浊化：
1）/s/ 后面的清辅音要浊化。 如：
/k/浊化成/g/: scar/school/discussion
/t/浊化成/d/: stand/student/mistake
/p/浊化成/b/: spring/spirit/expression
2）美音中，当/t/出现在两个元音之间并且处于非重读位置的时候，/t/需要浊化成一个近似于/d/的音。这样，writer听起来和rider 的发音几乎没有区别。如：
Letter/water/better/duty/bitter/city
I got it.
Would you please pick it up?
注：/t/如果处于重读位置的话，即使在两个元音之间也不需要浊化。请比较：
清晰的/t/
I'talian
a'tomic
La'tino
pho'tographer
浊化的/t/
'Italy
'atom
'Latin
'photograph
3）美音中，当/t/前面是一个元音，后面是一个模糊的/l/，且处于非重读位置，/t/也需要浊化成一个近似于/d/的音。如：
Battle/bottle/cattle/little/rattle/settle
4) 美音中，当/t/前面是一个清辅音或前鼻音/n/，后面是一个元音，且处于非重读位置，/t/也需要浊化成一个近似于/d/的音。如：
Twenty/fifty/center/after/faster/actor/sister/yesterday
朗读练习：
1. There are many things to consider when you are looking for a house, whether you
intend to buy or only rent. After all, it is going to be your home, perhaps for quite
a long time, and you want to be happy with it. You have to decide exactly what
kind of house you want, how much you can afford to pay, and the type of
neighborhood you wish to live in. However, it’s always easy to forget all above,
because it’s most probably that you’ll fall in love with the house for sale at the
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first sight.
2. Youth
Youth is not a time of life; it is a state of mind; it is not a matter of rosy cheeks,
red lips and supple knees; it is a matter of the will, a quality of the imagination, a
vigor of the emotions; it is the freshness of the deep springs of life.
Youth means a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity, of the
appetite for adventure over the love of ease. This often exists in a man of sixty more
than a boy of twenty. Nobody grows old merely by a number of years. We grow old
by deserting our ideals.
Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul. Worry,
fear, self-distrust bows the heart and turns the spirit back to dust.
Whether sixty or sixteen, there is in every human being's heart the lure of wonder,
the unfailing childlike appetite for what's next, and the joy of the game of living. In
the center of your heart and my heart there is a wireless station; so long as it receives
messages of beauty, hope, cheer, courage and power from men and from the Infinite,
so long are you young.
When the aerials are down, and your spirit is covered with snows of cynicism
and the ice of pessimism, then you are grown old, even at twenty; but as long as your
aerials are up, to catch the waves of optimism, there is hope you may die young at
eighty.
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美语听力与发音技巧 第1期
Welcome to Daily tips on Learning English. Today's tip is on distinguishing “can” and “cannot” in spoken American English.
“Cannot” is usually contracted to “can't”. So many learners
of English assume that in order to distinguish between “can” and
“can't”, one must listen for the final “t” sound /t/. And when speaking, one must pronounce final ‘t’ sound /t/ clearly. However, this is not in fact how native speakers distinguish “can” and “can't”. People do not say ‘I `can drive a car, but I can’t drive a motorcycle.’ People say ‘I can `drive a car', but I `can't drive a motorcycle.’ The difference between “can” and “can't” is in stress. “Can” is not stressed, the verb after it is. “Can't” is stressed. The verb after it is not.
Also since ‘can’ is not stressed, the vowel is reduced to /a/, so “can” is actually pronounced “can”. Listen to another example. “I `can't go on Saturday, but I can `go on Sunday.” Did you hear the 't' sound? Did you notice the difference words being stressed? Listening again. “I `can't go on Saturday, but I can `go on Sunday.” If you want to understand whether someone is saying he can or can't do something, you have to be listening for a stressed “can't” or a verb stressed after “can”. What does this mean? “I can `
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speak Japanese, but I `can't speak Taiwanese.” That's right, I can speak Japanese, but I cannot speak Taiwanese. When you are speaking it is very important that you follow this rule too. When learners of English say I `can help you, native speakers often unsure what is
meant because of improper stress. So remember, you can stress “can't”, but you `can't stress “can”.
This has been today's tip on learning English. Tune in tomorrow for another tip.
美语听力与发音技巧 第2期
Welcome to Daily Tips on Learning English. Today’s tip is on how
syllable stress can affect the meaning of words.
Remenber that stressed syllables are said louder and are lengthened,
and unstressed syllables are pronounced more softly, and often have the
vowel sounds reduced.
Sometimes, this difference can be the difference between a verb and a
noun, or an adjective.
There are at least 14 pairs of words in which syllable stress alone makes
this difference. Some examples include `addict, a`ddict, `convict, con`vict,
`perfect, per`fect. Each time the second syllable is stressed, the word is a
verb. When the first syllable is stressed, the word is either a noun or an
adjective. Let’s look some examples more closely. `Permit, per`mit, a
`permit is a noun, it is a piece of paper which authorizes you to do
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something. For instance, a fishing `permit allows you to go fishing.
Per`mit is a verb. It means to allow. For instence, fishing isn’t per`mitted
here without a `permit.
Another example is `perfect, per`fect. `Perfect is an adjective. It means
100% correct, no mistakes or errors. The verb is per`fect, it means to
make something perfect. For example, “I want to per`fect my English”
means “I want to make my English perfect”. Make sure you stress the
right syllable. It can be the differece between different parts of speech.
This has been today’s daily tip. Till then, tomorrow, for another tip on
learning English.
美语听力与发音技巧 第3期（清浊辅音结尾对元音的影响）
Welcome to Daily Tips on Learning English. Today’s tip is on how
different vowel lengths are used to differentiate words ending in voiced
and voiceless consonants.
Let’s take an example. There’s something in my eyes. There’s
something in my ice. The last words in the examples, eyes and ice differ
in 2 ways. One difference is the word eyes end with the sound “z”, and
ice end with the sound “s”. The other difference in the pronunciation
of “eyes” and “ice” is how the vowel sound “ai” is pronounced. In
the word “eyes”, it is longer. In the word “ice”, it is very short.
Listen to the examples again, and note that the final consonant sound is
not as clear as the difference in the length of the vowel. There’s
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something in my eyes. There’s something in my ice. Listen again.
There’s something in my eyes. There’s something in my ice. Listen to
some other examples of words that are identical except for the final
consonants and the vowel length. Cap, cab, plate, played, seat, seed.
Today’s tip is to pay more attention to the length of vowels, as this
difference is very important in distinguishing some words. Till then,
tomorrow, to another tip on learning English.
美语听力与发音技巧 第4期（连音）
Welcome to daily tips on learning English. Today’s tip is on sound
linking.
Although in written English, there’re spaces between every word, in
spoken English there’re always never (1)pauses between words. In
order to understand spoken English, it is (2)essential to understand how
this linking is done. Today let’s (3)concentrate on the most common
sound linking situation. Whenever a word ending in a consonant sound
is followed by a word beginning with a vowel sound, the consonant
sound is linked to the vowel sound as if they were part of the same word.
Let’s look at some examples. I’d like another bowl of rice, please. First,
note that although there’re six words in the sentence, all the words are
linked together without pause. Listen again. I’d like another bowl of rice,
please. Now listen to how the words “like” and “another” are linked.
“Like another”, “like-another”. “Like” ends in a consonant sound,
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and “another” begins with a vowel sound. So the “k” from “like” is
linked to the “a” from “another” to produce “kanother”. Listen to
the example sentence again. I’d like another bowl of rice, please. In the
sentence there is another example of a consonant being linked to a
vowel. A bowl of, a bowl-of. It sounds like that you’re saying the word
“love”. Here’s another example. I’d love a bowl of rice. I’d love a
bowl of rice. This sound linking is probably the biggest problem for
learners of English when they try to understand native speaker’s talking.
We’ll talk more about sound linking in future daily tips, as this is an
extremely import feature of spoken English. Today’s tip is to link
consonants to vowels which come after them. Till then, tomorrow, for
another daily tip.
美语听力与发音技巧 第5期（“h”音的略读）
Welcome to Daily Tips on Learning English. Today’s tip is on sound
linking.
Remember that although written English has spaces between every word,
spoken English doesn’t have pauses after every word. As a matter of
fact, long strings of words are all linked together. And it is this linking,
which often makes it difficult for learners of English to understand native
speaker’s talking. Today’s tip is to notice how the “h” sound is often
dropped in personal pronouns such as “he”, “him”, “his” and
“her”. And when it is dropped, what is left is a vowel sound, and the
17
vowel sound is always linked to the preceding word.
Let’s look at an example. Give her a book. Giv-er a book. Notice how
the “h” is dropped and how “give her” become “giv-er”. Look at
another example. Tell him to ask her. Tell-im to ask-er. Did you notice
that “tell him” became “tell-im” and “ask her” became “ask-er”?
This happens very frequently in spoken English, especially when “he”
follows an auxiliary verb. For example, “what will he do?” becomes
“What will-i do?” “Where will he go?” becomes “Where will-i go?”
“When will he come?” becomes “When will-i come?” “Who will he
meet?” becomes “Who will-i meet?” “How will he know?” becomes
“How will-i know?” “Has he gone?” becomes “Has-i gone?” “Had
he done it before?” becomes “Had-i done it before?” “Must he
go?” becomes “Must-i go?” “Can he do it?” becomes “Can-i do
it?” “Should he leave?” becomes “Should-I leave?” it’s important
to accustom yourself to the dropped “h” sound in sound linking. This
has been today’s daily tip. Tune in tomorrow for another tip on learning
English.
美语听力与发音技巧 第6期（辅音连续）
Welcome to Daily Tips on Learning English. Today’s tip is on sound
linking.
When 2 identical or similar consonants are in a row, most sounds are not
pronounced. For example, stop Peter. “stop” ends in the sound “p”,
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and “Peter” begins in the same sound. Together the words are linked
as “sto-peter”. The words aren’t pronounced stop Peter. To
pronounce two identical sounds one after another, would sound like
someone stuttering. English words are always linked smoothly. Similar
but not identical sounds such as voiced and voiceless pairs of
consonants are also linked in this way. For example, it’s a big cake.
“big” begins in the sound “g”, cake begins with the sound “k”.
“k” and “g” differ only in that “k” is voiceless and “g” is voiced.
When they are next to each other in a phrase they’re linked smoothly
by not aspirating or pronouncing fully the first of the 2 sounds. Listen
carefully as I read the example again. It’s a big cake. Notice how the
first sound “g” is not released. If the pair of sounds is reversed, like in
“I like goats.” it is the “k” sound which is not pronounced. Listen
closely. I like goats. I like goats.
There’re 8 pairs of consonants that differ only in the presence or lack of
vocal cord vibration. Listen as I give one example of sound linking for
each pair.
v, f : I love France.
δ,θ: Let’s bathe three times.
z, s : She is Susan.
з,∫: The garage should be cleaned.
dз,t∫: He has a huge chin.
b, p : Put the cap back on.
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d, t : Dad told me.
k, g : I like Gavin. (? )
It is important to include this type of sound linking in your speech if you
want to achieve fluency. It is also important to be aware of how this
linking affects how spoken English sounds. Otherwise you may not
understand native speaker’s speech. This has been today’s daily tip.
Tune in tomorrow for another on learning English.
美语听力与发音技巧 第7期（冠词“a”）
Welcome to Daily Tips on Learning English. Today’s tip is on using or
omitting the English article “a” correctly.
There’s no single rule that explains how to choose whether you should
use “a”, use “the” or not use any article at all. Sometimes there’s
only one correct choice, and in other cases, different choices change the
meaning of the sentence. Today let’s discuss the most frequently
occurring differences between using the article “a” and using no
article. All English nouns can be divided into 2 classes: those that are
countable and those that are uncountable.
It is the meaning of a noun as it is used in a sentence which determines
whether it is countable or uncountable. For instance, in the sentence
“She has long hair.”, “hair” is uncountable. But in the sentence
“There’s a hair in my soup.”,” hair” is countable. This can create
some interesting mistakes. For example, “I like a dog” does not mean
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我喜欢狗, that should be “I like dogs.” If you say “I like dog”, that
means you like to eat dog meat. If you say “I ate a hamburger”, that
means 我吃了一个汉堡, but if you say “I ate hamburger”, that means
you ate raw ground beef. If you say “I ate a cake’, that means you ate a
whole cake, which is very unlikely. You should have said, “I ate cake”,
then it means you ate some cake.
Notice how the use of the article “a” means that the noun it precedes
is countable, and therefore you’re talking about a whole one, an entire
one. If you omit the article “a”, then it means that you can’t count the
noun it precedes, and therefore you are talking about a piece or a
quantity or something. So remember to pay careful attention to whether
nouns are being used to a countable or uncountable meaning, and be
sure to use or omit the article “a” accordingly. This has been today’s
daily tip. Tune in tomorrow for another tip on learning English.
美语听力与发音技巧 第8期（冠词的用法与读音）
Welcome to Daily Tips on Learning English. Today’s tip is on using the
articles “a”, “an” and “the” correctly.
Every student of English has my sympathy in his struggles with the
English articles. They are one of the most difficult parts of learning
English. First of all, I urge you to do this. Listen to native speakers. When
you listen, listen carefully, since the articles “the” and “a” are almost
never emphasized, they do not stand out prominently in speech, but
21
they’re pronounced. You will have to train your ears so that you will
recognize that the little sounds before certain words are articles, and not
meaningless noises. Also, get in the habit of pronouncing the articles in
the way native speakers do. As little sounds that are part of the word
they precede. For instance, think of and say “the boy”as one word.
Listen to this short sentence. The boy likes the girl. Say it naturally, the
boy likes the girl. Did you notice how the articles are just small sounds
linked to the nouns? Listen to another example. There is a pen on a desk
in the classroom. Say it naturally, there is a pen on a desk in the
classroom. Did you notice how all the sounds, especially articles are
linked together? The article “an” is used before nouns beginning with
a vowel sound, such as “an apple”. Notice how the “n” sound is
linked to the word which follows it. Also notice that words that spelled
with the letter “h” in the beginning such as “hour” also use the
article “an” because the “h” isn’t pronounced. So we say,
“an-our”, not “a hour”. And some words spelled with the letter “u”
in the beginning such as “unicycle” use the article “a” because the
first sound is the “y” sound “j”. So we say, a unicycle, not an unicycle.
It’s also important to note that the pronunciation of the article “the”
changes to “δi :” before words beginning with a vowel sound. So we
say “δi :” elevator, not “δэ”elevator.
Another tip is, do not be misled by newspaper headlines, advertisements
and titles of book and so forth. They frequently omit articles which are
22
necessary in complete sentences in both spoken and written English.
Knowing when to use “a”, when to use “the”, and when not to use
any article at all is undoubtably one of the most difficult aspects of
learning English. We will talk about this topic more in an upcoming daily
tip. Tune in tomorrow for another tip on learning English.
美语听力与发音技巧 第9期（句子中的重音）
Welcome to Daily Tips on Learning English. Today’s tip is on word
stress on sentences.
In general, it is true that content words are stressed whereas function
words are not stressed. Content words usually convey the meaning of
the sentence. Function words make the sentence grammatically correct.
Content words are: nouns, main verbs, adjectives, adverbs, this, that,
these, those, and “wh-“ words, who, what, when, why, how, which.
Function words are: articles, such as “a” and “the”; possessive
adjectives, such as “his”, “my”, “your”; prepositions, such as “in”,
“on”, “of”; conjunctions, such as “and”, “but”; personal
pronouns, such as “ I”, “he”, “she”; the “be” verb, “am”, “is”,
“are”, “was”, “were”; and auxiliaries, such as “do”, “does”,
“did”.
Take for example the sentence “Andrew brushes his teeth every
morning.” The content word alone can convey the meaning of the
sentence, namely “Andrew brushes teeth every morning.” The
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functional word “his” only makes the sentence grammatically correct.
So “his” is unstressed, the other words are stressed. Why isn’t “his”
stressed? Because of course he brushes his teeth, not your teeth, or my
teeth. This we would naturally assume. If, however, Andrew brushes
someone else’s teeth beside his own, then it would be very important
to let your listener know that by stressing whose teeth he brushes.
So, what words should be stressed? The simple answer is whatever words
are important to the meaning you are trying to convey. if someone write
the sentence on the board out of context and asks, “Which words are
important? Which words should you stress?” You should answer, “That
depends on the context.” Stress is used to let your listener know what is
important to your message. If you stress words properly, your listener
will have an easy time understanding your message. If you stress every
word equally, then your listener will have to listen very carefully and try
to guess the main point of your message. If your stress the wrong words,
the listener will misunderstand your message or just feel very confused.
So remember to stress the important words to your massage.
This has been today’s daily tip. Tune in tomorrow for another tip on
learning English.
美语听力与发音技巧 第10期（断句）
Welcome to Daily Tips on Learning English. Today’s tip is on the use of
pauses in English speech.
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Although written English has spaces between every word, spoken English
doesn’t have pauses between each word, rather words are linked
together. However, people do not normally speak without pausing at all.
We do pause in speech. While in written English, there are periods,
commas, semicolons and question marks. But we also pause in long
sentences without punctuation marks. Let’s look at some examples. My
mother listens to the radio in the evening. This sentence can be said
without pausing, because it isn’t very long. But if I were to pause, I
would say, “My mother/ listens to the radio/ in the evening.” Why?
Because pauses come between thought groups----groups of words that
express one thought.
For example, “in the evening” is a thought group. Let’s make the
sentence longer. My mother listens to the radio in the evening, plays
tennis in the afternoon, and cleans the house in the morning. Now it is
necessary to pause because the sentence is very long. Pauses come
between thought groups, and help the listeners organize the information
they hear. Listen to sentence again. My mother listens to the radio in the
evening, plays tennis in the afternoon, and cleans the house in the
morning. If you pause in the wrong places, listeners will have a harder
time organizing the information. Listen to the sentence read again with
improper pausing. My mother listens to the radio in/ the evening, plays
tennis in /the afternoon, and cleans the/ house in the morning. Now the
sentence is almost impossible to understand, so remember to pause
25
between thought groups, to help your listeners easily organize what they
hear.
This has been today's tip on learning English. Tune in tomorrow for
another tip on learning English.
美语听力与发音技巧 第11期（定语从句前的停顿）
Welcome to Daily Tips on Learning English. Today’s tip is on when to
use pauses before adjective clauses.
Let’s take an example. In the sentence “My sister who lives in San
Francisco is a doctor”, the adjective clause is “who lives in San
Francisco”. It describes my “sister”. There’s no pause before the
adjective clause. So, it means that I have more than one sister, and the
one who lives in San Francisco is doctor. There’s a pause after an
adjective clause because it is a long sentence. But there can be no pause
in the group of words “my sister who lives in San Francisco”. Because
this is one idea or thought group. Listen to the sentence again. “My
sister who lives in San Francisco is a doctor.” The same words used in
that sentence have a different meaning if there’s a pause before the
adjective clause “who lives in San Francisco”. Listen to the new
sentence. “My sister, who lives in San Francisco, is a doctor.” Now
there’s a pause before, and a pause after the adjective clause, and in
writing, there now is a comma before and a comma after the adjective
clause. This sentence means that I have only one sister. She is a doctor,
26
and by the way, she lives in San Francisco. The information conveyed by
who lives in San Francisco is not necessary to understand whom I am
talking about, as I only have one sister. I just added it in passing.
If you say, “My girl friend who drives a BMW is a good dancer.”
You’re saying that you have more than one girl friend. “My boss who
is very generous gives me a raise every year” means I have more than
one boss. “Hawaii which is an island in the Pacific is a poplar tourist
spot” means there’s another Hawaii not in the Pacific. So remember to
pause before and after adjective clauses only when it is referring to
something or someone of which there’s only one.
This has been today’s daily tip on learning English.
美语听力与发音技巧 第12期（问句的语调）
Welcome to Daily Tips on Learning English. Today’s tip is on the
intonation of questions.
Remember that intonation is the rising and falling of the pitch of your
voice. So “she’s here.” is a statement, but “she’s here?” is a
question. But it isn’t true that all questions have a rising intonation.
Today, let’s just look at the intonation of three types of questions:
“Yes/No” questions, “Wh-” questions and choice questions.
“Yes/No” questions have a rising intonation. “Wh-”qusetions have a
falling intonation. And choice questions have a rising intonation for
every choice except the last choice, which has a falling intonation.
27
“Yes/No” questions such as “Do you like Taiwan?” “Can you speak
Chinese?” have a rising intonation. The listener must answer either
“yes” or “no”. “Wh-” questions start with the words “who”,
“what”, “where”, “when”,” why”, “which” and “how”.
“Wh-” questions have a falling tone. For example, “What time is
it?↘” “Where do you live?↘” Don’t say “What time is it?↗”
“Where do you live?↗” In choice questions, the listener is expected to
choose one item from several. For example, “Would you like juice, Coke,
Tea or coffee?” A rising tone is used for every choice except the last,
which has a falling tone. Listen to another example. “Do you like
basketball, baseball, soccer or football?”. So remember that “Yes/No”
questions, “Wh-” questions, and choice question have different
intonation patterns, and make sure to intone them properly.
This has been today’s daily tip on learning English. Tune in tomorrow
for another tip.
美语听力与发音技巧 第13期（是YES还是NO）
Welcome to Daily Tips on Learning English. Today’s tip is on answering
“Yes/No” questions correctly.
In English, “Yes” is always followed by affirmative statements. “No”
is always followed by negative statements.
This means you can’t say, “Yes, I haven’t eaten dinner yet.” Or “No,
I did my home work.” Chinese allows this, but English does not.
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There’re different kinds of “Yes/No” questions. Simple “Yes/No”
questions such as “Do you speak English?” “Are you hungry?” pose
no problem. But negative questions such as “Don’t you speak
English?” “Aren’t you hungry?” require the same answers. “Yes, I
do.” “No, I don’t.” or “Yes, I am.” “No, I’m not.” Chinese
learners of English are often misled by negative questions, and answer,
“Yes, I don’t speak English.” Or “Yes, I’m not hungry.” by accident.
Another type of “Yes/No” questions is to use a rising intonation with a
statement. For example, you ask a Chinese person, “Did you eat
dinner?” and he says, “No, I didn’t.” You’re surprised, so you ask,
“You didn’t eat dinner?” and he answers, “Yes.” instead of “No”.
Don’t use “yes” to mean “是的”. You should say, “That’s
correct.” In the example above, “Yes” means “Yes, I ate dinner.” Not
“Correct, I didn’t eat dinner. Let’s look at another example. I think
that all Chinese people like to eat rice. So, when my Chinese friend tells
me that he never eats rice, I was very surprised, and I ask, “You don’t
like to eat rice?” and he answers, “Yes.” This is wrong. Because in
English, you can not say, “Yes, I don’t like to eat rice.” He should
answer, “No.” or “That’s correct.” So remember, “Yes” must be
followed by affirmative statements, and “No” must be followed by
negative statements.
This has been today’s daily tip on learning English. Tune in tomorrow
for another tip.
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美语听力与发音技巧 第14期（“t”的发音）
Welcome to Daily Tips on Learning English. Today’s tip is on the
pronunciation of the letter “t”.
Of course the letter “t” is usually pounced “t”. But you may have
noticed that in fluent speech, native speakers sometimes pronounced
the “t” as “d”. That happens when the “t” comes between two
voiced sounds.
Do you know what sounds in English are voiced? Well, there’re 15
voiced consonant sounds in English. b, d, g, m, n, ɡ, z,δ, l, r, dз,з,j,w. Also,
all vowel and diphthong sounds in English are voiced. So let’s look at
some examples of words in which the “t” may be pronounced “d”.
No.1 “matter”. “matter” is often pronounced “mader” as in
“What’s the matter?”
No.2 “atom”. “atom” is often pronounced “adom” as in “The first
atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.”
No.3 “twenty”. “twenty” is often pronounced “twendi” as in
“That will be twenty dollars, please.”
No.4 “little”. “little” is often pronounced “liddle” as in “He got a
little angry.”
No.5 “city”. “city” is often pronounced “cidi” as in “Did you grow
up in the city or the country?”
No.6 “butter”. “butter” is often pronounced “buder” as in “Pass
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the butter, please.”
When people speak slowly or emphatically, however, they usually
pronounce the “t” like “t”, not like “d”. Also, a “t” does not
sound like “d” when it comes before a stressed vowel as in “return”.
This has been today’s daily tip on learning English. Tune in tomorrow
for another tip.
美语听力与发音技巧 第15期（助动词的强调）
Welcome to Daily Tips on Learning English. Today’s tip is on when to
stress auxiliary verbs.
Although auxiliary verbs are not usually stressed, when we want to
strongly emphasize a verb, we stress the auxiliary verb. And if there’s
no auxiliary verb, we add one. These sentences are called emphatic
sentences. For example, compare the sentences “He’s done his home
work” and “He has done his home work.” Usually we would say,
“He’s done his homework.” And the auxiliary verb “has” would not
be stressed. But if we want to emphasize the meaning of “has done”,
we stress the auxiliary verb “He has done his homework.” This is an
emphatic sentence. Sentences which don’t usually contain an auxiliary
verb has an auxiliary verb in emphatic sentences, and it is always stressed.
Emphatic sentences are usually used after someone has expressed the
opposite meaning. For example, “-You didn’t finish your homework.”
“-I did finish my homework.” “-Maybe she doesn’t know how to
31
drive.” “-On the contrary, he does know how to drive.” “-You don’t
speak Chinese, do you?” “I do speak Chinese. I just wanted to give you
some practice speaking English.”
Did you notice how I said “I did finish” instead of “I finished”, and
“she does know” instead of “she knows”, “I do speak” instead of
“I speak”. The auxiliary verbs “did”, “does” and “do” were added
to make the sentence more emphatic
Be careful though not to use emphatic sentences unless you have a
reason. Don’t think that you can not learn the past tense of every verb
and just say “I did eat”, “I did go” instead of “I ate” and “I went”.
If you do this, your listeners will be confused. Your listeners will be
thinking, “Why is that so important?” “Why is he stressing that so
much?” This is not just another way of saying “I ate” and “I went”.
You can only say “I did eat” and “I did go” when there’s a reason
for stressing this.
So remember that although auxiliary verbs are not usually stressed, in
emphatic sentences they are. This has been today’s daily tip on learning
English. Tune in tomorrow for another tip.
美语听力与发音技巧 第16期（附加问句的语调）
Welcome to Daily Tips on Learning English. Today’s tip is on the
intonation of tag questions.
Tag questions are used in two very different ways, and the difference
32
depends on whether you use a rising or falling pitch at the end of the tag
question. One way tag questions are used is to get your listener to agree
with you about something you think is a fact, or must be true.
If you think a lady is beautiful, you say, “She is beautiful, isn’t she?↘”
You expect the listener to say, “Yes, she is.” If you know a man is not
rich, you say, “He isn’t rich, is he?↘” You expect the listener to say,
“No, he isn’t.” When you use a tag question to get your listener to
agree, you must use a falling intonation. “She is beautiful, isn’t
she?↘” “He isn’t rich, is he?↘”
The other way tag questions are used is to ask for information. You
don’t know the answer, so you ask in a question. “She is beautiful,
isn’t she?↗” “He isn’t rich, is he?↗” when you really don’t know
the answer, you should use a rising intonation. So, “He isn’t rich, is
he?↘” you know that he isn’t rich. But, “He isn’t rich, is he?↗” you
don’t know whether he is rich or not.
Listen to another example. “You like Taiwan, don’t you?↗” “You like
Taiwan, don’t you?↘”
So remember to use the proper intonation when you use tag questions.
This has been today’s daily tip on learning English. Tune in tomorrow
for another tip.
美语听力与发音技巧 第17期（自然的连续）
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Welcome to Daily Tips on Learning English. Today’s tip is on sound
linking.
When certain sounds are linked together, the resulting sound is merely
the combination of the two original sounds. For example, “one apple”
is pronounced “one-napple”, and “four apples” is pronounced
“four-rapples”. However, when other sounds are linked, there’s a
blending of the sounds. The sounds are linked smoothly without any
break. For example, “two apples” are pronounced as if there’s an
additional “w” sound “w” in between the words. “two apples”,
“two apples”. And when the words “three” and “apple” are linked,
it sounds as if there were an additional “y”sound “i” between the
words. “three apples”, “three apples”, “three apples”. This is
because the sounds between the words are linked smoothly without any
break. “two-w-apples”, not “two” “apples”. “three-i-apples”,
not “three apples.” Pay careful attention how sounds are blended
together.
Another good example is how words ending in a “t” or “d” sound
“t” or “d” are linked to words beginning with a “y” sound “j”.
For example, “Did you do it?” becomes “Did-you do it?” “Would
you do it?” becomes “would-you do it?” Notice how together “did”
“you” becomes “Did-you” and “would” “you” becomes
“would-you”, and “do” “it” becomes “do-it”. Listen again as I
give more examples. “Did you do it?” “Did you do it?” “Would you
34
do it?” “Would you do it?” “Should you do it?” “Should you do
it?” “Could you do it?” “Could you do it?”
And also notice when a word ending in the “t” sound “t” is followed
by a word beginning in a “y” sound “j”, you get the sound “t∫”.
For example, “Can’t you do it?” “Can’t you do it?” “Didn’t you
do it?” “Didn’t you do it?” “Couldn’t you do it?” “Couldn’t you
do it?” “Shouldn’t you do it?” “Shouldn’t you do it?”
“Wouldn’t you do it?” “Wouldn’t you do it?” “It’s nice to meet
you.” “It’s nice to meet you.”
Today’s tip is to pay careful attention to how words are blended
together, and how the resulting sound is often very different from the
original sounds. This has been today’s daily tip. Tune in tomorrow for
another tip on learning English.
美语听力与发音技巧 第18期（数字的发音）
Welcome to Daily Tips on Learning English. Today’s tip is on how to
distinguish the numbers 13, 30, 15, 50, 14, 40 and so on.
There’s often a lot of confusion when people use these words. People
often have to ask, “Did you say 16 or 60?” If you look at the sounds
used in this pairs of words, you will notice that the only difference is in
the final “n” sound “n” in the “-teen” words. Do people listen for
this sound to tell them which word has been said? Do people say this
sound loudly and clearly so that people will know which word they are
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saying? Native speakers don’t.
They use different stress patterns to distinguish the words. In the
“-teen” words, it’s the last syllable which is stressed. In the numbers
30, 40, 50 and so on, it’s the first syllable which is stressed. Also, when a
syllable is stressed, that syllable’s vowel sound is lengthened, and when
a syllable isn’t stressed, the vowel is shorter.
Listen to me say the words, and notice the different syllables being
stressed. 13, 30, 14, 40, 15, 50, 16, 60. Now listen to the length of vowels
in the different syllables. I will exaggerate them first so it’s easier to
notice. 13, 30, 14, 40, 15, 50. Now I will say them naturally. 13, 30, 14, 40,
15, 50, 16, 60, 17, 70, 18, 80, 19, 90. When you say these words, give
specially care to stressing the right syllable, and to the length of the
vowel sound in the stressed syllable. This has been today’s tip on
learning English. Tune in tomorrow for another tip.
美语听力与发音技巧 第19期（轻重音的重要性）
Welcome to Daily Tips on Learning English. Today’s tip is on stressed
and unstressed syllables.
Every English word has more than one syllable, and every complete
sentence has at least one stressed syllable.
A stressed syllable is pronounced more prominently than surrounding
syllables. Simply put, we say it louder and we lengthen the vowel sound.
Unstressed syllables are just the opposite. They are not as loud and the
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vowel sound is usually reduced. Vowel sounds are most often reduced to
“э”or to “ⅰ”. For example, in the word “purpose”, the first syllable
is stressed, and the vowel of the second syllable can be reduced to either
“э”as in “purpose” or “i” as in “purpose”. Let me give you a
complete sentence. “I didn’t do it on purpose.” “I didn’t do it on
purpose.” The following word has three syllables. Which syllable is
stressed? “banana”. That’s right. The second syllable is stressed.
Listen now for the lengthening of the vowel in the stressed syllable.
“bana-na”, “bana-na”. It’s very important to stress the proper
syllable, to lengthen stressed syllables, and to reduce unstressed vowels.
This is essential if you want to achieve a proper English rhythm. If every
syllable is given equal stress and length, what you will sound like is a
robot. “I didn’t do it on purpose.” “I didn’t do it on purpose.”
Proper rhythm comes from stressing only certain syllables, and
lengthening those syllables, while reducing the others.
Listen again to the example sentence, and notice how only certain
syllables are stressed and lengthened. “I didn’t do it on purpose.”……
We will talk about how to figure out what syllables or words to stress at
the sentence level in an upcoming program. But today’s tip is to make
sure when you learn words of more than one syllable, you give special
care to learning which syllable or syllables are stressed, and to remember
to lengthen the vowels in those syllables.
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This has been today’s daily tip on learning English. Tune in tomorrow
for another tip.
美语听力与发音技巧 第20期（清浊辅音的区别）
Welcome to Daily Tips on Learning English. Today’s tip is on the
difference between voiced and voiced pairs of consonants.
This difference is important, as it is the basis for learning other aspects of
spoken English. First, let’s explain this difference. Let’s compare some
consonants, for example, t, d, p, b, k, g, s, z. These sounds differ only in
that the first is voiceless and the second is voiced. Put your hand in front
of your mouth and say” “t”, then say “d”. Try it again with “s”,
“z”. Did you notice that “t”, “s” have more breath or air coming
out of your mouth than “d”, “z”. Now put your hand around the
front of your throat. Try it again. Say “t”, “d”, “s”, “z”. Did you
notice that “t”, “s” have no vibration, whereas “d”, “z”, there’s
a vibration?
The sounds with a lot of breath but no vibration are called voiceless,
because the vocal cords are not vibrating. The sounds with little breath
but a lot of vibration are called voiced, because the vocal cords are
vibrating. Tomorrow we will discuss how vowels followed by voiceless
consonants are shorter than vowels followed by voiced consonants.
Let’s just look at one example today. “bet”, “bed”. Did you notice
how the vowel sound “e” is shorter before “t” and longer before
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“d”? Tune in tomorrow for more examples of this feature of English.
That has been today’s tip on learning English.
美语听力与发音技巧 第21期（及物和不及物动词）
Welcome to Daily Tips on Learning English. Today’s tip is to be aware of
how some verbs in English, transitive verbs, require an object.
Not using an object after a transitive verb is a common mistake made by
learners of English. For example, although in Chinese, you can say, “我喜欢”or “我不喜欢”without mentioning what you are talking about, in
English, “like” requires an object. So you can’t say, “I like.” or “I
don’t like.” You must say, “I like it.” or “I like them.” “I like her.”
“I like you.” “I like Taiwan.” or “I don’t like it.” “I don’t like
them.” “I don’t like him.” “I don’t like singing at KTVs.” You must
use an object after “like” because it is a transitive verb. Another
common word which is misused is “want”. “want” is also a transitive
verb and must be followed by an object. You cannot ask “do you want”
as in the Chinese “你要不要？”“你要吗？”You must ask “Do you
want some?” if you are asking about something uncountable like coffee
or tea. “Do you want it?” if you are asking about a singular countable
object like the last piece of pizza. “Do you want them?” if you are
asking about plural countable objects such as some books. And “Do
you want to?” or “Do you want to do it?” if you are asking about
doing something like going to a movie or going to a concert. The two
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verbs “like” and “want” are the two most commonly misused
transitive verbs as in “I like” or “I want”. Be careful to complete the
meaning of these transitive verbs by adding an object. And when using a
pronoun, be careful to choose the proper pronoun. In English, certain
verbs are used only transitively, some are used only intransitively, and
some are used at times transitively and at other times intransitively.
Today’s tip is to pay special attention when learning verbs, to learn
whether or not the verb is transitive, and not to neglect adding an object
if it is. This has been today’s daily tips on learning English. Tune in
tomorrow for another tip.
美语听力与发音技巧 第22期（a 和 the 的用法）
Welcome to Daily Tips on learning English. Today’s tip is on using the
articles “a” and “the” correctly.
More specifically, today’s tip is on the difference between using “a”
or “an” before a singular countable noun and using “the” or
“the(i:)” before a singular countable noun. Most frequently, both “a”
and “the” are used to refer to a specimen of a group of things, for
example, “a table” and “the table” both refer to one table out of the
group of all tables. When people say “the table”, they mean the table
that we’ve been talking about and which you know about. So if you
begin to talk about a new object about which your listener knows
nothing, you must use the article “a”. But after you have introduced
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the object, or future references are preceded by the article “the”.
Let’s take a simple example. “I bought a table yesterday. The table is in
the living room. I really like the table.” Did you notice how the article
“a” was used first, and then after that, the article “the” was used. If
you said, “I bought the table yesterday” instead of “I bought a table
yesterday”, you would mean that you and the listener are talking about
some table previously. If you hadn’t talked about any table previously,
the listener would be confused and would probably ask you, “What
table?”
Let take another example. “I put together a jigsaw puzzle yesterday.
Really? How often do you put together a jigsaw puzzle?” Notice that the
article “a” was used in both sentences before “jigsaw puzzle”.
That’s because the question, “How often do you put together a jigsaw
puzzle” was not referring to the same jigsaw puzzle mentioned in the
first sentence. If you ask, “How often do you put together the jigsaw
puzzle?” you would be asking how often the listener put together the
same jigsaw puzzle, you would be saying the person puts together, then
takes apart, then puts together the same jigsaw puzzle over and over
again. And that’s a silly thing to ask.
So remember, “the” is used to refer to a previously mentioned
specimen, something about which the listener knows. The article “a” is
used to refer to a specimen which hasn’t been mentioned before,
something which the listener doesn’t know about.
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This has been today’s tip on learning English. Tune in tomorrow for
another tip.
美语听力与发音技巧 第23期（如何使用 the）
Welcome to Daily Tips on Learning English. Today’s tip is on using the
English article “the” correctly. The article “the” is most frequently
used to refer to a previously mentioned object. The use of “the”
indicates that your listener should know which object you are referring to.
One reason the listener might know which object you are referring to is
that you were just talking about it earlier. However, sometimes the article
“the” is used even when the object hasn’t been mentioned previously.
A speaker can use the article “the”to indicate that the object is very
familiar to the listener. For example, a man and his wife might have a
conversation about their car.
“I’m going to pick up the car at the garage on the way to the health
club. Make sure to check the radio to see if the mechanic fix the power
button.” Although the things car, garage, health club, radio, mechanic
and power button had not been mentioned earlier, both the husband
and wife know that the are talking about their car, the garage and health
club they always go to, the radio in their car, the mechanic at the garage
they always go to, the power button of the radio in their car.
Another reason why the article “the” is used is that the object is so
frequently referred to that every body knows which one is being referred
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to. Although there are many suns with many moons orbiting them, when
we say the sun and the moon, we mean those which we see every day
and night. Similarly, we use the article “the” for objects present at the
time of speaking. For example, the floor is the floor we are standing on.
Other words used like this include the air, the earth, the world, the sky,
the rain, the whether, the wind and the Bible. So remember that when an
item is very familiar to the listener or very frequently referred to, or the
only one present at the time, we use the article “the”.This has been
today’s daily tip. Tune in tomorrow for another tip on learning English.
美语听力与发音技巧 第24期（那些词重读呢）
Welcome to Daily Tips on Learning English. Today’s tip is on contrastive
stress.
If you listen to previous daily tips, you will recall that content words, such
as nouns, main verbs, adjectives and adverbs are normally stressed, and
function words, such as personal pronouns, possessive adjectives and
prepositions are normally not stressed.
However, there are exceptions to this rule. The exceptions to conform to
the universal rule for word stress, namely, you should stress the words
that are important in the context. Let’s look at some examples. The
sentence “I put your pen in my desk” would normally have the words
“put”, “pen” and “desk” stressed, but if the listener didn’t hear
me clearly and started looking for his pen on my desk. I would change
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the stress to the word “in”. I would say, “No, I put your pen in my desk,
not on my desk.” The information conveyed by the preposition “in”
has now become the most important word, and so receives the greatest
stress. So now he looks in my desk and finds the pen. But he says, “This
isn’t my pen. This is your pen.” Although the possessive adjectives
“your” and “my” are not normally stressed, here they are very
important to convey the message and so they receive the greatest stress.
Let’s look at another example. Two people are ordering in a restaurant.
One says, “I will have a ham and cheese sandwich and a small bow of
soup.” And then the other says, “I will have a ham and egg sandwich,
and a large bow of soup. Did you notice how the second person who
order stresses the word “egg” and “large”? That’s because those
words were different from what came before. This is called contrastive
stress.
Today’s daily tip is to make sure to stress the most important words in
your speech. Tune in tomorrow for another daily tip.
美语听力与发音技巧 第25期（短句的断句）
Welcome to Daily Tips on learning English. Today’s tip is on the
importance of pausing to mark the boundary between phrases or
thought groups.
In a previous tip, I mentioned how in long sentences, it is necessary to
pause between thought groups. However, relatively short sentences may
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also require pauses to help the listeners organize the stream of sounds
correctly. Let’s look at some examples. In the question “what time do
you come in in the morning?” It is necessary to pause between the two
prepositions “in”. If you pause after the word “come”, “what time
do you come / in in the morning?” Then the listeners will be confused,
because “come in” and “in the morning” are two separate thought
groups. Here’s another similar example. “Look your papers over over
the weekend.” You need to pause between the two “over”s to help
your listeners organize your words. If you pause somewhere else like
“Look your papers / over over the weekend”, nobody will understand
you. Sometimes pausing in the wrong place will change the meaning of
what you say.
For example, let’s take two sentences. Sentence 1: “I usually eat sushi
for lunch.” Sentence 2: “I ate noodles today.” When you put the two
sentences together in speech, you must pause slightly between them. “I
usually eat sushi for lunch. I ate noodles today.” If you pause after the
word “sushi”, the meaning changes. “I usually eat sushi. For lunch I
ate noodles today.” So remember to use pauses to group ideas
together. If you pause in the middle of ideas, or group pieces of different
ideas together, your listeners will have a hard time understanding you.
This has been today’s daily tip. Tune in tomorrow for another tip on
learning English.
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美语听力与发音技巧 第26期（不定式和动名词）
Welcome to Daily Tips on learning English. Today’s tip is on verbs
which are followed by infinitives or gerunds.
Some verbs are followed by infinitives, such as “I plan to go”. “to go”
is an infinitive. Some verbs are followed by gerunds, such as “I enjoy
teaching English”. “teaching” is a gerund. You cannot say, “I plan
going” or “I enjoy to teach English”. Most verbs are followed by
either the infinitive or the gerund, and when you learn the verb, you must
make sure to memorize which one is used since there is no rule to tell
you.
There are only nine verbs which can be followed by either the gerund or
the infinitive with no difference in meaning. These verbs are “begin”,
“start”, “continue”, “like”, “love”, “hate”, “prefer”, “can’t
stand” and “can’t bear”. These verbs can be followed by either the
infinitive or the gerund with no difference in meaning. So “I like
listening to the radio” and “I like to listen to the radio” both mean the
same thing. There are also five verbs which can be followed by either an
infinitive or a gerent but which have different meanings depending on
whether you use the infinitive or the gerund. These verbs are
“remember”, “forget”, “regret”, “try” and “stop”. Pay special
attention when using these verbs, as the meaning of the sentence will
change depending on which you choose.
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This has been today’s daily tip on learning English. Tune in tomorrow
for another tip.
美语听力与发音技巧 第27期（remember 的用法）
Welcome to Daily Tips on Learning English. Today’s tip is on the
difference in meaning between “remember doing something” and
“remember to do something”.
Let’s take an example. What’s the difference between “I remember
locking the door” and “I remember to lock the door”? Well,
“remember doing something” means you recall doing something you
did in the past, and “remember to do something” means to remember
to perform a responsibility, duty or task at the proper time.
So, “I remember locking the door” means in the past, I locked the door,
and now, I still recall doing it. There’s still a memory in my mind. I
haven’t forgotten what I did. On the other hand, “I remember to lock
the door” means at the moment I leave my house, I should lock the
door. At that moment, I always remember to lock the door. It’s not my
habit to forget to lock the door when I leave my house. Therefore, if you
are reminding someone to do something in the future, you say,
“Remember to turn off the light.” “Remember to feed the dog.”
“Remember to say ‘please’.” On the other hand, if you are telling
someone about memory you have or don’t have, you say, for example,
“I remember closing the door. Who opened it?” “I don’t remember
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meeting you before. Are you sure we have met?”
So pay special care when using the verb “remember”, you must
choose the right form of the verb you use after it. This has been today’s
daily tip on learning English. Tune in tomorrow for another tip.
美语听力与发音技巧 第28期（forget 的用法）
Welcome to Daily Tips on Learning English. Today’s tip is on the
difference in meaning between “forget doing something” and “forget
to do something”.
Let’s take an example. What’s the difference between “I will never
forget to lock the door” and “I will never forget locking the door”?
Well, “I will never forget to lock the door” is a promose to lock the
door in the future. You are saying that every time you leave your home in
the future, you will remember to lock the door. On the other hand, “I
will never forget locking the door” means that you locked the door one
time in the past. And that for some reason, the memory of locking the
door that time will never be forgotten. Maybe you locked yourself into
your house and couldn’t get out for a week.
So, if you are reminding someone to do something in the future, say,
“Don’t forget to bring your keys.” “Don’t forget to come early
tomorrow.” Or “Don’t forget to turn off the TV.” On the other hand,
if you are telling someome about a memory of doing something in the
past that you will always remember, you say, “I will never forget seeing
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