Week 12: Basic Emphasis Pattern (2)

Basic Emphasis Pattern: Structure Words

Contractions

To contract means to make something smaller. Contractions are a normal part of spoken English. Contractions reduce attention to structure words, helping to make the content words easier to notice.

Let’s make a difference between some typical contractions and their full forms. Notice the change in the number of syllables.

Full Form	Contraction	Full Form	Contraction
I am	I’m	he has	he’s
is not	isn't	I will	I’ll
they have	they’ve	we have	we’ve
that is	that’s	you have	you’ve
I would	I’d	she had	she’d
she is	she’s	who is	who’s
cannot	can’t	where did	where’d
I have	I’ve	we are	we’re
why have	why’ve	they would	they’d
it has	it’s	it would	it’d

SENTENCES TO PRACTICE:

1.

a. They’ve already gone.

b. They’d already gone.

2.

a. How long’ve you been there?

b. How long’d you been there?

3.

a. Where’d you put that?

b. Where’ll you put that?

4.

a. It’ll cost a fortune.

b. It’d cost a fortune.

5.

a. We’re shut down completely.

b. We’d shut down completely.

6.

a. We’d be pleased to help.

b. We’ll be pleased to help.

7.

a. They’ll cut the bread.

b. They’d cut the bread.

c. They’ve cut the bread.

8.

a. What’ve you put in the soup?

b. What’ll you put in the soup?

9.

a. Where’d everybody go?

b. Where’ll everybody go?

10.

a. I’ve run in the race.

b. I’ll run in the race.

Week 12: Transcription by Thematic Units 11

Cape Town, South Africa

Transcription by Thematic Units 11:

Cities of the World

Shanghai, China

The following exercise requires that you listen to the following words and transcribe them in class. Listen to the words on the Google translation service at http://translate.google.co.cr/#. Then transcribe each of the words or phrases.

Warsaw, Poland

Device	Transcription
1. New York	/nyuw’yɔrk/
2. Madrid
3. Cape Town
4. Taipei
5. Moscow
6. Paris
7. Berlin
8. Shanghai
9. Tokyo
10. London
11. Warsaw
12. Seoul

Get a copy of the exercise here.

Get the answers here, but just after you have done the exercise.

Week 11: Basic Emphasis Pattern (1) Practices

Locating Content Words

Highlight the content words in the following sentences. Compare your highlighted words with a partner.

Example:

My cat eats fish and she likes to hunt mice in the garden.

1. Do you like the picture on your passport?

2. Did you take a test for a driver’s license in this country?

3. University students pay a lot of money for their books.

4. High school students get their books for free.

5. Do you think it is harder to speak or to hear a new language?

6. Is there a speed limit for cars in your country?

Emphasizing Content Words

Practice saying the following sentences. Make the stressed syllables long. That makes it easy to hear the content words.

1. He rented an apartment downtown.

2. The biology professor is famous.

3. The house painter is coming this week.

4. She’s writing the report for the board members.

5. It’s difficult to understand her accent.

6. Mr. Potter is planning to retire this year.

Emphasizing Content Words in a Limerick

A student was sent to Tacoma

Intending to earn a diploma.

He said, “with the rain,

I don’t want to remain.

I think I’d prefer Oklahoma.”

Week 11: Basic Emphasis Pattern (1)

Basic Emphasis Pattern (1):

Content Words

English speakers use a basic pattern for emphasis when reading or speaking. If you get to use this pattern correctly, you will:

· Hear them better,

· Understand their speech better, and

· Be understood better.

Basic Emphasis Pattern (1)
Content Words	Nouns	Main verbs	Adverbs	Adjectives	Question Words
	cat male truck	eat quit clean	slowly quickly nicely	pretty ugly normal	who where when
Structure Words	Pronouns	Prepositions	Articles	“to be” verbs	Conjunctions
	I you	in into on at over of	the a an	is am are was were	and but so yet
	Auxiliary verbs
	can could

Content words are easier to hear because they are given extra emphasis on the sentence.

Examples:

1. This is a cat.

2. What does it eat?

3. Please come quickly.

4. You did excellent work.

5. Why did you write the letter.

Content Word Practice

Write content words that fit these categories. Include at least 6 more words for each category.

Basic Emphasis Pattern (1)
Nouns	Verbs	Adverbs	Adjectives	Wh-Words
car office	run talk	quickly happily	red hot	who where

Get a copy of the info here to study.