Stress and the Schwa Sound
Stressed syllabes
The rhythm of English The Schwa sound The General Rule 1 The General Rule 2 Words with Latin or Greek suffixes 1 Words with Latin or Greek suffixes 2 Words in -ion
Limericks
Limericks are short poems. They are funny – if you like that type of humour!
They are used here because they have good examples of the contractions and weak forms typical of spoken English.
There once was a lady from Niger
Schwa exercise Stress exercise
There once was a lady from Ryde
Schwa exercise Stress exercise
There once was a fellow from Lyme
Schwa exercise Stress exercise
There once was a fellow from Ryde
Schwa exercise Stress exercise
There was an old man from Darjeeling
Schwa exercise Stress exercise
There was a young lady from Tottenham
Schwa exercise Stress exercise
Pronunciation of the -ed ending
To understand why there are different pronunciations to the verb ending written -ed (opened, laughed, wanted) first read the resource before doing the exercices :
Pronunciation of the -ed ending 1 Pronunciation of the -ed ending 2
The magic “e”
The objective of the exercises is to understand how to pronounce words which are written with a final, silent “e”.
The meaning of the words is not important. Some words are very uncommon.
Here is a question to ask yourself : What is the function of the silent letter “e” at the end of some words ? Try and find the answer for yourself as you do the exercises. You can check your hypothesis at the end in the final Magic “e” rule exercise.
Set 1
Letter A exercise Letter E exercise Letter I exercise Letter O exercise Letter U exercise
Set 2
Letter A exercise Letter E exercise Letter I exercise Letter O exercise Letter U exercise Magic “e” rule
Minimal pairs
For the moment, there’s just one exercise :