Pronunciation Lessons

Center for Language Education HKUST

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Lesson 13 - Pronouncing "long" vowels ending in voiced consonants

Practice

Long vowels followed by certain voiced consonants (b, d, g, v, l, n, m) are difficult for even very advanced Cantonese speakers of English: e.g., hard /hɑːd/

Practise saying the words below which all end in voiced consonants. The dash (—) above the words indicates a strong syllable.

—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
heard	bird	bored	food	third	board	halve	card	word
—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
arm	man	fall	harm	nerd	pearl	small	curl	nerve

Practice

Now practise these phrases linking the words to a following vowel:

heard_about_it	bird_of_prey	third_in_line	halve_it
fall_out	harm_it	hard_of_hearing	lead_on
full_of_gas	board_it_up