Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[YI HSIEN CHEN]

Dear teacher:
I am a college student from Taiwan. I have some question about the pronunciation. I do not know it is because the accent or it is what I learned is wrong.

For example:
1.�happy� I pronounce /ˈh�pi/, but I heard that it is pronounced like /ˈh�bi/.
2.�score� I pronounce /skɔr/, but I heard that it is pronounced like /sgɔr/.

I am confused about it. Please give me an answer or some suggestion on pronunciation. Thank you.

Sincerely

YI HSIEN, CHEN

[lotus]

Hi,

You can listen to the proper pronunciations here (click on the speaker icon).

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/happy
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/score

Often, when we say things in a hurry, we pronounce it differently than if we were to annunciate it properly. The "b" in happy is a lazy releasing of the lips. The "g" in score is the unwillingess to extend your mouth to fully make the "or" sound. It's not unusual. Because there are no "habbi" or "sqore" words in English, there is no confusion.


--lotus
_________________
War does not make one great --Yoda

[Lorikeet]

There are different ways to pronounce "p" "t" and "k" in American English, depending on whether the sounds are at the beginning or end of a word, stressed or not, after an "s" etc.

If you have them in the beginning of a word, there is a puff of air attached to the consonant. When you say something like "pin" you should be able to feel the air if you hold your hand in front of your mouth when you say it. Sometimes teachers can hold a paper in front of their mouths when they say the word and the students can see the paper move. I even know some teachers who used to put out a match that way (before we didn't allow smoking in classrooms!)

On the other hand, if those sounds begin a syllable that does not have the strongest stress, or come after an "s", there is no puff of air. "Happy" is a word like this. The stress is on the first syllable, so the "p" starting the second syllable has no puff of air. The same thing happens after an "s" sound, like "score," "stop," "spell" etc. There is no puff of air in those cases.

Without the puff of air, the sounds "p" "t" and "k" have more similarities with "b" "d" and "g". The are all in the same pronunciation "family", the stops. "p" "t" and "k" are voiceless, and "b" "d" and "g" are voiced. Hmm maybe that's more than you wanted to know. I'm sorry I guess I can go on about this for quite some time!

[YI HSIEN CHEN]

Thank you, teacher!