The Rhythm of English

Why should you learn rhythm?  Print out the written materials in the resources section to keep on hand throughout this course.  Use it to take notes and to guide yourself through the practice audio materials.   Use and abuse the repetition audio lessons to improve your muscle memory of what you learn in each lesson.

Why do we need rhythm?   What type of rhythm does English have?   What are its characteristics.   Is there rhythm in words as well as in sentences?  The repetition audio practice for this lesson is combined with the audio practice for the next lesson.

What types of words do we stress?  You'll see a chart which breaks it down.  We'll go through many examples.   Practice the examples again and again with the repetition audio provided.

What do we do with our voices in order to stress a word or de-stress a word?   You'll find a chart to help organize the procedures.  We'll even look at how to create energy and relaxation within words.   Then practice with the repetition audio provided.

You'll learn how to fit (or squeeze) the function words between the main stresses.  You'll practice with many examples, both during the lesson and on the go with the repetition audio provided.

This video is a review of Lectures 1-5!  Know the basics well before you move on!  

Here's a list of common function words and how to reduce their vowels.  Get to know them and practice with the repetition audio now.  We'll find more examples of many of these function word reductions in the next lessons.

Let's look in depth at how to pronounce can when it is both reduced and stressed.  Practice with the repetition audio.

Here we go into depth with many examples of reducing and stressing you, your, yours and yourself.  Use the repetition audio to perfect your skills.

This section has two different stories.  The first one (on video) reduces several prepositions such as to, for, of, in, as, and at.  The second (not on video) focuses only on the two different ways to reduce "to."  You'll also find the practice audio for "of" reductions.

We will practice omitting the H in he, his, him and her in the middle of a sentence.   After watching, use the repetition audio to practice.

Contractions help us achieve rhythm by speeding up the function words.   To be is commonly contracted.  Learn all the forms.  Then ractice with the audio provided.

Practice the simple future tense in contracted form for better rhythm.   Don't forget to drill the rhythm into your muscle memory with the repetition audio.

Practicing the rhythm of contracting would.   Repetition audio included

We looked at Have and Has as reductions.  Now we specifically look at them as contractions, just for extra practice.   The practice repetition audio is waiting for you.

Now we combine grammar with rhythm and learn how to pronounce the contractions for complicated future tenses, including the future perfect.

Learn when to use and how to contract the future perfect progressive tense.  The sentences are found in the repetition audio for the previous lecture.

Learn how to contract had after each pronoun and other nouns.

Learn how to contract negatives and which part of the word to stress.

Learn how and when to stress this, that, these and those.  Learn to combine with the to be verb and learn to use them in different examples, when they are demonstrative adjectives or demonstrative pronouns.   Then practice with the repetition audio provided.

Learn how to quickly link a consonant to the same consonant at the beginning of the next word.   The linking video audio repetition here covers all the examples in linking parts 1-7.   The general linking audio material  is extra practice that accompanies the written lesson but is not found in the video. 

Learn to link two different consonants next to each other.

Learn how to connect the consonant at the end of one word to the vowel at the beginning of the next word.   Special attention will be given to linking NG to a vowel, and Linking Part 8, lecture 29, will have more practice with NG linking.

Learn how to link when words end in various types of T and D.  Learn how the T changes in different linking environments.  Extra lessons (not in the videos but coming soon) are provided for linking past tense words to the next word.  Find them in the written lesson and repetition audio practice.

Learn how to link a Long vowel (A, E, I, O U, OU or OI) to the vowel at the beginning of the next word.   There are extra sentences in the written lesson and on the audio recording that are not in the video.     Keep practicing with the repetition audio.

Learn how to link a short U or an ER to another word that starts with a vowel.  There is an extra lesson, not in the videos, on R to vowel linking in the written materials and in the audio practice.

Let's practice a little bit of all the different types of linking in one conversation.

This is a supplement for the NG portion of Linking- Part 3- Consonant to Vowel Linking.  Linking NG to a vowel is very difficult for some, so I've explained it further and made extra dialogue practice for you.

Learn how to connect the article, "an" to every vowel.

Learn how to link past tense verbs to the next word that starts with a vowel.

Learn several rules for linking past tense verbs to the next word that starts with a consonant.

Learn more rules for linking past tense verbs to consonants.

Learn when to make a Clear T or Held T, and learn what to do when you have TN or NT.

Learn how to tone down the fast D between words, putting more emphasis on the vowels.

Learn how to blend words that end in either T, D, S or Z with words that begin with Y.   

Blending is tricky, so let's continue practicing it.  This time we'll look at the blending between words in a story.  The blending helps you say the function words faster so that you can spend more time on the content words.