Pratique du Shadowing: Why is English Pronunciation So CONFUSING? | Silent Letters - Apprendre l'anglais à l'oral avec la vidéo
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From the creators of the curse of English spelling comes silent letters.
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Letters that are just there for no reason.
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You as a learner of all people know how confusing English spelling is.
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Why is it not consistent with how we pronounce words?
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For example, O-U-G-H can be pronounced in many different ways.
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Take a listen to how I pronounce these words.
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Bought, though, thorough, tough, drought, through, and cough.
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Weird right?
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And for many of you, silent letters are another nightmare of English pronunciation, and because of this, that's what we're focusing on today.
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This lesson is about letters we write in words, but don't actually pronounce.
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Take a look at this word and think which letter isn't pronounced.
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We don't say the P, it's empty.
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There's this hilarious meme about this actually, let's check it out.
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Here, we read this word as empty, not pronouncing the P.
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This still reads empty.
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This is still empty.
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Here, we just say the letters M and T.
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Here, there's nothing.
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It's empty.
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In this lesson, we'll take a look at some words with silent letters that you might be mispronouncing.
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Why should you know this?
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Well, as one of my non-native friends told me, speaking English is a lot easier when you don't need to pronounce a given letter in a word.
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And as you'll learn, some of these words are a lot easier to pronounce
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when you don't actually pronounce all of the letters or the letter that is supposed to be silent.
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But in case we are meeting for the first time, I'm Oli, your RealLife English Fluency Coach,
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and we guide you beyond the classroom so that you can understand fast speaking natives,
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be understood by anyone, and connect to the beautiful world we live in.
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In fact, Onhiki says that our channel has contributed to his English learning progress, And he has a notebook full of our ideas.
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So be like Onhike and learn with us.
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All you need to do is hit that subscribe button
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and the bell down below so you don't miss any of our new English tips.
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Okay, we're gonna start with some more common phrases where we don't pronounce B, K, L or W.
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For example, the silent B when it's after M, like in climb.
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The unnecessary K before N, like in no. The L, which we don't pronounce when it's before K and M in some words.
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Don't worry, we'll see these examples in just a moment.
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And one that often confuses learners, W, when it's before an R, like in wrong.
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Now the reason why we don't pronounce these letters in these words is because it is extremely awkward to do so.
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And by that I mean it takes extra effort to pronounce these letters.
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So that's why we don't say crumb, we simply say crumb.
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Other words with a silent B are bomb,
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comb, crumb, dumb, lamb, limb,
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numb, thumb, If you're actually trying to pronounce the B in these words, you're not alone.
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Many upper intermediate learners still do this.
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Now here are some words when we don't pronounce the K.
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knee, knife, knight, knit, knob,
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knock, knot, no, and knuckle.
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What about the silent N now?
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Well, we don't pronounce it in chalk,
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talk, walk, calm, and palm.
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Other cases of a silent L are could, should, would, calf and half.
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And the other pattern I mentioned is that of words where W is before an R.
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For example, wrap, wrench, wrestle,
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wrinkle, wrist, right, wrong, wrath, wreck.
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Now that you know these rules, you might probably feel like my friend who told me that he knew about the silent K in these words,
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but he always pronounced, or at least tried to pronounce, the B in words like thumb or dumb, and the W in words like right or wrong.
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So you see how minor adjustments like these can have a huge impact on your confidence speaking English.
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A lot of people recommend that you first learn how to say a word and then how to spell it.
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The reason for this is because when you learn the spelling first, it tends to make you think that you need to pronounce every single letter.
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But if you first learn how to say it, you obviously won't pronounce a letter that you don't know is there in the spelling.
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Which leads on to my hot tip, trust your ear and not your eyes.
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And you'll be able to do a lot of that with our real life native immersion course.
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In this 41 week course you're going to be able to practice identifying silent letters in words.
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It's the next best thing to living in an English speaking country.
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You know what?
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The best thing is you can try it for free today with our three part power learning series.
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To try it out you can click up here or
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if you're on your mobile there is a link in the description below.
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Let's continue on.
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To illustrate this, here's a new word that you might not be familiar with.
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Colonel.
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Easy right?
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Say it after me.
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Colonel.
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Now it's said like Colonel and spelt like this.
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C O L O N E L.
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Colonel.
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Let's now look at three more common words with a silent B.
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debt, doubt and subtle.
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Now that you know that we don't pronounce the b in these words, try reading this sentence out loud.
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Listen to me, I never doubted you.
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As you see, the silent letter remains when you modify the base word by adding suffixes, doubted, doubtful.
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With that in mind, this one could be a bit trickier.
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How do you say this?
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Yeah, that's right.
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I am deeply indebted to him for his help.
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Now, if you know that the B is silent in subtle, how do you say this word in this sentence?
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You got it!
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Some of the subtleties of the language are lost in translation.
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Now if you want to learn why the T in can't in American English is sometimes not pronounced, then you need to check out this amazing lesson that Ethan made.
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To watch it next, I'll link it up here or down in the description below.
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Now let's move on to another silent letter.
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How do you say this?
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It's not handsome, it's handsome.
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Take a moment to pronounce the following words that also have a silent D.
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Did you say badge, edge, Wednesday and sandwich?
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Now repeat these sentences after me.
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On Wednesday, my handsome husband and I had a sandwich at a Subway restaurant.
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The soldier was awarded a badge of honour.
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The edge of the table.
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Let's move on to the letter G.
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And we don't pronounce this letter in words like campaign, Assign, design, sign, rain.
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Say it after me, campaign.
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Assign, design, sign, rain.
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He was assigned the design of an ad campaign.
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Another word that has a silent G is one that I've seen many learners trip up with.
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This word is pronounced foreign.
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Now, we do pronounce the G in kingdom, but in rapid speech it often gets dropped.
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So you'll hear, she reigns in a foreign kingdom.
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H is a big one and there are a lot of words with silent H letters.
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Ake, anchor, architect, chaos, charisma,
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choir, chord, echo, honest, school, stomach.
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Here are some examples.
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John's a charismatic and honest architect.
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By the way, the H in John is silent as well.
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John's vocal chords hurt, so he can't sing in the choir.
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Now let's take a look at a few words with a silent T.
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Butcher, castle, listen, mortgage, often which.
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There's also the words Christmas and match, which I often see my students trying to pronounce the T.
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Another one is often, however you can also pronounce the T and say often.
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Both options are used almost equally.
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Now we already talked about the W when it's in its initial position and before an R,
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but it can also be a tricky one in words like answer, to and sword.
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Okay, let's test your knowledge.
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Here's what we're going to do.
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First, I'll say a few words and you'll repeat after me.
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Write, and now you repeat.
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Chalk, say it.
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Answer, you say that again.
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After that, I'm going to show you a sentence, just like this one.
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We'll give you about three or four seconds to read and practice saying the words in the sentence,
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and after that I'll give you the pronunciation of the sentence.
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For example, she wrote the answer with chalk on the board, so that you can check and see if you pronounced it correctly.
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Ready?
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Let's go!
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Number one.
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Walk.
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Castle.
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Wrinkle.
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Witch.
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Echo.
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The castle where the wrinkled witch lives is an echoey place.
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How did you go?
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Sentence two.
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Debt, foreign, architect.
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The foreign architect is in a lot of debt.
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Sentence number three.
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Handsome, knight, sword.
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The famous handsome knight died from a sword wound.
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Sentence number four.
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Wrestle.
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Match.
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Wednesday.
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He has a wrestling match on Wednesday.
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Let me know how you did with those four sentences down in the comments below.
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And I hope you enjoyed the exercise at the end and that you found this lesson useful.
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We saw a total of 70 words that have silent letters in them.
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These are for sure the most common words that learners still confuse and mispronounce.
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So if you've paid attention, you're in a much better place to avoid these common mistakes.
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The great benefit of knowing that you don't need to say the silent letters is
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that it actually makes it a lot easier to pronounce these words.
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When your pronunciation improves, so does your confidence and that's what it's ultimately all about, right?
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And I wanna say thank you again for joining me today.
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If you aren't subscribed to our channel, make sure you hit the subscribe button and the bell down below so you can continue learning with us.
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Ah yeah.
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So in this lesson, we'll talk about your mindset and how it determines whether you're ready for success
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or crippled by your fear of failure.
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Mastering the English language is an adventure that contains many challenges along the way.
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Vocabulaire et conseils d’expression pour cette leçon
Cette vidéo contient 167 phrases et 1718 mots à répéter en shadowing. La partie parlée dure 13:43. Le locuteur parle à un rythme régulier d’environ 125 mots par minute, confortable pour le shadowing. Seuls 80 % des mots font partie des 3 000 mots les plus courants en anglais, le vocabulaire est donc exigeant.
Vocabulaire clé de cette vidéo
15 mots moins courants de la vidéo, avec leur prononciation et leur sens :
- pronounce /pɹəˈnaʊns/ (verbe) — déclarer. To declare formally, officially or ceremoniously.
- silent /ˈsaɪ̯lənt/ (adjectif) — silencieux, se taire. Free from sound or noise; absolutely still; perfectly quiet.
- litter /ˈlɪt.ɚ/ (nom) — litière. Straw, grass, and similar loose material used as bedding for people or animals.
- lesson /ˈlɛs.ən/ (nom) — leçon. A section of learning or teaching into which a wider learning content is divided.
- handsome /ˈhæn.səm/ (adjectif) — beau. Having a pleasing appearance, good-looking, attractive, particularly
- architect /ˈɑɹ.kɪˌtɛkt/ (nom) — architecte. A professional who designs buildings or other structures, or who prepares plans and superintends construction.
- spelling /ˈspɛl.ɪŋ/ (nom) — orthographe. The act, practice, ability, or subject of forming words with letters, or of reading the letters of words; orthography.
- castle /ˈkɑːsəl/ (nom) — château, château-fort. A large residential building or compound that is fortified and contains many defences; in previous ages often inhabited by a nobleman or king. Also, a house or…
- sword /soɹd/ (nom) — épée, glaive. A long bladed weapon with a grip and typically a pommel and crossguard (together forming a hilt), which is designed to cut, stab, slash and/or hack.
- knight /ˈnaɪ̯t/ (nom) — chevalier. An armored and mounted warrior of the Middle Ages.
- subscribe /səbˈskɹaɪb/ (verbe) — abonner, s'abonner. To write (one’s name) at the bottom of a document; to sign (one's name).
- chalk /t͡ʃɔk/ (nom) — craie. A soft, white, powdery limestone (calcium carbonate, CaCO₃).
- confuse /kənˈfjuːz/ (verbe) — rendre perplexe, confondre. to puzzle, perplex, baffle, bewilder (somebody); to afflict by being complicated, contradictory, or otherwise difficult to understand
- pronunciation /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/ (nom) — prononciation. The formal or informal way in which a word is made to sound when spoken.
- spell /spɛl/ (nom) — charme, maléfice. Words or a formula supposed to have magical powers.
Les verbes à particule que vous entendrez
- look at (verbe) — regarder. To observe or watch.
- check out (verbe) — mater, regarder. To record the departure or withdrawal of someone or something (such as guests, employees, books, etc.).
Prononciation à surveiller
Le locuteur utilise 47 contractions et formes réduites, comme don't, you're, we'll. Prononcez-les sous leur forme courte, telles que vous les entendez.
- Les sons « th »: thumb /ˈθʌm/, thorough /ˈθʌɹoʊ/, wrath /ɹæθ/
- Les sons « sh » et « zh »: pronunciation /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/, translation /tɹænzˈleɪʃən/, immersion /ɪˈmɝʒən/
- Mots longs — placez bien l’accent: pronunciation /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/, hilarious /hɪˈlɛə.ɹi.əs/, unnecessary /ʌnˈnɛs.əˌsɛɹ.i/, intermediate /ɪn.tə(ɹ)ˈmi.di.ət/, charismatic /ˌkɛɹəzˈmætək/
Comment s’entraîner avec cette vidéo
- Écoutez la vidéo en entier une fois sans parler et notez les mots que vous ne connaissez pas.
- Répétez phrase par phrase à vitesse normale, en reprenant chacune jusqu’à ce que votre rythme corresponde à celui du locuteur.
- Enregistrez-vous et comparez avec l’original, en faisant attention à des mots comme pronounce, silent, litter.
La grammaire de cette vidéo
Les structures que le locuteur utilise le plus, avec les mots exacts de la vidéo :
| Structure | Dans la vidéo |
|---|---|
| Voix passive be + participe passé — l’accent est mis sur ce qui arrive, pas sur qui le fait | can be pronounced · isn't pronounced · be understood |
| Present perfect have/has + participe passé — une action passée qui compte encore maintenant | has contributed · I've seen · you've paid |
| Possibilité avec « might / may » might/may + verbe — quelque chose de possible mais pas certain | might be · might probably feel · might not be |
| Superlatifs the -est / the most … — le plus haut ou le plus bas d’un groupe | The best · the most common |
Qu'est-ce que la technique du Shadowing ?
Le Shadowing est une technique d'apprentissage des langues fondée sur la science, développée à l'origine pour la formation des interprètes professionnels. Le principe est simple mais puissant : vous écoutez de l'anglais natif et le répétez immédiatement à voix haute — comme une ombre suivant le locuteur avec un décalage de 1 à 2 secondes. Les recherches montrent une amélioration significative de la précision de la prononciation, de l'intonation, du rythme, des liaisons, de la compréhension orale et de la fluidité.