Shadowing Practice: Why is English Pronunciation So CONFUSING? | Silent Letters - Learn English Speaking with Video
בחר מצב תרגול
כל מצב פותח חדר תרגול במסך מלא.
167 משפטים
אם המשפטים קצרים או ארוכים מדי, לחץ על ערוך כדי להתאים אותם.
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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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אוצר מילים והערות הגייה לשיעור הזה
שיעור הדיבור הזה ברמה B1 מבוסס על הסרטון “Why is English Pronunciation So CONFUSING?”. המילים שחוזרות הכי הרבה: word, pronounce, letter, silent, English. בסרטון הזה יש 167 משפטים ו-1718 מילים לתרגול Shadowing. הדיבור נמשך 13:43. הדובר שומר על קצב יציב של כ-125 מילים בדקה, קצב נוח לתרגול Shadowing. רק 80% מהמילים נמצאות בין 3,000 המילים הנפוצות ביותר באנגלית, כך שאוצר המילים מאתגר.
אוצר מילים מרכזי בסרטון הזה
15 המילים המתקדמות ביותר בסרטון, עם ההגייה והמשמעות שלהן:
| מילה | הגייה | משמעות |
|---|---|---|
| handsome שם תואר | /ˈhæn.səm/ | טוֹב מַרְאֶה, יפה תואר |
| spelling שם עצם | /ˈspɛl.ɪŋ/ | כְּתִיב |
| architect שם עצם | /ˈɑɹ.kɪˌtɛkt/ | אַדְרִיכָל, אדריכלית |
| crumb שם עצם | /kɹʌm/ | פֵּרוּר |
| pronunciation שם עצם | /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/ | הֲגִיָּה, בִּטּוּי |
| confuse פועל | /kənˈfjuːz/ | בלבל |
| chalk שם עצם | /t͡ʃɔk/ | גִּיר |
| subscribe פועל | /səbˈskɹaɪb/ | נִמְנָה |
| knight שם עצם | /ˈnaɪ̯t/ | פָּרָשׁ, אַבִּיר |
| chord שם עצם | /kɔɹd/ | אָקוֹרְד |
| choir שם עצם | /kwaɪɚ/ | מַקְהֵלָה |
| tricky שם תואר | /ˈtɹɪk.i/ | טְרִיקִי |
| thumb שם עצם | /ˈθʌm/ | אגודל |
| badge שם עצם | /bæd͡ʒ/ | תָּג |
| echo שם עצם | /ˈɛk.oʊ/ | הֵד, בַּת־קוֹל |
Phrasal verbs שתשמעו
| מילה | משמעות |
|---|---|
| check out פועל | בדק |
משפטים שכדאי לחזור עליהם
משפטים קצרים ושלמים מהסרטון שאפשר להשתמש בהם בשיחה יומיומית:
- Why is it not consistent with how we pronounce words?
- Why should you know this?
- How do you say this?
- Here's what we're going to do.
- How did you go?
דקדוק בסרטון הזה
המבנים שהדובר משתמש בהם הכי הרבה, עם המילים המדויקות מהסרטון:
| מבנה | בסרטון |
|---|---|
| סביל (Passive voice) be + past participle — הדגש הוא על מה שקורה, לא על מי שעושה את הפעולה | can be pronounced · isn't pronounced · be understood |
| הווה מושלם (Present perfect) have/has + past participle — פעולה שקרתה בעבר ועדיין יש לה חשיבות או השפעה עכשיו | has contributed · I've seen · you've paid |
| אפשרות עם “might / may” might/may + verb — משהו שיכול לקרות, אך לא בטוח | might be · might probably feel · might not be |
| שם תואר מובהק (Superlatives) the -est / the most … — לציין את הגבוה או הנמוך ביותר בקבוצה | The best · the most common |
הגייה ששווה לשים לב אליה
הדובר משתמש ב-47 קיצורים וצורות מקוצרות, כמו don't, you're, we'll. אמרו אותם בצורה הקצרה, כפי שאתם שומעים אותם.
- הצלילים של “th”: thumb /ˈθʌm/, wrath /ɹæθ/, thorough /ˈθʌɹoʊ/
- הצלילים של “sh” ו-“zh”: pronunciation /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/, immersion /ɪˈmɝʒən/
- מילים ארוכות — שימו לב להטעמה: pronunciation /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/, charismatic /ˌkɛɹəzˈmætək/, intermediate /ɪn.tə(ɹ)ˈmi.di.ət/, unnecessary /ʌnˈnɛs.əˌsɛɹ.i/, hilarious /hɪˈlɛə.ɹi.əs/
צלילים שדוברי עברית מתקשים בהם:
- /w/ — שפתיים מעוגלות, לא /v/: choir /kwaɪɚ/, sandwich /ˈsæn(d).wɪd͡ʒ/, awkward /ˈɔk.wɚd/
- /æ/ — פתוח יותר מה-“אֶ” העברית, לא כמו “a” ב-“cup”: handsome /ˈhæn.səm/, badge /bæd͡ʒ/, sandwich /ˈsæn(d).wɪd͡ʒ/, charismatic /ˌkɛɹəzˈmætək/, wrath /ɹæθ/
- /r/ — הלשון לא נוגעת בשום מקום, לא ה-“ר” הגרונית: pronounce /pɹəˈnaʊns/, learner /ˈlɜɹnəɹ/, architect /ˈɑɹ.kɪˌtɛkt/, crumb /kɹʌm/, wrestle /ˈɹɛs(ə)l/
איך לתרגל עם הסרטון הזה
- הקשיבו לכל הסרטון פעם אחת בלי לדבר, ורשמו את המילים שאתם לא מכירים.
- תרגלו Shadowing משפט אחר משפט במהירות רגילה, וחזרו על כל משפט עד שהקצב שלכם תואם את הדובר.
- הקליטו את עצמכם והשוו למקור, תוך תשומת לב למילים כמו handsome, spelling, architect.
מהי טכניקת השאדואינג?
שאדואינג היא טכניקת למידת שפה מבוססת מדע שפותחה במקור להכשרת מתורגמנים מקצועיים ופופולרית על ידי הפוליגלוט ד"ר אלכסנדר ארגואלס. השיטה פשוטה אך עוצמתית: אתה מקשיב לאודיו באנגלית ילידית וחוזר עליו בקול רם מיד — כמו צל העוקב אחרי הדובר עם עיכוב של 1–2 שניות בלבד. בניגוד להאזנה פסיבית או תרגילי דקדוק, שאדואינג מכריח את המוח והשרירים בפה לעבד ולשחזר דפוסי דיבור אמיתיים בו זמנית. מחקרים מראים שזה משפר משמעותית את דיוק ההגייה, האינטונציה, הקצב, הדיבור המחובר, הבנת השמיעה ושטף הדיבור — מה שהופך אותו לאחת השיטות היעילות ביותר להכנה לIELTS Speaking ולתקשורת באנגלית בעולם האמיתי.