Pratica di Shadowing: 10+ English words that you pronounce INCORRECTLY - Impara a parlare inglese con i video
Creazione lezione...
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Stop mispronouncing these words in English.
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They all have silent letters.
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You can't work this out on your own.
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Someone has to teach you and that's why I'm here today.
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And if your goal is to speak English with a clear,
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It's a short but complete, targeted training programme with daily practice routines so you can see real improvements from day one.
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To learn more and join, click the link in the description box or scan the QR code there.
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Okay, let's get started with the lesson.
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I'm going to show you a pair of words which both have the same silent letter.
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Say the words out loud and try to identify the silent letter.
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Then listen and repeat after me to check and practice.
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Here's our first pair.
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Try it yourself.
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Listen and repeat after me.
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Handsome.
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Wednesday.
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Now in both of these words, the letter D is silent.
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It's not handsome or wedness day.
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Drop the d sound.
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Handsome.
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Wednesday.
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Can you think of any more words with a silent d?
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Sandwich and handkerchief are two common examples, although some people do say sandwich.
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I think it's harder to pronounce that way.
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Another common pronunciation I like is actually with a mmm sound.
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Sandwich.
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Okay, our second pair of words.
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Say them out loud now.
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Can you spot the silent letter?
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Okay, listen and repeat.
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Biscuit, circuit.
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So both of these words have a silent U.
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It's not biscuit or circuit.
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Biscuit, circuit.
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This silent U confuses my students in other common words like build and builder.
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So take care with those words too.
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Okay, pair number three, which letter is silent in both of these words?
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Read them aloud, see what you think.
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The letter H is silent.
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Listen and repeat.
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Honest, air.
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We don't say honest or hair, drop the h sound.
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Can you think of any other words beginning with a silent h?
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H itself shouldn't have the h sound at the beginning, h.
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There's also hour, honour and herb.
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In British English, we say herb.
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Erb is more North American pronunciation.
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I say herb.
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Americans tend to say herb.
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Now, be careful with your article usage with these silent H words.
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We need to use an, not a, as they begin with vowel sounds.
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It was an honest mistake.
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Give me an hour.
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There are lots more silent H words in English, but most of them are so common, they usually don't cause confusion.
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The letters WH in what, where, when, and why, for example, are just pronounced with a W sound.
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My students do sometimes get confused by the pronunciation of the letters CH in some of these words though.
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Look at these four words.
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How are the letters CH pronounced in each one?
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Well, in the first word, chaos, the letters CH make a K sound.
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like in school, scheme, mechanic, and chemistry.
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Notice it's not chemistry, it's chemistry.
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Now in chore, the CH is pronounced ch, like in church and choose.
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But the CH in chef is pronounced sh,
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but in yacht, the letter CH are silent.
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Don't get caught out by those sneaky silent letters.
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Time for pair number four.
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Read these aloud.
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Now, you won't believe the number of times I've heard students say answer and sward, but these pronunciations are not correct.
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Never pronounce the letter W in these words.
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Instead, say answer, sward.
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You might have already noticed that the letter W is silent when written with R at the beginning of a word,
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like in right, wrist, wrinkle, and wrong.
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Take care with those silent Ws.
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Similarly, the letter K is silent when it appears with the letter N at the beginning of a word.
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But you knew that, right?
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Can you think of any other examples?
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Well, we've got words like knife,
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knuckle, knight, knee, knit, and knot,
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to name but a few.
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Okay, are you ready for our fifth pair?
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Here it is.
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Which letter is silent in both of these words?
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Scissors, muscle.
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The letter C isn't pronounced in either of these words.
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I hear skizzes and muskles all the time.
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Drop the C and say scissors, muscles instead.
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The letter C is silent in a lot of words with the letters SC together.
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Can you think of any more examples?
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Well, Take care with the words scent,
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scenario, fascinate and ascent as they all have a silent C.
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Now, can you spot the silent letters in pair number six?
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Both of these words contain a silent F.
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Just joking, I'm just making sure you're paying attention.
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It's the L that is silent.
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I hear a lot of students trying to pronounce the L.
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half, calf.
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Forget the all sound and just make the long R vowel sound instead.
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Half, calf.
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Much easier.
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Okay, pair number seven, say these words out loud.
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The letter S is silent in both of these words.
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I'll is pronounced the same as the contraction of I will and is one syllable.
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Isle.
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And it's not Island, it's Island.
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Okay, time for our penultimate pair.
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Read them aloud.
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Which letter is silent?
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That's right, we never pronounce the letter P at the beginning of words with S.
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Psychology.
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Psychic.
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Can you think of any more words like this?
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Well, we've We've got psalm, pseudonym, and psychedelic.
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These are all words of Greek origin.
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Oh, and take care with these silent P words my students always mispronounce.
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We have cupboard and receipt.
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I know it's so tempting to say receipt.
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Receipt.
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Cupboard receipt.
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Okay, time for our final pair.
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Read these words out loud and try to identify the silent letter.
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Now, if you said musicale or basically with a or a, try again musically, basically.
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That's right, with some adverbs ending c-a-l-l-y, the a is silent.
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Some speakers will pronounce it as a soft schwa sound musically, basically.
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This is less common.
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Most speakers don't pronounce the letter a at all and just say musically, basically, both with just three syllables.
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Right, we've got just enough time for a quick shadowing task
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to help you remember some of the words with silent letters that we've covered today.
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I'll mark the silent letters on screen to help you.
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Shadow me if you can, or listen, pause, and then repeat.
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You ready?
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The handsome builder is coming to put up the kitchen cupboards at half five this Wednesday.
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He's also going to fit an island where I can keep my knives,
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scissors, receipts, sandwich and biscuit tins and basically all of my bits and pieces.
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Honestly, it's the best case scenario as I haven't got the muscle to do it myself.
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How did you find that?
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Rewind and speak along with me again to practice further.
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Right, that brings us to the end of today's video.
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Were there any silent letters that surprised you?
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Were there any that you think I should have mentioned and didn't?
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Let me know in the comments.
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And if you would like more help with your British pronunciation, my five-day British accent boot camp is on sale.
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Click on the link in the description box or scan the QR code there to learn more and join.
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I will see you in the next video.
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Bye!
Per chi è questo video?
Se sei un apprendista inglese che vuole parlare con un accento britannico chiaro e naturale, o se hai notato che certe parole ti creano sempre problemi di pronuncia, questo video è perfetto per te. Ideale per livelli intermedi e avanzati, ma anche per principianti che vogliono evitare errori comuni fin dall'inizio. Le parole con lettere silenziose sono un ostacolo per molti, ma con la pratica giusta, puoi superarli in poco tempo. E se vuoi accelerare i risultati, la tecnica del shadowing in inglese (ripetere immediatamente dopo il parlante) è la chiave per migliorare rapidamente.
Parole e espressioni da non perdere
Il video presenta parole comuni ma spesso pronunciate male, con lettere silenziose che cambiano tutto. Ecco quelle da "rubare" e memorizzare:
- Handsome (affascinante): la "d" è silenziosa, quindi si dice "han-sum", non "han-d-sum".
- Wednesday (mercoledì): anche qui la "d" non si sente, "wenz-dei" è corretto.
- Biscuit (biscotto): la "u" è silenziosa, quindi "bis-cit", non "bis-cuit".
- Honest (onesto): la "h" iniziale non si pronuncia, "on-est" è giusto.
Come migliorare l'accento: consigli pratici
Il segreto per un accento britannico naturale è concentrarti sulle lettere silenziose e usare la tecnica del shadowing. Ecco come fare:
- Ascolta attentamente la pronuncia nel video, ripetendo ogni parola immediatamente dopo il parlante (shadow speak). Questo aiuta a imitare l'intonazione e il ritmo.
- Identifica le lettere silenziose in ogni parola: per "sandwich" (panino) o "herb" (erba), la "d" e la "h" non si sentono. Pratica a dirle senza queste lettere.
- Usa le parole in contesti reali: integra "handsome" o "biscuit" nelle tue conversazioni quotidiane per rafforzare la memoria muscolare.
Cos'è la tecnica dello Shadowing?
Shadowing è una tecnica di apprendimento delle lingue supportata da studi scientifici, originariamente sviluppata per la formazione dei traduttori professionisti e resa popolare dal poliglotta Dr. Alexander Arguelles. Il metodo è semplice ma potente: ascolti un audio in inglese di madrelingua e lo ripeti immediatamente ad alta voce — come un'ombra che segue il parlante con un ritardo di solo 1–2 secondi. A differenza dell'ascolto passivo o degli esercizi di grammatica, lo shadowing costringe il tuo cervello e i muscoli della bocca a elaborare e riprodurre simultaneamente i modelli di discorso reale. La ricerca dimostra che migliora significativamente la precisione della pronuncia, l'intonazione, il ritmo, il discorso connesso, la comprensione dell'ascolto e la fluidità del parlato — rendendolo uno dei metodi più efficaci per la preparazione alla prova di speaking dell'IELTS e per la comunicazione reale in inglese.