FREE You Are The Course Book - Syllabus

In this book you will find the main teaching points that we will study
during your English language course. Please bring it with you to
lessons, along with a notebook, pen, and dictionary.
If possible, please spend some time revising this material at home.

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First published in the UK by English Banana.com 2013
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You Are The Course Book – Syllabus
Contents
5 Syllabus – Summary
9 Student Self-Assessment Form
Basic Grammar:
10 Writing the Alphabet
11 Essential Spellings
12 Personal Details – Completing Forms
13 The Most Important Verbs in English – Present Simple
14 The Most Important Verbs in English – Past Simple
15 A-Z of English Grammar Words
24 Word Classes in English – Revision
25 15 Common Grammar Mistakes in Written and Oral Work
28 Tips for Better Written and Oral English Work
Basic Pronunciation:
29 Clear Alphabet – 48 Phonemes (Individual Sounds)
30 100 Basic Words with Clear Alphabet
31 Learn the Clear Alphabet with Flashcards
43 Rhyming Words – Vowel Sounds and Diphthongs
You Are The Course Book Method:
About:
54 Outline of You Are The Course Book Modes 1-3
55 General Principles of You Are The Course Book Method
56 29 Ways You Are The Course Book Method Beats Working with a Course Book
58 You Are The Course Book – Auto Mode 3 (Blank)

Stage 1: Vocabulary:
59 200 Top Idioms in Spoken English Today
60 200 Top Phrasal Verbs in Spoken English Today
61 General Statements on English Stress
62 English Stress Rules
63 How to Pronounce the Past -ed Form of Regular Verbs
64 300 Common Compound Nouns
65 100 of the Most Common Suffixes in English
66 General Statements on English Spelling and Vowel Sounds
67 Spelling Patterns and the Sounds they Make
Stage 2: Text:
6 Notes
Stage 3: Grammar Point:
76 Building a Sentence Using Subject Verb Object Place Time (SVOPT)
77 Understanding Articles in English
Stage 4: Verb Forms Revision:
78 Verb Forms Revision Test – Sample Answers
79 Intermediate Verb Forms – Matching Game
Notes on Intermediate Verb Forms:
80 Present Perfect Continuous
81 Past Perfect
82 Past Perfect Continuous
83 Future Perfect
84 Future Perfect Continuous
85 Second Conditional
86 Third Conditional
87 Reported Speech
89 Passive Voice
91 Imperative Form

92 Sentence Blocks – Q & A
Stage 5: Pronunciation:
93 Glossary of Pronunciation Terms
103 Talk a Lot Foundation Course – Course Outline
104 List of Common Weak Forms in Spoken English
105 The Techniques of Connected Speech – Matching Game
106 Stress > Reduce > Merge (Blank)
Stage 6: Free Practice:
107 101 Possible Topics to Study
108 Blank Discussion Words Template
Stage 7: Writing:
109 Blank Writing Paper

You Are The Course Book
Syllabus – Summary
The Main Teaching Points for YATCB Students
This is what we study during YATCB lessons (Modes 1-3 plus Input Lessons) – along with new
vocabulary and ideas (from the topic or text) and new grammar points (from students’ errors).
• Your brain is like a muscle – the more you exercise it, the stronger it becomes! Practise your
English skills little and often. Think about why you want to learn English:
9. Student Self-Assessment Form
Before you start, you should be able to:
Basic Grammar:
• Say and write the alphabet (lower and upper case)
10. Writing the Alphabet
• Say and write the days of the week
• Say and write the months of the year
• Say and write the seasons
• Say and write numbers 0-100
11. Essential Spellings
• Say and write your personal details, e.g. name, address, phone number, etc.
12. Personal Details – Completing Forms
• Say and write basic verb tables:
13. The Most Important Verbs in English – Present Simple
14. The Most Important Verbs in English – Past Simple
• Know the parts of a sentence, e.g. noun, main verb, adjective, adverb, auxiliary verb,
pronoun, etc. and know the difference between content words and function words
15. A-Z of English Grammar Words
24. Word Classes in English – Revision
25. 15 Common Grammar Mistakes in Written and Oral Work
28. Tips for Better Written and Oral English Work
The rest of the grammar will be dealt with during the course
Basic Pronunciation:
• Pronounce the 48 sounds of English and recognise them with Clear Alphabet
• Recognise and write simple words with Clear Alphabet; understand why we need to write
phonetically:
29. Clear Alphabet – 48 Phonemes (Individual Sounds)
30. 100 Basic Words with Clear Alphabet
31. Learn the Clear Alphabet with Flashcards
43. Rhyming Words – Vowel Sounds and Diphthongs
General Notes:
• Be prepared to work hard during the lessons
• Bring a notebook, pen, and dictionary with you to every lesson

• Be prepared to do homework for each lesson. Do extra study at home; download and use free
books and worksheets from English Banana.com:
110. Free English Banana Books and Worksheets
You Are The Course Book Method:
About:
• This is a relatively new approach to teaching English
54. Outline of You Are The Course Book Modes 1-3
55. General Principles of You Are The Course Book Method
56. 29 Ways You Are The Course Book Method Beats Working with a Course Book
58. You Are The Course Book – Auto Mode 3 (Blank)
Stage 1: Vocabulary:
• Choose interesting and random words – higher-level words, rather than boring and common
words, e.g. “chocolate gateau” is better than “cake”. Be specific where possible, e.g. “Ellie
Handsworth” is better than “a girl”. Use a dictionary to find better words
59. 200 Top Idioms in Spoken English Today
60. 200 Top Phrasal Verbs in Spoken English Today
• We stress a word on the nearest strong syllable to the end; there are a few exceptions, e.g.
compound nouns are stressed on the first syllable and acronyms on the final, etc.
61. General Statements on English Stress
62. English Stress Rules
63. How to Pronounce the Past -ed Form of Regular Verbs
64. 300 Common Compound Nouns
• Suffixes are not usually stressed
65. 100 of the Most Common Suffixes in English
• We can often identify the stressed vowel sound from the spelling. Try to learn the different
spelling patterns that represent each sound:
66. General Statements on English Spelling and Vowel Sounds
67. Spelling Patterns and the Sounds they Make
Stage 2: Text:
• Use complex sentences instead of simple sentences; join together two clauses with either a
conjunction (and, but, because, so, although, etc.) or a relative clause word (which, that, etc.)
• Your work should go through four drafts: i) initial ideas; ii) corrections (grammar, spelling,
punctuation, and sense); iii) improvements (title, vocabulary, sentence structure, people,
motivations, actions, results, and details); iv) final draft
• Understand how to work with different kinds of text, for example:
Fiction: a book, a short story, a poem, a play, a screenplay
Journalism: a news article, a review, a report, an opinion piece, a magazine feature
Marketing: an advertisement, a flyer, a poster, a catalogue
Personal: an email, a text, a letter, a postcard, a photograph, a blog, a profile, a home movie
Official: a business letter, a form, a report, a document
Functional: TV listings, classified ads, a notice
Audio: a song, a music video, an audio book
Video: a feature film, an animated film, a short film, a TV programme, a soap opera, sport
Digital: a website, an app
...and so on

Stage 3: Grammar Point:
• Word order is generally SVOPT – subject, verb, object, place, and time; time can also be first
in the sentence, but SVOPT is a better order:
76. Building a Sentence Using Subject Verb Object Place Time (SVOPT)
• The four conditionals are like a family:
- First Conditional – real future; the mother – practical, realistic, thinking about the
short term future: “If I’m late for work, I will get into trouble.”
- Second Conditional – unreal future; the teenage daughter – dreaming about
possible future scenarios; thinking about far into the future; planning possible
outcomes; not realistic: “If I became a doctor, I would earn a lot of money.”
- Third Conditional – unreal past; the middle-aged dad – wishing he could change
the past, but he can’t; grumpy; believes things would have been better now if he had
behaved differently: “If I had worked harder at school, I would have had a better job.”
- Zero Conditional – facts; information; the young son – walking around saying
factual information that he has learned at school; he has a smartphone or tablet in his
pocket; loves precise, unchanging information: “If a bee stings you, it dies.”
• Learn grammar at home; study with your course book, other books, CD-ROMs, worksheets,
online sources at home on your own, or with a study partner. Lesson time is time to practise
not to learn a lot of new information – learn information at home or on the move
77. Understanding Articles in English
Stage 4: Verb Forms Revision:
• Learn common verb forms:
78. Verb Forms Revision Test – Sample Answers
79. Intermediate Verb Forms – Matching Game
80. Notes on Intermediate Verb Forms
• Present simple is not now, but regular time
• In past simple and present perfect the action is in the past, but in past simple the time is
finished, while in present perfect the time is unfinished – the difference is in the time
• Past perfect is before past simple
• Use past perfect when there are two different times in the past
• Use future perfect when there are two different times in the future
• Learn to practise having short conversations in different tenses without visual prompts
92. Sentence Blocks – Q & A
Stage 5: Pronunciation:
93. Glossary of Pronunciation Terms
• The stressed vowel sound is the most important sound in a word; the chain of stressed vowel
sounds in a sentence is called the sound spine. You should aim to pronounce these sounds
correctly
• Each content word has one strong stress; find the content words in a sentence then find the
stressed syllable in each content word; then find the stressed vowel sound
103. Talk a Lot Foundation Course – Course Outline
104. List of Common Weak Forms in Spoken English
• To understand connected speech we first need to find the sound connections between
syllables: vc, cv, vv, and cc; vc is the most natural sound connection for native speakers of
English; cc is the hardest to pronounce
105. The Techniques of Connected Speech – Matching Game
106. Stress > Reduce > Merge (Blank)

Stage 6: Free Practice:
• Work in a pair or in a group; use the lesson time to practise using language with others and
with the teacher, rather than “in your own head”
• Accept that you can create the lesson material with your fellow students – e.g. discussion
questions, a role play, a debate, a game, a quiz... You don’t need to depend on the course
book. You can use the course book (with CDs/CD ROMs) to practise your grammar, reading,
and listening skills at home, because these are solitary activities and not suitable for doing in
a group
• There are so many different topics that you could explore during YATCB lessons. The only
limit is your imagination! Don’t be afraid to ask your teacher to let you study particular topics
and texts that you are interested in:
107. 101 Possible Topics to Study
108. Blank Discussion Words Template
• Learn how to improvise by saying yes!
Stage 7: Writing:
• Practise writing at home, using the skills that you have developed during the lessons
109. Blank Writing Paper
• Know popular plots for writing stories, e.g.
- boy meets girl
- rags to riches
- fish out of water
- the fatal flaw
- fight until you reach a goal
- you can’t avoid fate
- pursued by an unstoppable force
- love triangle
- cat and mouse chase
- the debt that must be repaid
• As in Stage 2: Text, above, your work should go through several drafts: i) initial ideas;
ii) corrections; iii) improvements; and iv) final draft. Don’t just write your homework as quickly
as possible and hand it in; try to correct and then improve your text – and then write a final
draft on a clean sheet of paper

English Banana.com
Schools
Student Self-Assessment Form
To be completed by students at the start of a new course:
Name: _____________________________________________ Date: _________________
1. Why do you want to learn English?
____________________________________________________________________
2. What languages can you speak and write?
____________________________________________________________________
3. What is your first language?
____________________________________________________________________
4. Have you studied English before? (If yes, when and where did you study?)
____________________________________________________________________
5. What was the highest level you achieved?
____________________________________________________________________
6. Do you read English language magazines and/or books at home?
(If yes, which ones?)
____________________________________________________________________
7. Do you watch English language TV programmes and/or listen to English language
radio programmes? (If yes, which ones?)
____________________________________________________________________
8. Do you prefer reading practice, writing practice or speaking and listening practice?
____________________________________________________________________
9. Write GOOD, OK, or BAD under each skill below to show what you think of your
abilities at the moment:
Reading: Writing: Speaking: Listening:
_________ _________ _________ _________
10. What do you want to gain from doing this course?
____________________________________________________________________
9

English Banana.com
Essential English
Writing the Alphabet
A a B b C c D d E e F f G g
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
H h I i J j K k L l M m N n
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
O o P p Q q R r S s T t
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
U u V v W w X x Y y Z z
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
10

English Banana.com
Essential English
Essential Spellings
a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday
January, February, March, April, May, June
July, August, September, October, November, December
spring, summer, autumn, winter
0 zero 21 twenty one
¼ quarter 22 twenty two
½ half 23 twenty three
¾ three quarters 24 twenty four
1 one 25 twenty five
2 two 26 twenty six
3 three 27 twenty seven
4 four 28 twenty eight
5 five 29 twenty nine
6 six 30 thirty
7 seven 40 forty
8 eight 50 fifty
9 nine 60 sixty
10 ten 70 seventy
11 eleven 80 eighty
12 twelve 90 ninety
13 thirteen 100 a hundred
14 fourteen 101 a hundred and one
15 fifteen 1,000 a thousand
16 sixteen 1,001 a thousand and one
17 seventeen 10,000 ten thousand
18 eighteen 100,000 a hundred thousand
19 nineteen 1,000,000 a million
20 twenty 1,000,000,000 a billion
11

English Banana.com
Essential English
Personal Details - Completing Forms
Practise writing your personal details with this form:
Please use capital letters
Mr/Mrs/Miss/Ms: ______________
First Name: ______________________________________________
Surname: ______________________________________________
Address: ______________________________________________
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
Post Code: ______________________________________________
Telephone Number: ____________________________________________
Mobile Number: ______________________________________________
Email Address: ______________________________________________
Age: ______________
Date of Birth: ____/_____/____
Nationality: ______________________________________________
Occupation: ______________________________________________
Marital Status: ______________________________________________
Number of Children: ______________
12

English Banana.com
Test Your Grammar Skills
The Most Important Verbs in English – Present Simple
BE
Positive: Negative: Question:
I am / I’m am not / ’m not Am I?
you are / you’re are not / ’re not Are you?
he is / he’s is not / isn’t Is he?
she is / she’s is not / isn’t Is she?
it is / it’s is not / isn’t Is it?
we are / we’re are not / aren’t Are we?
they are / they’re are not / aren’t Are they?
DO
I do do not / don’t Do I?
you do do not / don’t Do you?
he does does not / doesn’t Does he?
she does does not / doesn’t Does she?
it does does not / doesn’t Does it?
we do do not / don’t Do we?
they do do not / don’t Do they?
HAVE
Positive: Negative*: Question:
I have / ’ve have not / do not have Have I? / Do I have?
you have / ’ve have not / do not have Have you? / Do you have?
he has / ’s has not / does not have Has he? / Does he have?
she has / ’s has not / does not have Has she? / Does she have?
it has / ’s has not / does not have Has it? / Does it have?
we have / ’ve have not / do not have Have we? / Do we have?
they have / ’ve have not / do not have Have they? / Do they have?
GO
I go do not go / don’t go Do I go?
you go do not go / don’t go Do you go?
he goes does not go / doesn’t go Does he go?
she goes does not go / doesn’t go Does she go?
it goes does not go / doesn’t go Does it go?
we go do not go / don’t go Do we go?
they go do not go / don’t go Do they go?
*contractions are possible, e.g. I have not = I haven’t; he does not have = he doesn’t have, etc.
13

English Banana.com
The Most Important Verbs in English – Past Simple
BE
I was was not / wasn’t Was I?
you were were not / weren’t Were you?
he was was not / wasn’t Was he?
she was was not / wasn’t Was she?
it was was not / wasn’t Was it?
we were were not / weren’t Were we?
they were were not / weren’t Were they?
DO
I did did not / didn’t Did I?
you did did not / didn’t Did you?
he did did not / didn’t Did he?
she did did not / didn’t Did she?
it did did not / didn’t Did it?
we did did not / didn’t Did we?
they did did not / didn’t Did they?
HAVE
Positive: Negative*: Question:
I had had not / did not have Had I? / Did I have?
you had had not / did not have Had you? / Did you have?
he had had not / did not have Had he? / Did he have?
she had had not / did not have Had she? / Did she have?
it had had not / did not have Had it? / Did it have?
we had had not / did not have Had we? / Did we have?
they had had not / did not have Had they? / Did they have?
GO
I went did not go / didn’t go Did I go?
you went did not go / didn’t go Did you go?
he went did not go / didn’t go Did he go?
she went did not go / didn’t go Did she go?
it went did not go / didn’t go Did it go?
we went did not go / didn’t go Did we go?
they went did not go / didn’t go Did they go?
*contractions are possible, e.g. I had not = I hadn’t; she did not have = she didn’t have, etc.
14

A-Z of English Grammar Words
Adjectives are describing words. We use them to describe nouns
(things). For example: the tall building / an interesting novel / a short
conversation / a new year, etc.
An Adverbial Clause is part of a sentence which tells us how or when
something happened. For example, “I woke up at seven o’clock”.
Adverbs describe the verb in a sentence – the action, how something is
being done. For example, “Maria spoke loudly”. In this sentence, “spoke” is
the verb/action and “loudly” describes how the verb/action was done.
The English alphabet has 26 letters. There are 5 vowels – a, e, i, o and u.
The remaining 21 letters are called consonants – b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n,
p, q, r, s, t, v, w, x, y and z.
There are three articles in the English language: “a” and “an” (indefinite
articles) and “the” (definite article). We normally use an article before a
common noun (an everyday object or thing). We use “a” and “an” when the
noun is non-specific – e.g. “A school in Cambridge” – and we use “the” if we
are talking about a particular thing, something that we are already aware
we’re talking about – e.g. “The school in Cambridge”. We use “an” before
words that start with a vowel sound and “a” before words that start with a
consonant sound.
We use clauses to make sentences. There may be several clauses in one
sentence. For example:
“The weather was nice, so we went for a picnic.”
In this sentence there are two clauses: the main clause (“The weather was
nice”) and a subordinate clause (“so we went for a picnic”). The clauses are
separated by a comma. A subordinate clause gives extra information about
the main clause. A subordinate clause can’t be a separate sentence on its
own, while a main clause can. A subordinate clause needs a main clause for it
to make sense.
15

Conjunctions are words that link together clauses and phrases in a
sentence. Words like: “and”, “because”, “but”, “or”, and “so”. For example: “I
didn’t enjoy watching all the rubbish on television, so I gave away my set to a
local school and cancelled my TV licence”.
Consonants are the 21 letters of the alphabet which are not vowels,
namely: b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, x, y, and z.
A consonant sound is the sound made by a word which begins with a
consonant, for example: “cat”, “dog”, and “mouse”. This includes the “yuh”
sound at the beginning of some words which start with the vowel “u”, like
“university”, “union”, “uniform” and “unicycle”. This is why we say, “a
university” and “a union” rather than “an university” and “an union”. Although
these words begin with a vowel, they don’t begin with a vowel sound, so we
have to use article “a” rather than “an”.
A contraction is the short form (or contracted form) of a verb. For
example: “I’ll” is a contraction of “I will”, “She’d” is a contraction of “She had”
and “Jeff’s” is a contraction of either “Jeff is” or “Jeff has”.
A determiner is a word that goes before a noun to give further information
about that noun. For example, in the phrase “some eggs”, “some” is a
determiner which matches the plural noun “eggs”. We know from the plural
determiner “some” and the plural “s” at the end of “egg” that there is more
than one “egg”. Other common determiners include: articles (“the egg”, “an
egg”), possessive determiners (“my egg”, “her egg”), question words (“which
eggs?”, “whose eggs?”) and quantity words (“many eggs”, “more eggs”).
An infinitive verb is the basic form of a verb. For example, “To go” is an
infinitive verb, while “I go” (present simple tense), “I went” (past simple tense)
and “I was going” (past continuous tense) are all ways of using the same
basic form of the verb to show action happening at different times or in
different tenses.
Inversion – which literally means reversal – is the word we use in English
grammar to describe what happens to the word order of a sentence if we
change it from a statement to a question. For example, this sentence is a
statement: “Melinda is a qualified pilot”. To make this statement into a
16

question we need to swap around the verb (“is”) and subject (“Melinda”), like
this: “Is Melinda a qualified pilot?” We must also change the full stop of the
statement into a question mark. It is helpful to remember inversion when
writing statements and question forms. “He has ...” is inverted to become “Has
he ...?” (question form), “You could...” is inverted to become “Could you ...?”
(question form) and “They didn’t ...” is inverted to become “Didn’t they ...?”
(question form), and so on.
its and it’s are often confused, perhaps because they sound the same.
However, they have completely different meanings and functions within a
sentence. “Its” is the possessive adjective which indicates that something
belongs to “it”, for example: “The dog finished its dinner and went outside”.
“It’s” is a contracted form of either verb to be (“it is”) or verb to have (“it has”).
For example: “It’s a nice day, isn’t it?” (“It is a nice day, isn’t it?”) or “It’s been
a nice day, hasn’t it?” (“It has been a nice day, hasn’t it?”).
A letter is one part of a word. There are 26 letters in the English alphabet,
ranging from “a” to “z”. We normally need to use more than one letter to make
a word, although the letter “I” on its own is a word (“I like you”) and so is the
letter “a” (“I like you a lot”).
We use the term lower case to describe small letters. There are two
cases in the English alphabet: lower case (small letters) and upper case
(capital letters or big letters). We normally start a sentence with a capital
letter, but then continue using only small letters, apart from for abbreviations
(e.g. “ITV”) and for words which always start with a capital letter, like names of
people, places and companies. These words are called proper nouns.
Nouns are things. There are lots of different kinds of nouns:
Common nouns are everyday things which we can see and touch (like “table”,
“chair”, “coat” and “swimming pool”).
Proper nouns are words which always start with a capital letter, like the
names of people, places, companies, days and months (for example: “Eric
Morrison”, “Birmingham”, “The Forth Bridge”, “The Royal Shakespeare
Company”, “Monday” and “February”).
Abstract nouns are things that we can’t see or touch but are there all the
same. They describe things like feelings (“happiness” and “love”), qualities
(“loyalty” and “weakness”) or concepts (“democracy” and “peace”).
17

Countable nouns (also known as “count nouns”) are things which have plural
forms – i.e. they can be counted using numbers. For example: “one bag, two
bags”, or “one mobile phone, two mobile phones”.
Uncountable nouns (also known as “noncount nouns”) are things which are
not separate items and cannot be counted. We don’t know how many of them
there are. For example: “bread”, “A slice of bread” or “Some bread” not “a
bread” or “two breads”.
A paragraph is a chunk of text which is made up of several different
sentences. If you are reading a novel there could be three paragraphs on one
page with about four or five different sentences in each paragraph.
Phrases are parts of a sentence and are used to make clauses. They are
made up of one or more words and there are different types, for example:
noun phrases – e.g. “fish and chips”
verb phrases – e.g. “ eats”, “is eating”, “has eaten”, “has been eating”
prepositional phrases – e.g. “in the kitchen”
We use the plural form of a noun when there is more than one of it. For
example, if there is more than one “table” we use the plural form, which is
“tables”. We can make the regular plural form of most nouns by adding “s” to
the end of the word (e.g. one “bed” becomes two “beds”, and one “pen”
becomes two “pens”). Some nouns have an irregular plural form, so we have
to add different endings, like “es” (e.g. one “box” becomes two “boxes” and
one “church” becomes two “churches”). For nouns that end in “y” we usually
replace the “y” with “ies” (e.g. one “party” becomes two “parties” and one
“strawberry” becomes two “strawberries”). There are a few other irregular
plural endings, e.g. nouns ending in “f” have the plural ending “ves” (“loaf”
becomes “loaves”), and there are some nouns that have their own unique
plural form, e.g. one “child” becomes two “children” and one “mouse”
becomes two “mice”.
We use possessive apostrophe “s” after a name and before a
noun (a thing) to show that this thing belongs to the name. For example:
“Julie’s schoolbook” (the “schoolbook belongs to “Julie”) and “Scunthorpe
United’s loyal supporters” (the “loyal supporters” belong to “Scunthorpe
United”).
18

A preposition is a word that describes where something is. For example,
“in the kitchen”, “under the stairs”, “on the table” and “opposite the bank”.
Personal subject pronouns are words which go before a verb to
replace nouns (the name of somebody or something). For example, instead of
saying “Robbie said ...” you could use the personal subject pronoun “he” to
make: “He said ...”, or instead of saying “The university library was closed”
you could use the personal subject pronoun “it” to make: “It was closed”. We
use these words in place of nouns when it is clear what or who you are talking
about. The personal subject pronouns in English are: I, you, he, she, it, we,
and they.
Possessive determiners – my, your, his, her, its, our and their –
are words that give us information about who owns what, for example: “This is
my banana and that’s your coconut”.
We use the different symbols called punctuation marks to make our
writing easier to read. For example, without punctuation marks we wouldn’t
know where one sentence finished and another began. Some of the most
commonly used punctuation marks are:
. full stop. We put a full stop at the end of each sentence, unless it is a
question or needs an exclamation mark (e.g. “My uncle lives in
Newfoundland.”). It is also used with abbreviations (e.g. “e.g.”).
, comma. We use commas to separate clauses in a sentence (e.g. “I
might catch the ten o’clock train, if I hurry up”, and to separate
words in a list (e.g. “I would like a bag of crisps, two tubs of ice-cream,
a can of fizzy orange and a large box of popcorn, please.”).
’ apostrophe. We use an apostrophe before an “s” to show that
something belongs to someone or something else (e.g. “Letitia’s
stapler”) or to show that part of a word is missing, e.g. with
contracted verb forms, like “It’s raining” (the apostrophe replaces the “i”
of “is raining”) and “Paul’s gone home early” (the apostrophe replaces
the “ha” of “has gone”).
? question mark. A question mark is used at the end of a question,
instead of a full stop (e.g. “What time does the film start?”).
! exclamation mark. We put the exclamation mark at the end of a
sentence which has a stronger emphasis than other sentences. It may
19

be that the sentence is amusing (e.g. “My dog has no nose. How does
he smell? Terrible!”) or insulting (e.g. “I’m sorry but your dog really
does stink!”) or any sentence that conveys a strong emotion (e.g.
“Oh no! Someone’s stolen my MP3 player!”).
“ ” speech marks. Speech marks go around part of a text which is spoken
by someone. This is to make it stand out from the rest of the text. E.g.
The mechanic had a good look inside the bonnet and said, “There’s
no hope, I’m afraid. You don’t need a mechanic, you need a miracle
worker!” I tried to hide my disappointment. “OK”, I replied.
; semi-colon. A semi-colon is a short pause in a sentence. It is not as
long a pause as a full stop, but it’s longer than a comma. For example,
if you read the following piece of text out loud, you could count two
beats for a full stop, one beat for a semi-colon and half a beat for a
comma: “The boys started running, but they were soon out of breath; it
wasn’t long before the gang caught up with them”.
: colon. A colon is similar to a semi-colon in that it helps to divide a
sentence and provides a longer pause than a comma, but about half
the pause of a full stop. It is used differently because it shows that the
clause which comes after it follows on from the clause before it. For
example, in the sentence: “The children opened their present: they
couldn’t believe what they found!” the idea in the second clause (“they
couldn’t believe ...”) follows on from the action in the first clause (“The
children opened their present ...”). Using a colon is like saying, “There’s
more to come in the next part of the sentence”. It provides a short
pause in a sentence and points the way to a continuing thought or
action.
( ) brackets. We can use brackets to slip extra information into a
sentence, without disturbing the flow of the sentence too much. For
example: “It had been John’s idea to invite Becky (who was secretly in
love with him) to Heather’s birthday party”. Brackets are known as
parentheses in American English.
- hyphen. We use a hyphen to join together two related words (for
example: “post-Impressionism” and “south-west”) and to write numbers
as words (for example “35” becomes “thirty-five”). It is also used at the
end of a line to show that a word continues on the next line, e.g. “fre-
quently”, and to indicate distances between times (“1914-1918”) and
places (“London-Brighton”).
– dash. A dash is longer than a hyphen and has a different job. We use it
to separate a particular clause from the rest of a sentence, for
20

example: “We had been to Frankfurt four times – five if you count
changing flights once on the way to Sydney – but had never spent New
Year’s Eve there”. It is also used to indicate a pause or a change in the
sentence’s train of thought, for example: “Roger took off his socks
thoughtfully – it had been an extremely trying day”.
/ forward slash. We use the forward slash when writing the address of a
page on the internet, for example:
“www.englishbanana.com/index.html”.
A question form is used to make a sentence that asks a question, for
example: “What time is it?” These sentences end with a question mark
instead of a full stop. Question forms often begin with “wh-” question words,
like “who”, “what”, “where”, “when”, “why”, “which” and “how”. “How” can be
considered an honorary “wh-” question word because it contains both the
letters “w” and “h”!
A sentence is a self-contained group of words which begins with a capital
letter (“A”, “B”, “C”, etc.) and ends with a full stop (“.”), question mark (“?”) or
exclamation mark (“!”). For example:
Derby County’s astonishing unbeaten run at home continued unabated.
We use the singular form of a noun when there is just one of it. For
example, one “table” (“tables” would be the regular plural form) and one
“tooth” (“teeth” is the irregular plural form).
Subject-Verb-Object is the phrase used to describe a common
sentence structure in English. In the sentence: “The children are eating ice-
creams”, “The children” is the subject, “are eating” is the verb form (the action
– what the subject is doing) and “ice-creams” is the object (the thing that is
having the action done to it).
We use the term upper case to describe capital letters (or big letters). We
normally start a sentence with a capital letter, but then use small letters for the
rest of the words, apart from abbreviations and words which always start with
a capital letter, like names of people, places and companies.
21

Verbs are action words, or doing words. They tell us what somebody or
something is doing in a sentence. For example, in the sentence “John washed
his car”, “washed” is the verb, or action, John is the person doing the action
(the subject), and “his car” is the thing that is having the action done to it (the
object). Verbs can be regular and irregular. Most verbs are regular, which
means that they all follow the same rules, for example when forming the past
tense all regular verbs end with “ed” (“walk” becomes “walked” and “play”
becomes “played”, and so on). However, some very common verbs are
irregular, which means they don’t follow the same rules as regular verbs and
you just have to learn their forms separately. Common irregular verbs are: “to
be”, “to do”, “to have” and “to go”. These four verbs are also the most
common auxiliary verbs. Auxiliary verbs are helping verbs: they help a main
verb to form a verb phrase. In this sentence: “Ricky and Jessica are teaching
their daughter to swim”, “are” is an auxiliary verb (from verb “to be”) which
helps the main verb “teaching” (from verb “to teach”).
There are several different verb tenses in the English language. It is
worth being aware of (or, better still, learning) some common verb tables in
each of the following tenses: present simple, present continuous, present
perfect, past simple, past continuous, past perfect and future forms (e.g.
“going to”). For example, let’s look at the verb “to eat”, which is an irregular
verb:
(Note: these verb tables do not cover negative and question forms for each
tense, which can also be studied, e.g. “I eat / I don’t eat / Do I eat?” and so
on.)
present simple tense verb table:
I eat, You eat, He eats, She eats, It eats, We eat, They eat
present continuous tense verb table (with verb “to be” in the present tense as
an auxiliary verb):
I am eating, You are eating, He is eating, She is eating, It is eating,
We are eating, They are eating
present perfect tense verb table (with verb “to have” in the present tense as
an auxiliary verb):
I have eaten, You have eaten, He has eaten, She has eaten, It has eaten,
We have eaten, They have eaten
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past simple tense verb table:
I ate, You ate, He ate, She ate, It ate, We ate, They ate
past continuous tense verb table (with verb “to be” in the past tense as an
auxiliary verb):
I was eating, You were eating, He was eating, She was eating, It was eating,
We were eating, They were eating
past perfect tense verb table (with verb “to have” in the past tense as an
auxiliary verb):
I had eaten, You had eaten, He had eaten, She had eaten, It had eaten,
We had eaten, They had eaten
future form with “going to” and verb “to be” in the present tense as an auxiliary
verb:
I’m going to eat, You’re going to eat, He’s going to eat, She’s going to eat,
It’s going to eat, We’re going to eat, They’re going to eat
future form with “will” in the present tense as an auxiliary verb:
I will eat, You will eat, He will eat, She will eat, It will eat, We will eat,
They will eat
There are 5 vowels in the English alphabet: a, e, i, o and u. The other 21
letters of the alphabet are called consonants.
A vowel sound is the sound made by a word which begins with a vowel,
for example: “animal”, “education”, “India”, “orange” and “umbrella”.
A word is a part of a sentence made up of one or more letters. Words in a
sentence are separated by a single space on either side. Several words with a
capital letter at the beginning of the first one and a full stop after the last one
together form a sentence.
23

Word Classes in English – Revision
Content Words – one strong stressed syllable in each one*
Function Words – not stressed***
Identify the class of each word: Who was watching two friends of your younger brother quietly eating some of those cakes – which were on the table – and then running away?
* apart from phrasal verbs, which are stressed on both parts, or two parts if there are three
** apart from verb “be” which is not usually stressed as a main verb or as an auxiliary verb
*** unless they occur at the end of a clause, e.g. “What for?”
Word Class: Translation: For Example: More Examples:
nouns concrete
abstract
______________________
______________________
table
happiness
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
main verbs normal**
phrasal verbs
negative auxiliary verbs
______________________
______________________
______________________
eat
wake up
didn’t
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
adjectives (describe nouns) ______________________ big __________________________________________________________
adverbs (describe verbs) ______________________ quickly __________________________________________________________
numbers ______________________ ten __________________________________________________________
wh-question words (interrogatives) ______________________ what __________________________________________________________
interjections ______________________ Hi! __________________________________________________________
Word Class: Translation: For Example: More Examples:
auxiliary verbs normal
modal
______________________
______________________
have
can
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
pronouns normal
relative
______________________
______________________
they
which
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
possessive adjectives ______________________ their __________________________________________________________
prepositions ______________________ for __________________________________________________________
conjunctions ______________________ because __________________________________________________________
determiners articles
quantifiers
demonstratives
______________________
______________________
______________________
the
some
this
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
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English Banana.com
15 Common Grammar Mistakes in Written and Oral Work
1. The verb doesn’t agree with the subject:
a) There are many person in this class.
b) The film finish at four o’clock.
Advice: The verb should agree with the subject:
a) There are many people in this class.
b) The film finishes at four o’clock.
2. There are mixed tenses or the wrong tense has been used:
a) I went to the supermarket and meet my friend James.
b) I have saw my sister yesterday.
Advice: Use the correct tense, and don’t mix tenses:
a) I went to the supermarket and met my friend James.
b) I saw my sister yesterday.
3. There are articles or determiners in the wrong place or missing altogether:
a) I bought new computer last weekend.
b) I had some interesting journey to work this morning.
Advice: Use articles and determiners correctly:
a) I bought a new computer last weekend.
b) I had an interesting journey to work this morning.
4. Capital letters are used incorrectly:
a) I’ll see you on sunday.
b) my friend rob lives at 44 sunnybank drive, ollerton, southampton, sh2 5pb.
Advice: Put a capital letter at the start of a proper noun and where necessary:
a) I’ll see you on Sunday.
b) My friend Rob lives at 44 Sunnybank Drive, Ollerton, Southampton, SH2
5PB.
5. There are spelling mistakes:
a) I came to Britain last autum.
b) The children finished their diner and went outside.
Advice: Check your spelling with a dictionary if you are unsure and learn lists
of common words:
a) I came to Britain last autumn.
b) The children finished their dinner and went outside.
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English Banana.com
6. Sentences are long, rambling and repetitive:
a) I wake up at 7 o’clock and have a shower and brush my hair and get dressed.
b) We learnt about grammar and some of the students said they didn’t like it, but
I think it is a good subject for me because ...
Advice: Use short sentences with one or two phrases in each:
a) I wake up at 7 o’clock and have a shower. Then I brush my hair and get
dressed.
b) We learnt about grammar and some of the students said they didn’t like it. I
think it is a good subject because ...
7. The words in the sentence are in the wrong order:
a) Which programmes you don’t like?
b) I can go home now, please?
Advice: Check that words in each sentence are in the right order:
a) Which programmes don’t you like?
b) Can I go home now, please?
8. There is incorrect punctuation:
a) My sisters name is Zafreen, she lives with our parents in Leicester.
b) What. is. your. favourite. colour.
Advice: Use punctuation correctly:
a) My sister’s name is Zafreen. She lives with our parents in Leicester.
b) What is your favourite colour?
9. The answer is not relevant to the question, e.g. ‘Describe a good friend’:
a) My name is Sandeep Singh. My address is 54 Park Lane, Wisbech,
Cambridgeshire, WB12 4RW. I have two brothers and two sisters …
Advice: Make sure that your answer is relevant to the question:
a) I want to write about my friend Ahmed. I have known him for a long time. He
is tall with brown hair, and he wears glasses …
10. There is incorrect use of plural forms:
a) We can do it ourself.
b) Do you want a toast?
Advice: Learn and use plural forms and their determiners:
a) We can do it ourselves.
b) Do you want some toast?
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English Banana.com
11. A verb is missing from the sentence:
a) I just spoken to Emma and she really busy.
b) My boss leaving next week to start a new job.
Advice: Don’t miss out verbs – even little ones!
a) I have just spoken to Emma and she’s really busy.
b) My boss is leaving next week to start a new job.
12. A preposition is missing from a sentence:
a) Bill Clinton was the 42nd
President the USA.
b) I put my bag the table.
Advice: Don’t miss out prepositions, no matter how unimportant they look:
a) Bill Clinton was the 42nd
President of the USA.
b) I put my bag on the table.
13. The meaning isn’t clear or the sentence doesn’t make sense:
a) I got the train at six thirty and arrived when I got to work early.
b) My favourite food is Chinese because I can’t go out and get it very often.
Advice: Does your sentence make sense? Make sure the reader can
understand what you are trying to say:
a) I got the train at six thirty and arrived at work early.
b) My favourite food is Chinese, but I don’t go out and get it very often.
14. The infinitive is used incorrectly:
a) I’m going talk about my country.
b) Kevin wanted to going to the museum with his class.
Advice: Use the infinitive correctly – ‘to’ + infinitive, rather than mixed tenses:
a) I’m going to talk about my country.
b) Kevin wanted to go to the museum with his class.
15. There are incomplete sentences, e.g. a sentence that doesn’t contain a subject-
verb-object:
a) Not good.
b) We’re going to.
Advice: Try not to use very short, incomplete sentences, e.g. a sentence that
doesn’t contain a subject-verb-object:
a) That was not good.
b) We’re going to eat out later.
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English Banana.com
Tips for Better Written and Oral English Work
• Always check your work. When you think you’ve finished, check it again. Use a
dictionary to help you find spellings that you are not sure of.
• Go to class regularly. Do your homework and hand it in on time. If your teacher
doesn’t give you any homework, ask for some. Ask for extra work to do at the
weekend. If your teacher doesn’t mark it, ask them to give you feedback. If you don’t
understand something in class, ask your teacher. Discuss English work with your
friends at break-time and after class. Practise talking in English. Talk about it with
your family. See if you can help your family to improve their English. Encourage them
to go to a class.
• In written work – answer the question! To answer the question you must read the
question! What does the question ask you to do? Make sure you do what it asks. If it
says ‘use a key’ then use a key! If it says ‘circle the correct letter – a, b, c or d’ then
circle the correct letter. If it says, ‘write about your family’, write about your family.
• Spend time deliberately learning vocabulary sets. You are always going to need to
know the meanings and correct spellings of days, months, numbers, clothes, food,
family members, your name and address, and so on. Practise at home. Make things
much easier for yourself in class by learning these words in your free time.
• Plan written compositions before you start. Use a flow chart to help you think of about
four or five ideas to write about or sketch out your ideas by writing notes on a rough
piece of paper. Think: what do you want to say in this piece of writing? Start with a
short introduction, then write a paragraph for each idea. Your final paragraph should
draw the ideas together into a conclusion. Each paragraph should contain about four
or five short sentences.
• Spend time deliberately learning basic verb tables – both regular and irregular –
especially the four key irregular verbs: ‘to be’, ‘to go’, ‘to have’ and ‘to do’. Learn
different tenses: present/past simple, present/past continuous and present/past
perfect. Learn the past participles of key irregular verbs, for example have/had,
do/done. Make sure you can use many common verbs like ‘eat’, ‘read’, ‘sleep’ and
‘go’ to talk about your daily activities in both the present and past tenses.
• Read English language books and magazines. Read signs and notices. Write down
any words or phrases that you don’t understand and look them up. Keep a vocabulary
notebook where you write down new words and phrases. Check it regularly.
• Watch English-language TV. Use subtitles so that you can match the words to the
voices. Record programmes and play them back, pausing the action if it’s going too
quickly for you. Use the internet to find information in English. Use free online
translation services to translate text into your language. Visit websites that have
games and resources for learning English. Print out materials and test yourself at
home. Recommend good websites that you find to your teachers and classmates.
• Use it or lose it! If you want to remember what you have learnt, make sure you use it
every day. Practise speaking and listening, reading and writing every day. If possible,
join a club or society or do a sporting or voluntary activity where you will meet native
English speakers. Use your initiative!
• Don’t give up! If it feels like you’re not learning anything, persevere. You are doing
fine.
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Talk a Lot
Clear Alphabet Dictionary
Clear Alphabet – 48 Phonemes (Individual Sounds)
Key – v = vowel sound: s = short l = long d = diphthong | c = consonant sound: v = voiced u = unvoiced
23 vowel sounds: 8 short 5 long 10 diphthongs | 25 consonant sounds: 15 voiced 10 unvoiced
Each phoneme always has the same written identifier (ID). Letters not used from the old alphabet: c, q, x
When pronounced on their own, all consonant sounds (including unvoiced) are followed by a schwa sound,
e.g. 7. buh. This is called an embedded schwa sound. Hear the sounds: http://tinyurl.com/nea-sounds
No. Phonemic ID Old IPA Symbol Old Spelling New Spelling Type
1. a LôL= bat Bat v / s
2. ai L~fL= time Taim d
3. aiy L~f]L= hire Haiy d
4. ar L^WL= star Star v / l
5. au L~rL= cow Kau d
6. auw L~r]L= power Pauw d
7. b LÄL= bag Bag c / v
8. ch LípL= cheese Cheez c / u
9. d LÇL= dice Dais c / v
10. e LÉL= leg Leg v / s
11. ee LáWL= three Ttree v / l
12. ei LÉfL= plane Plein d
13. eir LÉ]L= pear Peir d
14. er L‰WL= shirt Shert v / l
15. eu L]rL= home Heum d
16. f LÑL= frog Frog c / u
17. g LÖL= glass Glars c / v
18. h LÜL= head Hed c / u
19. hh LñL= loch Lohh c / u
20. i LfL= dish Dish v / s
21. ii LáL= happy Ha pii v / s
22. iy Lf]L= here Hiy d
23. j LÇwL= jam Jam c / v
24. k LâL= kit Kit c / u
25. l LäL= lake Leik c / v
26. m LãL= music Myoo zik c / v
27. n LåL= nurse Ners c / v
28. ng LÏL= ring Ring c / v
29. o LﬂL= sock Sok v / s
30. oo LìWL= shoot Shoot v / l
31. or LlWL= ball Borl v / l
32. oy LlfL= toy Toy d
33. p LéL= pig Pig c / u
34. r LêL= road Reud c / v
35. s LëL= snow Sneu c / u
36. sh LpL= shop Shop c / u
37. t LíL= taxi Ta ksii c / u
38. th LaL= brother Bru th c / v
39. tt LqL= thousand Ttau znd c / u
40. u L¾L= cup Kup v / s
41. uh L]L= arrive uh Raiv v / s
42. uu LrL= pull Puul v / s
43. uuw Lr]L= pure Pyuuw d
44. v LîL= van Van c / v
45. w LïL= week Week c / v
46. y LàL= yoghurt Yo gt c / v
47. z LòL= zip Zip c / v
48. zz LwL= revision r Vi zzn c / v
_ LL= football Fuu_ borl
29

Talk a Lot
Foundation Course
100 Basic Words with Clear Alphabet
uh Baut about Gar dn garden Ri v river
Eir r plein aeroplane Glar sz glasses Reud road
ar ft Noon afternoon Guud good Sed said
Orl weiz always Groo grew Skool school
A n mlz animals Hai hi See said seaside
uh Nu th another Hors horse Shau td shouted
b Nar n banana Haus house Sum tting something
bi Gan began in Said inside Song song
Be t better Ki chn kitchen So rii sorry
Blak black Leik lake Stu mk stomach
Buuk book Larft laughed Su dn lii suddenly
Beutt both Luuk look Soot suit
Bre kfst breakfast Meik make Tee ch teacher
Braun brown Ma n j manager te l Vi zzn television
Bil ding building Mee me Thang kyoo thank you
See ling ceiling mi Steik mistake th / thee the
Chil drn children Mor ning morning their there
Klar sroom classroom Mu th mother Ttort thought
Klee ning cleaning Maun tn mountain Ttroo through
Kleuthz clothes Maus mouse Too thbrush toothbrush
Keuld cold Nyoo new Taun town
km Pyoo t computer Nekst next Trein train
Ker tn curtain Neuz nose Tree tree
Di dnt didn’t neu Vem b November Twen tii twenty
Di frnt different Num b number Won td wanted
Do kt doctor O fn often Wor t water
Juuw ring during O rinj orange Wel km welcome
Ee zii easy Par tii party Weil whale
E l fnt elephant Pee pl people Wait white
Ev ri bo dii everybody Feun phone Win deu window
Forl fall Plei play with with
Fam lii family Pleez please Rait write
Fo leu follow Pro blm problem
for Teen fourteen Puut put
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Talk a Lot
Learn the Clear Alphabet with Flashcards
Students can use the flashcards on pp.33-42 for learning and memorising the forty-eight
sounds of English with the Clear Alphabet. The aim is to know the sounds by heart, so that
they can look at any of the Clear Alphabet IDs (identifiers) on their own and say the sound
straight away.
Instructions
1. Print the pages back to back onto thin card, in the following order:
• print pages 20 and 21 back to back
2. Cut out the cards and laminate them, if possible, for extra durability.
3. For students: use the cards to learn the sounds by quickly testing yourself in spare
minutes of the day, e.g. on the bus, at lunchtime, when you’re watching TV, etc.
4. For teachers: use the cards to test your class for a short period of time every day, just
to keep the identifiers and sounds in your students’ minds, or give a set of cards to
each student and encourage them to practise in pairs or small groups. You could use
some or all of the activities below.
Key to Abbreviations
v / s = short vowel sound
v / l = long vowel sound
d = diphthong
c / v = voiced consonant (i.e. your vocal cords vibrate when you make it; feel your throat
as you make a sound to find out whether it’s voiced or not; if it vibrates, it is voiced!)
c / u = unvoiced consonant (your vocal cords don’t vibrate when you make this kind of
sound)
Note: it’s well worth getting students to learn the Clear Alphabet sounds with an extra layer of
detail, so that they learn the concepts above. For example, that e isn’t only a vowel sound,
but that it’s a short vowel sound; or that n isn’t only a consonant sound, but it’s a voiced
consonant sound that makes your vocal cords vibrate – and also a friendly consonant sound.
Suggested Classroom Activities
I made my own flashcards like these to learn and memorise which sound each symbol of the
IPA represented, when I was training to be an English teacher more than twelve years ago,
but there are lots of other ways in which you could use them beyond simply learning quietly at
home:
a) Put all of the cards on the table – simple side up – in front of your students. Say a
sound, and the first to find the correct card is the winner. Or, say “voiced consonant”
or “long vowel sound”, etc. (as above) and the first to find one is the winner.
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Talk a Lot
Learn the Clear Alphabet with Flashcards
b) Show a card with a sound on it and students have to say a word each that includes
this sound.
c) Students have to put several of the cards in order to make a simple word, e.g. “cat” =
d) Or you could ask students to spell out their first name, or the make of their car, or
their first pet’s name, etc., or one (or more) of any current vocabulary word or phrase,
using the cards. You may need a few sets of cards to be able to do this.
e) Try this fun game for two students working in a pair (it could also be adapted for two
small groups battling each other). Each student has half the cards from the set. They
hold them in their hands in a (shuffled) pack so that the other student can’t see which
cards they’ve got. The first student produces the first card and their partner has ten
seconds (or five, if your group is at a good level!) to say an English word that contains
that sound. If they are correct they get the card, and put it in a separate pile from the
pack in their hands. If they are wrong, or can’t think of a word, the original student
gets to keep the card, again putting it in a separate pile. Play alternates between the
two students and continues until the students don’t have any cards left in their hands.
The winner will be the student with the most cards at the end of the game (or at the
end of an agreed period of time, e.g. fifteen minutes). A variation to make the game
harder would be to insist on two words (or more) for each sound, or to get the
students to write the words using the Clear Alphabet, as well as saying them.
f) Use the rhyming words listed on pp.43-53 to demonstrate how the same sounds in
English can be achieved with very different spelling patterns. See also the information
on Vowel Clusters (from p.203*) and Consonant Clusters (from p.217*) later in the
dictionary.You could make the important point that English is not a phonetic
language, and that the spelling of a word in English often bears little or no relation to
the sounds that it contains.
g) Or use the rhyming words to get students saying lots of words with the same vowel
sound out loud. You could even get them to write sentences using as many words
which have the same vowel sound in them as possible, for example:
Sound: ee=
Sentence: “Pete’s feet feel the need for speed each week.”
or:
Sound: ei=
Sentence: “Jane’s Danish mate made it plain that her place in Spain was a waste of
space.”
Why not collect together the funniest or longest sentences and make a classroom display, or
book, or better still, email them to us at English Banana.com so that we can put them on the
Talk a Lot pages! Similarly, you will doubtless find lots more new ways for using these
flashcards. If you would like to share them with other teachers and students, please do email
them to us and tell us what worked for you.
[*See Clear Alphabet Dictionary.]
k a t
32

Talk a Lot
Simple Flashcards (Page 1 of 5)
i
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a
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o
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uu
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uh
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e
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ii
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ee
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ar
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or
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33

Talk a Lot
Detailed Flashcards (Page 1 of 5)
a
bat Bat v / s
i
dish Dish v / s
uu
pull Puul v / s
o
sock Sok v / s
e
leg Leg v / s
uh
arrive uh Raiv v / s
ee
three Ttree v / l
ii
happy Ha pii v / s
or
ball Borl v / l
ar
star Star v / l
34

Talk a Lot
oo
Talk a Lot
er
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u
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ei=
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ai
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oy
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eir
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aiy
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eu
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au
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35

Talk a Lot
er
shirt Shert v / l=
oo
shoot Shoot v / l=
ei
plane Plein d=
u
cup Kup v / s=
oy
toy Toy d=
ai
time Taim d=
aiy
hire Haiy d=
eir
pear Peir d=
au
cow Kau d=
eu
home Heum d=
36

Talk a Lot
iy
Talk a Lot
uuw
Talk a Lot
auw
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b
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g
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v
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t
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d
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tt
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th
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37

Talk a Lot
uuw
pure Pyuuw d=
iy
here Hiy d=
b
bag Bag c / v=
auw
power Pauw d=
v
van Van c / v=
g
glass Glars c / v=
d
dice Dais c / v=
t
taxi Ta ksii c / u=
th
brother Bru th c / v=
tt
thousand Ttau znd c / u=
38

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p
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k
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s
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sh
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ch
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h
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r
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w
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y
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m
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39

Talk a Lot
k
kit Kit c / u=
p
pig Pig c / u=
sh
shop Shop c / u=
s
snow Sneu c / u=
h
head Hed c / u=
ch=
cheese Cheez c / u=
w
week Week c / v=
r
road Reud c / v=
m
music Myoo zik c / v=
y
yoghurt Yo gt c / v=
40

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n
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ng
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l
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f
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z
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zz
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j
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hh
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/'/
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_
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41

Talk a Lot
ng
ring Ring c / v=
n
nurse Ners c / v=
f
frog Frog c / u=
l
lake Leik c / v=
zz
revision r Vi zzn c / v=
z
zip Zip c / v=
hh
loch Lohh c / u=
j
jam Jam c / v=
_
football Fuu_ borl (glottal stop)=
42

Talk a Lot
Learn the Clear Alphabet
Rhyming Words – Vowel Sounds 1
All of the words in each group are rhyming words – they all share the same vowel sound. Notice the different
spelling patterns that we can use to make the same vowel sound. Can you think of any more words with the same
vowel sounds and spelling patterns?
vowel sound in ‘f i sh’
fish
dish
wish
bid
hid
lid
did
fill
hill
Jill
still
pill
bill
Bill
chill
will
kill
pit
it
hit
nit
lit
bit
spit
wit
spin
chin
win
tin
gin
limb
list
mist
missed
kissed
hissed
vowel sound in ‘empt y’
empty
guilty
honesty
rugby
lovely
lily
juicy
Lucy
smelly
jolly
chilly
frilly
Billy
really
pretty
Betty
hockey
jockey
movie
smoothie
vowel sound in ‘f ee t’
i ii ee
feet
meet
sheet
feat
heat
neat
seat
treat
Pete
mete
deed
need
feed
speed
lead
knead
heal
steal
deal
peel
heel
wheel
speak
leak
peek
cheek
dream
team
steam
seen
been
clean
43

Talk a Lot
vowel sound in ‘h a t’
hat
cat
fat
spat
chat
gnat
splat
bat
brat
mat
Matt
can
span
man
ban
nan
tan
ran
fan
van
land
hand
stand
band
and
bandstand
handstand
understand
brand
sand
pal
gal
map
chap
trap
flap
clap
tap
lap
cap
nap
sap
rap
gap
yap
channel
banner
spanner
manner
tank
prank
spank
sank
thank
bank
shank
yank
thanks
back
slack
hack
sack
shack
tack
knack
vowel sound in ‘c ar’
a ar
car
far
bar
tar
char
par
mar
star
guitar
Qatar
are
hurrah
shah
spa
bra
cha-cha
ta
pa
ask
task
bask
cask
mask
branch
hard
card
lard
bard
charred
barred
jarred
bark
lark
park
hark
mark
Mark
dark
shark
barber
harbour
tart
cart
smart
art
part
dart
mart
hart
heart
chance
dance
prance
lance
advance
stance
father
lather
rather
Arthur
bath
44

Talk a Lot
vowel sound in ‘g o t’
got
hot
knot
not
shot
lot
rot
plot
slot
trot
clot
hotpot
cot
jot
pot
sot
tot
salt
halt
Walt
malt
bolt
colt
dolt
vault
fault
moult
stop
top
chop
hop
prop
mop
cop
fop
pop
sop
box
fox
cox
off
scoff
on
con
Ron
Yvonne
John
gone
from
sock
knock
rock
clock
shock
dock
wok
rob
Bob
sob
cob
job
lob
fob
hob
odd
wad
vowel sound in ‘or’
o or
or
for
nor
pour
four
your
poor
door
pore
sore
more
bore
yore
wore
core
fore
gore
whore
tore
lore
law
jaw
paw
straw
draw
raw
saw
war
oar
hoar
horse
Norse
coarse
force
talk
walk
chalk
hawk
squawk
fork
pork
York
board
hoard
sword
fought
nought
ought
wart
form
dorm
warm
warn
lawn
prawn
sawn
pawn
torn
forlorn
45

Talk a Lot
vowel sound in ‘p u t’
put
soot
foot
book
hook
look
cook
crook
shook
brook
took
rook
wool
bull
full
pull
push
bush
whoosh
good
hood
could
should
would
you’d
vowel sound in ‘r oo m’
uu oo
room
loom
doom
womb
to
too
two
hue
cue
you
stew
few
brew
new
crew
queue
route
boot
loot
newt
cute
use
fuse
shoes
lose
bruise
June
dune
moon
soon
cool
fool
pool
school
group
soup
46

Talk a Lot
vowel sound in ‘a go’
ago
adore
about
around
annoy
apart
aware
envelope
famous
royal
loyal
banana
computer
heater
under
user
teacher
power
tower
brother
mother
father
sister
daughter
umbrella
a
the
until
unless
president
resident
confident
somebody
anybody
nobody
London
woman
family
motorway
endless
faithless
harmless
vowel sound in ‘h er’
uh er
her
per
stir
fir
fur
purr
whirr
heard
herd
nerd
bird
stirred
purred
word
curd
turd
perch
lurch
church
birch
search
murder
girder
learn
earn
turn
burn
stern
fern
worm
term
perm
firm
shirt
skirt
hurt
pert
first
thirst
worst
worse
curse
verse
world
girl
furl
hurl
curl
earl
pearl
twirl
47

Talk a Lot
vowel sound in ‘t e n’
ten
hen
wren
den
men
pen
when
gem
hem
fell
tell
bell
smell
swell
shell
dwell
spell
well
gel
spend
mend
tend
lend
wend
bend
end
trend
wreck
speck
deck
neck
peck
tech
cheque
get
met
let
bet
net
jet
pet
set
vet
debt
help
yelp
melt
dwelt
Celt
tense
pence
whence
led
bed
wed
red
Ted
head
lead
edge
hedge
wedge
ledge
egg
beg
peg
keg
leg
vowel sound in ‘u p’
e u
up
cup
sup
pup
mud
thud
bud
stud
cud
blood
flood
rub
hub
club
pub
snub
scrub
cub
tub
but
hut
shut
cut
nut
rut
butt
putt
mutt
luck
duck
muck
chuck
buck
puck
suck
tuck
sun
fun
bun
shun
stun
gun
nun
pun
run
ton
won
son
one
done
gull
mull
dull
lull
cull
honey
money
sunny
funny
bunny
runny
sum
hum
gum
chum
rum
numb
dumb
48

Talk a Lot
Rhyming Words – Diphthongs 1
All of the words in each group are rhyming words – they all share the same diphthong. Notice the different spelling
patterns that we can use to make the same diphthong. Can you think of any more words with the same diphthongs
and spelling patterns?
vowel sound in ‘r ai n’
rain
train
Spain
lain
gain
main
chain
pain
plain
plane
Jane
cane
sane
Dane
reign
feign
mainly
plainly
waste
paste
haste
taste
chaste
baste
laced
raced
faced
base
case
chase
lace
face
pace
race
mace
place
plaice
plague
vague
nail
sail
hail
pail
bail
fail
jail
wail
whale
bait
date
skate
gate
late
fate
mate
weight
eight
freight
shame
lame
came
tame
take
bake
cake
Jake
sake
make
wake
lake
shake
vowel sound in ‘ow n’
ei eu
own
grown
thrown
shown
known
bone
cone
lone
hone
throne
clone
phone
stone
loan
groan
moan
cologne
sewn
phoned
cloned
stoned
moaned
loaned
owned
hope
mope
cope
drove
wove
roam
foam
loam
home
dome
tome
comb
roamed
won’t
don’t
grow
blow
know
row
show
stow
oh
owe
woe
hole
whole
pole
mole
sole
soul
soak
poke
woke
explode
load
loaf
oaf
49

Talk a Lot
vowel sound in ‘b y’
by
spy
sty
shy
my
cry
try
buy
guy
hi
pi
pie
die
lie
tie
I
eye
bye
Skye
bike
hike
pike
like
style
stile
while
mile
Nile
tile
pile
tied
lied
ride
hide
child
wild
tiled
piled
styled
kite
spite
white
bite
byte
quite
height
flight
might
night
sight
tight
right
bright
wine
shine
mine
line
sign
time
lime
rhyme
blind
find
vowel sound in ‘c ow’
ai au
cow
how
now
wow
bow
row
brow
allow
bough
plough
owl
howl
cowl
yowl
scowl
jowl
fowl
loud
proud
cloud
crowd
bowed
cowed
house
mouse
douse
out
shout
lout
gout
about
pout
tout
trout
doubt
clown
town
brown
crown
pound
found
sound
wound
hound
mound
round
around
abound
astound
gowned
50

Talk a Lot
vowel sound in ‘t oy’
toy
coy
boy
soy
Roy
annoy
ploy
joy
Troy
cloy
destroy
employ
decoy
deploy
Illinois
toyed
annoyed
employed
deployed
overjoyed
enjoyed
void
avoid
Lloyd
Freud
boil
soil
toil
coil
foil
spoil
oil
soiled
toiled
coiled
foiled
spoiled
oiled
boiled
vowel sound in ‘ear’
oy iy
ear
year
hear
appear
dear
clear
near
tear
gear
fear
disappear
rear
sear
cheer
beer
leer
sheer
peer
deer
steer
engineer
pioneer
volunteer
jeer
veer
pier
tier
chandelier
cavalier
here
sphere
mere
we’re
Zaire
pierce
peered
steered
cheered
pioneered
cleared
neared
feared
reared
seared
tiered
cheering
peering
steering
leering
pioneering
jeering
veering
searing
fearing
nearing
clearing
shield
wield
field
kneeled
kneel
Neil
heal
seal
meal
weal
51

Talk a Lot
vowel sound in ‘air’
air
chair
hair
fair
lair
stair
pair
affair
despair
flair
éclair
unfair
where
there
their
they’re
wear
tear
bear
mare
pare
stare
rare
fare
share
prepare
declare
dare
flare
care
bare
compare
beware
aware
Clare
Claire
millionaire
commissionaire
aired
chaired
despaired
paired
pared
stared
fared
bared
shared
prepared
declared
compared
dared
flared
cared
laird
square
vowel sound in ‘t our’
eir uuw
tour
tourist
tourism
plural
rural
mural
neural
usual
unusual
neurotic
pure
sure
cure
assure
lure
allure
purely
surely
furious
curious
luxurious
cured
lured
assured
touring
alluring
assuring
luring
curing
luxuriant
curio
you’re
52

Talk a Lot
vowel sound in ‘f ire’
dire
fire
hire
ire
mire
shire
sire
spire
tire
wire
attired
fired
mired
sired
tired
wired
aspire
attire
ceasefire
conspire
desire
entire
expire
inspire
perspire
retire
sapphire
satire
transpire
umpire
Ireland
acquire
enquire
squire
briar
liar
psychiatrist
prior
higher
buyer
dryer
flyer
lyre
pyre
tyre
crier
drier
trier
pliers
science
choir
bias
diagnosis
diary
environment
iron
violence
violin
lion
virus
quiet
vowel sound in ‘our’
aiy auw
dour
flour
hour
our
scour
sour
devour
ours
ourselves
bower
cower
dower
flower
Gower
glower
power
shower
tower
cauliflower
vowel
53

English Banana.com
Outline of You Are The Course Book Modes 1-3
Mode 1: You Are The Course Book
1. Vocabulary – “Interesting and random!”
• word stress
• vowel sounds
• other interesting features
2. Text
• 2.1 First Draft – Getting the Initial Ideas (whole group)
• 2.2 Second Draft – Corrections (whole group)
o Grammar
o Spelling
o Punctuation
o Sense
• 2.3 Third Draft – Improvements (pairs or small groups)
o Title
o Vocabulary
o Sentence Structure
o People
o Motivations
o Actions
o Results
o Details
3. Grammar Point
4. Verb Forms Revision
• 8 Questions, e.g. What, Where, When, Who, Why, Which, How, and auxiliary verbs
• Sentence Blocks
• Verb Forms Revision Test
5. Pronunciation
• Sentence Stress • Connected Speech
6. Free Practice
• Choose an activity from the list (see You Are The Course Book)
7. Writing
• 2.4 Final Draft (individual)
Mode 2: The Course Book Is All Around You
1. Vocabulary 5. Pronunciation
2. Real Text 6. Free Practice
3. Grammar Point 7. Writing
4. Verb Forms Revision
Mode 3: You Are The Course Book – Express!
Studying Language: Using Language:
1. Discussion 1. Vocabulary
2. Vocabulary 2. Free Practice
3. Q & A
4. Sentence Building
5. Pronunciation
54

General Principles of You Are The Course Book Method (08.01.13)
Benefits for students:
• Your work
• Your ideas
• Your current errors discussed
• Your present needs met
• You do the hard work
• You are engaged
• T provides the opportunity and the framework: T = form, SS = content
Students:
• Student-centred – they do most of the work
• Students work together in pairs and groups, not individually. Little or no individual “brain >
content” time
• Students need to be active learners and work hard. Lessons will be demanding. There is no
free ride. You have to work
Teacher:
• Teacher is a guide. No top-down teaching. Elicit don’t tell
• Teacher has to be patient and let the students find the answers
• Let SS make mistakes. They will learn from their errors
• If you don’t know the answer, “trick it”, or ask the students to find out. Don’t lose your authority
• Your positioning is important, e.g. where you stand. Don’t stand over students. Stand away.
When with them, sit with them at their level and make eye contact
• Teacher can disappear. Save your energy! Don’t burn yourself up like the candle which gives
light. The students should use their energy. They are there to learn. You are a guide directing
them but not doing it for them
• Teacher controls the timing in the lesson, ensuring a variety of activities and elements are
covered
• Teacher controls the student input, encouraging everybody to get involved
Both:
• Improvise – don’t block. Take other people’s ideas on board. Say “Yes”! Don’t be dismissive
Environment:
• The classroom language is English
• There is a whiteboard and pens, or blackboard and chalk. There is a clock; desks, chairs;
students bring with them notebooks, pens, dictionaries
• Use the board – it democratises the process. Everyone can see the work as it progresses
• There are resources, e.g. dictionaries, reference books, novels, newspapers, magazines, etc.
• The layout of the furniture is important. Sit students so they are in pairs and facing each
another rather than facing you
The Modes:
• Take as long as you want with Mode 1
• All the skills are practised regularly – reading, writing, speaking, and listening, but the focus is
on productive skills – speaking and writing
• 7 elements of English are practised regularly – vocabulary, text (reading and listening),
grammar, verb forms, pronunciation, free practice, and writing
55

You Are The Course Book Method – 12 Ways it Beats Working with a Course Book
You Are The Course Book is a new method of teaching English and ESL without a course book.
No course book is required because the focus is on language production and practice, rather than reading.
Here are 12 ways that we think You Are The Course Book Method is better for students and teachers, compared with the traditional ELT course book.
Class with a course book: Class with YATCB Method:
1. Students learn by reading from the book Students learn by their mistakes while producing language
2. There is expensive material to buy No material to buy – the techniques are free
3. T/F, matching, multiple-choice, and gap-fills are done in class We leave this kind of activity for homework
4. There is often not enough time for speaking or free practice There is plenty of time for speaking and free practice
5. Grammar topics are pre-decided and organised into units Grammar topics are decided by students’ needs on the day
6. Language points are covered once and then not repeated There is plenty of repetition of key points
7. The course book writer is creative and uses their imagination Students are creative and use their imagination
8. Students carry accumulated knowledge in their books Students carry accumulated knowledge in their heads
9. The material is standardised for many races and kinds of students The material is tailored to the people in the room
10. The book explains the language point The teacher elicits the language point
11. The teacher becomes jaded over time The teacher increases their expertise over time
12. The teacher is a presenter of the course book, working for the book The teacher is a teacher
Find out more! Download the free books: You Are The Course Book: http://www.scribd.com/doc/92734928/You-Are-The-Course-Book
You Are The Course Book 2: In Practice: http://www.scribd.com/doc/140571462/You-Are-The-Course-Book-2-In-Practice
56

More ways that YATCB Method is better for students and teachers than an ELT Course Book:
Class with a course book: Class with YATCB Method:
ClassroomManagement
13. Students sit facing the teacher Students sit facing each other
14. Students sit in their chairs for the whole lesson Students move around
15. Students look down at their books Students look up at each other and the board
16. The teacher is a police officer The teacher is a guide
Class Activities
17. Students often work on their own Students work in pairs and groups, but not on their own
18. Students read in their heads Students produce material – verbally and in writing
19. Reading in class Reading for homework
20. Students read specially-written (false) texts Students work with real texts and realia
21. Pronunciation and connected speech are MIA Pronunciation and connected speech are integral
Class Content
22. Course book writer’s ideas are most important Students’ ideas are most important
23. The course book writer chooses the topics The students and teacher choose the topics
24. The course book sells the concepts, culture, and ideology chosen by The topics and real texts are chosen for students that you know;
the publisher and author the material is relevant
25. Not suitable for Zero Beginners Works from Zero Beginner up
The Teacher’s Experience
26. Teachers are criminalised by being required to do illegal photocopying No photocopying required
27. The teacher follows instructions The teacher gives instructions
28. The teacher does the same spread time and again There’s a different lesson each time
29. The teacher burns out, like the candle giving light for others The teacher can be in low-power mode, while students do the hard work
57

You Are The Course Book – Auto Mode 3
1. Think of a topic you are interested in: __________________________________________
2. Write six interesting and random words connected with this topic:
3. Underline the stressed syllable in each and write the stressed vowel sound using Clear Alphabet.
4. Think of a word that collocates with each word to make a phrase, adding other words if necessary (e.g. articles, prepositions). Write six phrases:
5. Choose a verb form: ____________________. What time is it? ___________________________________. What is the auxiliary verb? __________________. Write one
sentence in that form using a collocation:
6. Correct your sentence (e.g. check articles, verb forms), then extend them, if possible, using conjunctions and relative clause words, and improve vocabulary using
higher-level words (e.g. synonyms, adjectives). Write the improved sentence below:
7. Underline the stressed syllables and write the stressed vowel sounds using CA (the sound spine).
8. Draw vertical lines to divide each sentence into syllables; then write the sound connections between each pair of syllables. Show how to make either vc or friendly
connections.
9. Translate your sentence into Clear Alphabet. Practise saying it out loud. 10. Check your work carefully before giving it to your teacher.
58

Talk a Lot
Intermediate Book 1
200 Top Idioms in Spoken English Today
according to… [e.g. John]
across the board
after all
again and again
against the clock
agree to disagree
as a matter of fact
as long as
as soon as
as we speak
at the drop of a hat
at this point
bark up the wrong tree
be a big fish in a small pond
be a breath of fresh air
be a bundle of nerves
be a chip off the old block
be a dream come true
be a drop in the ocean
be a given
be a labour of love
be a last-ditch attempt
be a piece of cake
be a slip of the tongue
be a weight off my mind
be about to do sth
be all ears
be all fingers and thumbs
be all the rage
be as good as gold
be as light as a feather
be at your wits’ end
be better off
be between a rock and a hard place
be broke
be caught in the act
be downhill all the way
be for the best
be glad to hear it
be in favour of
be in over your head
be in the black / in the red
be in the dark about sth
be in the middle of nowhere
be in the money
be in the same boat
be into sth
be like two peas in a pod
be near the knuckle
be neck and neck
be off limits
be on sby’s mind
be on the right track
be on top form
be on your last legs
be open to sth
be out of order
be scared to death
be sick and tired of sth / sby
be six of one and half a dozen of the other
be the last straw
be the last word in sth
be the spitting image of sby
be under the weather
be up for grabs
be (well) up for sth
be up to sth
be worried sick
bear sth in mind
beat around the bush
before you know it
bend over backwards
bite off more than you can chew
bite the hand that feeds
blow your own trumpet
break new ground
break the news
breathe a sigh of relief
by all means
by the way
by word of mouth
call a meeting
call in sick
call it a day / night
call sby names
call sby’s bluff
change your tune
change your mind
clear the air
come clean about sth
come in handy
cost an arm and a leg
do the trick
feel on top of the world
figure sth out
find your feet
flog a dead horse
for good
for goodness’ sake
for now
for sure
get a taste of your own medicine
get away from it all
get carried away
get over it!
get through sth
get up on the wrong side of the bed
get used to sth
give sby a hand
give your right arm for sth
go back to the drawing board
go easy on sby
have a chip on your shoulder
have a lot on your plate
have a place of your own
have a seat / take a seat
have everything but the kitchen sink
have no idea
have nothing to do with sby / sth
have sth in common
head home
hit the roof
how’s it going?
in a manner of speaking
in a way
in ages
in case
in (more) detail
in effect
in fact
in general
in order to
in other words
in so far as
in some ways
in terms of
in the heat of the moment
in the meantime
in the nick of time
in time
in total
it wouldn’t hurt to do sth
joking apart
keep an eye on sby / sth
keep your chin up
kind of
know a place like the back
of your hand
know sby / sth inside and out
let the cat out of the bag
make a [big] difference
make sense
make sure
money for old rope
more or less
not a chance
not at all
not be able to help (doing) sth
not be able to make head nor
tail of sth
of course
on the other hand
on time
once again
once in a while
out of the blue
over my dead body!
par for the course
pigs might fly!
pull sby’s leg
put a sock in it!
put on a brave face
put your foot in it
receive a slap on the wrist
sit on the fence
sleep on it
so far
so to speak
sort of
step out of line
straightaway
take advantage of sth / sby
take care of sth / sby
take exception to sth / sby
take it / things easy
take place
take sth too far
the pros and cons of sth
turn a blind eye towards sth
turn over a new leaf
twenty-four seven
two can play at that game!
up to date
up to now
up to the minute
welcome sby with open arms
with regard to
without a doubt
at x o’clock sharp
59

Talk a Lot
Intermediate Book 1
200 Top Phrasal Verbs in Spoken English Today
agree with
ask out
back out
be up to
bend down
bend over
block out
boss around
break down
break into
break off
bring back
bring in
bump into
call back
call off
carry on
catch up with
cheat on
check in
check out
check up on
chill out
clear up
close down
come across
come back
come from
come in
come on
come out
come up with
cool down
cut down
deal with
depend on
do up
drop out
eat out
end up
face up to
fall apart
fill in
find out
fit in
get away
get into
get off
get on
get on with
get out of
get up
give back
give up
go ahead
go back
go down
go into
go on
go out
go through
grow apart
grow up
hand in
hand out
hang around
hang on
hang out
hang up
head for
hear from
hold on
hold up
hurry up
join in
keep on
keep up
lead to
leave out
let down
lie down
light up
live on
lock up
log off
look after
look down on
look for
look forward to
look through
look up
lose out
make into
make out
make up
make up for
mess around
mess up
miss out
move in
move out of
object to
open up
pass around
pass out
pay back
pay for
pick out
pick up
play with
plug in
point out
pop in
pull apart
pull down
pull through
pull up
put across
put down
put off
put on
put out
put up
put up with
read out
rely on
remind of
rule out
run away
run into
run out
run through
save up
send back
send for
set off
set out
set up
settle down
show around
show off
shut down
shut up
sit down
slip up
slow down
sort out
speak up
speed up
spell out
split up
stand out
stand up
stare at
start off
start out
start up
stay away
stick out
stick together
switch off
switch on
take after
take away
take back
take in
take off
take on
take over
take up
talk to
tear apart
tear up
tell apart
tell off
think about
think over
think up
throw away
throw out
tidy up
top up
turn down
turn into
turn off
turn on
turn out
turn up
use up
wake up
walk out
warm up
wear out
weigh up
wind up
work on
work out
wrap up
write down
zoom in
60

English Banana.com
General Statements on English Stress
In English, every content word has one strong-stressed syllable. We stress the vowel sound in that syllable. Function
words are not stressed, apart from pronouns at the end of a clause (I know him.) or in intonation (He is helpful.)
Generally, a word is stressed on the nearest strong syllable to the end. A strong syllable is one with a long
vowel sound (e.g. ar, ee), a diphthong (e.g. ai, ei), or a short vowel sound (not a schwa) plus consonant (e.g. in one-
syllable words: big, hat). A weak syllable has the pattern: v (vowel) or cv (consonant-vowel) or cvc (with a schwa).
Take any word set and find the stressed syllable in each word. Discuss which statements apply to which words and
match the cards with the statements; then put the words into groups according to the spelling and sounds
statements (see p.66).
Here are some notable exceptions:
A. The final syllable is strong: often in two-syllable verbs (avoid, receive) and when the suffix is stressed
(engineer, Chinese). One-syllable content words are stressed on the whole word (buy, cow).
C. The antepenultimate (next to penultimate) is strong: if the final and penultimate are both weak
(cinema, emergency). If this syllable is also weak, we have to keep moving back until we find a strong syllable.
B. The penultimate (next to final) syllable is strong: often in words with suffixes, which are not usually stressed
(plumber, information).
D. Compound nouns are stressed on the first part: (bookshop; popcorn).
E. Both parts of phrasal verbs are stressed: (wake up, put on).
F. Acronyms are stressed on the final syllable: (BBC, DVD).
G. A small group of words (homographs) are spelled the same but have different stress depending
on the type of word: record (noun), record (verb); produce (noun), produce (verb).
Exceptions:
Say why they don’t fit into any category: (hero, reptile).
61

English Banana.com
English Stress Rules
Generally, a word is stressed on the nearest strong syllable to the end. Work from right to left, beginning with the final syllable. Is it strong? If not, move along,
until you find a strong syllable. Here are some typical patterns:
Compound Nouns “Ante” Ante-Penultimate Ante-Penultimate Penultimate Final
airport words with a 2-syllable suffix: words with a 2-syllable suffix: words with a 1-syllable suffix: 1-syllable content words:
bedroom escalator accidentally adolescence bake
birthday indicator collectable dentist sun
championship radiator community dependent train
cupboard manageable geography implanted get
dashboard inevitable irresistible prescription throw
forecast noticeable nursery professor 2-syllable verbs:
grandma eligible redundancy sentence advise
handbag necessary words with a suffix in the
root word + new suffix:
tractor decide
handbrake February twenty enjoy
midwife particularly acknowledgement umbrella forget
motorbike naturally challenging wedding remove
necklace other examples: classical 2-syllable words with a suffix: the suffix is stressed:
runway athleticism happily centre believe
seatbelt definitely recreational illness cigarette
starfish insidiousness stubbornness kidney engineer
sunblock organising words with a suffix and
a weak syllable uh or i:
listen mayonnaise
Sunday rheumatism mammal referee
sunglasses stupefying factory planning the first syllable is a schwa:
toothpaste excellent practice across
tracksuit exuberance singer along
volleyball principle valley apply
wardrobe musical written arrive
windscreen family yellow escape
Exceptions:
• compound nouns are stressed on the first syllable
• both parts of phrasal verbs are stressed, e.g. wake up
• acronyms are stressed on the final syllable, e.g. UN
• homographs e.g. produce (verb) / produce (noun)
62

Talk a Lot
Intermediate Book 1
How to Pronounce the Past -ed Form of Regular Verbs
The past forms (2
nd
and 3
rd
forms) of all regular verbs in English end in “-ed”. Sometimes
“-ed” is pronounced uhd, sometimes d, and sometimes t. It depends on the sound (not the
spelling) at the end of the infinitive form of the verb:
1. If the verb ends with a t sound, “-ed” is pronounced as an extra syllable uhd
e.g. “accepted” is pronounced uh Kse ptd All of these verbs (and more) follow this pattern:
2. If the verb ends with a d sound, “-ed” is pronounced as an extra syllable uhd
e.g. “wanted” is pronounced Won td All of these verbs (and more) follow this pattern:
3. If the verb ends with a vowel sound – any vowel sound – “-ed” is pronounced as d
e.g. “admired” is pronounced uh Dmaiyd All of these verbs (and more) follow this pattern:
4. If the verb ends with a voiced consonant sound “-ed” is pronounced as d. Voiced
consonant sounds are: b, g, v, th, r, w, y, m, n, ng, l, z, zz, j
e.g. “cleaned” is pronounced Kleend All of these verbs (and more) follow this pattern:
5. If the verb ends with an unvoiced consonant sound “-ed” is pronounced as t. Unvoiced
consonant sounds are: tt, p, k, s, sh, ch, h, f, hh
e.g. “baked” is pronounced Beikt All of these verbs (and more) follow this pattern:
Final advice: the main thing is to avoid saying uhd when it is not necessary. The d and t
sounds actually sound very similar, so don’t worry if you get them mixed up sometimes. To
sum up – learn the five rules on this page, and focus on avoiding an unwanted uhd
accept, admit, alienate, attempt, attract, chat, cheat, communicate, complete, correct, create,
debate, distract, doubt, exist, experiment, fascinate, fit, hate, hunt, invent, invite, last, paint,
point, post, print, protect, start, suggest, tempt, test, text, trust, visit, wait, want, waste
add, applaud, ascend, attend, avoid, decide, descend, end, explode, extend, fade, fold, forward,
guard, include, intend, load, mend, need, recommend, record, succeed, suspend, trade
admire, agree, allow, annoy, appear, bother, care, continue, deliver, employ, empty, enjoy, enter,
fry, glue, lie, matter, offer, order, owe, play, prefer, reply, share, spare, try, weigh, worry
clean, complain, earn, explain, happen, imagine, join, learn, listen, loan, open, own, phone, rain,
return, stain, train, apologise, close, erase, praise, realise, suppose, surprise, use, charm, climb,
dream, form, perform, seem, achieve, arrive, behave, improve, live, love, move, preserve, boil,
call, fill, handle, pull, travel, arrange, challenge, change, manage, bathe, beg, belong, rob
bake, book, check, kick, knock, like, look, talk, thank, walk, work, fax, fix, guess, kiss, pass,
promise, pronounce, match, reach, touch, watch, finish, push, rush, wash, hope, stop, laugh
63

Talk a Lot
Focus on Connected Speech
300 Common Compound Nouns – Ordered by Same First Word
Word stress falls on the first syllable of each word. Notice common first words, e.g. “school-”, “sun-”, and “water-”.
airforce
airmail
airport
anteater
anybody
backpack
baseball
basketball
bathroom
birthday
blackmail
bookshelf
boyfriend
breadbin
breadknife
bridesmaid
broadcast
butterfly
campsite
carpet
carseat
cavewoman
checkout
cheesecake
chequebook
childcare
childhood
chopsticks
cliffhanger
climbdown
cocktail
collarbone
countryside
cupboard
darkroom
dashboard
daybreak
daytime
deadline
doorbell
doorway
drainage
drainpipe
dustbin
dustman
dustpan
earrings
eggcup
eggshell
everybody
everyone
everything
eyelash
fingerprints
fireman
fireplace
flatmate
flatshare
flowerbed
footage
football
footprints
fortnight
friendship
gamekeeper
gateway
girlfriend
granddaughter
grandfather
grapefruit
graveyard
greengrocer
greenhouse
guidebook
guideline
gunpowder
hailstones
hairbrush
haircut
hairdresser
handbag
handbrake
handcuffs
headlights
headline
heartache
hedgehog
homecoming
homework
iceberg
jackpot
junkyard
keyboard
knighthood
knockout
lampshade
landmark
landmine
landowner
landscape
lifeboat
lifestyle
locksmith
lunchtime
marketplace
mealtime
milkman
milkshake
moonlight
motorbike
motorboat
motorway
mountainside
namedropper
namesake
necklace
network
newsagent
newspaper
newsreader
nickname
nightclub
nightdress
nightlife
nothing
oatmeal
offspring
outback
outbreak
outline
paintbox
paintbrush
pancake
paperback
paperwork
passport
pawnbroker
payday
peanut
penknife
pickpocket
pigeonhole
pinball
pineapple
playground
playroom
playtime
ponytail
popcorn
postwoman
printout
pushchair
quarterback
quicksand
racehorse
racetrack
railway
rainbow
raincoat
rainforest
rooftop
roundabout
runway
salesman
salesperson
saleswoman
sandbox
sandcastle
sandpaper
sandpit
scarecrow
schoolboy
schooldays
schoolgirl
schoolteacher
scrapbook
screenplay
screenwriter
scriptwriter
shopkeeper
shoplifter
shoplifting
shortbread
shorthand
showroom
shrinkage
sideshow
slapstick
snowball
snowdrift
snowfall
snowman
softball
somebody
someone
something
spaceship
speedboat
sportswoman
spreadsheet
springboard
staircase
stalemate
starfish
statesperson
stepdaughter
stepmother
stopover
stopwatch
storeroom
strawberry
stronghold
summerhouse
summertime
sunbathing
sunblock
sunglasses
sunlight
sunset
sunshine
suntan
supermarket
supermodel
superstore
sweatshirt
sweatshop
sweetcorn
sweetheart
switchboard
tabletop
taxpayer
teacup
teammate
teamwork
teapot
teardrop
teatime
textbook
thunderstorm
timetable
tomcat
toothache
toothbrush
toothpaste
toothpick
tracksuit
troublemaker
troubleshooter
turnout
typewriter
undertaker
underwear
uprising
upturn
videotape
viewfinder
viewpoint
volleyball
waistband
waistcoat
waistline
walkway
wallpaper
wardrobe
warehouse
warthog
washroom
wasteland
watchdog
waterfall
waterfront
watermelon
waterworks
wavelength
webcam
webmaster
website
wheelbarrow
wheelchair
wheelclamp
whiplash
whirlwind
whitewash
wildlife
willpower
windbreak
windmill
windowsill
windscreen
windshield
windsurfing
wonderland
woodland
woodpecker
woodworm
workbench
workman
workshop
wristwatch
yardstick
64

English Banana.com
100 of the Most Common Suffixes in English
(the vowel sound on the suffix is shown in red)
Suffixes with a Schwa sound (uh)
-al animal
-an human
-ance appearance
-ant important
-ar lunar
-ard wizard
-ate accurate
-cian musician
-cious delicious
-dom freedom
-ed added
-en wooden
-ence licence
-ent student
-er writer
-es buses
-est biggest
-ful joyful
-ial initial
-in raisin
-le little
-less pointless
-ment entertainment
-ness happiness
-on cotton
-or doctor
-our colour
-ous famous
-ple apple
-ra zebra
-ren children
-sion explosion
-son person
-tain certain
-thon marathon
-tion position
-ule schedule
-um album
-ure measure
-us focus
-ward forward
Suffixes with an i sound:
-age bandage
-ic basic
-im maxim
-ing meeting
-is tennis
-ish finish
-ism racism
-ist pianist
-it prohibit
-ive passive
-ship worship
Suffixes with an ii sound:
-cy fancy
-ey trolley
-ie cookie
-ies ladies
-ly quickly
-ry very
-ty party
-y windy
Suffixes with two vowel sounds:
uh / ii i / uh
-ably comfortably -ogy technology -ible responsible
-acy democracy -omy astronomy -ical economical
-amy monogamy -raphy geography
-archy monarchy
-ary dictionary uh / uh uh / i
-ery pottery -able available -ative talkative
-ity purity
Suffixes which are stressed:
-aise mayonnaise
-ane mundane
-ee trainee
-eer engineer
-esce coalesce
-ese Chinese
-esque picturesque
-ess princess
-ette cigarette
-ique unique
-teen nineteen
Suffixes with other sounds: iy -eous, -ia, -ian, -ier, -iour, -ious, -ium eu -o, -ow, -phobe ai -fy, -ise a -gram o -logue oy -oid
65

English Banana.com
General Statements on English Spelling and Vowel Sounds
Below are some general statements that are often true regarding English spelling and vowel sounds. They are not
strict rules, but you can often count on them.
Take any word set and focus on the vowel sound in each word and how it is spelled. Discuss which statements apply
to which words and match the cards with the statement. Say why the exceptions are different, and then put the words
in each group into sound or spelling subgroups.
For each statement, try to learn the possible spelling/sound combinations.
1. Short vowel sounds are written with one vowel letter. These words are often phonetic.
In words of more than one syllable: the vowel letter will represent a short vowel sound when
followed by two or more consonant letters.
3. You can tell a word has a long vowel sound by the presence of two vowel letters which are
the same: ee or oo.
4. Long vowel sounds are written with two different vowel letters (a vowel digraph).
2. Long vowel sounds are written with an r in the spelling.
5. When you see vowel + consonant + e the vowel will say its alphabet name.
In words of more than one syllable: this can apply with other vowel letters too, not only e.
6. Diphthongs are written with an r in the spelling.
7. Diphthongs are written with two different vowel letters (a vowel digraph).
8. Other consonant letters like w, y, and gh count as part of long vowel sounds or diphthongs
in spellings, rather than consonant sounds; other consonant letters can occur as silent letters,
e.g. b in “debt”.
Exceptions:
Say why they don’t fit into any category.
66

English Banana.com
Spelling Patterns and the Sounds they Make – 1
Short vowel sounds are written with one vowel letter. These words are often phonetic.
There are 8 short vowel sounds in English. Here are the most common spelling patterns:
Sound: Spelling Pattern: Example: More Examples:
a a bag _________________________
e e bed _________________________
i i big _________________________
o o pot _________________________
u u bus _________________________
uu u put _________________________
The other two short vowel sounds appear in weak syllables; the schwa sound uh is the
most common vowel sound in English and appears in many weak syllables, e.g. suffixes.
The short ii sound also appears in weak syllables, especially in suffixes ending with -y.
Exceptions:
Short vowel sounds are sometimes represented in other ways:
a a + e have _________________________
e a any _________________________
ae haemorrhage _________________________
ai said _________________________
ea dead _________________________
ei leisure _________________________
ie friendship _________________________
ue guess _________________________
67

English Banana.com
Short vowel sounds are written with one vowel letter. These words are often phonetic.
i e sacrilegious _________________________
i + e give _________________________
ie sieve _________________________
u business _________________________
ui building _________________________
o women _________________________
y gym _________________________
o a watch _________________________
au sausage _________________________
eau bureaucracy _________________________
o + e gone _________________________
ou cough _________________________
ow knowledge _________________________
ua quandary _________________________
u o won _________________________
o + e come _________________________
oe does _________________________
ou touch _________________________
uu o woman _________________________
oo book _________________________
ou could _________________________
68

English Banana.com
Long vowel sounds are written with an r in the spelling.
There are 5 long vowel sounds in English. Three of them – ar, er, and or – are usually
spelled with an r:
ar ar dark _________________________
arre charred _________________________
ear heart _________________________
er sergeant _________________________
uar guard _________________________
er ear heard _________________________
er hers _________________________
erre deferred _________________________
ir bird _________________________
or word _________________________
our courteous _________________________
ur church _________________________
or ar warm _________________________
oar roars _________________________
oor doors _________________________
oore moored _________________________
or born _________________________
ore bored _________________________
our fourth _________________________
The other two long vowel sounds ee and oo are dealt with in Statement 3.
Exceptions:
Long vowel sounds ar, er, and or are sometimes represented in other ways:
ar a bath _________________________
a + e vase _________________________
al half _________________________
er olo colonel _________________________
or a ball _________________________
al talk _________________________
69

English Banana.com
You can tell a word has a long vowel sound by the presence of two vowel letters
which are the same: ee or oo.
The other two long vowel sounds are often spelled with the distinctive ee and oo patterns:
ee ee been _________________________
oo oo cool _________________________
Long vowel sounds ee and oo are sometimes represented in other ways:
Statement 4: two different vowel letters together (digraphs) can represent these sounds
e.g. bean ee
Statement 5: vowel-consonant-vowel rule can make the vowel letter e long
e.g. scene ee
Statement 8: other consonant letters can be used to represent these sounds, e.g.
e.g. through oo
Exceptions:
Here are some common exceptions to this rule:
ee e she _________________________
e + ue segue _________________________
i pizza _________________________
i + e police _________________________
i + ue technique _________________________
oo o + e lose _________________________
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English Banana.com
Long vowel sounds are written with two different vowel letters (a vowel digraph).
Sometimes long vowel sounds are written with a vowel digraph. We must learn the possible
combinations:
ee ae encyclopaedia _________________________
ea beach _________________________
ei conceive _________________________
ie piece _________________________
oo eu neutron _________________________
oe shoes _________________________
oeu manoeuvre _________________________
ou soup _________________________
ueu queuing _________________________
ueue queue _________________________
ui fruit _________________________
or au cause _________________________
Note: the long vowel sounds ar and er are not represented by any vowel digraphs.
71

English Banana.com
When you see vowel + consonant + e the vowel will say its alphabet name.
The long sound of each vowel letter is caused by the single consonant + e spelling:
ei a + e cake _________________________
ee e + e scene _________________________
ai i + e bike _________________________
eu o + e hole _________________________
oo u + e June _________________________
It is important to note that in words of more than one syllable the same rule can apply with other vowel
letters too, not only e. The key point to remember is:
when you see vowel + single consonant + vowel the first vowel says its alphabet name,
e.g. baking = Bei king
Exceptions:
Sometimes these sounds are represented in other ways:
ai y + e type _________________________
eu o both _________________________
o + ue rogue _________________________
And sometimes the spelling pattern vowel + single consonant + e can result in a short
vowel sound, e.g. give (see Statement 1 for more exceptions).
Note: this rule is very consistent with one-syllable words, and is generally true in polysyllabic
words as well. However, there are many examples of polysyllabic words where
vowel + single consonant + vowel occurs but the first vowel is short, e.g. travel, money,
lover, and orange.
72

English Banana.com
Diphthongs are written with an r in the spelling.
There are 10 diphthongs in English. Like long vowel sounds, they are often written with an r
in the spelling:
aiy iar liars _________________________
ire fired _________________________
auw our sours _________________________
oure soured _________________________
eir air chairs _________________________
aire millionaire _________________________
are cared _________________________
ear bears _________________________
eir theirs _________________________
iy ear beard _________________________
eare neared _________________________
eer peers _________________________
eere cheered _________________________
eir weird _________________________
ere sincerely _________________________
ier piers _________________________
ir souvenir _________________________
uuw ure assure _________________________
Exceptions:
Diphthongs can also be represented in other ways:
ai i bicycle _________________________
ui + e guide _________________________
ei a waste _________________________
e + e fete _________________________
eir a parent _________________________
eu o both _________________________
iy ee feel _________________________
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English Banana.com
Diphthongs are written with two different vowel letters (a vowel digraph).
Another common way to spell diphthongs is by using a vowel digraph. We must learn the
possible combinations:
ai ei kaleidoscope _________________________
ie died _________________________
ui guide _________________________
aiy ia dial _________________________
iou pious _________________________
au ou house _________________________
ei ai faith _________________________
au gauge _________________________
ei beige _________________________
eu au mauve _________________________
oa boat _________________________
oe goes _________________________
ou shoulder _________________________
aiy ia dial _________________________
io lion _________________________
iou pious _________________________
iy ea meal _________________________
eo theories _________________________
oea diarrhoea _________________________
oy oi boil _________________________
uuw ue suet _________________________
Note: oi is the only vowel digraph for oy, and ou is the only vowel digraph for au.
74

English Banana.com
Other consonant letters like w, y, and gh count as part of long vowel sounds or diphthongs in spellings,
rather than consonant sounds; other consonant letters can occur as silent letters, e.g. b in “debt”.
It can be a surprise that these consonant letters are part of the vowel sound, and therefore
not pronounced in their normal way, but we have to accept it and learn the combinations:
ai eigh height _________________________
ig sign _________________________
igh fight _________________________
ye dyed _________________________
ar al calm _________________________
augh laughter _________________________
au oub doubt _________________________
ough boughs _________________________
ow cows _________________________
owe bowed _________________________
auw owe towel _________________________
ower showers _________________________
owere powered _________________________
ee ey keys _________________________
ei ay days _________________________
eig feign _________________________
eigh weight _________________________
ey they’ve _________________________
eu ow known _________________________
owe owed _________________________
oo ew chew _________________________
ewe chewed _________________________
iew view _________________________
iewe viewed _________________________
or al walk _________________________
augh caught _________________________
aw lawn _________________________
ough bought _________________________
oy oy boys _________________________
oya royal _________________________
uoye buoyed _________________________
uuw ewe jewel _________________________
ewer sewers _________________________
75

English Banana.com
Building a Sentence Using Subject Verb Object Place Time (SVOPT)
This word order grid will help you to write a very common type of sentence in English using Subject-Verb-Object word order.
Note: we do not have to use every part, but we must put words in the correct order, e.g. I went to the shop yesterday = SVPT.
Who or What? Did What? To Whom or What? How?
(optional)
Where? When?
subject (noun phrase) verb object (noun phrase) adverbial of manner adverbial of place adverbial of time
Why?
(optional)
Example:
A busy student ate a sandwich very quickly in the kitchen at lunchtime, because…
76

Understanding Articles in English
• We often need to write an article before a noun – but not always!
• There are only 3 articles – a, an, and the – but they cause a lot of errors
• the is the most common word in written English; a is #6 and an is #32 (Talk a Lot Foundation Course p.3.9)
• Some languages don’t have articles, e.g. Polish; in English we need them to help make the rhythm and give more information
• Use some with plural countable nouns and with uncountable nouns; use any in question and negative forms
• Some nouns can be both countable and uncountable depending on the situation, e.g. cheese
• An article goes before a noun modifier, e.g. an adjective or intensifier, e.g. “a horse”; “a big horse”; “a really big horse”
• We can use a possessive adjective (e.g. my, your, our, etc.) or a determiner (e.g. this, that, these, those) instead of an article
a, an (1)
• singular countable nouns
• unknown / first mention
• general
• an is the same as a but we
use it before a vowel sound
the (1 or more)
• countable nouns – singular or plural
• known / later mentions
• specific things
• specific uncountable / plural nouns
• specific abstract nouns
• use the when you both know what is
being talked about
• use the before superlative adjectives
and ordinal numbers
• pronounced thii before vowel sounds
no article (*or “some”)
• uncountable nouns*
• plural nouns*
• abstract nouns*
• proper nouns
• things when you are talking
in general
How we talk about nouns (things):
plural (shops) countable (book) common (table) abstract (love)
singular (shop) uncountable (food) proper (United Kingdom)
Unfortunately, there are lots of exceptions to these rules! You should read English often to see the repeating patterns
77

Verb Forms Revision Test – Sample Answers
*Contractions are also acceptable, e.g. ‘I don’t like chips’, ‘I’m reading a book’, ‘I’ve finished my breakfast’, etc.
Verb Form (Tense): Time: Auxiliary Verb(s): Example Sentences:*
present simple regular time do / does
+ I like chips.
- I do not like chips.
? Do you like chips?
present continuous now or future (with time phrase, e.g. “at 8pm”) am / is / are
+ I am reading a book.
- I am not reading a book.
? Are you reading a book?
past simple finished time in the past, e.g. last week did
+ I met my friend.
- I did not meet my friend.
? Did you meet your friend?
past continuous finished time in the past, e.g. last week was / were
+ I was driving for two hours.
- I was not driving for two hours.
? Were you driving for two hours?
present perfect unfinished time, e.g. this week have / has
+ I have finished my breakfast.
- I have not finished my breakfast.
? Have you finished your breakfast?
present perfect continuous unfinished time, e.g. this week have / has + been
+ I have been playing football.
- I have not been playing football.
? Have you been playing football?
past perfect time before another past action had
+ I had been to Italy before.
- I had not been to Italy before.
? Had you been to Italy before?
modal forms various times modal auxiliary verbs
+ I can swim.
- I cannot swim.
? Can you swim?
future with ‘will’ immediate future or predicted future will
+ I will pay for lunch.
- I will not pay for lunch.
? Will you pay for lunch?
future with ‘going to’ planned future am / is / are + going to
+ I am going to join a gym.
- I am not going to join a gym.
? Are you going to join a gym?
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Talk a Lot
Intermediate Book 1
Intermediate Verb Forms – Matching Game
Cut out all of the cards, mix them up, then match them together again:
Verb Form: Quick Way to Remember it:
(Mnemonic)
Example Sentence:
Present Perfect
Continuous
recent continuous action I’ve been living here
for six years.
Past Perfect two past actions
I’d just put the phone
down when there was a
knock at the door.
Future Perfect two future actions By the time you get to
work, I’ll have already left.
Second Conditional different present or future If you sold your car, you
could buy a better one.
Third Conditional different past
If I hadn’t called my
manager a fat pig, I could
have kept my job.
Reported Speech changing verb forms
John said that he’d
ordered the new furniture
for the office.
Passive Voice be + past participle The parcel will be
delivered on Wednesday.
Imperative Form orders or instructions Bring those chairs
over here, please.
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Talk a Lot
Intermediate Book 1
Notes on Intermediate Verb Forms
Present Perfect Continuous = recent continuous action
Time of action: From the past up to the recent past, or up to now (present).
When do we
need to use it?
To describe a recent continuous action, e.g. to catch up with a friend:
- What have you been doing all morning?
- I’ve been putting up wallpaper.
[It’s not clear from my words whether I’ve finished the whole job, e.g. I
might have stopped for a break.]
To describe an action that has been continuing for a period of time and
is still going on:
- How long have you been living in Bristol?
- I’ve been living here for six years.
How is it formed? have (aux.) + been + present participle (-ing verb)
Contractions in
spoken English:
I have been I’ve been uuh ffpin
she has been she’s been sshi sspin
Examples:
Positive Form
Negative Form
Question Form
Answers:
Kay’s been washing dirty sheets in the hotel laundry all morning.
Kay hasn’t been washing dirty sheets in the hotel laundry all morning.
Has Kay been washing dirty sheets in the hotel laundry all morning?
Yes, she has. / No, she hasn’t.
Passive form: Rare, but possible, e.g. The car’s been being fixed for hours!
Used with
state verbs?
No, e.g. I’ve been liking this film a lot! = I’ve liked this film a lot since…
Tips: • This form highlights the time period or duration of the action.
• It is often used with a time clause to describe duration, e.g. “for
x weeks / years” or “since” + day, date, or time, as well as with
“…recently”, “..lately”, “…all day”, “this morning/afternoon”, etc.
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Talk a Lot
Intermediate Book 1
Past Perfect = two past actions
Time of action: Past.
When do we
need to use it?
When there are two different times in the past.
To describe an action in the past that happened before another past
action. To set the scene. To give background information.
- I’d just put the phone down when there was a knock at the door.
[We use “just” when the times are close together.]
- Pete went to the same university that his father had studied at.
[The times are far apart.]
How is it formed? 1st
clause: had (aux.) + past participle; 2nd
clause: (often) past simple
Contractions in
spoken English:
I had I’d uhd
She had She’d shidid
Examples:
Positive Form
Negative Form
Question Form
Answers:
The duty manager had asked Philip to wipe down the other bar,
because it was filthy – but he completely forgot.
The duty manager hadn’t asked Philip to wipe down the other bar…
Had the duty manager asked Philip to wipe down the other bar…?
Yes, he had. / No, he hadn’t.
Passive form: Philip had been asked to wipe down the other bar. [by…]
Used with
state verbs?
Yes, e.g. I’d liked spending time with them very much.
Tips: • If it is obvious that the first action was before the second (a logical sequence),
or you don’t need to draw attention to this fact, past perfect is unnecessary and
both actions could be past simple, e.g. “I got up and had a shower.” In the
sentence “The duty manager…” it is crucial to the meaning that the duty
manager had asked Philip, before he forgot.
• This form is used in second conditional (see below).
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Talk a Lot
Intermediate Book 1
Past Perfect Continuous = two past actions – one is continuous
When do we
need to use it?
To describe a continuous action in the past that happened before
another past action.
To set the scene. To give background information.
- I’d been hoping for an A in Maths, but I got a B.
- She’d been expecting Trevor at seven, so she was annoyed when he
arrived at quarter to eight.
clause: had (aux.) + been + present participle (-ing verb);
2nd
clause: (often) past simple
Contractions in
spoken English:
I had been I’d been uuh tpin=
She had been She’d been sshii tpin
Examples:
Positive Form
Negative Form
Question Form
Answers:
The children had been swimming all day, so when they got home they
were absolutely exhausted.
The children hadn’t been swimming all day, so…
Had the children been swimming all day?
Yes, they had. / No, they hadn’t.
Passive form: Rare, but possible, e.g. The documents had been being prepared
since… [they had been “in the process of” being prepared since…]
Used with
state verbs?
No, e.g. I’d been liking playing the guitar = I’d liked playing the guitar.
Tips: • This is a good form for showing cause and effect, e.g.
“Something had been happening, so something else
happened.”
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Talk a Lot
Intermediate Book 1
Future Perfect = two future actions
Time of action: Future.
When do we
need to use it?
When there are two different times in the future.
To describe an action in the future that will happen before another future
action. To speculate. To predict.
- By the time you get to work, I’ll have already left.
[i.e. I will leave work before you arrive.]
- Call Barry tomorrow morning, because by then I will have spoken to
him about your problem.
[i.e. I will speak to Barry about your problem at some point before
tomorrow morning.]
clause: will (aux.) + have (aux.) + past participle
2nd
clause: (often) present simple or imperative form
Contractions in
spoken English:
I will have I’ll’ve uuh lvv========
She will have She’ll’ve sshi lvv=
Examples:
Positive Form:
Negative Form:
Question Form:
Answers:
The pizza restaurant will’ve opened by the time you get back.
The pizza restaurant won’t’ve opened by the time you get back…
Will the pizza restaurant have opened by the time I get back…
Yes, it will (have). / No, it won’t (have).
Passive form: All the children will have been told about the trip by next Tuesday.
Used with
state verbs?
Yes, e.g. I’m sure I will have remembered to pack my passport.
Tips: • Sometimes known as “Future Past” or “Past in the Future”.
• Often used with “by the time… [second action]” or “When…” or “by [time] e.g.
“By 10am…” / “By next week…” or “This time next…”
• We can use “going to” instead of “will”, but using “will” gets us to the main verb
(with the strong stress) more quickly.
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Talk a Lot
Intermediate Book 1
Future Perfect Continuous = two future actions – one is continuous
Time of action: Future.
When do we
need to use it?
To describe a continuous action in the future that will or might happen
before another future action. To speculate. To predict.
- By the time we arrive, she will have been getting ready for two hours.
[“getting ready” is a continuous future action that happens before another future action,
“arrive”.]
- If you get to the stadium at half past three, the match will have been
going on for half an hour.
[“going on” is a continuous future action that happens before another future action, “get
to”.]
clause: will (aux.) + have (aux.) + been + present participle
(-ing verb); 2nd
clause: present simple
Contractions in
spoken English:
I will have been I’ll’ve been uuh l fpin=
She will have been She’ll’ve been sshi l ffpin=
Examples:
Positive Form:
Negative Form:
Question Form:
Answers:
By two pm we’ll have been flying for two hours.
We won’t’ve been flying for two hours…
Will you have been flying for two hours?
Yes, we will (have). / No, we won’t (have).
Passive form: Rare, but possible, e.g. The meeting will have been being held for over an hour… [the
meeting will have been “in process” or “going on”…]
Used with
state verbs?
No, e.g. Terry will have been remembering to…
Use Present Perfect, e.g. Terry will have remembered to…
Tips: • Sometimes known as “Future Past Continuous”.
• We can use “going to” instead of “will”, but using “will” gets us to the main verb
(and stressed syllable) more quickly. We would need a lot of contractions and
it’s six syllables before we get a stress! e.g.
We’re going to have been flying… = wi g n r fpin Flai yingg
or, this shorter slang version: wi g wi g n r bin Flai yingg=
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Talk a Lot
Intermediate Book 1
Second Conditional = different present or future
Time of action: Present or future.
When do we
need to use it?
To describe hypothetical actions or alternative choices – and their
consequences – in the present or future. To give advice.
- If I switched on the light, the room would get brighter.
- If you sold your car, you could buy a better one.
To describe imaginary actions and situations in the present or future,
where there is perhaps little or no chance of them happening:
- If I met the President of the World Bank, I would ask him for a loan.
clause: if + past simple
2nd
clause: would/could/should/might + infinitive
Contractions in
spoken English:
I would I’d uhdid====She would She’d sshidid=
could / should / might = no contractions possible
Examples:
Positive Form:
Negative Form:
Question Form:
Answers:
If I made time, I could help you with your homework.
Even if I made time, I couldn’t help you with your homework.
If you made time, could you help me with my homework?
Yes, I could. / No, I couldn’t.
Passive form: If time were made, you could be helped with your homework.
Used with
state verbs?
Yes, e.g. If you liked fish and chips, you could have some for dinner.
Tips: • Often called “unreal future” form.
• We can use “might”, “could”, or “should” instead of “would”.
• Great for giving advice: If I were you, I would… I imagine what I would do in
your position – If I were in your shoes… (idiom)
• Optimists use first conditional more: “If I get a pay rise, I’ll…” while pessimists
use second conditional more: “If I got a pay rise, I’d…” The difference is in the
outlook – how unlikely the situation appears to be to the speaker.
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Talk a Lot
Intermediate Book 1
Third Conditional = different past
When do we
need to use it?
To describe hypothetical actions (that didn’t happen) in the past:
- If I’d arrived a few minutes earlier, I would’ve caught the bus.
To express regrets and sorrow for having done something:
- If I hadn’t called my manager a fat pig, I could have kept my job.
Or to accuse somebody over something:
- If you’d worked harder at school, you could’ve been a doctor by now!
clause: if + past perfect
2nd
clause: would/could/might + have + past participle
Contractions in
spoken English:
I would have I’d’ve uh dvi dv= or I woulda uuh w d wuu d
She could have She could’ve sshi k dv or She coulda shi k di kuu
could / should / might = no contractions possible
Examples:
Positive Form:
Negative Form:
Question Form:
Answers:
If you’d booked before the twelfth, you could’ve saved fifteen percent.
If you hadn’t booked before the twelfth, you couldn’t have saved…
If I’d booked before the twelfth, could I have saved…?
Yes, you could (have). / No, you couldn’t (have).
Passive form: If the room had been booked before the twelfth, you could’ve…
Used with
state verbs?
Yes, e.g. If I’d remembered to post that letter, you would have got it...
Tips: • There is no chance of this action happening – it’s impossible.
• Sometimes the “if” clause is not spoken, but rather implied by
the speaker: I would’ve got you some tickets for the concert.
[i.e. “If you had asked me to, but you didn’t.”]
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Talk a Lot
Intermediate Book 1
Reported Speech = changing verb forms
When do we
need to use it?
To report what somebody else said, in either written or spoken English:
1pm: John: “I have ordered the new furniture for the office.” [Pr. Perf.]
6pm: Bob: “John said that he’d ordered…” [Past Perfect]
How is it formed? Verb forms and pronouns change:
first person pronouns: change to third person pronouns:
I he, she
you he, she, they
we they
present forms: change to past forms:
Present Simple Past Simple
John: “The cake is ready.” John said the cake was ready.
Present Continuous Past Continuous
John: “We’re eating the cake.” John said they were eating the cake.
Present Perfect Past Perfect
Kay: “You’ve finished the cake.” Kay said they’d finished the cake.
Present Perfect Continuous Past Perfect Continuous
Kay: “You’ve been eating the cake.” Kay said they’d been eating the cake.
past forms: change to past perfect forms:
Past Simple Past Perfect
John: “The cake was delicious.” John said the cake had been delicious.
Past Continuous Past Perfect Continuous
John: “Kay was baking for hours.” John said that Kay had been baking for hours.
modal forms: change to:
will would
Kay: “I’ll make another one soon.” Kay said she’d make another one soon.
shall should
Kay: “Shall I make a chocolate cake?” Kay asked whether she should make a chocolate
cake.
can could
John: “Can I have a piece?” John asked whether he could have a piece.
may might
Kay: “You may be allowed.” Kay said that he might be allowed.
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Talk a Lot
Intermediate Book 1
some modal forms stay the same:
must must
Kay: “But you mustn’t eat too much.” Kay said that he mustn’t eat too much.
ought to ought to
Kay: “You ought to cut down on cakes.” Kay said that he ought to cut down on cakes.
used to used to
Kay: “You used to be much slimmer.” Kay said that he used to be much slimmer.
pronouns and adverbs: change to:
this that
John: “This is my cake.” John said that was his cake.
these those
Kay: “These are for our guests.” Kay said those were for their guests.
here there
Kay: “Leave this cake here.” Kay told him to leave that cake there.
now then / at that time
Kay: “Bring these cakes now.” Kay told him to bring those cakes then.
today that day / the same day
John: “I’ll eat this cake today.” John said he would eat that cake that day.
yesterday the previous day / the day before
Kay: “You ate those cakes yesterday.” Kay said that he’d eaten those cakes the
previous day.
tomorrow the next day / the following day / the day after
John: “I can finish these cakes John said he could finish those cakes the next
tomorrow.” day.
Contractions /
Questions / Negatives /
Passive / State verbs
As usual for verb forms.
Tips: • Also called indirect speech
• Questions become factual statements.
• You could insert “that” after “said” in all of the changed forms. It
may seem a bit fussy these days!
• Studying reported speech provides a great workout for
practising verb forms!
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Talk a Lot
Intermediate Book 1
Passive Voice = be + past participle
Time of action: Past, present, or future.
When do we
need to use it?
When it isn’t important who does the action (who is the subject):
The parcel will be delivered here on Wednesday.
Or when you don’t know who does the action (who is the subject):
Stonehenge was built around five thousand years ago.
How is it formed? object + be + past participle
Present Simple: is / are + past participle
Active: Passive:
Paul delivers newspapers every day. Newspapers are delivered (by Paul) every day.
Past Simple: was / were + past participle
Active: Passive:
Paul delivered newspapers yesterday. Newspapers were delivered (by Paul) yesterday.
Present Continuous: is / are + being + past participle
Active: Passive:
Paul is delivering newspapers. Newspapers are being delivered (by Paul).
Past Continuous: was / were + being + past participle
Active: Passive:
Paul was delivering newspapers. Newspapers were being delivered (by Paul).
Present Perfect: have / has + been + past participle
Active: Passive:
Paul has delivered the newspapers. The newspapers have been delivered (by Paul).
Present Perfect Continuous: have / has + been + being + past participle
Active: Passive:
Paul has been delivering the The newspapers have been being delivered
newspapers. (by Paul). [RARE]
Past Perfect: had + been + past participle
Active: Passive:
Paul had delivered the newspapers. The newspapers had been delivered (by Paul).
Past Perfect Continuous: had + been + being + past participle
Active: Passive:
Paul had been delivering the The newspapers had been being delivered
Future with “will”: will + be + past participle
Active: Passive:
Paul will deliver the newspapers. The newspapers will be delivered (by Paul).
Future with “going to”: be + going to + be + past participle
Active: Passive:
Paul is going to deliver the The newspapers are going to be delivered
newspapers. (by Paul).
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Talk a Lot
Intermediate Book 1
Future Perfect with “will”: will + have + been + past participle
Active: Passive:
Paul will have delivered the The newspapers will have been delivered
newspapers. (by Paul).
Future Perfect with “going to”: be + going to + have + been
+ past participle
Active: Passive:
Paul is going to have delivered the The newspapers are going to have been
newspapers. delivered (by Paul).
Future Perfect Continuous with “will”: will + have + been + being + past participle
Active: Passive:
Paul will have been delivering the The newspapers will have been being delivered
Modal Forms: will / can, etc. + be + past participle
Modal Perfect: will / can, etc. + have + been + past participle
Contractions /
Questions / Negatives /
Passive / State verbs
Tips: • All English sentences are either active (subject + verb) or
passive (object + be + past participle).
• We can add “by…” if we know who does the action and it’s
relevant, or omit it.
• Passive forms need transitive verbs, i.e. verbs that can take an
object, such as “open” or “prepare”:
The door was opened [by…]
The lunch was prepared [by…] etc.
• Intransitive verbs, such as live, wait, and sit down, cannot be
used in passive sentences, e.g.
Active: Bob sat down at the table.
Passive: The table was sat down at by Bob.
This kind of sentence is needlessly clumsy and unclear.
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Talk a Lot
Intermediate Book 1
Imperative Form = orders or instructions
Time of action: Past, present, or future.
When do we
need to use it?
To give orders – to tell somebody what to do:
- Come here! - No! You come here!
- Put those books on the table, please.
To give instructions or directions:
- Cook on a low heat for… - Turn left, then drive for four miles…
How is it formed? With bare infinitive at or near the beginning of the sentence.
Contractions in
spoken English:
Examples:
Positive Form:
Negative Form:
Question Form:
Answers:
Bring that enormous plate of sandwiches here, now!
Don’t bring that enormous plate of sandwiches here!
Should I / Do I have to bring that enormous plate of sandwiches here,
now?
Yes, you should / do. / No, you shouldn’t / don’t have to.
Passive form: Possible, but not common. Often with “let…”, e.g.
Active: “Open the door!” Passive: “Let the door be opened!”
Used with
state verbs?
Yes, e.g. Remember to pack your passport!
Tips: • Be careful who you use it with. The tone is very informal, and commands are
often considered too direct or even rude by English native speakers. Use it with
family, friends, and inferiors!
• Make an imperative sentence negative by putting don’t before the verb.
• You could make it seem more polite by putting please… or please would you…?
before the infinitive, or at the end, e.g. “Please don’t smoke.”
• Can be used with question tags to make sure that the other person is listening,
e.g. “Pass me that book, would you?”
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Talk a Lot
Sentence Blocks – Q & A
Q: What is a sentence block?
A: A sentence block is a group of eight consecutive sentences, made up of seven lines, that
forms a two-way conversation. It consists of positive and negative sentences, and two
question forms – a wh- question and two questions with inversion (“yes-no” questions).
Q: What is a starting sentence?
A: The first sentence in a sentence block.
Q: What is a wh- question word?
A: A question word that begins with “wh-”. For example, “what”, “where”, “when”, “who”,
“why”, “whose”, and “which”. “How” is also a wh- question word because it contains the letters
“w” and “h”. Wh- questions are asked to obtain information, rather than a “yes” or “no” answer.
They have a falling intonation, which means that the tone of your voice does not go up at
the end of the question, as it does with “yes-no” questions.
Q: What is a question with inversion?
A: Also known as a “yes-no” question, because the answer is usually “yes” or “no”, a question
with inversion is a question where the subject and verb have been swapped around (or
“inverted”). They always start with an auxiliary verb (be, have, or do), a modal auxiliary verb
(e.g. can, will, must, should, etc.), or verb “to be”. For example, this sentence is a statement:
“John is a DJ”. To make this statement into a question with inversion we need to swap around
the verb (“is”) and the subject (“John”) to make: “Is John a DJ?” Questions with inversion
always have a rising intonation, which means that the tone of your voice has to go up at the
end of the question.
Q: What is an auxiliary verb?
A: Auxiliary verbs are helping verbs. They don’t have any meaning of their own in the
sentence, but they help the main verb to form a verb phrase. For example, in this sentence:
“Jean was riding her horse in the field for half an hour this morning”, “was” is an auxiliary verb
(from verb “to be”) which works together with the main verb “riding” to make the past
continuous verb form. There are three primary auxiliary verbs in English: “be”, “have” and
“do”, as well as modal auxiliary verbs such as “can”, “will” and “must”.
Q: What is each of the eight verb forms used for?
A: The uses of the verb forms studied during this course can be summarised as follows:
Present Simple: to talk about regular actions and things that are always true
Past Simple: to talk about completed actions in the past
Present Continuous: to talk about what is happening at the moment
Past Continuous: to talk about continuous actions in the past: what was happening
when…
Present Perfect: to talk about past actions which are quite recent or relevant to now
Modal Verbs: to talk about permission, possibilities, ability, and probability
Future Forms: to talk about future plans, predictions and intentions
First Conditional: to talk about what will happen if a certain condition is met
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Glossary of Pronunciation Terms
This is a glossary of the main terms that learners should become familiar with before beginning a Talk a Lot course:
alphabet
An alphabet is a collection of words which are used to represent on a page the sounds that we make when speaking
a language. There are 26 letters in the English alphabet, which are arranged in the following order:
a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z
There are 21 consonant letters and 5 vowel letters (see below).
assimilation
A technique of connected speech. Assimilation occurs when the sound at the end of a syllable changes so that it is
easier to pronounce with the sound at the beginning of the next syllable.
e.g. “clean bike” is easier to pronounce when the n at the end of clean changes to m : “cleam bike”
connected speech
The practice of joining together words in a sentence, rather than pronouncing each one separately.
consonant cluster
A combination of two or more consonant letters together in the spelling of a word.
e.g. “br” and “ng” in “bring”, or “th” and “nk” in “think”
consonant letter
There are 21 consonant letters in the English alphabet. They are: b c d f g h j k l m n p q r s t v w x y z
consonant sound
There are twenty-five consonant sounds in spoken English. Consonant sounds are made when we move our tongue,
lips, and mouth into different positions before releasing breath from our lungs.
There are fifteen voiced consonant sounds (we can feel our vocal cords moving when we make them):
b bag
d dice
j jam
l lake
m music
n nurse
ng ring
r road
th brother
v van
w week
y yoghurt
z zip
zz revision
and there are ten unvoiced consonant sounds (we can’t feel our vocal cords moving when we make them):
ch cheese
f frog
h head
hh loch
k kit
p pig
s snow
sh shop
tt thousand
Most consonants sound as you would expect them to from looking at them (they are phonetic), so it is more important
to spend time learning how the vowel sounds and diphthongs look and sound.
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content word
A content word is any word that has an individual meaning on its own, outside of a sentence. The following word
groups are all content words: nouns, main verbs (but not verb “to be”, which is usually unstressed), phrasal verbs,
adjectives, adverbs, numbers, proper names, and negative auxiliary verbs. Content words contrast with function
words (see below), which are not usually stressed.
e.g. nouns – car, biscuit, tree, etc.
main verbs – eat, go, take, etc.
adjectives – interesting, good, expensive, etc.
contraction
A technique of connected speech. A contraction occurs when two words are merged together to make a single word,
e.g. “it is” becomes “it’s”, and “I had” becomes “I’d”. The aim is to reduce unstressed syllables in the sentence: two
function words, which are both unstressed, become one function word. The reduction of the function words makes
the strong stresses on either side stand out more.
Note: a mega contraction is when a contraction is reduced even further to the barest minimum possible, without
actually deleting the word, e.g. the contraction “you’re” is contracted further to y , “he’s” becomes uhz , and
“they’re” becomes th .
diphthong
A diphthong is a vowel sound in English, in which two or more vowel sounds combine to make a new vowel sound.
Therefore a diphthong is a double sound. There are 10 diphthongs in spoken English:
ai time
aiy hire
au cow
auw power
ei plane
eir pear
eu home
oy toy
uuw pure
elision
A technique of connected speech. Elision occurs when a sound is removed from the end of a syllable, making it
easier to pronounce next to the following syllable. The removal of a sound – usually t or d – often combines with a
glottal stop (see below). The aim is to make a vc sound connection, which ensures a smooth transition to the next
syllable.
e.g. in the phrase “hot coffee” there are two consonant sounds that meet – t and c – so to make them easier to
pronounce together we get rid of the t (elision) and add a glottal stop: Ho_ Ko fii
embedded Schwa sound
An embedded Schwa sound occurs when we pronounce a consonant sound on its own. All consonant sounds are
voiced in the Clear Alphabet, and a Schwa sound naturally follows each consonant sound, e.g. b, f, or t . There is
no need to write this Schwa sound (as uh ) in CA, because it always follows a single consonant sound, e.g.
“today” = t Dei t is a consonant sound pronounced on its own which is followed by an embedded Schwa sound.
It is pronounced like this: tuh , but we don’t need to write uh because the Schwa sound is
assumed
Final Consonant Linking (FCL)
See linking, below.
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Friendly consonant sounds
Friendly consonant sounds are consonant sounds which are quite happy to meet other consonant sounds. They are:
n, m, and ng
(note that l can also sometimes be a friendly consonant sound…)
These are really helpful sounds, because when one of them happens to be at the end of a syllable and a consonant
sound follows, they make the sound connection easy – just like a vc sound connection. n, m, and ng are all easy to
pronounce with a following consonant sound. This is because the tongue and mouth are in a neutral position after
pronouncing these sounds, and as such ready to pronounce any following sound. The tongue can rest on n, m, or
ng without having to link it to the start of the next syllable.
function word
A function word is a short, unstressed grammar word that doesn’t have an individual meaning on its own, outside of a
sentence. Function words are usually: pronouns, auxiliary verbs, prepositions, articles, and conjunctions. Verb “to be”
is also a function word – even when used as a main verb. Note: negative forms of auxiliary verbs do have stress, e.g.
didn’t is stressed on the first syllable (see content words, above).
e.g. pronouns – she, their, him, etc.
auxiliary verbs – have, do, will, can, etc.
prepositions – to, for, in, on, etc.
articles and determiners – a, an, the, some, etc.
glottal stop
A technique of connected speech. A glottal stop is not a sound but rather an action – the sudden cutting-off of a
vowel sound just after making it, instead of letting it run on. We hear a glottal stop as a tiny gap in the flow of speech.
It happens when we close our glottis (the opening of the vocal cords). The aim is to turn cc sound connections into vc
sound connections (see below). By replacing a consonant sound with a glottal stop, we stop the friction that would
have occurred by the meeting of the two consonant sounds. Glottal stops usually occur at the same time as elision
(see above). A sound disappears, and a glottal stop is used automatically by the speaker in its place. Some native
speakers tend to make a glottal stop even when the next sound is a vowel sound, but this deviates from standard
pronunciation. In Clear Alphabet, a glottal stop is represented by the underscore symbol: _
e.g. “My mate Pat.” = mai Mei_ Pa_. (the t’s are deleted and replaced by glottal stops)
homophone
A homophone is a word that has exactly the same sounds as another word, but a different spelling and a different
meaning. Homophones are good examples of how sounds and spelling have become disconnected in English.
e.g. your / yore wait / weight please / pleas mind / mined too / two
sail / sale weak / week tail / tale son / sun bean / been
intonation
Intonation is how we strongly stress one or more particular words in a sentence to emphasise a particular part of it.
We use intonation as a variation from standard pronunciation, where all the information is presented with a similar
level of importance.
e.g. standard pronunciation: “Julie’s just won the swimming gala.” = clear and informative, with no particular
intonation or emphasis
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with intonation on Julie: a) “Julie’s just won the swimming gala.” = it is relevant who won the gala. Maybe the result
is a shock because Julie is known to be a poor swimmer, or maybe the listener didn’t hear the winner’s name
with intonation on swimming: b) “Julie’s just won the swimming gala.” = it is relevant which gala Julie has won.
Maybe the conversation has included several different galas.
intrusion
A technique of connected speech. When the sound connection (see below) between two syllables is vv (vowel sound
to vowel sound) we insert a new consonant sound between them – y, w, or r – replacing the second vowel sound
in the sound connection, making the sound connection much easier to pronounce.
e.g. intrusion with y : “grey eyes” = Grei Yaiz not Grei Aiz
the y in grey is not usually pronounced because it is part of a vowel cluster (“ey”) which makes the diphthong ei .
However, when the next sound is another vowel sound, we must pronounce it, to create a vc sound connection (see
below) instead of a vv connection.
more examples:
intrusion with w : “how old” = Hau Weuld not Hau Euld
intrusion with r : “four elephants” = For Re l fn_s not For E l fn_s
IPA
The IPA is an acronym for the International Phonetic Alphabet, a standard form of writing the sounds of a language.
The current IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) was invented in the nineteenth century by French and
British linguists. The IPA can be helpful in some situations, for example if a student takes the time to learn
it they will be able to accurately pronounce any word in the dictionary. When teaching language – and
especially pronunciation – we do need a way of representing sounds on a page, but the current IPA is no
longer fit for purpose in the Digital Age, because it cannot be easily reproduced on a keyboard or mobile
phone keypad. Just try sharing a document that uses IPA symbols and you will see what I mean.
Everybody needs to buy a new font – which does not happen. So we need a new phonetic way of writing.
Another problem with the IPA is that students have to learn a whole new alphabet of around fifty new
characters. Students are often put off by the unfamiliar and exotic-looking symbols that they have to learn,
which only adds an extra burden for students – especially those whose first language does not always use
the Roman alphabet, e.g. those whose first language is Arabic, Russian, Chinese, etc. They already have
to learn one new alphabet to learn English; then we try to add a second. It’s no wonder the IPA is put on
the back burner.
Clear Alphabet (CA) is a modern phonetic English alphabet (see below).
linking
A technique of connected speech. Also known as Final Consonant Linking (FCL), linking occurs when the sound
connection between two syllables is cv (consonant to vowel). Linking allows us to join together the two syllables with
a vc (vowel to consonant) sound connection instead, which is the preferred sound connection for English native
speakers, because it is the easiest to pronounce (see below).
e.g. in “like it” the two sounds meeting are k (consonant sound) and i (vowel sound)
before linking (original cv sound connection): Laik it
after linking (new vc sound connection): Lai kit
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mega contraction
See contraction, above.
Clear Alphabet (CA)
A new alphabet for the English language, which is similar to the IPA in that it enables the reader to see all the
phonemes (sounds) contained in each word. However, unlike the IPA, CA uses the more familiar Roman
alphabet – a, b, c, etc. – and allows the reader to see the stressed syllable in a word as well as the
connections between syllables and words. Each of the 48 sounds of English has its own written ID (identifier).
e.g. the “a” sound in “cake” is always written as ei – Keik
In normal spelling this sound can be written in different ways, but with CA it always looks the same: ei
e.g. make = meik, day = dei, change = cheinj, etc.
(See the CA handout on p.29 for the full list of sounds and IDs.)
phoneme
A phoneme is an individual sound, which is part of a syllable.
e.g. in the word “cat” there are three separate letters – c-a-t – and three separate phonemes – k a t – while in the
word “tooth” there are five separate letters – t-o-o-t-h – but only three separate phonemes – t oo tt .
phonetics
Phonetics is the study of sound in human speech. “Phone” comes from the Greek word for “sound” and “voice”:
phōnē, e.g. telephone = tele (distant) + phone (sound) = distant sound.
phonics
Phonics is how the study of phonetics is applied to language, e.g. understanding how spelling and sounds are
connected. For example, Phonics may be used to teach reading to language learners. Phonics is sometimes used as
a direct synonym for phonetics, though this is incorrect.
R-linking
A technique of connected speech. R-linking is part of intrusion and occurs when the r consonant sound is inserted
between two vowel sounds, effectively replacing the second vowel sound in the sound connection. The aim is to
transform a vv (vowel to vowel) sound connection into a vc (vowel to consonant) sound connection, which is easier to
pronounce.
e.g. in “there is” the two sounds meeting are eir (consonant sound) and i (vowel sound)
original cv sound connection: their iz
new vc sound connection: their riz
Schwa sound
The Schwa sound uh is the most common vowel sound in English, and the least known. It is also the weakest vowel
sound. It is the only sound in English to have an individual name, with “Schwa” coming from the Hebrew letter called
Shva, which has the same function. It often occurs in weak stressed syllables, being a short expulsion of air, which
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sounds like the noise made when somebody hits you in the stomach – “Uh!” Or the kind of grunt that a teenager
might make first thing in the morning as a form of greeting – “Uh!”
The Schwa sound helps to make the stress pattern in a sentence, because is makes the unstressed syllables weaker
by replacing vowel sounds, especially diphthongs and long vowel sounds. This makes the unstressed syllables
shorter, which in turn makes the stressed syllables stronger, by increasing the contrast between weak and strong.
When you don’t use the Schwa sound your spoken English will lack stress and you will be likely to pronounce letters
that should be silent, e.g. the “o” and “r” at the end of “doctor”:
Pronunciation written using CA: Do kt
The word “doctor” has two syllables. The first syllable is stressed, and the second is not. The first has a strong-
stressed vowel sound, while the second has a Schwa sound – the weakest and dullest vowel sound there is. The
contrast adds to the stress pattern in the sentence. The intention of the spelling “or” is to represent the Schwa sound.
Unfortunately, many learners are unaware of this sound and, trying to pronounce every letter in the word, will learn
the pronunciation as: do ktor. Some will even roll the r at the end of the word, which is never done in English.
The Schwa sound is not unique to English and occurs in a variety of languages, from Russian to Dutch, and
Indonesian to Hindi. Do you have it in your language? Does it provide a similar function to the English Schwa sound?
In CA the Schwa sound can be written as uh , but it is often not written at all, and simply pronounced as part of a
consonant sound, e.g. t has a built in Schwa sound when we say it: t . We call this an embedded Schwa sound
(see CA chart on p.29). It is enough to do this to pronounce the Schwa sound.
As we have seen above, in CA “doctor” is spelled: Do kt . The first syllable is the stressed one (hence capital “D”)
and has a strong vowel sound o . The second syllable does not have a vowel sound, apart from an embedded
Schwa sound which is not written, but occurs naturally when we pronounce the sound t . The “r” disappears from
the spelling because it is a silent letter (see below) and not pronounced.
sentence stress
The sequence of stressed and unstressed syllables in a spoken sentence.
silent letters
Extra letters which appear in the spelling of the word when we write it, but which are not pronounced when we say
the word.
e.g. “o”, “r”, “a”, and “e” in the word “comfortable”, which is pronounced Kum ft bl
sound connection
The place between two syllables where two sounds meet. There are four possible kinds of sound connection:
vc (vowel sound to consonant sound) e.g. “my car” mai Kar = easy to pronounce
vv (vowel sound to vowel sound) e.g. “we are” wee ar = difficult to pronounce
cv (consonant sound to vowel sound) e.g. “it is” it iz = difficult to pronounce
cc (consonant sound to consonant sound) e.g. “that book” that Buuk = difficult to pronounce
Speakers of English will do anything to their words and letters to create easy vc sound connections between syllables
when they speak. They will quite ruthlessly get rid of sounds, add sounds, and change sounds to make these all-
important vc sound connections. However, English spelling doesn’t help, because not every syllable starts with a
consonant sound and ends with a vowel sound. If only it did! Then we could all speak like this: ba ba ba ba ba ba etc.
and we wouldn’t need to use – or study – connected speech! Instead words clash and scrape together, like badly
fitting puzzle pieces, and we must use the techniques of connected speech to “bash out” those troublesome sound
connections. This is what usually happens:
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If the sound connection is: we use:
vc OK – easy to pronounce (no connected speech required!)
vv intrusion with an extra consonant sound, which makes the
connection vc: y, w, or r
cv Final Consonant Linking (FCL)
cc Elision, Glottal Stop, Assimilation, or FCL
examples:
vc (vowel sound to consonant sound) mai Kar – no need to do anything!
vv (vowel sound to vowel sound) wee yar – add y to make a vc sound connection
cv (consonant sound to vowel sound) i tiz – move the final consonant t forward to start the next
syllable, making a vc sound connection
cc (consonant sound to consonant sound) tha_ Buuk – use elision: delete t and use a glottal stop instead.
A vc sound connection results
sound spine
The sound spine is the sequence of vowel sounds on the stressed syllables in a sentence. These sounds are the
most important sounds in the sentence – the sounds that the listener needs to hear in order to correctly process the
words. They form the “backbone” of the sentence – hence “sound spine”. We should always try to find and
emphasise the sound spine in a sentence. Whatever other sounds are wrongly pronounced, the vowel sounds on the
stressed syllables should be heard clearly and correctly. If one or more of these vowel sounds are wrongly
pronounced, miscommunication can occur and the listener may have to say: “Sorry, I didn’t catch that. Could you
repeat that, please?”
e.g. compare these two sound spines:
1. correct vowel sounds on stressed syllables:
ei i u ar a ar
Jason has finished cutting the grass in the back garden.
2. incorrect vowel sounds on stressed syllables:
ee er e i uu iy
In the second example it is very difficult to work out what is meant, because the incorrect vowel sounds transform the
content words into something different (sometimes into completely different words), making them unidentifiable,
e.g. “finished” now sounds like “furnished”, “back” now sounds like “book”, and “grass” now sounds like “griss”, which
isn’t a word in English, etc.
spelling
The system we use to put language into written form. Unfortunately for people trying to learn English, spelling in
English is not phonetic, i.e. the sound of a word (in most cases) does not match the spelling. This means that we
have to learn how each word is pronounced by listening to a native speaker – who is hopefully a good model. We
have to learn by experience, or by using the IPA phonetic spellings in a dictionary. So there are two parallel
components for each word – its sound and its spelling. Furthermore, once we have learned how each word sounds
on its own, we then have to take into account how they sound when they are joined together, since we don’t speak
word by word, but rather syllable by syllable, merging words together using the techniques of connected speech.
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standard pronunciation
Standard pronunciation is a neutral form of pronunciation, which is not influenced by any specific accented version of
English, e.g. Scouse (the Liverpool accent), Geordie (the Newcastle accent), or Welsh (a Welsh accent). Formerly
known as Received Pronunciation (RP), standard English can be heard when you watch the news on a British TV
channel, or listen to many of the programmes on BBC Radio 4. Standard pronunciation is used in all of the Talk a Lot
books, so that learners can study pronunciation with a neutral accent, rather than a particular regional one.
stressed syllable
The syllable in a content word that has greater stress than all of the other syllables. We pronounce this syllable a
little louder – more strongly – than the others. In CA the stressed syllable always begins with a capital letter. This
helps learners to identify them in a sentence and then work out the sound spine.
e.g. in the word “television”, there are four syllables and the third syllable is stressed: te l Vi zzn
stress mark
The stress mark shows us which syllable is stressed in an IPA phonetic spelling of a word. The stress mark always
comes before the stressed syllable and looks like this: LDL The stress mark takes the guesswork out of finding the
stress in a word when using the IPA. In CA there is no need for a stress mark, because the stressed syllable
always starts with a capital letter.
stress pattern
A stress pattern is the sequence of strong (stressed) and weak (unstressed) syllables in a sentence.
e.g. in the following sentence the syllables in bold are strong while the others are weak:
stress-timed languages
English is a stress-timed language, which means that it should be spoken with its familiar rhythm, e.g. du DUH du
DUH du DUH du DUH… etc. The stress pattern is like a mountain range, with the strong stresses the peaks, and the
weak stresses the valleys. The contrast between weak and strong makes the distinctive rhythm of English. Other
stress-timed languages include German, Dutch, and Swedish. Some languages are not stress-timed, but syllable-
timed, with each syllable having roughly equal stress. Syllable-timed languages include French and Spanish.
Learners of English who have these languages as their first language often try to force English to follow the same
stress pattern. The result is confusion for the listener, because in English much of the meaning of the words is picked
up subconsciously by the listener from the vowel sounds on the stressed syllables in a sentence.
strong form
Function words can have strong forms and weak forms, depending on where they are in a sentence. When a function
word is in between words in a sentence, we should pronounce the weak form, e.g. the preposition “to” in the following
sentences:
I went to the bank. ai Wen_ t th Bangk.
But when a function word comes at the end of a sentence, we should pronounce the strong form, e.g.
Which bank did you go to? Wi Chbang kdi ch Geu too?
Often learners use strong forms of words like prepositions (to, for, etc.) instead of the weak forms, leading to errors in
the sentence stress, e.g.
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normal CA spelling CA spelling
spelling: (strong form): (weak form):
to too t
for for f
the thee th
or thu th
strong stress
The strong stress is the stressed syllable in a word. This syllable must be pronounced more strongly – and clearly –
than the others in the word. The vowel sound in this syllable must be correct and clear, because it is the most
important sound in the syllable – and one of the most important sounds in the sentence as a whole. Pronouncing the
correct vowel sound on the correct stressed syllable will help to ensure that the listener understands you.
suffix
A suffix is a word ending which is the same in many different words. Suffixes are not usually stressed. This is helpful
to note because it means that we can discount the suffix when we are looking for the stressed syllable in a content
word.
e.g. “-ing” in: “cooking”, “going”, “putting”, “taking”, etc.
or “-er” in: “baker”, “letter”, “builder”, “player”, better, etc.
syllable
A syllable is part of a word that can be said in one beat.
e.g. in the word “potato” there are three syllables = three beats: po-ta-to. The middle syllable is stressed: p Tei teu
vc sound connection
A vc sound connection occurs when a syllable that ends with a vowel sound meets a syllable that begins with a
consonant sound, e.g. “be nice” or “daytime”. vc sound connections are the easiest of the four kinds of sound
connection for native speakers of English to pronounce, because after making the vowel sound our tongue, lips, and
mouth are in a neutral position – ready to form any consonant sound.
vowel cluster
A combination of two or more letters (vowel or consonant letters) together in the normal spelling of a word, which
makes one sound.
e.g. the vowel cluster “ea” makes the sound e in the word “bread”, ei in the word “break”, and ee in the word
“read” (among others).
(See also Talk a Lot Handbook p.18.55: List of Vowel Clusters – In Alphabetical Order.)
vowel letter
There are 5 vowel letters in the English alphabet. They are: a, e, i, o, u. The lack of vowel letters in the English
language leads to the problematic differences between spelling and sounds, because just five vowel letters have to
represent twenty-three different vowel sounds. For example, vowel letters can combine to form vowel clusters (see
above) which then represent different sounds, creating a lot of confusion for learners of English. In CA one written
ID (identifier) always represents the same single sound, so the sounds always look the same on the page.
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Because of this, spelling with CA is much easier: when you think of the sound, you know how it should look, and you
know which letters to write. You don’t have to memorise two different elements per word: spelling and sounds.
vowel sound
There are twenty-three vowel sounds in spoken English. Vowel sounds are made when we allow breath to move
freely from our lungs out of our mouths, without blocking it with our tongue, lips, or mouth (as we do with consonant
sounds).
There are eight short vowel sounds:
a bat
e leg
i dish
ii happy
o sock
u cup
uh arrive (Schwa sound)
uu pull
…five long vowel sounds:
ar star
ee three
er shirt
oo shoot
or ball
…and ten diphthongs:
ai time
aiy hire
au cow
auw power
ei plane
eir pear
eu home
iy here
oy toy
uuw pure
Learners whose first language doesn’t contain any long vowel sounds or diphthongs will often try to use only short
vowel sounds to make all of the vowel sounds in English – which leads to errors and misunderstandings, because the
vowel sounds on the stressed syllables in a sentence (the sound spine) must be correct and clear. In comparison,
consonant sounds are mostly phonetic, i.e. they sound how you would expect them to from how they look, e.g. t, d,
m, n, etc.
weak form
One-syllable function words often have weak forms, which should be used in spoken English instead of their strong
forms (see strong form above). For example, the weak form of the preposition “for” is pronounced simply f , without
a vowel sound, apart from the embedded Schwa sound (see above) which is the natural result of saying f . If
learners use strong forms instead of weak forms, their pronunciation will sound stilted and “foreign”, because the
sentence stress and the sound spine will be incorrect.
word stress
Word stress is the system of stress within an individual word. Every content word in English has one strong stress.
e.g. in the word “government”, the strong stress is on the first syllable: Gu v mnt
The second syllable contains an embedded Schwa sound, which is pronounced naturally when you say v , and the
final syllable also contains an embedded Schwa sound after m . The strong stress in a content word should be
emphasised by saying it more loudly and strongly than the other unstressed syllables. In any given content word, one
syllable will be stressed strongly (with the vowel sound being the most important sound) and the other syllables will
be unstressed, with one or more of them likely to contain a Schwa sound.
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Course Outline
Lesson 1 – Introduction and Basic Principles
1.1 Talk a Lot Foundation Course is an opportunity to study the theory of pronunciation before beginning a
Talk a Lot course
1.2 English spelling is broken
1.3 We need a new phonetic alphabet to represent sounds in written form
1.4 The vowel sounds on the stressed syllables of content words are the most important sounds in a sentence
1.5 English Native speakers use sounds, stress, and connected speech without thinking about it, but you have
to learn to do it!
1.6 The Glossary of Pronunciation Terms will be a useful reference tool during the course
1.7 Standard EFL course books are good at teaching reading and listening skills, but less able to teach
speaking and writing
Lesson 2 – Spelling and Sounds
2.1
2.2
2.3
2.4
2.5
2.6
2.7
English is not a phonetic language, which means that often spelling and sounds do not match
The spelling of a word and its sounds are usually two different things in English. You need to learn two
parts of each word: the spelling and the sounds
Part of the problem is the high frequency of silent letters in English spelling
Students usually pronounce far too many vowel sounds when they speak English
The Schwa sound is the most common vowel sound in English – and the least discussed
The glottal stop is not a sound but rather an action – the cutting off of a sound at the moment of making it
We need to combine the written alphabet and the phonetic alphabet into one Clear Alphabet
Lesson 3 – Stress
3.1 English is a stress-timed language, not a syllable-timed language
3.2 Content words each have one strong stress, while function words are not stressed
3.3 Word stress is irregular in English
3.4 Communication is reduced when we don’t use sentence stress
3.5 The sound spine is the sequence of vowel sounds on the stressed syllables in a sentence
3.6 It is not necessary to pronounce every letter in every word in every sentence
3.7 We reduce function words by using contractions and mega contractions
3.8 We also reduce function words by using weak forms
3.9 Most of the top 100 most common words in English are function words, which have weak forms that
students do not generally use
3.10 We are not going to focus on intonation during this course
Lesson 4 – Connected Speech
4.1 Even with the stress and vowel sounds correct in a sentence, we still sound wrong when we don’t use
connected speech, because we are speaking word by word
4.2 We speak English syllable by syllable, not word by word
4.3 However, English words don’t fit together very well. They are like badly-fitting puzzle pieces
4.4 We use the Features of Connected Speech to solve this problem. It can be learned using the mnemonic
GLACIER
4.5 There are four possible sound connections between syllables
4.6 cc sound connections are the hardest to pronounce
4.7 The aim is to speak with only vc (vowel sound to consonant sound) sound connections between syllables,
and we use connected speech techniques to achieve this
4.8 Friendly consonant sounds are helpful because they are happy to sit beside other consonant sounds
103

Talk a Lot
Foundation Course
List of Common Weak Forms in Spoken English
• In spoken English we often use the weak forms of function words instead of the strong forms to make
the sound spine stand out more clearly. This is true of Standard Pronunciation, dialects, and accents
• The weak form is often made by replacing the vowel sound in the strong form with a Schwa sound: uh
• Most function words that have weak forms are monosyllabic – they have only one syllable
• If we use strong forms when we should use weak forms, we sound too formal and it is more difficult for
people to understand us, because the sentence stress is incorrect. Communication is reduced
• If a function word comes at the end of a sentence we usually use its strong form, rather than its weak
form, e.g. “What are you looking for?” ( for ) or, “Who are you writing to?” ( too )
• If we want to show emphasis or contrast, we can vary the intonation by using strong forms where we
would normally use weak forms, e.g. “What did you think of the book?” ( yoo )
articles & determiners weak strong prepositions weak strong
a uh ei about uh bau_ uh baut
an uhn an as uhz az
any uh nii e nii at uh_ at
some sm sum by b bai
such sch such for f for
that th_ that from frm from
the thi or th thee of uhv ov
out au_ aut
verb “be” & auxiliary verbs weak strong to t too
am uhm am with w with
are uh ar
be bi bee pronouns weak strong
been bin or bn been he hi or i hee
is uhz iz her h or uh her
was wz woz him im him
were w wer his iz hiz
do duu or d doo I uh ai
does dz duz it i_ it
had hd or uhd had its uh_s its
has hz or uhz haz me mi mee
have hv or uhv hav my m mai
can kn kan our ar auw
could kd kuud she sh shee
must mst or ms must their th their
shall shl shal them thm them
should shd shuud there th their
will uhl wil they th thei
would wd wuud us uhz us
we wi or w wee
conjunctions weak strong you y yoo
and uhn and your y yor
because b kz bi koz
but b_ but
if uhf if
or uh or
than thn than
104

Talk a Lot
Focus on Connected Speech
The Techniques of Connected Speech – Matching Game
Instructions: cut up some sets of cards – one for each pair or group of students. Students
have to match each technique of connected speech (left) with its description (right).
glottal stops
This sound _ replaces t before a consonant sound.
For example: football becomes Fuu_ borl
linking
A sound at the end of a word joins together smoothly with
the sound at the beginning of the next word.
For example: walked into becomes WWor ktin t
assimilation
This means “adaptation” or “adjustment”. When two sounds
meet that don’t flow together easily, e.g. two consonant
sounds, one of them changes to make the words easier to
say.
For example: bigitruckuck becomes Bi ktrukk
contraction
The short forms of verb structures.
For example: you are -> you’re; they had -> they’d;
he will -> he’ll, etc.
intrusion
A new sound – w, y, or r – is added between two
vowel sounds to make the transition easier to say.
For example: no idea becomes Neu wai DiyDiy
elision
A t or d sound at the end of a word disappears,
because the next word starts with a consonant
sound. For example: past life becomes Par Slaiff
r-linking
A r sound at the end of a word links with the vowel
sound at the beginning of the next word.
For example: pour into becomes Por Rin t
105

3. Mark the stressed syllables (above)
1. Write a phrase or sentence (8-10 syllables maximum). Read it out loud. Underline the content words:
6. Mark the sound connections (above): VC, CV, VV, CC, or F (friendly consonant sound)
Circle bad sound connections. Number them 1, 2, 3, etc.
2. Write the sentence split into syllables (vc / F connections where possible). Number of syllables:
4. Write the stressed vowel sounds (above) using the Clear Alphabet. This is the sound spine
5. Looking mainly at the unstressed (weak) syllables, how many of these reductions can you make:
contractions: ____ write the contracted form, e.g. they are = they’re
schwa sounds: ____ mark with uh (strong vowel sounds on weak syllables are usually reduced)
short i sounds: ____ mark with i (as above)
glottal stops: ____ mark with _ (when a syllable ends with t, followed by a con. sound)
8. Considering what you have learned, write the sentence – syllable by syllable – using the Clear Alphabet:
Sound out each syllable, then the whole sentence. Pay attention to stressed, reduced, and merged
syllables. Try to say why each syllable looks like it does, e.g. x sound has moved forward, etc.
Compare Step 1 (written English) with Step 8 (spoken English). What do you notice?
STRESS > REDUCE > MERGE
syllables syllables syllables
Practise Stress and Connected Speech in English
7. Think of ways of fixing the bad sound connection(s). Write your ideas below (number them 1, 2, 3, etc.)
(Remember: if a voiced consonant sound moves forward in FCL, it can change to unvoiced)
Don’t forget to sound
out the individual
syllables and the
sentence at each step!
English Banana.com
106

Talk a Lot
101 Possible Topics to Study
Can’t think of anything to talk about? Here is a list of the 47 topics which already have Talk a Lot
discussion words available to download from http://www.englishbanana.com, along with more ideas for
exciting new topics. Of course, you can also think of your own topics, and write discussion words
using the template on p.108.
Beginner:
Clothes
Family
Food and Drink
Free Time
Health
Home
Shopping
Town
Transport
Work
Elementary:
Animals
Cars
Christmas
Colours and Numbers
Crime
Garden
Life Events
Music
Nature
Office
Sport
Television
The Human Body
Weather
Pre-Intermediate:
Airport
Australia
Books
DIY
Fame and Fortune
Films
Hospital
Internet
Learning English
Money
Places in the UK
Politics
Railway Station
The Environment
Toy Catalogue
Zoo
Intermediate and above:
10 Famous Events in British History
Bonfire Night
Death
Getting a Job
Hotel
Media
Problems
New Possible Topics:
Africa
American English
Animation
Antarctica
Architecture
Asia
Biology
Building a House
Business
Childhood
Chocolate
Cookery
Dating
Dentist
Design
Divorce
Drinks
Engineering
English Accents
Europe
Exams
Farm
Garage
Global Warming
Great Journeys
Having a Baby
Health Centre
Hobbies
India
Insects
Journalism
Kitchen
Languages
Law
Life in the UK
Literature
North America
Philosophy
Prison
Pronunciation
Psychology
Publishing
Religion
Russia
Science
Sea Creatures
South America
Space
Tea
Technology
The USA
Trains
Vet
World History
...and many more!
(The only limit is your imagination!)
107

Talk a Lot
_____________________________
Discussion Words
1. 3.2. 4.
5. 7.6. 8.
9. 11.10. 12.
13. 15.14. 16.
17. 19.18. 20.
21. 23.22. 24.
25. 27.26. 28.
29. 31.30. 32.
33. 35.34. 36.
37. 39.38. 40.

108

Name: _______________________________________ Date: _____________ Group: _____________
Title: ______________________________________________________________________________
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English Banana.com
Free English Banana Books and Resources
There are many useful English Banana books and resources for you to download absolutely FREE from:
http://www.englishbanana.com
Books:
Mixed Worksheets:
Big Grammar Book
Big Activity Book
Big Resource Book
ELT Resource Bank – Version 3.0 (CD-ROM)
The Best of English Banana.com Free Printable Worksheets 2003 to 2009
Talk a Lot Spoken English Course:
Talk a Lot Elementary Book 1
Talk a Lot Intermediate Book 1
Talk a Lot Intermediate Book 2
Pronunciation:
Talk a Lot Foundation Course
Stress > Reduce > Merge
Teacher Training:
Talk a Lot Elementary Handbook
You Are The Course Book
You Are The Course Book 2 – In Practice
Error Correction:
Check It Again! (Book One)
Individual Worksheets:
Elementary
Intermediate
Advanced
How to Run Your Own English Course
...plus lots of other great free resources, including a picture dictionary, quizzes, games, podcasts...!
English Banana.com

FREE You Are The Course Book - Syllabus

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