Lingua Inglese

Pronuncia

Stress, intonation, vowels, consonants, diphthongs, silent letters, homophones, idioms and false friends

Phonetics is the system of speech sounds of a language or group of languages. It is the study of sounds in speech, which is different from phonology, which instead focuses on sound patterns to create meaning.

What is a vowel?

As in Italian, the letters a, e, i, o, u are called vowels. When we pronounce them, the breath flows out through the mouth without being blocked. They can be long or short. When a word contains a single vowel sound, it is called a syllable. Examples: cat, si|nk, lo|ve, pu|zzle, girl, boss.

When we pronounce two vowels very quickly, one after the other, we create a diphthong. Examples: lousy, noise, laugh.

What is a consonant?

A consonant is the sound we make when, while speaking, we block somehow, with the lips or teeth, for example, the breath on its way out of the mouth. Examples: block, dentist, washer, fatal, cream, zipper.

Stress

The syllable we pronounce with greater strength is called a stressed or accented syllable. When speaking, it is very important to put the stress on the correct syllable. Stress is commonly indicated with the symbol ' in the dictionary. It always goes before the stressed syllable. Examples: Clarity: 'klaeriti, Domestic: de'mestik, Unbelievable: anbi'li:vebel, Prefer: pri'fe, Morning: 'morning.

Intonation

Based on the content of our sentences, our voice may fall or rise. Generally, the voice goes down in a statement and up in a question. Try to read the following statements loudly: My friend, Beth is Algerian, she lives with her family, have you finished using the computer? I need it, If you don't mind, I'll leave.

Vowels

• The sound /iː/: The long E sound is typical of words such as: see, bee, beat, meat, reading, key, turkey, freedom, eat, please, teeth, feeling.
• The sound /ɪ/: The short I is typical of words such as: in, sit, bit, it, winner, busy, business, minute, limit, fit.
• The sound /ʊ/: The UH sound is typical of words such as: put, would, good, should, book, pull, push, cookie.
• The sound /uː/: The OO sound is typical of words such as: moon, food, too, blue, shoe, balloon, room.
• The sound /e/: The short e sound is typical of words such as: pen, bed, bread, said, nest, bargain, again, ready.
• The Schwa sound (/ə/): The Schwa sound is a short and weak vowel sound. It is typical of words such as: a, the, about, around, present, father.
• The sound /ɔː/: The OH sound is typical of words such as: store, four, mall, war, floor, or, wall, fall, north, short, sport.
• The sound /ɜː/: The UR sound is typical of words such as: turn, learn, girl, word, person, church.
• The sound /æ/: The short A sound is typical of words such as: fat, mad, dad, black, fast, animal, amazon.
• The sound /ʌ/: The UH sound is typical of words such as: cup, luck, mother, love, some, sun, up, cut, run, does.
• The sound /ɑː/: The soft A sound is typical of words such as: arm, father, part, start, a lot, not, mask, last.
• The sound /oʊ/: The long O sound is typical of words such as: most, vote, road, known, goat, hope, low, no.

Diphthongs

• The diphthong /eɪ/: To pronounce this specific diphthong, you have to mark a long A, but sliding into a long E. Listen to the following words: day, stay, away, play, weight.
• The diphthong /aɪ/: To pronounce this specific diphthong, you have to mark a long I sound, but sliding into a long E sound. Listen to the following words: sky, try, die, why, eye.
• The diphthong /ɔɪ/: To pronounce this specific diphthong, you have to mark a long O sound, but quickly sliding into a long E sound. Listen to the following words: boy, enjoy, parboil.
• The diphthong /ɪə/: To pronounce this specific diphthong, you have to mark a long E sound, but sliding into an Ur sound. Listen to the following words: hear, clear, fear.
• The diphthong /eə/: To pronounce this specific diphthong, you have to mark a long A sound, but sliding into an Ur sound. Listen to the following words: hair, stairs, wear.
• The diphthong /aʊ/: To pronounce this specific diphthong, you have to mark a short A sound, but sliding into an /uː/ sound. Listen to the following words: how, now, wow.
• The diphthong /oʊ/: To pronounce this specific diphthong, you have to mark a single long O sound, but sliding into an "oo" sound. Listen to the following words: yellow, coat, although.

Consonants

• The sound /tʃ/: The voiceless CH sound is typical of words such as: China, children, watch, century.
• The sound /dʒ/: The voiced J sound is typical of words such as: Germany, large, joy, judge.
• The sound /θ/: The voiceless TH consonant sound is typical of words such as: thing, teeth, birthday, both.
• The voiced TH sound /ð/: The voiced TH sound is typical of words such as: the, those, together, brother.
• The sound /ʃ/: The voiceless SH sound is typical of words such as: shop, bush, sure, chef, station, special, pressure.
• The sound /ʒ/: The voiced ZH sound is typical of words such as: garage, decision, measure, visual, Asia.

Silent Letters

Silent T: Sometimes a T is silent. This is very frequent with foreign words, for example, the French word "ballet." The T is silent even in these words: Christmas, listen, act, accept.

Silent G: The consonant g is not pronounced when n follows it at the end of a syllable: Resign, design, foreign.

Silent K: Words of Germanic origin which start with kn have a silent k: Knee, knight, knife, know.

Silent L: The consonant l is often silent after a. We pronounce it /ɔː/ with verbs such as: talk, walk. /ɑː/ with words such as: calm, half, calf. It is silent in the modals: should, would, could, and also in nouns such as: salmon, yolk.

How to pronounce H

Despite Italian, in English the letter H is a consonant, so you have to pronounce it correctly when a word begins with it. However, there are some exceptions. Silent H: H is always silent in the following words: Honour, hour, honest, heir, vehicle, vehement. As far as the article is concerned, use an with silent H, and a before a pronounced H, such as the following examples show: He’s an honest man. I’ll meet you in an hour. People are looking for an heir to the throne. After the party, we went looking for a hotel. You're buying a house.

American vs British English

British and American English differ for a few matters of pronunciation, vocabulary, and spelling. Read the following chart to understand the differences better.

• Angry, mad = arrabbiato
• Autumn, fall = autunno
• Bonnet, hood = cofano
• Boot, trunk = bagagliaio
• Braces, suspenders = bretelle
• Chemist's, drugstore, pharmacy = farmacia
• Chips, french fries = patatine fritte
• Holiday, vacation = vacanza
• Post, mail = posta
• Trousers, pants = pantaloni
• Nappy, diaper = pannolino per bimbi

Homophones

When one or two or more words are pronounced alike but have very different meanings, we call them homophones. Read the following examples: Eight is my favorite number. Yesterday, I ate a pizza. As you can see, eight and ate share the same pronunciation, but they have very different meanings.

False Friends

A false friend is an English word that is often confused with a similar word in another language which sounds similar but has a different meaning indeed. Let’s make an example: if a friend of mine tells me he has just bought a compass, I should know that, in English, a compass is what we call in Italian "bussola," and not a "compasso" as we could believe because of their similar spelling and pronunciation. Examples: In inglese accident, in realtà significa incidente, il falso amico è 'accidenti, accidente' e si traduce damn! Shock. In inglese affluent in realtà significa ricco, falso amico affluente e si traduce tributary, lake. In inglese basket, in realtà significa cesto, falso amico basket, si traduce basketball.

Sentence Structure

Language

• To develop training programmes;
• To work with branch managers;
• To implement new training courses;
• To prepare a staff training manual;
• To carry out an initial training audit;
• To assess customer service;
• To be responsible for the budget;
• To identify future needs;
• To involve extensive travelling.

1. What is your job title?
2. Where is your work place location?
3. How would you describe the essential experience?
4. What is the main purpose of your job?
5. Are you responsible for any task?
6. Which key duties are you in charged of?

When we write in English, we organize our discourse into sentences. Sentences can be simple or compound.

Simple Sentence: A simple sentence has only one clause. Some examples: Judith is cutting the grass. The children are sleeping. We are Italian.

Compound Sentence: A compound sentence has two (or more) clauses. The clauses are joined by coordinating conjunctions. Examples: I called you, but you didn't answer. The bell rang, and all the students entered their classroom.

We can also make a distinction between Independent and Dependent clauses. Independent clauses can stand alone as a sentence, because they contain a subject, a verb, and a complete idea. Examples: I study Spanish. Tina is playing the piano. Dependent clauses are not complete sentences, but they must be attached to an independent clause. They are also called subordinate clauses. Example: Although I study Spanish,...

Parts of a Sentence

• Subject: A person, animal, place, thing, or concept that does an action. Examples: I study Spanish. Tina is playing the piano.
• Verb: It expresses what the person, animal, place, thing, or concept does. Examples: I study Spanish. Tina is playing the piano.
• Object: A person, animal, place, thing, or concept that receives the action. Example: Lory is reading a book.
• Prepositional Phrase: A phrase that begins with a preposition and modifies a word in the sentence: Lory is reading a book in her room. I study Spanish at school. We have been watching this movie for three hours!

To Be

Before delving into grammar, let’s open your book English for Human Resources at page 3, Lesson 1 – Recruitment – and read again TASK 1. Some useful ‘doing’ verbs you may find useful: To advise; To inform; To maintain at the same level; To keep at the same level; To check; To plan; To organize; To support; To assist; To supply; To provide; To monitor. Now, let’s describe the main competencies of a manager. A manager should be able to: Build an effective team; Ensure deadlines are met; Identify problems; Motivate staff; Develop creativity; Improve staff performance; React to change.

The auxiliary verb to be in English corresponds to the Italian verb «essere.» It is an auxiliary verb, which is a verb we use together with the main verb to show the tense(s) of a verb or to form a negative sentence or a question. Let’s see how to make the affirmative, the negative, the interrogative, the negative-interrogative form of To be, as well as the short answers.

• Affirmative form: I am, You are, He is, She is, It is, We are, You are, They are.
• Negative form: I am not, You are not, He is not, She is not, It is not, We are not, You are not, They are not.
• Interrogative form: Am I? Are you? Is he? Is she? Is it? Are we? Are you? Are they?
• Negative interrogative form: Am I not? Are you not? Is he not? Is she not? Is it not? Are we not? Are they not?

Short answers: Yes, I am. No, I'm not. Yes, you are. No, you aren't.

The present simple of the verb To be has three variations:

1. Am, for the first singular person I;
2. Is, for the third singular person He, She, and It;
3. Are, for You (both singular and plural), We, and They.

Contracted forms are colloquial. We use them in informal conversations.

Patterns

We can use the verb to be with the following patterns:

• Nouns: Mrs. Dobson is a dentist. Obama was the president in 2015.
• Adjectives: This pizza is hot. The babies are good.
• With the -ing form to make the continuous aspect: We are driving. Someone is playing some music.
• With the -ed form to make the passive voice: This church was built in 1667. That park is called Saint James Park. This robot was made in Japan.
• With a prepositional phrase: John and Daniel are from New York. The cat is on the tree.

Uses of the verb To be

We use the verb To be as the main verb:

• With How, to ask someone about their health: How are you? How’s your husband? How’s your knee? Does it hurt?
• To talk about permanent or temporary qualities or states: John is rich. Francis and I are very young. I am here.
• To talk about nationality, and identity within groups or clubs: My professor is English. Kuniko and Fukio are Japanese. I am a Barcellona fan.
• Referring to jobs and professions. Note: we use the article “a” with singular names of jobs and professions: He’s a footballer. (Not: He’s footballer). We are firemen.
• To indicate the age: I am 18 years old, and Bruce is 24 years old. Chris cannot vote because he’s 16. How old are you?
• To talk about relationships: He is my father. Theresa and Matilda are my best friends.
• To refer to where places and things are situated: His village is next to the lake. The dishes are on the table.
• To talk about time and dates: What time is it? The concert is at midnight. Girlfriends are always late! The meeting is tomorrow.
• To describe behavior and personality: Kevin is always gentle with me. Is Miss Lonter angry? People can be tired when they don’t sleep enough.
• To describe feelings and situations: I am thrilled at the moment. Are you hungry? I can make you a sandwich.
• We use the verb To be in some expressions which have modal meanings, for example: be supposed to, be able to, be allowed to: Will Martin be able to read that huge book? You were supposed to get here two hours ago. Kids are not allowed to smoke.

There Is There Are

In English, we use There is and There are to translate the Italian "c’è" / "ci sono." There is refers to singular nouns; there are is used with plural nouns.

• Affirmative: There's a spider in my room. In that room there are ten people.
• Negative: There is not a spot on the floor. There are not dictionaries on that shelf.
• Interrogative: Is there anybody who wants to talk? Are there cookies in the pantry?
• Negative-interrogative: Isn't there an umbrella? Aren't there girls in your class?

NOTE: in informal speaking and writing, we can use there’s when it refers to more than one thing: There’s three million dollars in that bag! There’s four people in the queue.

Some expressions to keep in mind:

• To work for a company;
• To work at a company;
• To be responsible for other staff;
• To be responsible for doing a job;
• To be responsible to a boss;
• To be responsible to a manager.

Now, focus on the key verbs used in the following sentences:

• A training manager is someone who reports to the general manager;
• The members of a team must be able to work closely with branch offices;
• The members of a team should be able to develop a good team spirit;
• Training courses need to be implemented;
• A staff training manual can be useful;
• It is good to know that some jobs involve travelling;
• During training courses, people may identify needs for the future development of the staff.

Basic Rules

The present simple of the verb To have (got) has two variations: Have, for I, You, We, and They; Has, for He, She, and It. British English (BrE) usually puts got after To have. It has no meaning, and it is prevalent in colloquial language. When we indicate possession, we can either choose to use the verb To have or To have got: I have a handbag. I have got a handbag. We can form the negative, the interrogative, and the negative-interrogative form:

• Using the auxiliary Do + to have got;
• Using the auxiliary To have got.

We do not use got in the short answers. We do not use got with the progressive form.

To Have as a Main Verb

• When we talk about possession: My friends have (got) three parrots. Susan has (got) an incredible voice. My neighbors have (got) a big house.
• When we talk about events, actions, activities, and experiences: I’m having a party next week! My dad has an important meeting tomorrow. We’re having a picnic. Did you and your friends have a lovely time in China?
• Referring to food: I’m so hungry that I’ll have two pizzas! We will have just a salad, please. Let’s have breakfast together! David had lunch. I’ll have an espresso.
• With days and parts of the day: She said she had the best day of her life with him! Have a nice day!
• Referring to therapies and hygiene routine: I can’t come to the phone. I’m having a shower! My mom has massages every day because her feet hurt very much.
• Referring to conversations: Let’s have a couple of words! You and I will have a loud conversation in a minute!
• Referring to dreams and sleeping: I have a dream!
• Referring to accidents: That night, he had an accident.
• With traveling: Sarah is exhausted: she’s had a 3-hour trip!

Continuous forms: We use the verb To have in many progressive forms (we will study them in the next lessons). We also use To have as an auxiliary to form both present and past perfect.

Simple Present

Some definitions you may find useful:

• To work on someone’s initiative: to work independently;
• Leadership: the ability to head a group, a staff, a company, a team;
• To coordinate: to organize all the parts of a project and to make sure that all the people involved do their part;
• Training audit: the ability to find out how much training is done and whether it is effective and/or necessary through a careful examination;
• Sound knowledge: a good level of information about or understanding of something.