zh sound in English (and French)

The zh sound in English

When making this sound in English, the top and bottom teeth are close together, or even touching, and the tongue is up near the roof of the mouth. The tip of the tongue vibrates behind the top teeth barely touching the ridge behind the top teeth but not touching the back of the front teeth. If the tip of the tongue does contact the back of the front teeth, you'd be saying the "z" sound instead, as in zebra, or season.

Here are some examples of the "zh" sound in English:

beige (a color like tan, off-white, ecru)
pleasure
measure
leisure
closure
seizure
decision
amnesia
Asia

Note that in amnesia and Asia, "si" makes up the "zh" sound. The "i" isn't pronounced like an "i".

and many more...

Note that the sound is the same, though spelled sometimes with "g" or "s" or "z".
I don't think there are any words in English that start with that sound (at least none that are from the English language).

This sound is also common in French (including at the beginning of the word), in words such as:

je
juin
gilet
gymnastique
stage


.

"R" sounds in American English

I was recently working with an ESL student from India on pronunciation. When I asked him if there was a song he might like to sing to practice American English pronunciation and accent, he said "Bobby Gill." Or at least that's what I thought he said. But he was saying "Barbie Girl." I misunderstood because of the lack of the American "r" sound.

In British English they also don't have a strong 'r' sound: when Brits say "Barbie" it sounds more like "Bobby" in American English, although the vowel might be longer  (in the British word). However, if an American "hot" sounds close to British "heart", the British "hot" is not the same as the American: when Brits say "hot" the corners of the mouth come closer together; when Americans say "hot" the corners of the mouth are completely relaxed and passive and the jaw may be more dropped.

As far as "girl", Brits don't pronounce the 'r' sound, but the vowel of 'girl' would not come out 'gill': it would be somewhere between American 'gill' and 'gull'. These differences inspired me to come up with a list of words that use these different vowel sounds. Please say them out loud to practice your American 'r' sounds :) You can also use it to practice vocabulary; note: some words have more than one meaning.

Compare the vowel sounds in the two columns (if more than 1 syllable, refers to part in bold). The words in the left column have the vowel sound ɑ in IPA - the international phonetic alphabet. The vowel in the right column is the dipthong ɑɚ  in IPA (there should be a ˘ above the ɚ - couldn't find that font...)
Note that many different letter combinations may form the same vowel sound.

hot                           heart
cop                          carp
ought                       art
lock                         lark
tot, taught                tart
God, god                 garden
yon                          yarn
con                          carnivore, Carnegie
pawn                       Parnassus
fawn                       farm
bonfire                   barn, barnacle
bod                         bard
loss                         larceny
toss                         tarnish
gosh                        garnish
bought                    barter, bar
jot, john                  jar
knock                      narc(otics agent)
bock, balk               bark
box                          barks
shock                       shark
stalk, stock              stark
mock                       mark, Mark/Marc (name)
pock                        park
pom-pom                parmesan
dock                       dark
clock                      Clark (name)
sock                        sarcasm
hawk                      hark, hearken
ox                           arks, arcs
bob                         barb
top                          tarp
posh                        partial
pall, Paul, Polly      parlor, parlay
pot                           part


**********************

Note that the vowel sound in gill is a pure vowel (only one sound), represented in IPA as ɪ; the vowel in girl is also represented as the pure vowel ɝ in IPA. I tried to use all words that end in 'l' for similarity. At first I thought it was a dipthong, but it's not; I was just getting confused by the 'l' sound...

gill                 girl
pill                 pearl, purl, plural
bill                 burl
mill                Merle (name)
twill               twirl
will                whirl
kill                 curl
nil                  neurological
hill                 hurl
ill                   earl
fill                  unfurl

This is still a work in progress!...
Stay tuned for technical tips on how to pronounce the "r" sound.

comprehend, apprehend, reprehend

I may be over my head with this one, but I'll give it a shot...(Oh wow, too many English expressions there! 'over my head' means too difficult for me; 'give it a shot' means to try). An English learner I know commented that comprehend, apprehend and reprehend sound similar but their meanings are different, so etymology (the study of the origin of words) may not always be a very helpful tool for English learning. I decided to check this out. These words all end in -prehend, from the Latin prehendere to grasp. Let's take each word: 1) comprehend = to understand, or to grasp with the mind! It also has another meaning of to take in, to include. 2) apprehend from the Latin apprehendere, to lay hold of. Confusingly, apprehend has several meanings. One, maybe most common meaning, is to take into custody, as in "the police apprehended the suspect". prehendere is 'to grasp', also 'to seize', so the police seized the suspect. Another meaning of apprehend is also to understand. (comprehend = apprehend?) Another meaning is to fear. This is more commonly seen in adjective form: 'apprehensive' (fearful). 3) reprehend = to find fault with. It comes from the Latin reprehendere = to hold back or rebuke, itself coming from re + prehendere to seize. I'm taking a wild guess that putting re- on 'to seize' could be seize back, hold back??? Can't think of any more -prehend words...Are there any?

gonna/wanna/shoulda,coulda,woulda

Just a short post about the use of gonna and wanna. Gonna and wanna are casual forms. Gonna comes from "going to" and wanna comes from "want to". When Americans speak and say "going to" it sounds like "gonna"! The same is true with "wanna". Many foreigners may become familiar with the forms gonna and wanna from American pop songs. However "gonna" and "wanna" should not be used in written English, unless you're writing a very casual note to a friend. They will stick out from the rest of the sentence because of their slang nature. The same is true with the forms "shoulda" (should have), "coulda" (could have) and "woulda" (would have). Note also that although in speaking "should have" sometimes sounds like "should've" it should not be spelled "should of" (people often make this mistake). There is also a (slang) expression in English: "shoulda, coulda, woulda" which one person will say to another to tell them not to regret things (or try to change what they did in the past), because of course "should have", "could have" and "would have" all refer to possible changes to events in the past.

Countries/Nationalities, Cities, etc

I noticed a student was mixing up countries and nationalities, so I decided to write this post. For instance she said, "She is from Spanish" (incorrect) instead of "She is from Spain" or "She is Spanish" (both are correct). Here are more examples of countries & their nationalities: She is from France. She is French. He is from Germany. He is German. We are from Holland (or the Netherlands). We are Dutch. (-ish endings): They are from Sweden. They are Swedish. He is from Denmark. He is Danish. (Also, he is a Dane). They are from Ireland. They are Irish. He is from Switzerland. He is Swiss. She is from England. She is English. He is from Poland. He is Polish. It looks there might be a pattern with countries ending in 'land', but note: She is from Thailand. She is Thai. (-an, -n endings): He is from America. He is American. She is from Jamaica. She is Jamaican. They are from Mexico. They are Mexican. They are from Russia. They are Russian. He is from Australia. He is Australian. She is from India. She is Indian. (-ian endings): They are from Canada. They are Canadian. She is from Jordan. She is Jordanian. I am from Brazil. I am Brazilian. (-i ending): He is from Iraq. He is Iraqi. She is from Israel. She is Israeli. (-ese endings): She is from Japan. She is Japanese. They are from China. They are Chinese. I am from Portugal. I am Portuguese. We are from Taiwan. We are Taiwanese. Cities/People living in or from certain cities: She is from New York. She is a New Yorker.* He is from San Francisco. He is a San Franciscan. We are from Paris. We are Parisian. *note that this always means New York City and not the state of New York. Then, you would say, "She is from New York state" or "She is from the state of New York". Hope you are able to use this.

Embedded questions

My plan is to tackle one English mistake at a time, and try to explain why the grammar is incorrect. Today I heard someone say: "Do you know where's Robert?" Within the overall sentence (question) we have the question: "Where's Robert?" In this kind of sentence, the embedded question cannot be put into the sentence as it is. Let's recreate the sentence. Do you know X? X= Where's Robert? 1) Make the question X into a statement (by making up an answer): Robert is at the store. 2) Replace the unknown part (in bold) with a WH-word (who, where, when, etc): Robert is where. 3) Move the WH-word to the front of the clause: where Robert is 4) Embed the clause in the sentence: Do you know where Robert is 5) Add the question mark: Do you know where Robert is? (correct sentence) So, in the correct sentence "Do you know where Robert is?" the 's of where's was changed to is. (We can't have: "Do you know where Robert's?" We just don't use that contraction in English). I hope this makes sense.

use of "a lot" as an adverb

I was inspired by talking to foreigners recently to revive my blog about English language and grammar. I hope it will be helpful to English learners. In addition it will help me review English grammar for teaching. I heard a common error in English recently in the use of adverbs. The example was: "I held a lot the baby." The mistake has to do with the placement of "a lot". In this sentence, "I" is the subject, "held" is the verb, "the baby" is the direct object and "a lot" is an adverb. In this case the adverb describes "how much". (How much did I hold the baby? A lot). The correct form of the sentence is "I held the baby a lot." What did we do? We just moved "a lot" from its position between the verb and the direct object to the end of the sentence. There is no other place for it to go. The following are also incorrect: "I a lot held the baby";"A lot I held the baby". Why not? I was told this is just something you have to memorize. The adverb "a lot" always goes 'at the end of the sentence'*. Other correct examples: "I haven't been to the movies a lot". "They had dinner at that restaurant a lot". In these cases "to the movies" and "at that restaurant" are also adverbs (of place) describing where I haven't been or where they went to dinner which precede the adverb "a lot". *At times another adverb could also follow "a lot", such as: "I haven't been to the movies a lot recently." Whew! That's enough for one lesson :)