Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Lec32 Better Spoken English by Shreesh Chaudhary
Lec32 Better Spoken English by Shreesh Chaudhary
Lecture 32
Some “Difficult” Sounds in English
Good morning.
OK, this, today, we speak about how human beings produce different speech sounds. Were you
here yesterday? How many of you were here yesterday? Ok. Did you have difficulty
understanding that but, when we speak another language, something other than our mother
tongue, ok? Quite often though not always, you know, not with everyone, quite often we do not
get all sounds all right. OK?
There may be you know traditionally people have blamed your mother tongue, they say mother
tongue influence. That is not the case. It’s not that your mother tongue is preventing you from
learning another language. Do you believe that? Because, you know, Telugu, does it say that you
cannot learn English or cannot learn French or Latin? Do you believe that? Yes or no? No, it’s
not. It’s only that your attention has not been drawn. You have not heard that sound or your
attention has not been drawn to the way that sound is produced. Actually, if you look at it
carefully there are three reasons why non-standard sounds get into our second language or our
foreign language.
I’ll… you can take notes. These are the following; either because we use a different sound.
English uses pa and we say ba. English uses sa or sha and we say something else. English uses sa
and we say za or English uses za, we say sa. Ok? That may be one reason, you know. that we
have some sound in each word. But, may be some times, we use different sounds, different from
what standard English uses. I’ll give you examples in a few minutes or, or we use more sounds
than required, than English does. Say, for example, if somebody asks you what does your mother
do and you say she is a teacheroo. OK, then oo is an extra sound. last month we played that
video - twinkle twinkle little star and the girl makes fun of Telangana accent of English. And she
says, like a diamondooo, ok? that oo is extra or many of us in my part of the country, You know
the place where Aman and I come from, we don’t say station, we say estation. we say eschool we
say esports; we add an extra e.
OK? Lot of people do that in the south in some other positions. say for example, you know many
of my friends say, don’t go to film, go to fillim. they add an i between l and m. Or many of my
friends in Hyderabad are not against Telangana but, they are againast Telangana. you add an
extra sound. Or sometimes, you use fewer sounds. there should be ten sounds in the word; you
use only nine or only eight.
Then, you know, the word sounds different. it is difficult for you to, others to understand you.
That’s why I have said, what is a non standard sound? what is a non standard speech? that which
impedes communication across regions. We have learnt English to speak not to our mothers or
our brothers or our sisters. We have learnt to speak English to, so that we can speak to the rest of
the world. And if you speak English in such a manner that only people from Nellore or
Nalakonda can understand you. Only people from Hubli and Bellary can understand you, only
people from Thrissur or Cochin can understand you, then your purpose is not fulfilled, ok? which
means, you must acquire standard sounds, right? We will look at some examples of nonstandard
sounds. So, in this case you know, when we say we use fewer sounds. lots of people in India, lots
of people do not pronounce this word correctly. how should it be pronounced? government. But,
many people take this away. They say gorment, gorment, Manmohan Singh gorment, Jayalalitha
gorment. It’s not gorment. what is it?
Government
Government, government main stress on gov, government. similarly, you know, take another
word. how should it be pronounced?
Available
Available but, lot of people pronounce it only as avlable. so you are using fewer sounds. so
nonstandard speech, nonstandard sounds appear in your speech, No matter what language, if
there is a nonstandard sound, it is because of these three reasons. what are they? either you are
using a different sound or you are using more sounds then required or fewer, ok? Relax. sit back.
I am going to give you some examples, and I am going to ask you to look at them, have fun,
please don’t laugh at others but, try and see why it is so and then change it. Is that ok? Shall we
do that for the next 35, 40 minutes? are you comfortable? Ok? Right, please, let’s look at this.
Many of us in India, you know, do not distinguish between short and long vowel sounds, such as,
e, you know. English has two sounds in that place. One is short i as in bit or live and the other is
long as e ok as in leave, bee. What is the speaker trying to say there? can you tell me? Aman, you
come from Patna, what is the speaker trying to say there? it should be he lives in Patna. it should
not be he leaves in Patna. Then you are confused. how can he leaves in Patna? you can say he
leaves Patna. that means he doesn’t like Patna. Every time, he goes there, he comes back to
Chennai, ok?
That will describe either me or Aman ok? but, when you say he leaves in, then you get, what you
are trying to? The speaker there…that the problem with this speaker is that he is unable to get it
as short as it can be ok? It says, you know, English has this difference. some vowels are very
short: live and the others are very long: leave. your lips have to spread. we will do some drill it.
Go to the next part of the sentence, can you rewrite the sentence or you do not have to rewrite it.
can you speak it with proper stress, proper pronunciation? he lives in Patna and?
Pills, what is spelling of pills here? p i l l s or p i double l s, pills without breakfast why?
It can fill your stomach with gas. Ok? you know, we’ll look at some more examples later. Similar
thing, you know, English has lots of pairs of long and short vowels. e ee, a ae, o woo. We also
have some but, you know, not as exaggerated as English has. So, look at this case for example
what is, what do you think the reader, the speaker is trying to say there? It’s not let, what is it? It
should be late. what should it be?
Late
We cannot keep our guests waiting. When you give them a date, then you must keep it.
Further. Go on.
Is it correct? the word debt? is it correct? what is the, what is the speaker trying? what what does
this speaker intend to say?
Date
Date ok. what is the spelling of the word, date? d a t e but, if you pronounce it quickly it sounds
like debt, then your listener is confused. So, can somebody please read that entire sentence aloud
with proper pronunciation? ok Kalpesh, can you do that? or Rohan can you do it?
Do not get late any way, we cannot keep our guests waiting. when you give them a date, then you
must keep it.
Yes you must keep it, you must keep your time, ok? Look at the next, you know this is a and aa.
English has huge difference between. can you read that sentence aloud? somebody please?
somebody else please? can you do that? yeah.
Democracy is a form of government for the people. But my driver is always applying for leave.
Yet no one knows how far a good act can go.
Yes you know many of us in India do not distinguish between for and far. in places like UP
eastern, UP between Lucknow and Varanasi, lot of people pronounce f o r as f a r. But, down
south in Tirunelvelli, Salem, central Tamil Nadu, southern Tamil Nadu, parts of Kerala, Andhra,
they pronounce far as for. We are going to, you know, the boy will go very for. It’s not very for.
the boy will go very far. Ok? But, in Varnasi they should die far your country, not die far your
country, die for your country, ok? these length differences are very crucial to English. look at the
next. How should it be?
My friends in the last bench, Kartick, come, read the last sentence.
He
He does not leave home without bed tea, but if he is late, he calls a taxi.
Should it be bad tea? bed tea. he does not leave home without bed tea; go on.
but if he is late,
if he is late
he calls a taxi
But, many people pronounce taxi as take see. you know, particularly in western India, Gujarat,
Rajasthan, Punjab, you know, they don’t say taxi, they say texi, ok? Each region has its
peculiarity. if Englishmen were to do our language, you know, and they have done it, they are
atrocious. in Hindi they would could not say tum, they say tom, ok? They could not say
maangtha hai, they said maangta hai and you know the great Himalayas, they pronounce it as
Him-laya. I feel like killing them when they say Him-laya, you know, or Ganga, they could not
ganga, they made it Ganges.
What kind of name is that? you know, I have a colleague here, my, you know, she is a professor
in my department, Deviki Reddy. And we had a German visitor recently, he kept calling her
Deevaki.
And we have got another colleague now Upasana and there is another European guy, he always
calls her Upsana. We make, the point I am making is, it’s not unusual. you don’t have to feel
ashamed of yourself. there is no value addition to it. there is no attitude problem, ok? It happens.
It’s natural when we learn. English is not my mother tongue, is it your mother tongue? It’s not.
We have not learnt it from my, our mothers or our fathers, or our grand parents. we have learnt it
in school, from books, from television. And it is possible that sometimes we do not get all the
sounds right. In such situation, we should see how I should speak. how should my lips and
tongue move so that I get it right. the attitude should not be let it go, it is not my mother tongue,
how do I care? No. if something is worth doing, it is worth doing, complete the sentence please.
If something is worth doing, it is worth doing well. Right? Otherwise, don’t do it, ok? If if you
do something, if you cook, if you go to fetch water for somebody, if you polish somebody’s
boots, then polish it such that you are the best boot polisher, ok? Something is worth doing, it is
worth doing well. do you agree? Right? Ajay? Sure? you look like wonder struck. Right. so the
same way ok?
So take care of the, I am not telling you that all of us do these things, but all of us, I am not
telling you that all of us have these things but all of has one of these things. am I right? We may
not have all of this but, we may have one of this. do you agree? what is that, we have to find and
then we have make changes accordingly. look at some others, ok? On the other, just as some
people make it short, late is pronounced as let. Some people pronounce let as late. they don’t say,
let him come in, they say, late him come in. I thought he is going to dead. Late, you know, how
can late him come back, ok?
But some people, you know, India is vast country, or English you know, is spoken all over the
world but all over the world, it is spoken differently. On the fourth, if you like, can I show you a
documentary on different accents of English in the world? shall we do that, ok? Nothing. just
come in and have fun. Actually I wanted to show you one or two films but, may be we could that
in HSB, the studio is not free. Kiran, where are you? Can you give me some time outside, may
be during the long weekend or some such thing, you know, let’s have some fun.
But I can show you some documentary on different pronunciations of English world wide. So
just as some people pronounce a long sound short, late becomes let. Similarly, some people
pronounce short sounds long, ok? they pronounce latterly. look at in this case. what is the
speaker trying to say? Please read it to me.
And then, you know, they have this. they first met at a cinema hall. ok Next. complete the
sentence please.
Get away
Get away.
You know the stress is on way. get away. next sentence, but in Chennai?
You know you keep having school get together. IIT always does at least three or four alumni get
togethers, because they, alumni, bring money, of course, ok?
So, you know we always have lots of get togethers but many people pronounce get together as
gate together. you know gate is another matter. Look at the next sentence u and ooo. can
somebody please read it aloud as it ought to be read? first read it. ok Kiran you can do it, first
read it as it is written.
Yeah some people you know make it long. They say, face boook ok.
it as a tool.
You know, as a tull. it should be tool. Correct. go on.
Actually, they even ignore their look. Few colleges in India have a swimming pool, but they all
have computers and a chat room.
Ok, it should be swimming pool, it should be room, etc you know, just a little, when you speak
slow, you make a guarantee, that you will not only get your contents right, You guarantee that
you will get the pronunciation right as well. Imagine, you know, only five years later, not too far
from, not much farther from now, you are in second year, by the time you graduate And within a
year or two, you will be making presentations to a hall full of people like this.
And there everything must go perfectly, the contents, the pronunciation, the dress, the smile on
your face, the confidence, ok? Excellence, as somebody said, is a product of attention to details,
ok? Excellence is nothing else. excellence is not, you know, prayer to God. Of course, if God is
you know, if you believe in that as I do, you know, then if God is happy, anything can happen.
But, God won’t be happy without thapasya. have you heard of the word thapasya? Have you, yes
or no, what is thapasya? Fear, you know, sleep or hunger. Others, may be, you know, fairies may
be dancing or angels may be dancing but you are engaged in your work. that is thapasya. So, if
you pay that kind of attention, you can do anything you like. you are gods, you know, that’s what
all the great people have said.
Look at some more. Let’s have some entertainment, ok? Can, who will read it aloud? First, as it
is written, then with correction, please.
Ok, you know, which part of the country, people speak notebook as not book ok? We are very
fond of making fun of the others, you know. Lots of my south Indian friends make fun of the
Malayalies, ok? why did a Malayali not go to school? Simbly!
Ok, but all of us have it. all of us have some problem, ok? all of, you know, ok, where does he
want to work? he wants to work in the gelf, ok? But, all of, you know, the point I am making is
please laugh at others if that gives you fun but, also laugh at yourself. Correct? Ok? can you,
Irfan, read it the way Malayalis read it? are you good at laughing at yourself? you don’t mind,
right? Ok, read it.
Ok the problem with, you know, many Malayali speakers is the interchange. they pronounce n o t
as n o t e and n o t e as n o t. So, what should be notebook becomes not book and what should be
not becomes note, ok? but once you pay attention, move your tongue accordingly, open your
mouth accordingly and you take care of it. Irfan, go on.
roads
ok
Actually it should be rods. you know, because concrete houses require iron rods, ok?
When it is hote
Go on
Yeah
That should be coastal. you know, Irfan is doing it correctly, actually. you know, ok, go on,
please.
Yeah, many, many people in Kerala pronounce it as coastly. it’s not coastly. it is costly. but,
remember all of us have our own peculiarities? do you agree? Ok, go on, Irfan.
Ok leave it there. Let’s go to the next. another part of the country, ok? confusion between a and
ae. ok please, who will read it? who will? Ok, why not you? please.
Bad habits
They climb up and down by lift, go in and out by car or take see
Taxi
Taxi
Carry
Yeah, it should be bag but they say beg, ok. And then?
Canedi
Candy
Candy
Snacks
Snacks
Next, you know, for many of us, we, so far we looked at only vowels but now I am asking you to
look at consonants, ok? sounds that are produced with obstruction. You know, in our alphabet,
we first have a, aa, e, ee and then we have ka khaa right? So, ka khaa is consonant, a aa is
vowels. we also have peculiarities of consonant sounds, say, my part of the country for instance.
You know I think I have been telling you that, until I became about 25 or 26, I went to study in
Hyderabad, I spoke, Actually, I aspoke good Englis, I didn’t speak English and my friends in
Hyderabad started making fun of me. I said, don’t make fun of me! Because I can also then tell
you about your Hyderabadu and teacheru and you know all of us have that kind of kind of thing.
in Bihar in Eastern U P, in Orissa, in Assam, in Nepal in, we don’t speak English, sorry, we don’t
speak English, we speak Englis, ok?
We take a sip of tea and we go by sip. we don’t go by ship, ok? we stand in the queue for rasion
cards not for ration cards ok. Actually, if you do too much Sa, sha in Patna, they will tell you
what are you hissing like a snake ok? speak like normal human beings. But, on the other hand if
you go to Bengal everything there is… in the morning they take a ship of tea, you know, yeah,
right, you know, it is a rashagulla is not rasagulla. And there is shtill, every, you know, just all of
us do not have all the sounds like the British do not have our th tha they cannot, th they cannot
say thum, they say TU, ok.
Because, they have do not have a th. it is not that they cannot learn. Many, actually, you know,
pay compliment to the British. all the grammar of all the modern Indian languages, are you with
me? everybody please?
Yes sir.
You know, you must acknowledge, the British were not one nation, you know, they keep all
kinds, the absolutely terrible British, You know killed, murdered, raped, helpless women and
there were also angels, who gave everything away to the poor, the helpless, the destitute.
They did some wonderful work in this country, otherwise oppressed by systems of caste, class,
taboos, they brought hospitals, colleges, education, opened the gates to everyone, they said even
Harijan could come, women could come, ok? They wrote the first grammars of all Indian modern
Indian languages - Telugu, Tamil, Hindi, Mythili, Gujrathi, Kashmiri, Bengali, no matter what.
they wrote it first. So next time you hear somebody say, ah! the British were this, that, take it
with not just a pinch of salt, take it with a spoon full of salt, ok?
Because they were all kinds. it is only as good as saying that all all, you know, malayalis are bad
speakers of English. not the case. they are fantastic, you know. some of the, at least I have
studied with five of them. five of my teachers were from Kerala And I will say two of them, were
better than any teacher I have studied under elsewhere in the world. you know, I have also had
the good luck to study in some other universities. So no such generalizations. keep it in mind but,
yes, there are peculiarities. So let’s overcome those peculiarities. can somebody please read this
sentence aloud, some body not from Bihar or Bengal? anybody from Bengal here? No. anybody
who knows Bengali? ok. Don’t worry. It’s a great language, you know, great literature, great
music, ok? can somebody please read it? ok Ashwini, can you try this sentence?
In Patna, one can take a sip of tea, and can take tea on a sip.
Ship
But in Kolkata it is the other way round. You can begin the day with a ship of tea,
That is correct.
It should be see, not shee. See their godowns, godowns here. Ok?
Let’s look at another instance. pan Indian problem including you and me.
(Refer Slide Time: 31:24)
We don’t get these, you know, these sounds right. this w and this, particularly this. many people,
you see, we in Bihar, Bengal, Orissa, Assam, Nepal, much of, you know, Punjab etc. We
pronounce it as bh. We say bherry good, sebhen, bhowel, bhast. India is a bhast country.
Ok, right, but here in the south, India is a wast country. sometimes I think, are they saying, waste
country, ok? it is it is neither wast nor bhast. what is it? it is vvvv. let your lower lip. In the final,
the fourth presentation, I am going to listen to each number. if you say fie, you lose marks. if you
say fibhe, you lose marks. It should be five. V, ok. I am going to listen for that. And in all cases
of doubt, my friends are recording you. I will go back to the recording. Do you see the point? So,
get into it and remember you are not doing it for one presentation here. you are acquiring a skill,
which will be useful to you not only for your life, your generations to come.
When you speak good language, your children, your grand children, you know, your relatives’
children also speak good language. you become a model to the others. Amn’t I right? When one
person comes from your family to IIT, in that street in Hyderabad, I have seen, they put up a sign
board saying in this street lives some student from i i t j e e or something. is that correct? Yes or
no? nobody from Hyderabad here? ok.
may be I am exaggerating it slightly, but you see, you know, good, good, you know, achievement
has impact. Correct? Don’t people come and ask you, how to prepare for IIT? they do. Similarly,
they will ask you how to speak English correctly, right? Won’t they? So, you know acquire that.
can somebody please read it aloud? somebody from the central row, you know, you have been
sitting comfortably enjoying like a comedy on the t v. please. Ok, come on.
Vice president
Vice president ok go on
Latter of course
Latter, of course, is wise; he goes to a talking club during day time, and watches werbal dual
verbal
OK, I want to make a point here. you know, please take your note book.
What.
This is not pronounced. in India, all of us pronounce it as, as this, as hwat, hwen, which. It’s not
so. It’s without this. So, what is this? What. this is? What. what is this? what is this? When. what
is this? Which. what is this?
Why
Who
This is who. So this is an exception. But here, what is this? What. round your lips and say what.
what is this?
What, when, which, why, where
Where
Where
It’s not very long. It’s not where. It is where. Where. Once again, what is this?
Who
This is long
Why
Where
Ok, please, continue reading this sentence. Latter, of course, is wise. come again, please.
Latter, of course, is wise; he goes to a talking club during day time, and watches verbal duel
through the day, even when very bored.
Let’s look at some other confusions, ok. Some, who will do it? why don’t you? you know, you
are having fun, please.
Aparna, would you like to do it? Ok, please, can you stand up so that camera can catch you?
please.
Yeah, vvv.
visiting
yeah
Views, vvv.
Views parades of armed forces, and, only once a year, he visits talking shop and gives other
members there
Vision. It is zhh.. Pronounce this word right. Aparna, just wait there. Keep standing. Vision, zhh.
vision
Yes, like you say, shhh similarly it is zhh, vision, yes. Ok, go on, vision for?
Year. It should be year, get y as in yes and then say year. spread your lips. Year. Don’t you see the
British have their lips going from here to here? like this. ok, now say year but many of us in
India pronounce it as ear. This is my first ear. is it your first ear? are you in the second ear? what
is the correct word? So, I am in the second year. Ok, Aparna, continue.
He is thanked
He is thanked
Vigorous, vi.
And thus
Ok, right, you see. this is this is a consonant. you know, this is a pan Indian problem. this sound.
Vv. We, no Indian language has that. We either have w or bh and we, without paying attention,
we keep talking about wery great responsibilities or in my part of the country, bhery great
responsibilities. pay attention, you know. excellence is nothing, as I told you earlier, but attention
to details. please sit down, Aparna. thank you very much. Ok, who will do it next? OK, why
don’t you do it from Həidrabadu, yeah?
Diamond, you know, di is very long. It’s not diamond, you know, it is diamond. what is it?
Diamond
Yeah go on please
diamond and biriyani, but now it has become the səiberu city.
Cyber city
People have come here from far and wəidu
It should be night.
Look at this. what we do is some times we put extra sounds, more than really necessary, you
know, more than really necessary, and the wonderful thing is we do not notice it in ourselves. we
are not aware of our own peculiarity. we are always, you know, this is, this is human nature. we
are always good at finding fault in the others. Isn’t that right? You know, you are so acutely
aware of problems in the other hostel, how other people misbehave, how other people dirty the
road, how other people do not do their work. You know, we are seldom aware of our own
inaccuracies, our own inadequacy.
You know, so some years ago, I was working in Simla for about, can I tell you this story, ok? for
about 2 years, I was in Punjab. Simla, you know, Simla was part of Punjab. When India was
together - India, Pakistan, Bangladesh were together, then Lahore was the capital of Punjab and
Simla was the summer capital of Punjab. Largely Punjabi speaking people who surround that
area and, you know, their culture is Punjabi culture.
So, recently when I was there, there were some cockroaches and other things in the quarters I
was allotted. you know, there is a Rastrapathi nivas there. The Viceroy used to live there, it was
called Vice Regal lodge. But when Radhakrishnan became the president of India he, you know,
after independence the vice Regal lodge became Rastrapathi nivas and when Radhakrishnan
became the president of India, he gave it to the professors of this country.
Now, there is an institute there. It’s called Indian Institute of Advanced study, senior professors
are invited to live there for a year or two and have fun. You don’t have to teach classes, you can
bring your wife or you know other friends, if you like. you are given quarters, your full salary,
TA and no work. If you, before you leave, if you feel like, give them a book or a lecture or you
don’t. this is an American concept. in America, all the big universities have institutes of
advanced study, ok? they do a good job there.
Radhakrishnan had thought that Indian professors would also, like Americans, do some good job.
Here, of course, we enjoy ourselves like Americans but work like Indians. You know, we live
there, come back, at the end of the day, we tell them, when I go back to Madras, I will write and
send it to you. And we never send it from Madras but you know, regardless of that, it’s a great
place, at least a great library, lots of journals, lots of books in humanities and social sciences.
And in the height of 7000 feet, where Viceroy lived, you know, you have all the comfort, all the
creature comfort and wonderful view of the Himalayas, so you live there.
So in the quarters, they gave me, there were cockroaches. so I asked the state officer, what can I
do? he told me, why don’t you go to the market and buy a saprey machine? what is a saprey
machine? what is a saprey machine? I didn’t know. I said, come on, what? What? he said saprey
machine sir. Ok? saprey machine will, you just saprey it. then I said, oh god, you mean spray,
because, you know, I myself say aspray when I go home, you know, add an e before s p. But, in
the north west, they add an e between s and p, not before. now look at this here. in Punjab, who
will like it read it aloud? Ok.
Yeah, they don’t pronounce s p o r t as sport. They pronounce it as support. Ok? so there you
know you have, it’s not Shakespeare, it is shake-us-peare. Ok, go on.
but hardly any in college. In the past, it has seen wide-espread violence.
You know there is no south Indian film which does not show you at least two hundred murders,
ok, the village is wiped out. in Bihar we do not see it in film, we actually do it. we kill one
another, ok? You know, once again, you see, what we are doing is, we are adding more sounds:
film becomes pilim, against becomes against, sports become either support or esport. you have to
ask yourself.
Where is it I have nonstandard pronunciation? Ok, last. who will like to read it? somebody who
hasn’t and wants to do it? Ok, right, please.
Office
Office, yes
"Simbly",
simbly
he says. His unglə came from
Yeah, don’t say Uncal. Don’t bring ah there. C and l are together. what is it? Uncle. Yeah, ok go
on please.
Yeah, there is a district called Chenganacherri, isn’t it? how far is it from your village, Irfan, you
don’t know, do you? ok your geography is bad. Ok, please go on.
Mr. Pillay will take him Mr. Pillay may take him
What is intended?
Temples
What is intended?
Temples
ok
Dubai
Dubai
He generally goes by bes, but today he is pissi and iss taking a taxi. Before starting, he makes
sure that meder comes to sero.
Ok sorry, you know, I am making fun of anyone. I am actually not make, you know, what I want
you to do is? look at, you know, can we be serious for a few seconds? Look at your own
pronunciation of English and see, do you have nonstandard sounds? If you have then, it’s very
simple. ask yourself how I pronounce it and change the pronunciation by manipulating organs of
articulation. It’s extremely simple. learning another language is the easiest thing you can do
provided two things: number 1, you are determined and you pay attention, do you have any
questions? thank you. have a good day!