When you think of the words public speaking, you may think of giving speeches in a formal setting, such as at conferences or formal events. Yes, that is public speaking. But other jobs also require you to speak in front of 'people'. Flight attendants give announcements about safety on a plane; professors and teaching assistants give lectures. But also on a smaller group level, telling a story to your coworkers while you are eating lunch. Do you want these people to understand your story, your announcement, your point?
Maybe you think your pronunciation is 'good enough'. You are just getting by. When you come across new words that you've never seen before in English, you just take a guess as to the correct pronunciation. Sometimes you may speak rapidly, thinking that people will understand you more or will not notice any mistakes. The end result, however, is that you do not get your message successfully delivered. What you get is a lot of blank stares.
Because it's so common for people to 'not understand' the announcements or messages from people who's first language is not English, people usually shrug and say, "I didn't understand a thing that person is saying." It's common because most people are just surviving in the world. You are just doing your job. But are you satisfied? What if some tips for guessing correct pronunciation can help you?
Here are some pronunciation tips:
1) When you see a preposition as a prefix to a verb, stress the verb. (A prefix is in front of the word.)
Ex: outdo (stress do); overlook (stress look); foretell (stress tell); understand (stress stand)
2) When you see a preposition as a prefix to a noun, stress the prefix.
Ex: outlook (stress out); upbringing (stress up); overage (stress over); forehead (stress fore)
3) If a noun has two syllables, stress the first syllable.
Ex; ending (stress end); reason (stress rea); section (stress sec); dental (stress dent)
4) Study a list of prefixes and suffixes because most of the time, the prefix/suffix is not stressed.
Common short prefixes that are not stressed: de, dis in, im, pre, re, un, sub, en, em, il, ir
Ex: depict (stress pict); disrespect (stress pect); indeed (stress deed); imprison (stress pri)
predict (stress dict); reduce (stress duce); undo (stress do); submit (stress mit); enjoy (stress
(joy); embody (stress bo); illegal (stress legal); irrelevant (stress rel)
Sometimes it looks like a prefix, but it isn't. That's because many words have been added to
English from other languages. So, it's best to look them up in an online dictionary and click on the pronunciation. Or you can go to FORVO, a web site where native speakers list words and their
pronunciations: http://forvo.com/languages/en/
Common short suffixes that are not stressed: en, er, est, ful, ic, ity, ive, ly, ion, ible
Ex: lighten (stress light); writer (stress writ); finest (stress fin); joyful (stress joy); tonic (stress ton)
infinity (stress fin); creative (stress creat); unruly( stress ru); fusion (stress fus); crucible
(stress cruc)
I hope these tips helps. I strongly suggest picking a good online dictionary such as dictionary.com and looking up all questionable word pronunciations! Please visit my site for further instruction:
http://english4professionals.webs.com/
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