E P Tips

English Pronunciation Tips

  • About
  • Acknowledgments
  • Ear-training
    • Ear-training 1
    • Ear-training 2
    • Ear-training 3
    • Ear-training 4
    • Ear-training 5
    • Ear-training 6
    • Ear-training 7
  • Intonation
    • How to sound re-assuring
    • Reflexives and the tonic
    • Tonic
    • Wh-questions
  • Mini dictionaries
    • Animals
    • Archaeology
    • Architecture
    • Astronomy
    • Birds
    • Chemical elements A – E
    • Chemical elements F – N
    • Chemical elements O – S
    • Chemical elements T – Z
    • Finance
    • Geography
    • Geological periods
    • Grammatical terms
    • Greek letters
    • Herbs and spices
    • Literary terms
    • Meteorology
    • Music
  • Miscellaneous
    • Affricate sequences
    • Because
    • Berry
    • Change of voicing
    • Close
    • Garage
    • Graph
    • Hello, sailor!
    • Hello, soldier!
    • house
    • Kilometre
    • Months
    • No syllabic n, thank you!
    • Perhaps
    • Regular noun plurals
    • Shrinking words
    • Some flowers
    • Some irregular plurals
    • Stranding
    • Stranding 2
    • That
    • Tricky pairs
    • Use
    • Usual
    • ðz and zð (how to cheat)
  • Names
    • -bo(u)rne
    • -borough -burgh
    • -bury
    • -cester
    • -chester
    • -ese
    • -folk
    • -ford
    • -ham
    • -mouth
    • -ness
    • -port
    • -sex
    • -son
    • -stone & -ston
    • -wich
    • Beautiful places
    • Canada
    • Caribbean
    • Dorset, Somerset
    • Glamis and Wemyss
    • holm, hulme
    • Ireland
    • Keighley
    • Mainwaring
    • More troublesome place-names
    • New places
    • New Zealand
    • Scotland
    • Some given names
    • Some troublesome place-names
    • Two-part place-names
    • USA
    • Wales
  • Oddities
    • Bass
    • Blancmange
    • Broad
    • Brooch
    • Chamber
    • cheese and geese
    • Choir
    • Christ
    • Courtesy
    • Cushion
    • Equation
    • Fever and lever
    • Funny business
    • Gaol and margarine
    • Gross
    • Iron
    • Leisure, seizure
    • Mauve
    • Mayor
    • Meringue
    • Mortgage
    • Quay
    • Scone
    • Shoe
    • Sponge
    • Subpoena
    • Vineyard
    • Wrath
    • Yacht
  • Prefixes
    • Aero
    • bio-
    • By(e)-
    • Cata-
    • Circum-
    • Com-, con-
    • Hyper-
    • Hypo-
    • Mis-
    • Para-
    • Peri-
    • Poly-
    • Tele-
    • Un-
  • Sitemap
  • Sounds
  • Spelling to sound
    • <-se> Episode 1
    • <-se> Episode 2
    • <-se> Episode 3
    • <a> is not ʌ
    • <ai>
    • <al>
    • <au>
    • <bt>
    • <cc>
    • <ch> = k
    • <ch> = ʃ
    • <ea> = e
    • <eak>
    • <ear> = ɜː
    • <ease>
    • <ei> = eɪ
    • <eigh>
    • <eo>
    • <g> = ʒ
    • <gain>
    • <ge> and <gi>
    • <gn>
    • <i> = iː
    • <mb>
    • <ng>
    • <ng> again
    • <o> = uː
    • <on> = ʌn
    • <ood>
    • <ose>
    • <ost>
    • <ou> = uː
    • <ou> = ʌ
    • <ough>
    • <ound>
    • <oup>
    • <our> = ɜː
    • <ove> = ʌv
    • <ove> does not = ʌv
    • <qu> = k
    • <s> = ʒ
    • <ss>
    • <th> = t
    • <ui>
    • <w(h)a> and <qua(w)>
    • <wor> = wɜː
    • Initial <th> = ð
    • Silent <h>
    • Silent <s>
    • Silent <w>
  • Stress
    • -aire
    • -eer
    • -esque
    • -ette
    • -ic and -ical
    • -ity
    • -ocracy
    • -oo
    • -oon
    • -proof
    • -worthy
    • Abbreviations
    • Blue, green, red
    • Roads and Streets
    • Stress variation
    • Stressful Christmas?
  • Symbols
  • Transcriptions
    • Transcription 1
  • Vowels
    • No schwa!
    • Vowel alternation: aɪ ~ ɪ
    • Vowel alternation: eɪ ~ æ
    • Vowel alternation: iː ~ e
    • Vowel alternation: əʊ ~ ɒ
    • ə elision in the first syllable
  • Word endings
    • -(m)ony = (m)əni
    • -(n)gue
    • -ac
    • -ade
    • -age = ɑːʒ
    • -ance
    • -ane
    • -ary and -ory
    • -ate
    • -chief
    • -cious
    • -eous
    • -et
    • -ex(e)
    • -ful(ly)
    • -gm
    • -i = aɪ
    • -ice
    • -ine
    • -ious
    • -ique
    • -ite = ɪt
    • -less
    • -ment
    • -mn
    • -ngle
    • -nomy & -tomy
    • -olic
    • -on
    • -oose
    • -oric(al)
    • -our
    • -our = aʊə
    • -path
    • -pathy
    • -re
    • -sis
    • -sten & -stle
    • -ture
    • -ward(s)
    • Non-silent <e>

Wh-questions

Questions beginning with what, when, where, which, who, whom, whose, why and how often have a falling tone on an important word (often near the end of the question). Imagine that you have just told me that you are going on holiday next week. I might ask:

HWhere are you HgoingL?

http://blogjam.name/EPTips/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/going.mp3
Alternative sound

This sounds like a simple request for information.

However, if the speaker is checking that he or she has heard something correctly or is very surprised at some information that they have just heard, the question may start rising on the wh word and continue to rise throughout. Imagine that you have just told me that you are going to the North Pole next week. I might say:

LWhere are you ˈgoingH?

http://blogjam.name/EPTips/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/going_r.mp3
Alternative sound

See the Symbols page for an explanation of the superscript H and L symbols in the above utterances.


2013_09_08

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    Latest update: 2015_04_18
    Number of tips: 246
    Number of tips with sound: 42

    Latest changes:

    Updated and added sound to -ese

    Added sound to Funny business

    Added sound to Graph

    Added sound to That

    Added sound to Tricky pairs

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