The previous lesson dealt with where to pause. This one deals with how the words themselves sound: stress and rhythm, linking, unreleased stops, unfamiliar words, and the specific consonants and vowels that keep Pronunciation from reaching the higher bands.
Stress content words, reduce function words
English is stress-timed: the stressed syllables carry the beat and the rest fit in between. The rule is simple. If your phrasing and pace are not steady yet, start with Read Aloud basics.
| Word type | How to say it | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Nouns, main verbs, adjectives, adverbs, numbers | Stressed: longer, slightly higher | mammal, altered, greatly, huge |
| Prepositions | Light; vowel often becomes /ə/ | of → /əv/, to → /tə/ |
| Conjunctions | Light, no pause, no stretching | and → /ən(d)/ |
| Pronouns | Light unless contrasted | them → /ðəm/ |
| be and auxiliaries | Light | is → /ɪz/, has → /həz/ |
Practice sentences (capitals = stressed):
The ELEPHANT is the LARGEST LIVING LAND MAMMAL.
MARKET reSEARCH is a VITAL PART of the PLANNING of any BUSINESS. However EXPERienced you or your STAFF may be in a particular FIELD, if you are THINKING of introDUCING a SERVICE to a new AREA, it is IMPORTANT to find out what the LOCAL popuLATION THINKS about it FIRST.
Stress isn't volume; it's a slightly higher pitch and a longer syllable. Reduction isn't mumbling; it's a faster, weaker vowel.
One boundary: reduce the vowel, never change the word. Reading "it is" as "it's" or "has" as "'s" replaces a word from the text, and per the Score Guide each replacement is a Content error on Read Aloud.
Linking words together
Linking keeps words connected so your reading doesn't sound chopped. The aim is continuity, not speed. Judge by sounds, not spelling.
Consonant sound + vowel sound. Slide the consonant onto the next word: find out → "fin-dout"; part of → "par-tof"; elephant is → "elephan-tis"; about it → "abou-tit". "Market research" doesn't belong here, because research starts with the consonant /r/.
Same consonant twice. Say it once: big game, with them, last time.
Linking r (mainly British accents). A final r that's normally silent comes back before a vowel: far away, after all. It doesn't happen in "other reasons", because reasons starts with a consonant.
Market research is a vital part‿of the planning of‿any business.
You don't need to link every possible point. The clear, frequent ones make the biggest difference.
Unreleased stops: check first whether you need this
Do this test first. Record 30 seconds of reading and count how many of 20 consonant-final words lost their final sound.
| Dropped out of 20 | What to do |
|---|---|
| 3 or more | Skip this section. Your issue is dropping endings, and practising unreleased stops will make it worse. Work on sound group 1 below until you're at one or fewer. |
| 2 | Do both, but sound group 1 first. |
| 1 or fewer | Go ahead; this is polish for speakers whose endings are already clear. |
Per the Score Guide, Pronunciation band 5 mentions "assimilation and deletions appropriate to continuous speech". Appropriate is the key word. In the right place, an unreleased stop is natural. Anywhere else it's the band 2 description: "some consonants are regularly omitted".
What it is: your tongue or lips still close for the stop (/p b t d k ɡ/), but you don't release the burst of air; you move straight into the next sound. Skipping the closure entirely isn't an unreleased stop. It's a dropped sound.
The rule, both conditions required:
- The first word ends in a stop: /p b t d k ɡ/.
- The next word starts with a stop or a nasal (/m n ŋ/).
Before fricatives (f, s), approximants (r, w, y) or l, the stop is normally released.
| Works | Why |
|---|---|
| chee(k) teeth, elongate(d) tusk, tha(t) time, bi(g) cat | stop + stop |
| lan(d) mammal, goo(d) news, no(t) many | stop + nasal: air goes out through the nose |
| Does not apply | Why |
|---|---|
| market research | /t/ + /r/, an approximant; release the /t/ |
| designed for, great weight | before a fricative or /w/; release it |
| part of | followed by a vowel, so it's linking; slide the /t/ across |
| vital, little | a /t/ inside the word before /l/; not an unreleased stop |
The market research sentence above has no unreleased stops at all. Spotting that is as useful as spotting the real ones. A 60-word passage rarely has more than two or three.
Quick decision: does the first word end in /p b t d k ɡ/? If not, stop. Does the next word start with a stop or nasal? If it starts with a vowel, link; if with anything else, just say both words normally. If both answers are yes, close the stop without releasing it.
Unfamiliar words
Every so often a word will be new to you. The goal isn't a perfect pronunciation; it's not stopping and not going back.
- Circle it during preparation and sound it out once in your head.
- Use spelling patterns and commit. -tion is /ʃən/ (nation). -sion is /ʒən/ after a vowel (decision) and /ʃən/ after a consonant (tension). tu becomes /tʃ/ only in unstressed -ture, -tual, -tuous (nature, actual); at the start of a word or in a stressed syllable it stays /t/ (turn, tunnel).
- Give yourself permission to get one word slightly wrong. A two- or three-second stall or a restart hurts Fluency far more than one imperfect word hurts Pronunciation.
Worked example: a full passage
Teenage girls are continuing to outperform boys in English while the gender gap in achievements in math and science has almost disappeared. The figures show that last year 80% of 14-year-old girls reached at least the expected level 5 in English, compared with 65% of boys. But in math, the girls are just 1% ahead of boys, while in science the difference is 2%.
Sense groups: Teenage girls / are continuing to outperform boys in English / while the gender gap in achievements in math and science / has almost disappeared. / The figures show / that last year / 80% of 14-year-old girls / reached at least the expected level 5 in English, / compared with 65% of boys. / But in math, / the girls are just 1% ahead of boys, / while in science the difference is 2%.
Linking: percent‿of, reached‿at, gap‿in.
Unreleased stops (only these): ou(t)perform, almos(t) disappeared, 14-year-ol(d) girls, expe(c)ted. "At least" (/t/ + /l/) and "compared with" (/d/ + /w/) are released normally.
The real challenge: word endings. girls, boys, achievements, figures (/z/ and /s/), and reached, expected, compared, which use all three -ed sounds. Numbers like 80%, 14-year-old and 65% are where readers stall, so rehearse them during preparation. The passage is 64 words, roughly 24–30 seconds in the reference range from the previous lesson.
Finding and fixing your own problem sounds
Rhythm improves Fluency. But Pronunciation band 3 to band 4 is about individual sounds: band 3 says "a few words unclear", band 4 says "all words are easily understandable". Most learners struggle with two or three of the groups below, not all six, so diagnose first. Quick reference: the Read Aloud rules for stress, linking and unreleased stops; test them on Read Aloud practice questions.
Diagnosis (about 20 minutes). Pick three pairs from each group, shuffle them, record each word once, and listen a day later without the list, writing down what you hear. Two or more wrong in a group means that group is yours. The day's gap matters: straight after recording, you "hear" what you meant to say.
Priority order if several groups apply:
- Final consonant clusters and -ed / -s endings. Many languages don't allow clusters at the end of a syllable, so speakers either drop sounds ("asked" as "ass") or add a vowel ("ask-id"). These endings appear in almost every sentence.
- car / card / cards, fine / find / finds, ask / asked / asks, text / texts
- -ed is /t/ after voiceless sounds (stopped, reached), /d/ after voiced sounds and vowels (played, compared), /ɪd/ after t or d (wanted, expected).
- -s is /s/ after voiceless sounds (books), /z/ after voiced sounds (girls, boys), /ɪz/ after hissing sounds (buses, watches, changes).
- Check by counting syllables: asked is one, wanted is two, watches is two. Tap the table once per syllable.
- v / w (vest / west, vine / wine, vent / went), plus v / f (very / ferry, leave / leaf). For /v/, your top teeth must visibly touch your lower lip; for /w/, lips round without touching the teeth.
- n / ng (sin / sing, thin / thing, win / wing, kin / king). For /ŋ/ the back of the tongue does the work, so you can still hum it with your tongue tip between your teeth. "Singer" has no /ɡ/; "finger" does.
- th (think / sink, three / free, they / day, then / den, mouth / mouse). Your tongue tip should be visible in a mirror. /ð/ turns up in the, this, that and they in nearly every sentence.
- r / l (right / light, road / load, correct / collect, arrive / alive). For /r/ the tongue tip touches nothing; for /l/ it touches the ridge behind your top teeth. British or American r are both fine (Pearson's tips say not to copy an accent), but be consistent.
- Vowel pairs: sheep / ship, seat / sit, bad / bed, man / men, fool / full, pool / pull. The difference is tongue position and muscle tension, not just length. Band 4 still tolerates a few minor vowel distortions, which is why these come last.
How to train one group:
- Hear it first. Have someone (or a dictionary's audio) say one word from a pair at random. Aim for 18 out of 20 correct.
- Say it, then check blind. Record each word of a pair five times, shuffle, and identify them a day later. Aim for 9 out of 10.
- Use it at full speed. Read a passage and check every word containing that sound.
Work on one group at a time, 10–15 minutes a day, for about two weeks, then re-run the diagnosis. Practising all six at once is the most common way to make no progress on any.
Practice checks: on an unfamiliar passage, no more than one of 20 consonant-final words dropped; every -ed and -s ending has the right number of syllables; the words from your target group pass a blind check; and you mark linking points correctly without over-marking unreleased stops. If your wpm rises but so do your dropped endings, ease off. Linking is meant to connect words, not to speed you up.