Minimal pairs: /n/ and /ŋ/

The velar nasal consonant /ŋ/ is often a challenge for Polish speakers despite the fact that it also exists in Polish. Here are some errors typical of Polish speakers of English:
A. pronouncing the "-ing" sequence (as either a suffix or just part of a larger morpheme) as [-ink] or [-ing] (sometimes [-ink]);
B. pronouncing the vowel preceding /ŋ/ as the Polish "ą" or "ę" (nasal vowels/diphthongs; here I prefer to avoid phonetic transcription of Polish sounds);
C. pronouncing /ŋ/ instead of /n/, e.g. 'Poland', 'and' with "ę" and /ŋ/ (see C. above);
D. mispronouncing "g" in words such as 'singer' vs 'finger'.

To create the exercises, I took a few words from Baker (2006).

Ex. 1 Look at the following words containing the consonant /n/ and find their counterparts containing the consonant /ŋ/.

ban, Dan, done, fan, kin, pin, ran, Ron, run, sin, thin, win, ton

Ex. 2 Look at the following words containing the consonant /ŋ/ and find their counterparts containing the consonants /ŋk/.

bang, bring, dung, king, ping, ring/wring, rang, sing, sting, thing, wing


KEY

1. bang, dang, dung, fang, king, ping, rang, wrong, rung/wrung, sing, thing, wing, tongue
2. bank, brink, dunk, kink, pink, rink, rank, sink, stink, think, wink

Baker, Ann. 2006. Ship or Sheep? An intermediate pronunciation course. 3rd ed. Cambridge: CUP.

Syllabic [n̩] and silent "k/g" before "n"

In some sources one can find a number of words in which the sequence [ən] is given another symbol, [n̩]. This stands for syllabic /n/, i.e. a nasal which does not need a vowel sound in order to form a full syllable. When teaching pronunciation, I prefer to spell it as a schwa sound [ə] followed by a [n] to keep things simple.

The letters "g" and "k" are often silent when followed by "n", in which case only /n/ is pronounced. 

To create the first exercise below I used Teflpedia and Reszkiewicz (1984: 74).

Ex. 1 Select the words which contain the syllabic version of /n/.

a. 'Music and passion are always the fashion...'

b. Listen to Mr Parson talking about education. It's an important lesson.

c. The train was safely driven to the Manchester Central Station.

d. The kitten ate a dozen fish.

e. If you want more information, press this button and ask a question; the machine will reply.

f. I saw a documentary about environmental pollution on television.

g. What would happen if you explained the reason why Jane left the party early? Would Jason be angry?

h. The papers wrote about weapons of mass destruction.

Ex. 2 Write the transcribed words which contain "gn" or "kn" using ordinary orthographic transcription.

a. /nɪt/, /nəʊ/, /niː/, /ˈnɒlɪdʒ/, /naɪt/, /niːl/

b. /næt/, /nɔː/, /saɪn/, /əˈlaɪn/, /reɪn/, /əˈsaɪn/, /məˈlaɪn/

KEY

1 a. passion, fashion, b. listen, Parson, education, lesson, c. driven, station, d. kitten, dozen, e. information, button, question, f. pollution, television, g. happen, reason, Jason, h. weapons, destruction

2. a. knit, know, knee, knowledge, knight, kneel b. gnat, gnaw, sign, align, reign, assign, malign

IPA Phonetic symbol [n̩]. Teflpedia. Accessed 25.05.2019.
https://teflpedia.com/IPA_phonetic_symbol_%E3%80%9An%CC%A9%E3%80%9B

Reszkiewicz, Alfred. 1984. Correct Your English Pronunciation. Warszawa: PWN.

Plural, Present Simple and possessive -s

The same principles apply to three functions of the -s suffix: the plural marker, the 3rd person singular Present Simple marker and the possessive (Saxon Genitive) -'s or -s':

1. After a voiceless consonant, the -s is pronounced /-s/, as in tips, likes, Jack's.
2. After a voiced consonant, semi-vowel, vowel or diphthong, the -s is pronounced /-z/, as in bans, shoes, pays, Hugh's.
3. After /s/, /z/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/, /tʃ/ or /dʒ/, the -s or -es is pronounced /-ɪz/ (some sources claim it is /-əz/), as in cases, bushes, passes, buzzes, marches or judge's.

Ex. Put the following words containing -s or -es in three categories, depending on the pronunciation of the suffix.

1. Plural -(e)s:   beets, apples, pears, oranges, peas, sweets, quiches, pizzas, chocolates, grapes
2. Present Simple -(e)s:   cooks, fries, slices, boils, bakes, dices, peels, eats, chops, seasons
3. Possessive -'s or -s':   chef's, France's, restaurant's, customer's, Italy's, gourmet's, waiter's, India's


KEY
1. /-s/ beets, sweets, chocolates, grapes /-z/ apples, pears, peas, pizzas /-ɪz/ oranges, quiches
2. /-s/ cooks, bakes, eats, chops /-z/ fries, boils, peels, seasons /-ɪz/ slices, dices
3. /-s/ chef's, restaurant's  /-z/ customer's, Italy's, gourmet's, waiter's, India's /-ɪz/ France's

Minimal pairs: /f/, /v/ and /w/

Ex. 1 Look at the following words containing the voiceless consonant /f/ and find their counterparts containing the voiced consonant /v/.

a. fail, fan, fast, fat, fault, fee, feign, fender, ferry, file, fine

Are these words minimal pairs?

b. laugh - love, phase - vase, feast - vast, fake - vague, cough - cove, often - oven

Ex. 2 Look at the following words containing the voiced consonant /v/ and find their counterparts containing the semivowel /w/.

vain, vary, veg, veil, vent, verse, vest, vet, via, vie, vile, vine, viva, volley, vow

KEY
Ex. 1 a. veil, van, vast, vat, vault, V (vee), vain/vane/vein, vendor, very, vile, vine
b. None of these is a minimal pair - there is more than difference between the words.

Ex. 2 wane, wary, wedge, wail, went, worse, west, wet, wire, why, while, wine, weaver, Wally, wow

/ʒ/ in words and phrases derived from French

The consonant /ʒ/ appeared in English after the Old English period and it is still impossible to find in words that are originally Germanic. This post focuses not on well-known words containing /ʒ/, such as television, but more foreign-sounding and looking words. Note that the pronunciation is Anglicised according to RP rules: it is not original French pronunciation.
I used Cambridge Dictionary at https://dictionary.cambridge.org to write this exercise.

Ex. Decode the orthographic spelling of the following transcribed words and phrases. Note that some of the words use diacritics which do not usually occur in English.

1. /ˌʒə nə seɪ ˈkwɑː/ 2. /ˌdeɪ.ʒɑː ˈvuː/ 3. /ˌməʊ ˈʒuːst/ 

4. /ˌbon vɔɪˈɑːʒ/ 5. /ˌdeɪ.kuːˈpɑːʒ/ 6. /ˌdeɪ.kɒl.ɪˈtɑːʒ/

KEY
1. je ne sais quoi, 2. déjà vu, 3. mot juste, 4. bon voyage, 5. découpage, 6.
décolletage

Pronunciation of "s" and "ss"

To create this exercise, I used Teflpedia: https://teflpedia.com/Decoding_the_letter_S and Cambridge Dictionary: https://dictionary.cambridge.org .

Ex. Put the following words in categories depending on their pronunciation of the letter "s" or "ss".

Arkansas, cosy, passion, measure, trousers, mission, pleasure, lose, loose, vision, island, pressure, precision, seat, sugar, soup, Aussie, dinosaur, Sean, Siobhán (Celtic names), basic, possess, ensure, class, inclusion, aisle, phrase, invasion, release, isle, desert, dessert

1. /s/   2. /z/   3. /ʃ/ 4. /ʒ/   5. silent

KEY
1. /s/ loose, seat, soup, dinosaur, basic, class, release  2. /z/ cosy, trousers (both /z/), lose, phrase, desert, dessert, Aussie, possess   3. /ʃ/ passion, mission, pressure, sugar, Sean, Siobhán, ensure 4. /ʒ/ measure, pleasure, vision, precision, inclusion, invasion  5. silent: Arkansas, island, aisle, isle