Pron-Puzzles

These are quick, fun pronunciation ideas. For fully worked up pronunciation lessons and downloads, try the materials section...

A grey-tie deer

Tuesday - May 27th, 2014
Posted by: 
Mark Hancock
A grey-tie deer

Here's another phrasal homophone image to add to the collection. It's the homophone of 'A great idea!'.

  • Pronunciation

Dangerous dictation no.5

Tuesday - August 21st, 2012
Posted by: 
Mark Hancock
Pron-Puzzles - hancockmcdonald.com/blog/topic/pron-puzzles

What basic information question has been misunderstood in this picture? Answer = "What's your address?". Surprisingly, for many speakers, these two sentences are perfectly identical in sound. The S in "what's" and the Y in "your" combine to make an SH sound. This in turn joins the T in "What" to create the CH sound. That makes "Watch". The "Your" minus that first Y sound becomes "or".

  • Pronunciation

Dangerous Dictation no.3

Friday - August 10th, 2012
Posted by: 
Mark Hancock
Pron-Puzzles - hancockmcdonald.com/blog/topic/pron-puzzles
The sign should of course read "No dogs allowed". But since what's actually on the sign is a perfect phrasal homophone, a transcriber is perfectly entitled to write it either way. Notice what this shows us about the pronunciation of "are" as nothing more than a schwa.
  • Pronunciation

Dangerous Dictation n.2

Friday - June 22nd, 2012
Posted by: 
Mark Hancock
Pron-Puzzles - hancockmcdonald.com/blog/topic/pron-puzzles
Dangerous Dictations are puzzles which depend on word-boundary confusions. For example, 'Bow Tie' sounds exactly like 'Boat Eye', because you can't be sure whether the /t/ sound is the end of 'Boat' or the start of 'Tie'. This could lead to dictation errors. The puzzle for your students is to identify and explain the error.
  • Pronunciation

Dangerous Dictation n.1

Friday - June 22nd, 2012
Posted by: 
Mark Hancock
Pron-Puzzles - hancockmcdonald.com/blog/topic/pron-puzzles
Dangerous Dictations are puzzles which depend on word-boundary confusions. For example, 'The Great Ape' sounds exactly like 'The Grey Tape', because you can't be sure whether the /t/ sound is the end of 'Great' or the start of 'Tape'. This could lead to dictation errors. The puzzle for your students is to identify and explain the error.
  • Pronunciation
Subscribe to RSS - Pron-Puzzles