Thread: Check my pronunciation, please

OOOkay thanks:
Here's my another challenge:


And yeah, to my deepest regret I have to show you the text.

During the first thirty-five years of the twentieth century, the
publishing houses of America printed more than a fifth of a million
different books. Most of them were deadly dull, and many were
financial failures. "Many," did I say? The president of one of the
largest publishing houses in the world confessed to me that his
company, after seventy-five years of publishing experience, still lost
money on seven out of every eight books it published.
Why, then, did I have the temerity to write another book? And, after
I had written it, why should you bother to read it?
Fair questions, both; and I'll try to answer them.

Yep, Rokzmom. I failed with those words, hope this time I'm correct (at least with "both").

Originally Posted by Eugene-p

OOOkay thanks:
Here's my another challenge:
And yeah, to my deepest regret I have to show you the text.

No, don't feel that way at all! It helps me a great deal to actually see what you are reading. Like the word that I did not understand... "temerity" I have never heard of that word before (once again a new word for me!) so no matter how slow or clear you were, I would never have gotten that one!

Okay, I think I now know what it is that is troubling my ears. You are sing-songing your actual words when they should not be. Or I guess putting stress on the wrong part of the word? Like Century, Company, Money. I'm not certain if I am explaining that clearly.

I made a recording for you to hear how I "might" read this. I did notice that I clipped the word "printed" though and I didn't feel like going back and redoing it just to fix that one word. for eugene.mp3

Originally Posted by rockzmom

I made a recording for you to hear how I "might" read this. I did notice that I clipped the word "printed" though and I didn't feel like going back and redoing it just to fix that one word. for eugene.mp3

Rockzmom, I've listened to your recording out of curiosity. Pronunciation of individual sounds or words aside, your speech has struck me as an excellent illustration of the stress-timed nature of English. If there are two stressed syllables side by side, many English-speakers tend to pronounce them slower. If there are several unstressed syllables between two stressed ones, most native English-speakers tend to pronounce them considerably faster. This makes the cadence of spoken English so different from many other languages. Some of us Russian speakers tend to do a similar thing in our own language too, but it is not nearly as pronounced as in English.

Eugene, this is great. I think you're doing very well. The 'money' pronunciation is shifted to more of a 'u' sound like in 'under', for typical native English speakers. 'Monday' has the same initial 'mun' sound as the initial part of 'money'.

Thank all of you, this is exactly the kind of help that works for me best!

I'm not certain if I am explaining that clearly.

Be sure! Your recording speaks for you. Thanks for the rec. It works for me perfect.
The problem was in wrong stressing, I guess. Ways of stressing words are different among our languages. I've never paid attention to this feature before, because I got used to Russian pronunciation and stressing and my ears are not "tuned" for another way of pronunciation. Hope the performance will improve next time, but think I need some more time to get them for sure.

The 'money' pronunciation is shifted to more of a 'u' sound like in 'under', for typical native English speakers. 'Monday' has the same initial 'mun' sound as the initial part of 'money'.

Yep, Seraph, gotcha! Glad you've noticed that. Just have to keep on practising.