Her mother opened the letter that was addressed to her father.
/hə ˈmʌðər ˈəʊpənd ðə ˈletə ðət wəz əˈdrest tə hə ˈfɑːðə/
• weak forms: A very important aspect of the dynamics of English pronunciation is that many very common
words have not only a strong or full pronunciation (which is used when the word is said in isolation), but
also one or more weak forms which are used when the word occurs in certain contexts. Words which
have weak forms are, for the most part, function words such as conjunctions (e.g. ‘and’, ‘but’, ‘or’), articles
(e.g. ‘a’, ‘an’, ‘the’), pronouns (e.g. ‘she’, ‘he’, ‘her’, ‘him’), prepositions (e.g. ‘for’, ‘to’, ‘at’) and some
auxiliary and modal verbs (e.g. ‘do’, ‘must’, ‘should’). Generally the strong form of such words is used
when the word is being quoted (e.g. the word ‘and’ is given its strong form in the sentence “We use the
word ‘and’ to join clauses”), when it is being contrasted (e.g. ‘for’ in “There are arguments for and
against”) and when it is at the end of a sentence (e.g. ‘from’ in “Where did you get it from?”). Often the
pronunciation of a weak-form word is so different from its strong form that if it were heard in isolation it
would be impossible to recognise it: for example, ‘and’ can become /n̩/ in ‘us and them’, ‘fish and chips’,
and ‘of’ can become /f̩/ or /v̩/ in ‘of course’. The reason for this is that to someone who knows the language
well these words are usually highly predictable in their normal context.
• “linking r”: there are many words in English (e.g. ‘car’, ‘here’, ‘mother’) which in a rhotic accent such as
General American or Scots would be pronounced with a final /r/ but which in BBC pronunciation (= a nonrhotic
accent) end in a vowel when they are pronounced before a pause or before a consonant (sound)
(i.e. /kɑː/, /hɪə/, /ˈmʌðə/). When they are followed by a vowel (sound), BBC speakers pronounce /r/ at
the end (e.g. ‘mother opened’ /ˈmʌðər ˈəʊpənd/) – it is said that this is done to link the words without
sliding the two vowels together.
The bananas were a peculiar colour but Debra ate them anyway.
/ðə bəˈnɑːnəz wər ə pəˈkjuːliə ˈkʌlə bət ˈdebrə ˈeɪt ðəm ˈeniweɪ/
• The word ‘colour’ is NOT followed by a vowel (sound) in this sentence and the phoneme /r/ is, therefore,
not pronounced at the end of the word.
Her new dietician was stricter than she expected and though she wasn't supposed
to eat after seven, hunger got the better of her.
/hə ˈnjuː ˌdaɪəˈtɪʃən wəz ˈstrɪktə ðən ʃi ɪkˈspektɪd ən ðəʊ ʃi ˈwɒzənt səˈpəʊzd tu ˈiːt
ˈɑːftə ˈsevən / ˈhʌŋɡə ˈɡɒt ðə ˈbetər əv ə/
• /i/ & /u/: Notice the use of the non-phonemic symbols /i/ and /u/ in the weak forms /ʃi/ and /tu ˈiːt/.
• /ˌdaɪəˈtɪʃə
n/, /ˈwɒzə
nt/ & /ˈsevə
n/: These words can be pronounced (and transcribed) either with a
schwa (/ˈsevən/) or a syllabic consonant (/ˈsevn̩/).
• Weak form(s) of ‘her’: The weak form of the pronoun ‘her’ is typically /hə/. On rare occasions (such as in
this example sentence), it can be reduced to /ə/ (e.g. ‘better of her’ /ˈbetər əv ə/). This form of h-dropping
does NOT occur in every context and should be used with caution.
• The symbol / can be used instead of punctuation marks (e.g. instead of the comma in ‘…seven, hunger…’
/ˈsevə
n / ˈhʌŋɡə/).