General English (AEC) — Q&A

Phonetics is the scientific study of speech sounds: how they are made in the mouth, how they travel as sound-waves, and how they are heard. Its three branches are: (1) Articulatory phonetics — how the organs of speech produce sounds; (2) Acoustic phonetics — the physical properties of the sound-wave (frequency, amplitude); (3) Auditory phonetics — how the ear and brain receive sounds.

Phonetic symbols are the letters of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) in which one symbol stands for exactly one sound (e.g. ship /ʃɪp/ vs sheep /ʃiːp/; the length mark ː and stress mark ˈ are part of the notation). RP English has 44 phonemes: 12 monophthongs (pure vowels), 8 diphthongs (gliding vowels, e.g. /eɪ/ in day), and 24 consonants.

A vowel is made with a free passage of air (the tongue shapes the cavity but does not block it); all RP vowels are voiced. A consonant is made with a closure or narrow opening, described by place (where) and manner (how). Three contrasts Indian speakers often merge: (1) /θ/ vs /t/ — thin /θɪn/ is not tin /tɪn/; (2) /v/ vs /w/ — vest /vest/ is not west /west/; (3) /ʃ/ vs /s/ in some positions — ship /ʃɪp/ is not sip /sɪp/.

Word stress is the extra force placed on one syllable of a word, marked ˈ before that syllable (e.g. /ˈteɪbl/). Stress can change meaning and word-class: the noun ˈrecord /ˈrekɔːd/ (the disc) stresses the first syllable, while the verb reˈcord /rɪˈkɔːd/ (to put on file) stresses the second. Other pairs: ˈpresent (gift) / preˈsent (to give), ˈobject (thing) / obˈject (to protest).

Intonation is the rise and fall of pitch across a phrase — the tune of connected speech. The four tones are: (1) Falling — finished statements, commands, wh-questions: “She is ˈhere.” (2) Rising — yes–no questions and unfinished lists: “Is she ˈhere?” (3) Fall-rise — reservation, a “yes, but”: “I ˈcan…” (4) Rise-fall — strong feeling or emphasis: “ˈReally!”

A prefix is attached at the front of a base and usually changes meaning without changing word-class: happy (adjective) → unhappy (still an adjective). A suffix is attached at the end. Inflectional suffixes mark grammar only and never change class: book → books (plural -s). Derivational suffixes often make a new word and may change class: kind (adjective) → kindness (noun, with -ness).

The eight parts of speech are: noun, pronoun, adjective, verb, adverb, preposition, conjunction, interjection. In the sentence: The (article/determiner, with the noun), young (adjective), student (noun), quietly (adverb), opened (verb), the (article), old (adjective), book (noun). Note: identify by the job the word does in the sentence, not by its dictionary label.

(a) sheep /ʃiːp/ — long vowel /iː/ (the ː length mark is compulsory); (b) think /θɪŋk/ — begins with the dental fricative /θ/, not /t/; (c) phone /fəʊn/ — the letters “ph” are one sound /f/, and the vowel is the diphthong /əʊ/.

(a) photograph /ˈfəʊtəɡrɑːf/ — stress on the first syllable; (b) photographer /fəˈtɒɡrəfə/ — stress moves to the second syllable; (c) photographic /ˌfəʊtəˈɡræfɪk/ — primary stress on the syllable before -ic (rule: words in -ic stress the syllable just before the suffix), with secondary stress ˌ on the first. Three related words, three stress-places — stress is part of a word's identity.

(a) Rising — it is a yes–no question. (b) Falling — wh-questions take the falling tone (the speaker expects an answer, not a yes/no). (c) Falling — commands take the falling tone. (d) Rising — yes–no question (polite offer). Rule of thumb: yes–no questions rise; statements, commands and wh-questions fall.

(a) happy → unhappy (un- = not/opposite); legal → illegal (in- assimilates to il- before l: the last letter matches the base). (b) kind → kindness (-ness makes nouns from adjectives); educate → education (-tion makes nouns from verbs). Prefixes mostly change meaning; derivational suffixes like -ness and -tion often change the word-class too.

(a) Adverb — fast modifies the verb runs (how does he run?); it has no -ly, which is the exam's favourite trap. (b) Adjective — fast modifies the noun train (what kind of train?). (c) Verb — light is the action the subject performs. Same letters, different jobs: always ask what the word is doing in that sentence.