The tongue tip

[dinartao]

I always have pronunciation problem.
I would like to know where I can get help or rules about "The tongue tip" where to put the tongue when I speak.
Many thanks
Dino

 

[mmasny]

Hello Dino!
Could you please be more specific about your problem? When exactly do you encounter difficulties? What words, consonants, vowels do you find hardest to pronounce?
Your question is too general as it is now. There isn't just one place where we keep our tongues while speaking. The tongue is moving and there are many different positions and movements that we have to master to pronounce words correctly.

I am not a teacher.

 

[dinartao]

Thanks mmasny.
Well in general,I don't speak clear.I been In Uk too long and now I want to speak more clear to improve my English.I would like the most commune tongue tip when we speak English( where to put the tongue when I speak,the only one I know is ""TH""
As I Am Portuguese the world are different in some way.

 

[billmcd]

You could try Clear Speech, Judy B.Gilbert, Cambridge University Press. It contains practice exercises including tongue position/placement illustrations.

 

[IHIVG]

While it might be a useful thing for some to receive a well-thought-out explanatory description of how to pronounce the sounds properly, it might also turn out to be a waste of time. Nobody thinks of the tongue movements when speaking; it could possibly add to your confusions as you'll have just one more thing to beat your brains about.
I think the best way,- and I'm talking from my experience,- is to listen and emulate. You will also find that this process is a lot more interesting. When they tried to tediously explain to me what exactly I am supposed to do with my own tongue, I always ended up feeling bored. And unproductive.
You can still master a good pronunciation without going into details. Most people never think about it yet speak well.
Just listen! Listen a lot and try repeating what you hear. Good luck!

 

[Linguist__]

Thanks mmasny.
Well in general,I don't speak clear.I been In Uk too long and now I want to speak more clear to improve my English.I would like the most commune tongue tip when we speak English( where to put the tongue when I speak,the only one I know is ""TH""
As I Am Portuguese the world are different in some way.

There are only around 6 or 7 consonants in English that don't exist in Portuguese phonology:

/θ/ thin
/ð/ then
/w/ we
/ɹ/ run
/j/ yes
/ŋ/ bang
/h/ hit
So, I think saying the only one you know is 'th' is nonsense. You know the rest (at least 15) and if you know affricates ('chair', 'measure') then at least 17 others.

It is far more likely to be a problem with your vowels as very little clarity of speech is achieved through consonants - they are omitted, altered, adapted and no clarity is lost. Vowels are much more important in intelligibility, and also much more difficult to describe. The best way to do it is to imitate.

Portuguese has similar vowels to English, indeed the vowel system in Portuguese is much richer than in English. Also, European Portuguese (if that is what you speak) is a stress-timed language and so is English. This means that the time between two stressed syllables is roughly equal and results in a language that has lots of sounds that are almost non-existant.

If you want to get a feel for the difference between a stress-timed language to it's counterpart - a syllable-times languaged; where the duration between all syllables is roughly equal - then compare European Portuguese (stress-timed) with Brazilian Portuguese (syllable-timed). You will notice that Brazilian Portuguese sounds more enunciated, or clear like most other Romance languages. Whereas European Portuguese tends to have stressed and unstressed forms for things such as articles and sounds more like English, German, Swedish or similar in it's clarity.

 

[dinartao]

While it might be a useful thing for some to receive a well-thought-out explanatory description of how to pronounce the sounds properly, it might also turn out to be a waste of time. Nobody thinks of the tongue movements when speaking; it could possibly add to your confusions as you'll have just one more thing to beat your brains about.
I think the best way,- and I'm talking from my experience,- is to listen and emulate. You will also find that this process is a lot more interesting. When they tried to tediously explain to me what exactly I am supposed to do with my own tongue, I always ended up feeling bored. And unproductive.
You can still master a good pronunciation without going into details. Most people never think about it yet speak well.
Just listen! Listen a lot and try repeating what you hear. Good luck!

It is true nobody think about tongue movements because they know how to do,so automatic coming,like when we started to speak English, we where thing first in ours language then speak in English ,however we don't do any more because we know how to speak.

 

[dinartao]

There are only around 6 or 7 consonants in English that don't exist in Portuguese phonology:

/θ/ thin
/ð/ then
/w/ we
/ɹ/ run
/j/ yes
/ŋ/ bang
/h/ hit
So, I think saying the only one you know is 'th' is nonsense. You know the rest (at least 15) and if you know affricates ('chair', 'measure') then at least 17 others.

It is far more likely to be a problem with your vowels as very little clarity of speech is achieved through consonants - they are omitted, altered, adapted and no clarity is lost. Vowels are much more important in intelligibility, and also much more difficult to describe. The best way to do it is to imitate.

Portuguese has similar vowels to English, indeed the vowel system in Portuguese is much richer than in English. Also, European Portuguese (if that is what you speak) is a stress-timed language and so is English. This means that the time between two stressed syllables is roughly equal and results in a language that has lots of sounds that are almost non-existant.

If you want to get a feel for the difference between a stress-timed language to it's counterpart - a syllable-times languaged; where the duration between all syllables is roughly equal - then compare European Portuguese (stress-timed) with Brazilian Portuguese (syllable-timed). You will notice that Brazilian Portuguese sounds more enunciated, or clear like most other Romance languages. Whereas European Portuguese tends to have stressed and unstressed forms for things such as articles and sounds more like English, German, Swedish or similar in it's clarity.

Thanks for all that and you should be right,my wife is Brazilian and she does speak English more clear,Is another reason for I to learn the movements of the tongue when I speak in English,.
Any example of that is. If I say "THREE" by using the tongue movement in right way everyone will understand,however if I speak "TREE" using the the tongue movement the same as when I speak " I" will be more hard to everyone understand or do not understand when I speak "three"
Also in England the kids learn on Primary school this movements and we don't.
Of course will not make too much difference when you going to college to learn English,not in my case I learn by self in street,time after time we learn the wrong English because nobody tell us we are wrong.That is why I thing for me will be very Important if I know all the tongue movements to study hard even I don't like It but I have to do to help my wife on UNI

 

[TheParser]

I always have pronunciation problem.
I would like to know where I can get help or rules about "The tongue tip" where to put the tongue when I speak.
Many thanks
Dino

***** NOT A TEACHER *****

Good morning, dinartao.

(1) If it is possible, get a copy of a book entitled REALISTICALLY SPEAKING by Planaria J. Price.

(2) She will teach you where to put your tongue in order to pronounce American English perfectly.

Good luck.