Sunday, February 17, 2013

Sounding Like a Native Speaker - The English Pronunciation Reduction of -ing

I figured I'd make this post since I couldn't find much information about it on the internet.  Native speakers often take liberties when it comes to pronunciation. Often words or letters may be reduced for the sake of fluency and rhythm.  Recently, I spoke to a class about how Americans frequently reduce the -ing sound in the continuous form.

Example: 

I'm walking to the park. 

When spoken with the natural flow of native fluency, it becomes: 

I'm walkin' to the park.  

The -g gets dropped at the end of the verb.  Therefore, walking sounds like walkin'.  This is how many American native speakers pronounce verbs in the continuous form.  However, it's important to note this rule doesn't really apply in the case of gerunds, when nouns look like verbs with the -ing ending.

Example: 

Walking is fun.

In this sense, the full word is pronounced and not reduced.   

Sunday, February 3, 2013

An English nuance in Namibia - NOW NOW NOW

There many English nuances in Namibia.  Many fall within the realm of Namlish, a portmanteau that describes the amalgamation of language and country.  Some nuances are extremely subtle, while others...not so much.  Perhaps my favorite English word in Namibia was the word now.  It's used in a form of tautology to express a varying degrees of time.  Sound strange?  Well, here's how it's used.

When someone says now, they really means later.  If the person says now now, then they mean very soon.  But if a person were to say now now now, that that really means right now.

This form of Namlish was commonplace throughout the country.  Often I'd have fun with it, especially in the classroom.  If I wanted the students do something right away, I'd repeat now about a dozen times.