Unit 19. Shirt, Short.

The Vowel Sounds /з:(r)/ and /o:(r)/

Unit 19; Part A

In many accents in England, the letter R is nor pronounced after a vowel. In other places, the R is pronounced, for example in North America. But in both cases, the letter R changes the vowel sound before it. If the vowel letter is E, I, О or U, we often get the vowel sounds in shirt or short.

Unit 19; Part B

Listen to the sound /з:/.
Look at the mouth diagram to see how to make this long vowel sound.

Listen to the target sound /з:/ in the words below and compare it with the words on each side.

          target /з:/
short     shirt     shut
where   were    we're
born   burn     bone
hard    heard    head

Listen and repeat these examples of the target language.

                were       word       worst
                burn       bird    birth
                her        heard        hurt

Unit 19; Part C

Listen to the sound /o:/
Look at the mouth diagram to see how to make this long vowel sound.

Listen to the target sound /o:/ in the words below and compare it with the words on each side.

   target /o:/
shot     short    shirt
work    walk     woke
far        four      fair
boil      ball      bowl

Listen and repeat the examples of the target sound.

               bore       bored      bought
               call        cause      caught
               war       wall        walk

Important for listening!
Listen to the following words with the R pronounced, as in North America:
shirt were heard worst birth hurt bom short door four war more
In words without R, some American speakers pronounce the sound /a:/ instead of /o:/. Listen:
ball caught law talk bought

Unit 19; Part D

Spelling

	l /E / O / U + R	other spellings
/з:/	IR (*girl), ER (her), UR (hurt*)	OR (word), EAR (heard)
/o:/	OR (form)	A (call), AR (*war), AU (cause), AW (saw), AL (walk), AUGH* (*taught), OUGH* (*thought), OUR* (*four*)

Exercises

1 Write the numbers out in full.

Write these numbers out in full. Which of the two vowel sounds do they contain? Write /з:/ оr /o:/.
Example: 3rd    third    /з:/

1    1/4
2    30
3    4th
4    1st
5    14

2 Find the words in the puzzle.

Find 14 words in the puzzle (every letter is used once) and writethem in the correct part of the table. The words are writtenhorizontally or vertically.

words with /:з/

words with /:o/

bird

3 Is the accent from Britain or America?

Listen to these sentences. Is the accent from Britain or America? Write В or A.
Example:    The girl's first birthday.    A.
1    It's hard work, of course.
2    Are you sure?
3    Law and order.
4    I walk to work.
5    I saw the bird fall.
6    He was born on Thursday the thirty-first.
7    She taught German.
8    I learned to surf in Brazil.
9    'Caught' and 'court' sound the same in my accent.

4 Listen and circle the word you hear.

Listen and circle the word you hear.

1    Four or far?     It isn't four / far.
2    Worst or west?    It's on the worst / west coast.
3    Walk or woke?    I walk / woke the dog.
4    Shut or shirt?    The butcher's shut / shirt.
5    Port or pot?    There's coffee in the port / pot.
6    Bird or beard?    He has a black bird / beard.
7    Her or hair?    Is that her / hair?
8    Worked or walked?    We worked / walked all day.

Follow up: Recordyourself saying the sentences in 4, choosing one of the two words.Make a note of which words you say. Then listen to your recording inabout two weeks. Is it clear which words you said?

Unit 18 Unit 19 Unit 20