Baan Ajarn

Archive for the ‘Pronunciation’ Category

If you teach small groups or one-on-one, and find some students struggle with pronunciation, put them at ease with this funny clip of  Inspector Clouseau (Steve Martin) trying to say “I would like to buy a hamburger.”

Below are sentences that contain words with double meanings. A native speaker knows how to properly stress the syllables in these words to convey their intended meaning, but non-native speakers often struggle when confronted with sentences like these:

• The bandage was wound around the wound.
• The farm was used to produce produce.
• The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.
• The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.
• Since there is no time like the present he thought it was time to present the present.
• When shot at the dove dove through the bushes.
• I did not object to the object.
• The insurance was invalid for the invalid.
• A seamstress and a sewer fell down the sewer line.
• After a number of injections my jaw got number.
• I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.
• How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend.
• We must polish the Polish furniture.
• A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.
• They were too close to the door to close it.
• The wind was too strong to wind the sail.
• After seeing the tear in the painting, I shed a tear.