This is the All Ears English podcast, consonant clusters for clear English.
Welcome to the All Ears English podcast, downloaded more than 200 million times.
Are you feeling stuck with your English?
We'll show you how to become fearless and fluent by focusing on connection, not perfection, with your American hosts, Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer, and Michelle Kaplan, the New York radio girl coming to you from Colorado and New York City, USA.
Do you struggle to say words like tasks, asks, and lists?
These are consonant clusters and they are one of eight secrets that you need to know to speak clearly in English
Stop worrying that people will ask you to repeat.
Listen in today to learn more.
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Hey, Michelle, how are you?
Lindsay.
I'm good.
Lindsay, do you have many more tasks to do today?
I have a few social media posts to make.
Oh, okay.
I'm going to actually make two apple crisps later.
Sounds delicious.
Oh, I love apple crisp, by the way.
Oh my gosh.
Especially this time of the year, right?
Oh, absolutely.
It's one of the best desserts.
Yeah.
Yes, exactly.
So Lindsay, we're not.
Unfortunately, this episode is not about apple crisps, but this episode will help you say apple crisps.
Love that.
Love that.
I'll dream about apple crisp here.
Yeah, exactly.
So today we're actually going to talk about pronunciation.
So we're going to be discussing final consonant clusters, three of them for today.
Lindsay, what do you think about these?
You know pronunciation like really paying attention to the ends of words.
Yeah.
I mean.
What I think is, these consonant clusters are just one of many secrets that native speakers know.
And native speakers utilize these secrets to be clearly understood, to pronounce English clearly.
And ultimately, that's the goal.
Don't you think, Michelle?
The goal is not learning any one accent.
Right.
The goal is to speak clearly, don't you think?
Yeah, absolutely.
A lot of times students will say, oh, I want to sound like a native speaker.
I want to have an American accent.
And number one, at a certain point, it may not actually be realistic.
Number two, that's not what you need to be understood, right?
Exactly.
And number three, an accent, to me, it's part of identity.
And so you know, it's the world.
To me, if we didn't have different accents and different ways of speaking, it would be very sad and boring for everyone to speak in the same way.
Yeah, I agree with you, Michelle.
So we are just now, just this week, guys our brand new course, Global English Pronunciation, is available.
And this course shows you, We introduced to you the fact that English is a stress time language, not a syllable time language.
And we'll show you exactly how that impacts how you can speak more clearly for more success.
I mean, many of our students have told us Michelle, that they say something and then they worry that they'll be asked to repeat again and again.
How stressful could that be?
Right?
That is stressful.
You know, you're trying to focus on... what you want to say, and you're focusing on listening.
And then also, you know, if you're asked to repeat, it just kind of gets in the way of that fluency.
It's just kind of an extra speed bump in your brain almost.
Exactly.
So let's leave all that behind and learn how to speak English clearly, right?
So there are eight modules in this course, eight kind of secrets of clear speech, and we show them to you.
We let you practice.
We give you everything you need to achieve that clear speech.
So Michelle, where can our listeners go to get into the course right now?
Go to allearsenglish.com slash pronunciation.
So that's P-R-O-N-U-N-C-I-A-T-I-O-N.
Exactly.
But today we're going to just give our listeners a tiny taste of what's in the course.
And we hope you guys join us over there inside the course.
There's a special deal this week only.
All right.
Good.
Awesome.
Okay.
So yeah, final consonant clusters.
So we did in our little role play.
At the beginning we were talking about Apple crisps and um social media posts and tasks.
And, um, so very interesting here.
These, these can be tricky, right?
Um, these types of sounds and many students may have a difficult time pronouncing them, but we're going to teach a fun little trick today.
Um, So again, the final sounds that we're focusing on, these clusters, the first one is S-P-S.
And then what's the next one, Lindsay?
Okay, the next one is S-K-S.
And then it's also S-T-S.
So crisps, S-P-S.
Tasks, S-K-S.
Posts, S-T-S.
It really is, I have to say as a native speaker, it is hard to say this, right?
Yes, yes.
So...
Well, one way right here's the trick, and Lindsay talks about this in the course is to really let that S be prolonged.
So you're just saying S and then you're acting as if the next letter is just interrupting it, but then you're getting back to it, right?
Okay.
So in a way, it's like a snake, right?
So you're going S.
But then you're going to let it interrupt, to be interrupted by the next letter, and then get right back to this.
So, OK, for example, with SPS, it's.
Oh, got it.
OK, got it.
And SKS, it would be.
Right.
Yeah.
Hopefully our listeners can hear that that we're adding that K sound and that P sound right in the middle of the long S sound.
Yep.
And then STS would be S.
Yes.
I mean, these are tricky.
They are tricky.
And of course guys, we're exaggerating here, but sometimes you actually need to exaggerate a sound to develop it.
And then when you're in the real world, you're not going to go out slithering like a snake, right?
As you're talking about apple crisps.
But you're going to train that muscle so it'll feel much more natural and you'll be more clear when you do say the words apple crisps right.
Right.
I do.
I always like that idea of kind of exaggerating something with pronunciation when you're practicing it, because when you get out into the real world, naturally, I think we pull back a little bit, you know?
So if you're used to doing it a little bit of an exaggerated way, then it'll be kind of in that sweet spot once you get out there.
I love it.
So good.
Okay, Michelle, so what are some of the common words?
Let's take a look at a couple more common words where we see these consonant cluster sounds with the S sound.
So here for S-P-S, that ending.
So crisps, like we said, or like I mean.
Well, if you think about it, in the UK instead of chips they say crisps.
Right, crisps, yeah.
I always thought that was interesting.
Yes, or wisps, right?
Like wisps of hair.
Right, or tasks.
Tasks, right?
I have many tasks on my list.
Or whisks.
Now, a whisk is a metal tool, right, that we use to make batter, that kind of thing, to mix it up.
Yeah, it whisks eggs.
Yep.
It whisks eggs.
Or then there's also with STS, there's lists.
It is.
I mean, when you really think about it, lists, it's tricky.
And then firsts, right?
So there are many firsts. when you are a new parent, right?
Yes, I love it.
Firsts.
So you do kind of need to slow down a little bit to make sure you make it clear that you are using the plural form, right.
Yeah.
It's okay to hover a little bit and slow down and pronounce that S.
Let's see how it sounds in a role play here.
Shall we?
All right, here we go.
So here we are friends and we are watching an old movie.
All right.
Oh, wow.
That character has to make so many lists.
No computers in those days.
Yeah, really.
Oh, no.
Look at those wasps.
Those gross me out.
Whenever Jerry asks me to spray for bugs, I get so scared.
Okay.
I don't know, Lindsay.
That's an interesting role play, but yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And the cool thing in the course.
We show you this, but then we also show you what happens when we connect speech together.
Right?
We connect the sound with the next word and what drops as well.
So there's so much to learn.
I mean, this is just a tiny piece of what you learn in the course.
Yes, exactly.
A little taste.
So that's awesome.
So you said the character has to make so many lists.
So that lists, lists.
Yeah.
So many lists.
Right.
And especially when I'm not connecting that to anything because I'm finishing the sentence here.
Right.
So I can't skip over that last S sound because I'm stopping.
I have a period.
Yeah.
Okay.
And same with the next one.
Oh, no.
Look at those wasps.
We have to say the full SPS sound.
Right.
Right.
And then we have, whenever Jerry asks me to spray for bugs, I get so scared.
So, asks me.
So, this one does kind of connect, right?
Because it's not the last one.
So, guys, again, there's more about this in the course.
Yes.
Really, I mean, I can't recommend this course enough.
I really feel that this will help take you to the next level.
Yeah.
And, you know...
It's really designed to show you the eight secrets to how native speakers make themselves clear.
Yes, exactly.
100%.
We start with the rhythm, the heartbeat of English.
We don't want to just teach you one single accent because we think that's too narrow.
We want to prepare you for a global life, whether you're traveling, whether you're working abroad.
And it's too narrow just to learn one accent.
Instead, we're going to show you how to speak clearly, no matter where you are in the world and no matter who's listening to you.
Okay.
Love it.
Yeah.
So good.
So guys going over to allersenglishcom slash pronunciation and get into the course before the introductory offer goes away very soon.
It only lasts for one week.
So make sure you get in there now.
All right.
All right.
Go for it.
Yeah.
Lindsay.
Well, this was fun guys.
Very good stuff here.
Really take your time with it and give it a go and let us know how it feels for you once you try it.
All right.
Sounds good, Michelle.
Talk to you soon.
Bye.
Bye.
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