Category «Pronunciation»

常見錯誤 Common mistake – habit vs hobbit

I sometimes hear people say hobbit when they mean habit. The mistake is more common with those who score below band 6. Habits are behaviours or actions that you do automatically from doing them repeatedly. I usually sleep late due to my bad habit of playing on my mobile phone at night. I’m trying to …

“How to spell?” or “How do you spell it?”

Students often use the wrong grammar when asking direct “how” questions: WRONG RIGHT PRONUNCIATION Use the weak (schwa) sound Ə for “do you” and “it” How to pronounce? How do you pronounce it? HOW dƏ yƏ prƏNOUNCE Ət? click to listen How to say? How do you say it? HOW dƏ yƏ SAY Ət? click …

“Drop it down” or “jot it down”?

The correct phrase is “jot it down”. “To jot down” is an English phrasal verb which means “to write a note”. A common mispronunciation (particularly by Hong Kong Chinese) is “drop down” or “drop it down“. Some correct examples: This point is very important. I think you should jot it down. Before you call her, you should jot down some …

常見發音錯誤 Do you say ‘fank you’, ‘sank you’, or ‘thank you’?

Mispronunciation of the two ‘th’ sounds is such a common mistake, and it will typically limit your Pronunciation score to 6. ‘Th’ is pronounced one of two possible ways depending on the word, and you should practice both of these sounds: unvoiced (e.g. “thumb”, “both“), represented by /θ/ voiced (e.g. there, breathe), represented by /ð/ For both these …