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English Highway Podcast: Intonation: Making Pauses (#0298)
English Highway Podcast: Intonation: Making Pauses (#0298)
Pauses are silent breaks that you can make when speaking to gain more
control over what you're saying. Pauses give you space to breath and
divide your sentences into smaller phrases that are easier to pronounce.
I made two pauses in the last sentence, after Mike and call. Listen to it
again:
There is no right or wrong way of doing this as long as you dont break up
the idea. For example, if I said:
We're making one pause after the word, decided. Listen and repeat
again:
And again:
That's right. Here's a longer sentence. We're going to make two pauses.
Listen carefully and repeat after me:
That's it. As you can see, we're making pauses after talk and David
Smith. It would be a lot more complicated to say that entire sentence in
one breath. I would have to say:
And chances are I would make a mistake. So it's a lot better to make a
couple of pauses and take it easy, and emphasize the right pronunciation
for each word in the sentence. Let's keep going. Here's another long
sentence. Give it your best:
That's it. We have two pauses, after cell phone and signal. Let's try it
again. Repeat after me:
Good job. Here's another sentence with two pauses. Listen and repeat
after me:
That's right. We're making pauses after Melissa and busy day. Let's
try it again. Repeat after me:
Great job. It's incredible what pauses can do to your speech. You can
really focus on each of the phrases and words in the sentences instead of
trying to say the entire sentence in a single breath. So let's keep
practicing. Repeat after me:
Now let me show you how you can divide the same sentence into two or
three phrases depending on where you place the pauses. Listen carefully:
As you can see, I'm making two pauses, after story and came out.
Listen to it again:
We can take this same sentence and only make one pause and it would
still make sense. Listen carefully:
This sentence is actually harder to say just because I took out the pause
after came out. Listen to the two examples once again. I could say:
That's it. Last sentence now, listen carefully. Repeat after me:
Words:
meeting
talking
sales
plan
goals
vote
agrees
August 25th, 2004
January 28th, 2010
28th
2010
10:30
10:31
10:32
10:33
10:34
10:35
10:36
10:37
10:38
10:39
425-45-68
Sentences:
In todays meeting / we will be talking / about sales.
We need to plan / to meet our yearly goals.
The plan / is to hire more salespeople.
Lets take a vote/ to make sure everyone agrees.
My phone number is 425-45-68.