Notes on Worksheet 1 (continued)

These are some comments about your answers to Question 15 of Worksheet 1 (creating as long a
sentence as possible with only full vowels). We’ve added a short task which you can use to check
your understanding of how some words have reduced forms in English.

As many of you remarked, it’s very difficult to make sentences with only full and no reduced
vowels.

The ‘fifty words’

To do this exercise, it was important to know that there are about fifty very common words in
English which have two pronunciations, or occasionally three. These words all have what is called a
‘citation form’ which has a full vowel, pronounced when they
 are said in isolation
 or are in ‘focus’ (i.e. if there is a good reason to draw attention to the word)
 or (for some of them) if they are ‘stranded’ at the end of a phrase, before a pause. (I.e. for
in What’s it for? is said with a full vowel; similarly to and from in Where are you going to?
Where are you from?)

However, these are not the most common contexts in which these fifty words are used; in
unstressed syllables, their vowels are almost always reduced to a member of the schwa family.

Here’s the list:

Articles: a, an, the

Auxiliaries: am, is, are, was, were, be, been; have, has, had; do, does, did; can, could;
must; shall, should; will, would
Function words: and, any, as, at, because, but, for, from, just, of, some (adjective), than, there
(indefinite adverb), to
Negative: not
Pronouns: he, her, herself, him, himself, his, me, she, them, themselves, us, we, you,
your, yourself, yourselves; that (relative pronoun), who
Other words: saint, sir

If you used any of these words in your attempt to write a sentence using only full vowels, then you
may have made a mistake.

Your sentences
Here are some of the sentences which fulfilled the criteria. We’re only showing you ones which
made some kind of sense!

 Sam asked Claude why clouds cry.

 Rose wove warm thick chic clothes.
 Old man Tom chops down fine big pine tree logs.
 Bill works ten long hard days each month.
 I can't wear these big brown shoes with wide white laces.

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  Get up right now, please.
 Why can't Jane write Ben Smith's last name?
 Then, Paul T Jones shone three huge bright lights.
 Then, Mark gave John five black jars with five black caps.
 Big John yelled, "Hey, you there, I said, get off my car right now!"
 He, not I, killed dad.
 Tim plays Sims all day long.
 Bill swore Jim took that old green scarf.
 I can't do this! ; )

The following sentences are good attempts with just one or a few small problems. Now that you
have the list of fifty words, can you find the reduced vowel(s)?

 At five Ben must ring six tall brave men.

 Dodos are large dead birds whose huge flaw we all know: they can't fly!
 They love tasty green apples.
 'Go' she said but he replied 'I won't'.
 My kids adore making cupcakes
 Ann can play old folk music.
 Tom has four blue cats and five red dogs.
 Next Sam did last week's wash with the best soap he could find.
 Well, my dad says good grades are great.
 Let them work, let them love, let them be, set them free.
 Jack Brown took Jill Blue back home by nine that night for some good rum punch.
 Four pink pigs sleep under trees.
 Write some formal post cards right now.
 Becky wants six strong drinks when Trixie gets back.

Our answers are on the next page.

If you want to make any remarks, please do so on the G + community site using the category W1:
Worksheet. We’ll be happy to hear from you.

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Our answers
Here are the reduced vowels that we found:

At five Ben must ring six tall brave men.

Dodos are large dead birds whose huge flaw we all know: they can't fly!
They love tasty green apples.
'Go' she said but he replied 'I won't'.
My kids adore making cupcakes
Ann can play old folk music.
Tom has four blue cats and five red dogs.
Next Sam did last week's wash with the best soap he could find.
Well, my dad says good grades are great.
Let them work, let them love, let them be, set them free.
Jack Brown took Jill Blue back home by nine that night for some good rum punch.
Four pink pigs sleep under trees.
Write some formal post cards right now.
Becky wants six strong drinks when Trixie gets back.