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ABLAUT
REDUPLICATION
PRONUNCIATION LESSON
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Not all grammatical exceptions in English have rules,

but lucky for you, today's lesson is one exception that
does! This lesson focuses on the law of Ablaut
Reduplication. We will look at what it is and how and
why we use it! You will surely have this grammar
concept in shipshape after this lesson!

WHAT IS ABLAUT REDUPLICATION?

Ablaut Reduplication is the pronunciation rule that
states that duplicating word combinations should
start with high vowel sounds before low ones.

Ablaut Reduplication = high to low vowel sounds

Take riff-raff, for example.

We reduplicate the word, changing only the vowel

sound. The position of the tongue for the /ɪ/ in riff is
higher than the /æ/ in raff, so that’s why we say riff-
raff and not raff-riff.

riff-raff
high low
sound sound

The vowel sounds /ɪ/ and /iː/ are high vowels, so in

ablaut reduplication, words with the letters ee and i
come before words with letters a, e, o and u.

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WHY DO WE USE IT?

Simply put, the high-vowel, low-vowel pattern sounds
nice, so we don’t zagzig or have a mashmish; no, that
wouldn’t be as pleasant. Instead, we:

zigzag = to move to the right and left abruptly

Tony couldn’t walk straight; he zigzagged all the way home.

mishmash = a mixture of things that do not go together

My dinner last night was a mishmash of what I found in the
fridge. I had a curry with fruit salad and a glass of milk.

Ablaut Reduplicated Expressions

onomatopoeia
words which sound similar to the noise they describe

tick-tock the sound of a clock ticking

the sound of a horse’s hooves on a hard

clip-clop
surface

ding-dong the sound of a doorbell ringing

the sound of quick light steps, or the

pitter-patter
rain falling steadily

ee-aw the sound a donkey makes

two-part adjectives
teeny tiny very, very small Their baby was teeny tiny.

a bit vague, and not Sara should stop being

wishy-washy sure about what you wishy-washy and make a
want decision.

In ship shape very well organised This place is shipshape.

-
shipshape events, or places This place is in ship shape.

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verbs
to let one's hair dry I often let my hair drip-dry
drip-dry
naturally in the summer

to walk, very quietly and

Jeff tiptoed past his mum
tiptoe carefully, as to not to
to get another biscuit.
disturb other people,

to take too long to do

My mum used to say I
dilly-dally something or make a
dilly-dallied.
decision

brands
a popular wafer chocolate I love a Kit Kat with my
Kit Kat
bar enjoyed in Great Britain morning coffee.

a popular social media Have you seen Manning’s

TikTok
platform TikTok dance today?

a mobile network where Bianji has the Giffgaff SIM

Giffgaff
you buy bundles of minutes only deal.

nouns
Hip-hop is so good; I just
hip-hop a genre of music wanna dance when I hear
it!

flip-flop footwear for the beach I can’t drive in flip-flops.

The see-saw is very

a fun piece of equipment
see-saw popular today; let’s come
in a children’s playground
back later.

also called table tennis; a

The campsite has lots of
ping-pong game played with bats and
ping-pong tables.
a small plastic ball

Michell brought his guitar

sing-song a group singing session
and we had a sing-song.

small talk, a conversation Beth and Juan have a chit-

chit-chat
about nothing important chat on the commute.

I loved playing in my
wigwam a cone-shaped tent
wigwam when I was little.

a small object, like a My grandmother has so

knick-knack
souvenir or an ornament many knick-knacks.

I love putting on my
a cute way of saying
jimjams jimjams and having an
pyjamas
early night.

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QUIZ!
Choose the correct answer for each question.
1) What noise does a donkey make?

a. ee-aw
b. tick-tock
c. Kit Kat
d. hip-hop

2) What comes next: see-?

a. see
b. saw
c. say
d. so

3) Which sound is the quietest?

a. clip-clop
b. tiptoe
c. ding-dong
d. pitter-patter

4) What comes next: chit-?

a. chit
b. chet
c. chut
d. chat

Complete the sentence with the correct ablaut

reduplicated phrase.
5) I listen to _____

a. hip-hop
b. see-saw
c. hop-hip

6) Hurry up, don’t _____

a. dally-dilly
b. dilly-dally
c. wishy-washy

7) My office is _____

a. tiny-teeny
b. shipshape
c. TikTok

8) What a _____ of colours!

a. zigzag
b. riff-raff
c. mishmash

The End!
1) a 2) b 3) b 4) d 5) a 6) b 7) b 8) c

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