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ENGLISH FOR TEENAGERS · GENERAL ISSUES · PRE-INTERMEDIATE (A2-B1)

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1 Warm up
Write 26 English words, each starting with a different letter of the alphabet. How many letters are
there in the alphabet of your language?

A ... B ... C ... D ...

E ... F ... G ... H ...

I ... J ... K ... L ...

M ... N ... O ... P ...

Q - queen R ... S ... T ...

U ... V ... W ... X - ray

Y ... Z ...

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2 Letters and sounds

Part 1: Listen to the words. Pay attention to how the highlighted letters are pronounced.

Group 1

body, chair, desk, four, green, head, jazz, clock, leg, mouth, nose, pair, right, six, shoe, toe,
three, there, white, violet, yellow, zebra, beige, being

Group 2

art, at, up, egg, earth, about, eat, it, organ, on, put, food

Group 3

five, boy, day, pure, now, no, air, ear

All the highlighted letters are pronounced in a different way. There are only 26 letters but as many
as 44 different sounds in English! Listen again and repeat the words after the recording.

Part 2: The words above are divided into three groups on the basis of the pronunciation of the
highlighted letters. What do the sounds, not letters, in each group have in common? To help you
find the answer, make the sounds and observe what your mouth and tongue do.

• Hint 1: Is your mouth wide open, completely closed or partially closed?

• Hint 2: Do you hear one or two sounds?

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3 How many sounds?

In English, the number of letters in a word is often not the same as the number of sounds. Look at the
examples below.

• body – 4 letters and 4 sounds /"b-6-d-i/

• nose – 4 letters and 3 sounds /n-@U-z/
• four – 4 letters and 3 sounds /fO:/

The words below are grouped according to the number of letters. Read them aloud and group them
according to the number of sounds.

• 5 letters: beige, earth, eight, heart

• 6 letters: letter, tongue, wanted, bridge, washes
• 7 letters: through, because, stopped, bridges

2 sounds: , ,

3 sounds: , , ,

4 sounds: ,

5 sounds: , ,

6 sounds: ,

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4 Reading

Read the text on page and answer the questions below.

1. Where are the vocal cords?

2. What makes them vibrate?

3. What is the difference between the sounds ‘s’ and ‘z’?

4. What is the difference between speaking normally and whispering?

How is the sound made?

Our hands, letters, text messages or even emojis are just a few of the many ways we communicate.
But in order to communicate by speaking we need to use our voice.

1. Your voice is made in the voice box, which is the bony part at the front of your throat. Sometimes it is called an
"Adam’s apple" in men. Inside the voice box, we have the vocal cords. When we breathe out, the air from the
lungs makes the vocal cords move very quickly. This is called vibration and feels a bit like buzzing. If you put your
fingers on your throat and say "ahh", you will feel the vibrations.

2. The voice goes into your mouth and/or nose from your throat. Then, you can change the sound by controlling the
flow of air with your lips, tongue, and teeth. For example, when you say "ahh", your mouth is open and your vocal
cords are vibrating. When you say "eee" or "ooo", the air in your mouth is still vibrating, but the sound you make
is different because you changed the shape of your mouth.

3. However, there are sounds that humans make without using vocal cords. When you say "sss" and "zzz" out loud,
you can feel the difference in vibration in your throat. When you make both sounds, the shape of the mouth and
the location of the tongue, lips, and teeth are the same, but the "s" sound doesn’t use your voice, while the "z"
sound does. When you whisper, you also use your voice differently. Your vocal cords are not vibrating, but you
use air from your lungs and move your mouth, tongue and lips.

Source: The Conversation

Glossary:
vibrate - move very quickly
whisper - speak very quietly

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5 Let’s experiment
Use a mirror or look at your partner’s lips when you produce the sounds presented in the drawings
below.

6 Voiced and voiceless sounds

Find pairs of words which sound almost the same. The only difference between the two words is the
sound at the beginning or at the end.

1. /p/ pear - /b/ bear

2. peas /z/ - piece /s/

3.

4.

5.

6.

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7 Which word do you hear?

Listen and choose the correct picture. Then practise reading the sentences in pairs. Let the partner
guess which word you are saying.

1. Give me the , please.

2. You look like a .

3. I bought a .

4. Look at my .

5. He’s under the .

6. Your smells.

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8 Language focus
Analyse the examples and complete the rules with these words or sounds.

closes / ended / opened / plays / sits / voiced / voiceless / washed /z/ /iz/ /Id/ /d/ /t/

Pronunciation of grammatical endings

In the Present Simple tense, the third person verb ends in – s or –es. The ending is
pronounced in three different ways, depending on the last sound (not letter) of the verb.

1
1. If the verb ends in a voiced sound, the ending is pronounced as : cleans,
2
sees, opens,

3
2. If the verb ends in a sound, the ending is pronounced as /s/: kicks,
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waits,

3. If the verb ends in a hissing sound, such as s /s/, z /z/, sh /S /, ch /tS/, the ending is
5 6
pronounced as : washes, matches,

In the Past Simple, regular verbs end in – ed. The ending is pronounced in three different
ways, depending on the last sound (not letter) of the verb.

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1. If the verb ends in a sound, the ending is pronounced as /d/: cleaned,
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closed,

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2. If the verb ends in a voiceless sound, the ending is pronounced as :
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kicked, pronounced,

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3. If the last sound of the verb is /t/ or , the ending is pronounced as
12 13
: waited, decided,

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9 Optional task: whose routine?

Match the activities to the person on the basis of the pronunciation. The last sound of the person’s
name and of the verb must be the same, eg. Ms/z/ Fizz /z/ runs /z/ ...

likes nature / runs in races / washes the dishes / brushes her hair in the evening / catches
the bus to work in the morning / enjoys cooking / eats healthy food / paints landscapes /
rows her boat / runs in races / sings operas / solves logical puzzles / walks her dog / watches
football matches on TV

1. /s/ Miss Kiss likes nature, , ,

2. /z/ Ms Fizz runs in races, , , ,

10 Tongue twisters
Listen to the tongue twisters and then practise them yourself.

1. Wendy, Wanda and Winnie are witches. Which witch is which?

2. Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear. Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair. Fuzzy Wuzzy wasn’t fuzzy, was he?

3. If a dog chews shoes, whose shoes does he choose?

3. She sells seashells on the seashore.

The shells she sells are seashells, I’m sure.

And if she sells seashells on the seashore,

Then I’m sure she sells seashore shells.

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11 Homework
Part A: Look at the icons below and find six rhyming pairs.

Part B: Write several sentences with at least 3 rhyming words.

1.

2.

3.

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