Squeeze zones, and more

Here I’ll be posting thoughts on teaching and improving listening skills, as well as audio clips for the “daily squeeze” feature: little examples to savor the blends and blurs of quick, natural speech. Be sure to click through the previews below to hear the examples.

Squeeze of the day: [pɹɑ́bli], [pɹɑ́li]

“Probably” has several different sound shapes – that is, it can pronounced in different ways. You can often hear the full pronunciation, with three syllables: I should probably… Probably many things… Probably the only place [pɹɑ́bǝbli] But that sequence of two [b] sounds can be a little awkward when you speak quickly. So it’s very …

Squeeze of the day: [pɹɑ́bli], [pɹɑ́li] Read More »

Daily Squeeze: [ðǝsgǝbi]

This is a pretty extreme example. In isolation, it could reasonably be understood as “this could be” (but it isn’t!). Can you guess what else could be squeezed into this soundshape? You’ll hear it three times. [ðǝsgǝbi] Click ‘solution’ to hear the example in context.