Pronunciation and Intonation Flashcards

Which word has the primary stress on the SECOND syllable?

Answer: preSENT (verb)

When 'present' functions as a verb, the stress shifts to the second syllable: preSENT.

In English, which sentence pattern typically uses FALLING intonation?

Answer: Statements of fact

Declarative statements of fact use falling intonation to signal a completed thought.

The 'th' sound in 'think' is produced by:

Answer: Placing the tongue between the teeth and pushing air

The voiceless 'th' in 'think' is an interdental fricative made by placing the tongue between the teeth.

What does 'connected speech' mean in pronunciation?

Answer: The way sounds change and link when words are spoken naturally together

Connected speech refers to the natural phonological modifications (linking, reduction, assimilation) that occur when words are spoken in a continuous stream.

Which of the following demonstrates 'elision' in spoken English?

Answer: Dropping the /t/ in 'last night' so it sounds like 'las' night'

Elision is the omission of a sound, as when the /t/ in 'last' is dropped before a consonant in fast speech.

The Versant test evaluates pronunciation partly by measuring:

Answer: How closely the test-taker's speech patterns match native-speaker models

Versant uses automated speech recognition to compare a speaker's phoneme production and prosody against native-speaker norms.

Which vowel sound distinguishes 'ship' from 'sheep'?

Answer: Both A and C are correct descriptions

'Ship' uses the short lax /ɪ/ vowel and 'sheep' uses the long tense /iː/ vowel — these are both accurate characterizations of the distinction.

What is 'vowel reduction' in English?

Answer: The tendency for unstressed vowels to be pronounced as schwa /ə/

Vowel reduction is the process by which unstressed syllables in English are typically reduced to the schwa sound /ə/, as in the word 'banana' /bəˈnænə/.

When reading aloud on the Versant test, which prosodic error is most penalized?

Answer: Word-by-word reading with no phrase grouping or natural pausing

Robotic word-by-word reading without natural chunking disrupts comprehensibility and signals low oral fluency to the automated scorer.

In English, the suffix '-tion' is almost always pronounced as:

Answer: /ʃən/

The suffix '-tion' is standardly pronounced /ʃən/ in American and British English, as in 'nation' /ˈneɪʃən/.

What is the term for the rhythm pattern in English where stressed syllables occur at roughly equal time intervals?

Answer: Stress-timed rhythm

English is classified as a stress-timed language, where stressed syllables recur at roughly equal intervals and unstressed syllables are compressed.

The /l/ sound in 'feel' (at the end of a syllable) is called a 'dark l' because:

Answer: The back of the tongue raises toward the velum, giving it a darker resonance

The 'dark l' (velarized /l/) occurs in syllable-final position in English and has a back, velar quality distinct from the 'clear l' at the start of syllables.

Which sentence would typically use a FALL-RISE intonation pattern in American English?

Answer: I like coffee, but tea is fine too.

Fall-rise intonation often conveys a concession or partial agreement, as in 'I like coffee, but tea is fine too,' where the voice falls on 'coffee' then rises on 'too.'

A non-native speaker consistently pronounces the word 'three' as 'tree.' This is an example of:

Answer: Substitution of /θ/ with /t/

Replacing the voiceless dental fricative /θ/ with the alveolar stop /t/ is a very common L1-transfer error for speakers whose native languages lack the /θ/ phoneme.

What is 'intrusive r' in non-rhotic varieties of English?

Answer: Inserting an /r/ sound between two vowels across word boundaries where no letter 'r' exists

Intrusive /r/ occurs in non-rhotic accents (like RP British) when speakers insert /r/ between a word ending in a vowel and a following word beginning with a vowel, e.g., 'the idea(r) of it.'

Which of these words has an irregular plural pronunciation where the /s/ is voiced as /z/?

Answer: dogs

After a voiced consonant like /g/, the plural suffix '-s' is pronounced /z/, so 'dogs' ends in /z/ not /s/.

On the Versant test's 'Passage Reconstruction' task, what pronunciation skill is most directly tested?

Answer: Ability to reproduce the prosody and phrasing of a memorized passage

Passage Reconstruction asks test-takers to listen and then reconstruct the passage aloud, testing whether they can reproduce natural rhythm, stress, and intonation.

Which term describes the lengthening of a vowel sound before a voiced consonant compared to a voiceless one?

Answer: Pre-fortis clipping

Pre-fortis clipping is the phenomenon where vowels are shorter before voiceless (fortis) consonants, e.g., 'beat' has a shorter /iː/ than 'bead.'

What is 'intonation unit' (or tone unit) in discourse?

Answer: A chunk of speech that carries one main pitch movement and typically one key idea

An intonation unit is a stretch of speech organized around one nuclear tone and conveying one informational unit, bounded by pauses or changes in pitch direction.

A speaker says 'Did you eat yet?' very quickly in American English. It may sound like:

Answer: 'Did joo eat yet?'

In fast casual American speech, 'did you' commonly assimilates to 'didja' or 'didja' through yod-coalescence and reduction, sounding like 'Did joo eat yet?'