Hey there! This is TOP episode 72: 7 Christmas Words. Pronunciation Tip.
My name’s Ola and I am an English teacher. My goal is to help you start speaking English with confidence and get rid of speaking barriers. I believe it is achievable for you. And it’s time you started speaking English fearlessly! Go to my website for full transcripts and worksheets to each episode. Happy learning!
Hello, welcome back. After a little break, we’re all set, all present and correct. All ready to learn. This time I want to steer your attention to pronunciation. It’s so much more important than you might think. But seriously, I hope you know how crucial it is to know the correct pronunciation. The thing is, you want to understand people speaking fast and that is challenging. But understanding the correct pronunciation and linking allows you to understand more. Not to mention that you want to be understood. Get your message across. So, pronunciation today.
Today is the 23rd of December, so three days left to Christmas. Perfect. Let’s take 7 Christmas words and let’s learn how to pronounce them correctly. First I’ll give you seven words, explain the pronunciation. Focus on problematic syllables, and then I’ll tell you the meaning of each word. You’ll learn why candy cane is a Christmas symbol. You’ll learn two names of two Christmas plants. You’ll find out what’s the name of that Christmas decoration people put up on the door. And finally, you will practice, you will speak. I’ve got 15 sentences for you to listen and repeat. Let’s begin.
Christmas – Christmas. The accent falls on the first syllable. Christmas. The second syllable is lower in pitch when compared with the first one. /məs/, /məs/. It’s lower in pitch and shorter because there’s the schwa sound. /məs/. What is really important here is that this word contains the letter ‘t’ but it’s not pronounced. /Christmas/. The word comes from Old English, but since I can’t read Old English I’ll just tell you what are the modern equivalents of these words: Christ, Mass. Christmas.
Candy cane – the trick is the first word. Candy. There’s the /ae/, /ae/ sound in the first syllable. The same sound can be found in the word ‘cat’, or ‘man’, or ‘woman’. We actually have a whole episode about this tricky sound, in which you can practice a lot and see the contrast between this sound and the sound /ʌ/. So, it’s not /ˈkʌndi// but /ˈkændi/. If you find it difficult, go to episode 41 and practice some more. Only practice my dear will take you there. Practice, I would say, perfect practice makes perfect.
Ok, now. What’s candy cane? It’s a stick of hard candy with a curved end. It’s striped white and red and it resembles a walking stick. If this is what comes to your mind when you see one you’re right. Because it’s supposed to look like shepherd’s cane. The legend has it that in the 16th century a German choirmaster made peppermint candy sticks, which were a popular treat, in the shape of a cane to quiet down rowdy choir boys — the cane shape was intended to represent a shepherd’s staff. Pronunciation once again: ‘candy cane’.
Mistletoe – this word also contains the silent letter ‘t’. Just like Christmas. /ˈmɪsltəʊ/. You have to go from the /s/ sound straight to the /l/ sound. So that’s a difficult consonant cluster. /sl/, /sl/,/ˈmɪsl/. Then add the /əʊ/ sound if you want to sound more American or the /əʊ/ sound to sound more British. What’s mistletoe? It’s an evergreen plant with small shiny white berries that grows on other trees and is often used as a decoration at Christmas. It is traditional to kiss people under a piece of mistletoe at Christmas.
Wreath – in my opinion the most difficult word in this episode. First of all the first letter is silent. ‘W’ is not pronounced, so we start with the sound /r/. Next, we move on to the /iː/ sound and at the end of the word, there’s the /θ/ sound. /θ/ like in ‘thank you’. /riːθ/, /riːθ/. What is it? It’s an arrangement of flowers or leaves in the shape of a circle, traditionally hung on doors as a decoration at Christmas. It’s decorated with lights, bells, mistletoe, and Christmas ornaments. A Christmas wreath. But it doesn’t have to be Christmas, it can be any arrangement of flowers and leaves, especially in the shape of a circle, placed on graves, etc. as a sign of respect for somebody who has died. Also a laurel wreath.
Stocking – so here we have this silent letter ‘c’. After the /k/ sound, /ˈstɒk/ we move on to the -ing ending, which is pronounced /ɪŋ/ /ɪŋ/ not /ɪng/. Like in Polish ‘sukienka’, ‘nka’, ‘nka’. This sound is produced with the back of your tongue, not the tip of it. The back of the tongue reaches back. But. If you pronounce it /ˈstɒkɪng/ with this /g/ sound at the end and you can’t change it, it’s ok. You can use it. It’s not perfect, but you definitely don’t have to sound perfect. I’d say it’s impossible to sound perfect. Nobody’s English sounds perfect. Nevertheless, I’m telling you about this because I want to make it somewhat easier for you to understand English speakers better. So /ˈstɒkɪŋ/. Or maybe /stacking/? Both options are correct /ˈstɒkɪŋ/ is British /ˈstɑːkɪŋ/ is American. What is it? A Christmas stocking is a long sock that children leave out when they go to bed on Christmas Eve so that it can be filled with presents. So, it’s not a sock, it’s a stocking. A Christmas stocking.
Bethlehem – three syllables, /ˈbeθ/ is the first one, notice that we don’t pronounce the letter ‘t’ as the /t/ sound like in Polish, Betlejem. Next, the second syllable, /li/ and finally /hem/ The letter ‘h’ is pronounced in this word. /ˈbeθlihem/. /ˈbeθlihem/. American English differs in this case slightly and it is pronounced as /ˈbeθləhem/ with the schwa sound in the second syllable. Bethlehem is a small town near Jerusalem on the West Bank of the Jordan River. It’s regarded as the place where Jesus was born.
Poinsettia – /ˌpɔɪnˈsetiə/. I guess that’s not that very difficult to pronounce. There are no silent letters hidden inside the word. So you probably won’t struggle when pronouncing it, I guess the hardest part is to remember the word. So what poinsettia is? It is a Christmas plant. It’s got big red leaves and instantly brings this Christmasy vibe to any room. The shape of the poinsettia flower and leaves are sometimes thought as a symbol of the Star of Bethlehem which led the Wise Men to Jesus.
Here you have it. 7 Christmas words. But this was just the beginning. Now, the essence of this podcast, you – practicing speaking. Because the only way to speaking fluently and fearlessly is through speaking out loud. Let’s do this now, Listen, retain and repeat out loud. Ok, here it comes:
The children are hoping for a white Christmas
Are you spending Christmas with your family?
Each guest receives a candy cane and a lollipop.
Street lights in the city are decorated in a candy cane motif
There was a mistletoe branch hanging above the bed.
Mistletoe is a parasite – it steals water and nutrients from trees.
Every December, I put a Christmas wreath on my front door.
The survivors joined them a few minutes later, leaving their own wreaths and flowers.
The stockings were hung by the chimney.
Santa will be filling the stockings at Christmas time.
Joseph took Mary back to his hometown, Bethlehem.
The Star of Bethlehem has been a sign associated with the Magi.
The reason why we associate poinsettias with the holidays comes from an old Mexican legend.
Help your poinsettia to turn red by placing it in total darkness for 14 hours each day.
Ok! What to do now? What’s next? Well, I’m sure you know there’s some homework. There always is. If you’ve subscribed to my newsletter this pdf file with your homework is already in your inbox. If not, subscribe! Teacherola.com/newsletter. Download the worksheet and translate 10 sentences into Polish. Teacherola.com/72.
Let’s wrap up! What have you learned today? 7 words connected with Christmas and not that easy to pronounce. Now let’s see the list of words we’ve practised today:
Christmas
Candy cane
Mistletoe
Wreath
Stocking
Bethlehem
Poinsettia
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Next week’s topic is song lyrics, make sure you don’t miss it and subscribe if you haven’t yet. Subscribe to this podcast but don’t forget to go to teacherola.com/newsletter and join TOPeople. This group receives emails once a week. In this beautiful email, I teach you something small, something I don’t teach anywhere else. It’s only for TOPeople. So you won’t find it in my Instagram nor here in this podcast.
Thank you so much for listening and I’ll see you next Wednesday! Merry Christmas to you. I hope it’ll be exactly how you like it to be. Happy holiday and happy learning. Take care! Bye!