Clear Pronunciation

Ambassador Bobby and I spent a wonderful morning at Repton School on Wednesday, speaking at morning assembly on the last day of term on behalf of Guide Dogs UK. Repton School will be naming a guide dog puppy in the new year as a result of all the funds they've raised for the charity. Congratulations to Repton!

My son, Benjamin Saint, is taking part in this important initiative to support homeless people. Remember, most of us are only a couple of paychecks away from losing our homes, our lifestyles and our identities. It could be you!
Please give generously. Thank you.

CEO Sleepout London Help Benjamin Saint raise money to support CEO Sleepout

Some people believe in Martians and others that the world is flat, but there are equally strange convictions lurking in the self-help section of your local bookshop... Read on to find out more!

It’s not what you say, it’s the way that you say it! - Clear Pronunciation Some strange folks believe the world is flat and that aliens abduct earthlings on a regular basis. But there are equally bizarre convictions lurking far closer to home in the self-help section of your local bookshop. A surprising number of guides to public speaking feature the work of one Albert Meh...

Hold onto your hats folks!

VALL-E: Microsoft's new zero-shot text-to-speech model can duplicate everyone's voice in three seconds Since the release of the first text-to-speech (TTS) model, researchers have been looking for ways to improve the way these systems generate speech. The

For those old enough to remember Kenneth Williams... This is his hilarious take on accents:

James Hogg on Twitter “Kenneth Williams on accents. This'll see you through to home time. Watch to the end.”

Are you always repeating yourself? Most of us indulge in a spot of tautology from time to time, whether we realise it or not. Read my new blog piece to find out more:

It is what it is! - Clear Pronunciation Do you like a bit of tautology? Most of us do, either consciously or not, or so it seems by the amount of repetition or redundant words that we use in the course of our daily lives. How many times have you said, “It is what it is”, or talked about “over exaggeration”, “sad misfortune”, [...

A lovely bunch of people and some well deserved prizes!😃

Public speakers from Leamington sweep the board at regional competition Leamington Speakers Club showed how it is going from strength to strength since it was established six years ago and is keen to welcome new members

Chris Philp said the Prime Minister had “apologised really fulsomely for what happened. He did it publicly, and he did it fulsomely”, Christopher Chope went on to congratulate him on his “most abject and fulsome apology”. But what were they really saying? Read my latest blog piece to find out...

Fulsome is as fulsome does! - Clear Pronunciation   “If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn’t…” (Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll) In a ‘post-truth’ world, like Alice in Wonderland, we might all be forgiven for occasionally wondering whether eve...

𝗗𝗼𝗲𝘀 𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗿 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿?
The answer, it turns out, is not as straightforward as you might think. Read my latest blog piece to find out why...

Does grammar matter? - Clear Pronunciation As a p**nunciation coach, I’m often approached by native speakers who are convinced that they need to ‘lose’ their regional accent because it’s holding them back either socially or vocationally. This presents me with a bit of quandary and shines a light on our sclerotic class system, as well...

How do you feel about a tool which alters the tone of your communication to make it more appropriate? Could it be helpful for non-native English speakers who might otherwise fall foul of writing etiquette and protocols of which they may be unaware? Have a look at this:

Tone detection in Microsoft Editor for Outlook on the web | Super Simple 365 Home Microsoft 365 Updates Tone detection in Microsoft Editor for Outlook on the web Microsoft 365 UpdatesOutlook Tone detection in Microsoft Editor for Outlook on the web By Mark Thompson - August 28, 2021 301 0 Facebook Twitter Pinterest WhatsApp Would you like Microsoft Outlook to make recommenda...

"𝐇𝐞 𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐚 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐥𝐚𝐝!"
Can grammatical errors ever be acceptable? The unprecedented attention given to Alex Scott's missing 'ing' endings in her Olympics reportage, which prompted vociferous condemnation by Lord Jones (accompanied by much hand-wringing about slipping standards) really got me thinking about other 'lapses' in spoken English. As usual, the British Library is ahead of the curve with this fascinating piece. I particularly like the section about variations in the use of the verb 'to be'. Check it out here:
https://www.bl.uk/british-accents-and-dialects/articles/grammatical-variation-across-the-uk

We've all been /t/ voicing for years and acquiring other features of General American or even 'Valley Speak,' like the High Rising Terminus (or 'uptalk'). It's linguistic payback time folks! 😂

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2021/jul/19/peppa-pig-american-kids-british-accents

Having a go: US parents say Peppa Pig is giving their kids British accents Show was second most in-demand cartoon in US households for 12-month run that ended in February, according to Parrot Analytics

Thought provoking stuff, especially for teachers of EFL!
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jun/28/english-perfect-language-arabic

My English will never be ‘perfect’ – and that’s what keeps a language alive | Nesrine Malik As a child, I mixed English with Arabic. Now I know there’s no such thing as a fixed language that belongs to one special group, says Guardian columnist Nesrine Malik

Really looking forward to my webinar next month for Everyone Academy. Thanks so much Aziz Soubai for inviting me! 😊

End of course event about to begin. It's been a pleasure to teach at HD Ningbo School and shows that remote learning can really work, providing you have the right support, both human and technological, in place.

The complexity of what we do 'naturally' every time we speak never ceases to amaze me. For example, I bet you didn't know you were an expert ablaut re-duplicator, did you? Find out more here: https://clearp**nunciation.co.uk/what-about-the-unknown-knowns/

What about the 'unknown-knowns'? - Clear Pronunciation   It’s always nice to discover that we’re more intelligent than we give ourselves credit for, isn’t it? And amongst those many unknown knowns that you have mastered without realising it, is the unique ability to rank adjectives in a specific order when describing a noun. I’m guessing that y...

Is spelling important? I think so. Your views?

It’s elitist to mark down bad spelling, universities insist University tutors are being told not to dock marks for spelling mistakes because requiring good English could be seen as “homogenous north European, white, male, elite”.Several universities are

'San fairy ann' if you can't 'parlay' the language, just 'try the English word and make it sound as French as possible'. Some useful tips from our men at the front in WWI as they wrestled with the allies' strange mode of communication. Plus ça change...😉

How to ensure you get your message across 😉
https://youtu.be/8DtjXBwAszU

How to make sure you're understood Top tips to ensure you're understood 100 per cent of the time.

What a brilliant opportunity to see Mark Hancock live! See you there Pronsig! 😀

PronSIG has an extra special lined up this weekend - a Q&A session with **nunciation expert Mark Hancock!
If you'd like to ask Mark some **n advice, register now!
https://p**nsig.iatefl.org/ask-mark/
Fb event: https://www.facebook.com/events/3753602238029078
Write your questions below to ensure they get asked!

Never let a good agricultural homophone go to waste: 'Black Sheep Services - raising the baa for ewe!'😂
Thanks to Benjy Saint for spotting this one.

My lockdown project! Thanks to Centre of Excellence for my lovely certificate. Very proud to come second in the Entrepreneur of the Year category 2020 😀 🙏

Did you know that the average English speaker has a vocabulary of perhaps 100,000 words of which some 99.9% are 'content' words (nouns, adjectives, adverbs, main verbs), but these account for less than half of the words we use? Although 'function' or 'grammar' words (articles, p**nouns, prepositions, auxiliary verbs etc) account for less than 0.1 per cent of your vocabulary, they make up more than half of the words commonly used!

(Pennebaker 2011 New Scientist - The secret life of p**nouns.)

Did you know that plurals are going out of fashion? Read my latest blog piece to find out why! 😂

https://clearp**nunciation.co.uk/the-singular-is-so-much-more-singular-dont-you-think/