Speech Tips
How Can You Make Your Speaking and Writing to Be Easy to Understand
Here is a list of valuable auxiliary verbs. Auxiliary are also called “helping” verbs because they go with other verbs.
This speech tip and blog works on the principle that the more natural and idiomatic or daily life English gets, the more it expresses ideas by auxiliary verbs.
For example, read this passage from an employee “How to Do Work” manual: “With our view of broadening the individual’s training and increasing his/her knowledge of the ABC Company’s organization, operations and service, staff members are chosen periodically for advanced continuing education and training. These training programs are designed to give our staff members an opportunity….” etc.
Here’s my advice—as per Rudolf Flesch tip. What a human being would say is something like this” “We’d like to help you add to your training and get to know our company better…. Our advanced training programs are meant to give you the opportunity…”
So you see that ordinarily when people speak English, they use a lot of such words as like to, get to, and mean to.
Here’s my and Flesch’s list:
aim to
be apt to
be bound to
be supposed to
care to
claim to
get to and got to
happen to
hate to
have to
help —-ing
keep —–ing
like to
mean to
minding —-ing
plan to
seem to
stop —-ing
use to, used to
want to
How Do You Keep It Simple
“How do you keep it simple?”
It has been said many times and many ways. “If you start to analyze what style is, the only possible general rule is that the reader must be able to understand what the writer says: and the surest way to do that is simplicity.”
The same goes for English speech communication.
Consider making these changes in speaking or writing
TOO HEAVY PREPOSITIONS AND CONJUNCTIONS
1.along the lines of: like
2.as to: about (or leave out)
3. for the purpose of: for
4. for the reason that: since, because
5. from the point of view of: for
6.in order to: to
7. in the case of: if
8. in the event that: if
9. in terms of: in, for (or leave out)
10. on the basis of: by
11. prior to: before
TOO HEAVY CONNECTIVES
- accordingly: so
- consequently: so
- for this reason: so
- furthermore: then
- hence: so
- in addition: besides, also
- indeed: I fact
- likewise: and, also
- more specifically: for instance, for example
- moreover: now, next
- nevertheless: but, however
- thus: so
And here are three more words that are almost always superfluous and not needed:
concerned
involved
respectively
Example: The workers concerned should consult the bosses involved, respectively.
All paraphrased from a book written in 1949 by Rudolf Flesch The Art of Readable Writing
June 20, 2020
SUFFIX “Y” — Soooo Useful!
BLOG for Saturday, June 13, 2020
TITLE: Suffix “Y” – So USEFUL!
To speak clear and accurate English for unfamiliar multiple syllable words, first you need to divide the unfamiliar word into syllables. There are eight rules to do that.
Most important is to look for the prefixes and suffixes first.
Many English words end with the suffix “y”. For “rainy”, that makes “rain” an adjective, such as “rainy day”.
Sometimes, the root word or the word you begin with ends with a silent “e”, such as “love”. Add the “y” after the silent “e”, so “lovely” is the spelling for the adjective. The first syllable is spelled “love” and the second syllable is spelled “ly”.
Another important advice is to maintain the pronunciation for the root word—“love”. L then short vowel “o”, the “v” pronunciation. For “lovely” – add the “L” pronunciation, then the “y” is pronounced as a long vowel “e”.
One more tip. For the word “happy”, the “y” in the suffix tells you that word is an adjective. Example- happy person”. But here the suffix is spelled “py”. That means the first syllable is spelled “hap” and is a closed syllable and the vowel “a” is the American short vowel “a” as pronounced in the word “hat”.
Soooo, “happy” is pronounced first “h” sound, then American short vowel “a”, then “p” sound then “y” is pronounced as a long vowel “e”. Easy for you for the word “happy”. Seems like everyone knows that word. But the spelling of the complex and multiple syllable word “happenstance” might NOT be so obvious.
For this WEEK’S SPEECH TIP, video, Dr. Antonia Lawrence Johnson focuses on the “ty” suffix and the “teen” suffix. And the “th” sound with no voice. And the “ir” spelling which is pronounced as an “er”. The words are “thirty” and “thirteen”.
Public Speaking: “You” – Oriented Statements
Public Speaking: “You”- Oriented Statements
If you want to connect with listeners during a presentation, don’t focus so much on yourself. Find ways to address others’ needs.
Tip: Involve your listeners by using more “you”-oriented lines.
- “You know from your own experience that _________.”
- “You’ll be relieved to learn ______________________.”
- “You can benefit if you __________________________.”
- “You’ll gain direct access to ______________________.”
- “You can win by _______________________________.”
- “You deserve _________________________________.”
- “You can count on _____________________________.”
- “You can take advantage of ______________________.”
- “You can now do something about ________________.”
Be sure to watch our English Speech Tips videos at YouTube.com/ClearTalkMastery and Accent Reduction Tip videos for more English pronunciation and accent reduction exercise.
Rerun from June 7, 2017
Advice for When You Teleconference
Tips for Teleconferencing
Use emotion in your voice. Emphasize emotion so you don’t speak in a flat tone. Use metaphors and similes to create word pictures for others.
Revised – yay still true from 09/11/2017
