第11课　HOW DO YOU SPELL WHAT?

Nora confused "deadline" and "dateline", in yesterday's lesson. A "deadline" is a time before which you must finish a task. The word "dateline" usually refers to the imaginary line that separates different time zones, as in "International Dateline".

Gary is writing an e-mail...

Gary: Sorry, Jane, I'm writing an e-mail. Can you help me with the spelling?

Jane: Sure.

Gary: How to spell purchase?

Jane: Pardon? You should say "How do you spell?"

Gary: Oh, sorry. How do you spell purchase?

Jane: Purchase? What does that mean?

Gary: Purchase... You know... I want to purchase some goods.

Jane: Ahhh!Purchase!

　　　P..U..R..C..H..A..S..E.

Gary: Purchase, ah? OK!

Gary: And how to spell... sorry... how do you spell character?

Jane: I'm sorry, Gary. What's a character?

Gary: Please send us a character reference.

Jane: Oh, Gary, you mean character. That's C..H..A..R..A..C..T..E..R.

Gary: Aiyou!

Gary: And what about Lavender?

Jane: Is that French?

Gary: I don't think so. Lavender Street is near Kallang. It's where I purchased my canary. I have a few pet birds, y'know.

Jane: I think you're trying to say Lavender Street, which is where you purchased your canary! You're stressing the words in the wrong place. Let me show you something.

Jane: (She shows Gary the dictionary) Look at this dictionary...here's the word purchase... the stressed part is underlined.

Gary: But what are all those funny symbols?

Jane: That's a code that tells you how to pronounce a word. If you only want to know where the stress is, you don't need to learn that.

Gary: Let me try one... I never sure how to say calendar.

Jane: What?

Gary: The thing for seeing the date.

Jane: Ohhh! OK, go on, have a look.

Gary: (Gary finds the word) Here... ca..calen..no..calendar..calendar... is that right?

Jane: Spot on! Well done!

Gary: OK, last one... how many alphabets are there in "Japan"?

Jane: Three, I think, but they're not really alphabets... they're different systems of writing.

Gary: (puzzled) Eh?

Narrator:　Gary had some problems with word stress today. Word stress is important because if you get it wrong, people might not understand you. So, where did he go wrong?

Gary: Purchase

Narrator:　How should that be?

Gary: Purchase

Narrator:　What else?

Gary: Character

Narrator:　Again

Gary: Character

Narrator:　What about the others?

Gary: Lavender... Calendar... Canary

Narrator:　Again, with the right stress

Gary: Lavender.. Calendar.. Canary

Narrator:　The best way to find out about the stress of a word is to use a good dictionary. Sometimes the stressed part is underlined and sometimes it is marked in bold or with an apostrophe.

Narrator:　Finally, why do you think Gary was so puzzled when Jane told him there were 3 alphabets in Japan? (pause) That's right... an alphabet is a complete system of letters, so English has only one alphabet. This alphabet has 26 letters from A to Z. So the question Gary should have asked is:

Gary: How many letters are there in "Japan"?

Jane: There are 5.

Narrator:　Anyway, that's all for today from HotDotCom. Don't forget to phone in tomorrow!

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Speak Good English Phone-in Lesson
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Speak Well, Be Understood.　好英语，利沟通。
Written by Laraine Bamrah, Paul Tolton, Delphia Choo, Alaisdair Raynham and Steve Adams for the British Council in association with the Speak Good English Movement.
©Ministry of Information and The Arts and British Council Singapore 2001

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