SPOKEN ENGLISH

Preface

English is a universal language and it is understood all over the

world. In fact, in today's world speaking English has become a

necessity. It is not only that but today's generation looks down

upon anyone who is unable to speak English. It has become more

like a status symbol. All the companies are recruiting only those

people who speak fluent and correct English. With the coming up

of the call centre and Multinational companies the need for English language has increased ten folds. With all this, happening

one cannot afford to live without speaking English.

In this book we have tried to do just that and that is to improve

your English speaking skills. This book will help you in speaking

better and correct English. Mter reading this book you will feel

much more confident and better-equipped at speaking English.

The book is divided into chapters and each chapter deals with

different aspects of spoken English. Each chapter is given in a

detailed manner so that you get the full knowledge about the given

topic.

The book also contains a chapter on tongue twisters. They will

help you in practicing how to speak English correctly and fluently.

The chapter on slangs is also very interesting because it familiarises

you with the usage of latest way of speaking in the modern world.

The book also has interesting chapters like common errors, which

will help you in avoiding all the mistakes we usually make while

speaking English. All and all, this book is your free ticket to the

world of speaking better and fluent English.

Introduction

If you're a person whose mother-tongue is not English, the chances

are, you've learnt English in the 'non-natural way'. That is, you've

learnt English in a way that is opposite to the way of natural language acquisition.

You know, the natural way of acquiring a language is to learn to

speak it first and then to write it.

Those people who do not learn English the natural way, know

reasonable English - or even excellent English. And if you ask

them to write a report or something in English, they may do it

fairly well. But, if you ask them to speak to you about the same

thing, they find it hard to do. Or even impossible.

When they start speaking, most of the words remain on the tip of

their tongue and don't readily come out. And often, what words

do come out sound disconnected and random. And, they find

themselves speaking in a clumsy and unclear way, with long gaps

and intervals of indecision between every two words. And they

keep fumbling for something to say. Not only this, they fmd it

difficult to go on beyond one or two lines, without tripping up

and without stumbling over the sounds or sequences of sounds.

And then, they tend to fall back upon their mother-tongue - or

become tongue-tied. This book will help you to overcome all these

problems and will also help you in developing better speaking

skills.

CONTRACTioNS

Contraction means to shorten a word or phrase by omitting one

or more sounds or letters from it. The word so formed is also

called a contraction. Discussed below are the various contractions

used in spoken English.

The apostrophe has two uses:

1. To show that we have made words shorter. We have contracted

them.

2. To show that something belongs to someone, i.e. they possess

it. (possession)

Here are two examples.

• My dad's car is red.

Here we hive only one dad but we have put on the letter's' because we have put an apostrophe. It shows that the car belongs to

dad.

• "I'll tell you that later," he whispered.