Saturday, March 21, 2020

Pronounce the French R Perfectly

Pronounce the French R Perfectly The French letter r is one of the two most difficult sounds in French to pronounce for most people (u is the other one). The r is a kind of raspy sound pronounced in the back of the throat. There is no equivalent sound in English. Take a look at step-by-step instructions on how to pronounce the French r. French R Words Hear different r words and their correct pronunciation in French:   Ã‚  Ã‚  ronronner: to purr  Ã‚  Ã‚  rouge: red  Ã‚  Ã‚  crà ©neau: gap  Ã‚  Ã‚  farine: flour  Ã‚  Ã‚  sucre: sugar  Ã‚  Ã‚  frà ¨re: brother Many French students have trouble with the letter  r. Follow step-by-step instructions  to learn how to pronounce the French r: Open your mouth.Close your throat as if youre going to gargle or to avoid swallowing a mouthful of liquid, and say  k  carefully, several times.Pay attention to where in your throat the k sound is made. Well call this the  K place.Begin slowly closing your throat until you can almost feel the K place. Your throat should be only partially constricted.Tense the muscles around the K place.Gently push air through your partially-constricted throat.Practice saying ra-ra-ra (where r steps 4-6) every day. Tips Try not to think of this letter as an r. The French r is nothing like the  English r  (pronounced in the middle of the mouth) or the  Spanish r  (pronounced in the front of the mouth). The French r is pronounced in the throat. The French r sounds a lot like the ch sound in Loch Ness and the kh in Arabic transcription, as in Khalid. Remember that practice makes perfect! Sources R. Lawless English, 2019. R. Spanish Consonant, Lawless English, 2019.

Wednesday, March 4, 2020

Intrusive Misuse of Colons

Intrusive Misuse of Colons Intrusive Misuse of Colons Intrusive Misuse of Colons By Mark Nichol Writers often mistakenly introduce intrusive â€Å"colonization† where it is not necessarily. In each of the following examples, as explained in the discussion, the colon is superfluous. 1. Smith was invited to give the presentation: â€Å"Global Development and Global Practices.† â€Å"The presentation† and the title of the presentation are appositive- one is equivalent to the other, just as in â€Å"global-development expert John Smith,† the person’s description and his name are appositive- and no intervening punctuation is necessary: â€Å"Smith was invited to give the presentation â€Å"Global Development and Global Practices.† (If the presentation previously was alluded to and is now being specified, set the title off from the first part of the sentence with a comma: â€Å"Smith was invited to give the presentation, â€Å"Global Development and Global Practices,† but otherwise do not replace the colon with a comma. Also, if the wording is â€Å"Smith was invited to give a presentation on the topic of . . .,† the description of the topic is just that- a description- and should be lowercase and not enclosed in quotation marks. 2. An effective compliance program will include: governance and management oversight, policies and procedures, training, monitoring, quality control, and independent audit. When include or includes (or â€Å"consist/consists of† or a similar word) precedes a list, a colon is superfluous, just as it would be between any verb and any single noun or noun phrase associated with the verb. This is true whether the information is presented as an in-line list (meaning that it is integrated into the sentence, as here) or it is formatted vertically, one item on a line, whether as is or set off with bullets or numbers: â€Å"An effective compliance program will include governance and management oversight, policies and procedures, training, monitoring, quality control, and independent audit.† (An exception is if what precedes the list is an independent clause, such as â€Å"An effective compliance program will include the following.†) 3. Management is secure in the knowledge that it: has considered all plausible scenarios, understands the organization’s breakpoint in the event of extreme scenarios, and has effective contingency-response plans in place. The point of the previous example is true regardless of whether a verb precedes the colon or, because each item in the in-line or vertical list begins with a verb, the colon follows a word representing another part of speech; the fact that a sentence is more extensive and complex than if it had essentially a one-item list (for example, â€Å"Management is secure in the knowledge that it has considered all plausible scenarios†) is irrelevant: â€Å"Management is secure in the knowledge that it has considered all plausible scenarios, understands the organization’s breakpoint in the event of extreme scenarios, and has effective contingency-response plans in place.† Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Punctuation category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:What Does [sic] Mean?The Writing ProcessWriting a Thank You Note