Theatre

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Humour

Here is an example of slapstick, humorous acting in which the performers fall over, throw things, etc.



What is this stand-up comedian talking about?

2. feelings

Trabajo dirigido:
We discussed the meaning of "humour", "being hilarious" and "having a great sense of humour". We also listened to some jokes. You can listen to some jokes or download them in this website.

Feelings

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Varieties of English

VARIETIES OF ENGLISH

RP English: Received Pronunciation (RP), also called the Queen's (or King's) English and BBC English, is the accent of Standard English in England.

English in the USA differs considerably from British English.
American spelling is simpler. British words ending in –our, -re, end in –or and –er in American English (eg. Colour/color and centre/center) and words ending –ise in British English end in –ize in US English.
Some words are also different. Petrol/gasoline, pavement/sidewalk, chips/French fries, lift/elevator, wardrobe/closet, rubber/eraser, aerial/antenna, sweets/candy, return/round trip, single/one way, queue/line…
The rhythm is different from British English. American people tend to pronounce /r/ sounds after vowels in words such as “barn”, “car”, “father”… /r/ is also stronger. Also, /t/ in words such as “duty” sounds more like /d/.

Indian English is a distinct variety of the English language.
They use compound formation extensively. For example. They may say “my cousin-brother” to reinforce the fact that it is male. They also shorten words: “Enthu”, for example, is either “enthusiasm” or “enthusiastic”.
Indian English tends to drop the –ed after /k/ or /t/, so that “walked” will be pronounced as “walk”. /ð/ is pronounced as /d/. /p, t, k/ are not aspirated, and /Ѳ/ is pronounced as /t/ in some regions. The /r/ sound is more rolled. The intonation is more musical, as it is a syllabic language (each syllable receives equal importance) rather than stress-timed (speakers give stress to certain words while other words are quickly spoken).

Australian English. The most marked feature of the Australian accent is its homogeneity, with no regional differences as marked as those in BrE and AmE. Australian English is interesting for its rich store of highly colloquial words and expressions. These often involve shortening a word. Sometimes the ending –ie or –o is added, for example, a “truckie” is a truck or lorry driver. “Oz” is short for Australia and “Aussie” is an Australian. Other examples are “Chewie” (chewing gum), “chalwy” (a teacher), lippie (lipstick), “lavvy” (lavatory), “rellies” (relatives), “oldies” (parents), “chockie” (chocolate), “sunnies” (sun glasses)… Australian English has absorbed many Aboriginal words such as “billabong” (a water hole).
As far as AusE pronunciation is concerned, the differences are less distinct than other accents. The main peculiarity that makes an Australian be recognized as such is the particular intonation pattern. There is usually rising intonation at the end of sentences. It is non-rhotic. The schwa is busier than in RP, frequently replacing /ɪ/ in unaccented positions, as in “boxes”, “dances”, “darkest”… Finally some diphthongs shift, RP /eɪ/ towards /ʌɪ/, as in Australia, such as in “day”, “mate”, and /aɪ/ towards /ɒɪ/, as in “high”, “wide”.
[i] See English Vocabulary in Use (p.196)

Further practice / online sounds
Click here for a variety of Listening exercises in different accents

English Accents

continuous forms

Continuous Forms

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