Teacher-yourself transcription: more practice
This is where you can get some more live listening practice.
If you have access to headphones or earphones, it will be helpful.
It works like this:
- Listen to the short sentence
- Write what you hear in ordinary English (and then ignore it)
- Play the sentence again
- Write a transcription
- Listen again and check your transcription
- Click on the
to check your transcription
You can repeat most of these steps as often as you like. If this is your first attempt, take it slowly and carefully. You can return to this page at any time to try again and see how much more quickly you can transcribe what you hear.
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Eight sentences to transcribe |
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- Play from here:
- Now write what you have heard.
- Play the sentence again to check.
- Write your transcription.
- Click
to check.You should have:
/aɪd.ˈlaɪk.ən.ˈɪŋ.ɡlɪʃ.ˈbrek.fəst/
(I'd like an English breakfast)
Make sure
you had the two diphthongs: both /aɪ/.
that you have the two instances of the /ə/ correct.
you have the three stresses.
- Play from here:
-
-
- Play from here:
- Now write what you have heard.
- Play the sentence again to check.
- Write your transcription.
- Click
to check.You should have:
/aɪm.ˈɡəʊɪŋ.tə.ˈlʌn.dən/
(I'm going to London)
Make sure:
you had the two diphthongs: /aɪ/ and /əʊ/.
you have the three instances of the /ə/ correct.
you have the two stresses (but if you had only a secondary stress on the first element, that's fine).
- Play from here:
-
-
- Play from here:
- Now write what you have heard.
- Play the sentence again to check.
- Write your transcription.
- Click
to check.You should have:
/ˈwɒs.ðə.ˈfɪlm/
(What's the film)
Note:
the speaker does not pronounce the /t/ in What's.
the /ð/ is only lightly voiced (but it is voiced).
if you only have a stress on film, that's OK.
- Play from here:
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-
- Play from here:
- Now write what you have heard.
- Play the sentence again to check.
- Write your transcription.
- Click
to check.You should have:
/huː.wəz.ði.ˈæk.tə/
(Who was the actor?)
Make sure or note:
you have recorded the schwa in was. If you haven't, that's OK because it is very brief.
the final sound of the is the short /i/ not the even shorter /ɪ/ but if that is what you have, no-one would argue very strongly.
the end of was is almost an invoiced /s/ not /z/ so if that's what you have, that's OK.
there is only one stressed syllable.
- Play from here:
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-
- Play from here:
- Now write what you have heard.
- Play the sentence again to check.
- Write your transcription.
- Click
to check.You should have:
/ɪts.ə.ˈkɔː.tə.pɑː.ˈsɪks/
(It's a quarter past six)
Make sure or note:
you have recorded the schwa for a
the pronunciation of quarter is /ˈkɔː.tə/ not /ˈkwɔː.tə/ with the intrusive /w/. Speakers differ on this.
because past is followed by /s/ (on six) neither the /s/ nor the /t/ at the end of past is pronounced.
if you have a secondary stress only on the first syllable of quarter, that's OK.
- Play from here:
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-
- Play from here:
- Now write what you have heard.
- Play the sentence again to check.
- Write your transcription.
- Click
to check.You should have:
/aɪl.ˈsiː.ju.ɒn.ˈmʌnd.eɪ/
(I'll see you on Monday)
Note:
the /l/ is very indistinct and that's one reason learners miss it out. It is there if you listen very carefully.
the pronunciation of the final syllable of Monday is often given as /i/ or even /ɪ/ but that's not the case here.
the /n/ preceding the /m/ of Monday is semi-labialized.
- Play from here:
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-
- Play from here:
- Now write what you have heard.
- Play the sentence again to check.
- Write your transcription.
- Click
to check.You should have:
/ɪts.ɔːl.ˈre.di.ˈreɪn.ɪŋ/
(It's already raining)
Note:
the final /ŋ/ is only partly nasalised.
if you have /ɔːl.ˈre.dɪ/ as the transcription of already, that's acceptable but the correct transcription is as here.
- Play from here:
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-
- Play from here:
- Now write what you have heard.
- Play the sentence again to check.
- Write your transcription.
- Click
to check.You should have:
/hɪəz.ðə.ˈle.tə/
(Here's the letter)
Note:
the pronunciation of here's is as shown although the voicing on the /z/ is not strong. There is no /r/ sound and the vowel is as shown, not /iː/.
there is only one stress.
- Play from here:
You should come back to this page again if you feel you need a bit more practice at transcribing what you hear rather than what you think you hear.