Smooth Read Aloud, but words not counted? How to find and fix dragged and swallowed sounds

What this video covers

In the barrel self-check, step two was weak forms and dragged vowels. This episode is about dragging, and its opposite, swallowing.

The scorer recognises you word by word. Dragging adds a syllable and swallowing removes one; once the count is off, the word may be heard as a different one or not counted at all. You rarely notice yourself, because you know what you meant and your ears fill it in, and reading faster doesn't fix it.

Three kinds of dragging

1. An extra sound after the final consonant: an "uh" tacked onto have, work, cut.
2. Short vowels stretched: bit, sit, fit drawn out become beat, seat, feet.
3. Diphthongs that stop halfway: words like time should glide in one go; stop in the middle and it sounds like two syllables.

Two kinds of swallowing

1. Dropped weak syllables: light isn't gone. The first syllable of support or police is short and light, but it's there.
2. Dropped final consonants: say the whole ending of stopped and helped.

Five-step drill

1. Count syllables: check the dictionary when unsure, and tap a finger for each syllable.
2. Close your endings: hold the mouth on the final consonant and let nothing else out; link it to a following vowel and there's no room for an extra sound.
3. Long and short apart: alternate pairs like sit / seat, record and listen.
4. Slow, then normal: slowly with every syllable clear, then at normal speed with the same count.
5. Listen blind: a day later, no text, just the recording. Can you make out every word?

Self-check list

Listen hardest in three places: key words, the second half of words, and sentence endings. For many people the problem only shows up there.

Then open Read Aloud practice, record a passage, run it through the list and find the words you drag or swallow most. Haven't worked on weak forms yet? Start with episode 1, the pendulum drill.

Next episode: Six sound pairs Chinese speakers most often get wrong