Spoken English: The /i/ and /i:/ sounds
Adverbs
Spoken English: The /i/ and /i:/ sounds
We are going to revise the two sounds above.
Listen to these two lists of words and repeat:
/i:/ /i/
| Eat | It |
| Feel | Fill |
| Heap | Hip |
| Sheep | Ship |
| Leaves | Lives |
| Seat | Sit |
| Beat | Bit |
| He’s | His |
| Least | List |
Many learners of English need to distinguish between these sounds properly. The problem lies with the /i/ sound of the words in column 2. Many Nigerian languages do not have this sound. So let us compare the two sounds. the /i:/ of the words in column 1 is generally quite long and your tongue muscles are very tense or strained as you say it. In contrast, the /i/ of the column 2 words is usually short. Your tongue is brought near the top of your mouth, but your tongue muscles are quite lax as you say it; there is no tension in them. When you say /i/, your mouth is slightly more open than when you say /i:/.
Spelling: /i:/
The /i:/ sound is usually spelled as ‘ee’ or ‘ea’ but in some other ways ‘als’. Read the following:
need, meet, chief, police, green, please, piece, machine, meat, these, believe, deceive.
Spelling: /i/
The following words all contain the /i/ sound, which is usually spelled ‘i’. Say them:
is, quick, little, did, which, bitter, this, with, politics, fit, give, Philip
When a word is spelled with ‘i …e’ the sound of ‘i’ is usually /ai/, but the following words should be said with /i/.
river, driven, favourite, genuine, promise.
There are some unusual spellings of /i/, which we find in some very common words. Say the following:
busy, business, minute, women, pretty
This sound is very often found in unstressed syllables where the spelling is ‘-ed’, ‘- ied’, ‘-et’, ‘-age’, ‘-ess’, ‘-ies’, ‘-ing’, and ‘-y’. Say the following:
wanted, carries, market, manage, useless, ended, ladies, bucket, going, quickly, village, married
Part of Speech: Adverb
Adverbs
An adverb is a part of a speech which can be added to a verb to modify its meaning. An adverb is also a word or group of words that describes either the verb, or the whole sentence. Usually, an adverb tells you when, where, how, in what manner, or to what extent an action is performed. Many adverbs end in ly particularly those that are used to express how an action is performed. Although many adverbs end in ly, some others do not. Example fast, never, well, most, least, more, less, now, for and there. An adverb which is made up of several words is called adverbial phrase.
Positions of Adverbs
An adverb that modifies an adjective (“quite sad”) or another adverb (“very carelessly”) appears immediately in front of the word it modifies. An adverb that modifies a verb is generally more flexible: it may appear before or after the verb it modifies (“softly sang” or “sang softly“), or it may appear at the beginning of the sentence (“Softly she sang to the baby”). The position of the adverb may have an effect on the meaning of the sentence.
Function of Adverbs
Temporal Adverb – An adverb (such as soon or tomorrow) that describes when the action of a verb is carried out. It is also called a time adverb. An adverb phrase that answers the question “when?” is called a temporal adverb. e.g I always thought that the river was deep, but now I see that deep down it’s shallow.
Types of Adverbs
Although there are thousands of adverbs, each adverb can usually be grouped in one of the following groupings, headings and categories.
1. Adverbs of Manner: These describe the way or manner an action is performed. Adverbs of manner usually end in ly.
For example:
The people waited impatiently
Adverb like this answer the question HOW?
For example:
How did the clerk shout?
He shouted angrily
Examples: nervously, politely, patiently, clearly, badly, accurately, carefully, hungrily, quickly, slowly, noisily, beautifully, softly, well, thirstily, obstinately, suspiciously, helpfully.
Note: Well is the adverb form of good
Practice:
Choose from the adverb examples above
- Dieng waited ___in the queue
- The letter-writer eyed Tolu __.
- The fat woman ___ left the post office
- The children ___ waited for their supper
- Greg ___ offered his identity card
- The clerk ___ refused to accept it
- My sister dresses ___.
The words we have been practising are all adverbs of manner. Sometimes we can use an adverb phrase:
Dare replied with a quavering voice
The patient breathed in short gasps
Sometimes we have to use a phrase. Watch out for the words friendly and cowardly. They look like adverbs because they end in –ly. But they are adjectives not adverbs.
The cowardly soldiers ran away
The friendly man gave him a lift
To use these adjectives as adverbs, we have to turn them into phrases:
| Adjective | Adverbial |
| Cowardly | In a cowardly manner |
| Friendly | In a friendly way |
Adverbs normally come at the end of a sentence. But they also sometimes come at the beginning or between a subject and the verb:
The policeman slowly opened the door – Adverb between subject and verb
Slowly, the policeman opened the door – Adverb at the beginning
The policeman opened the door slowly- Adverb at the end
2. Adverbs of Time and Place
Adverbs of time and place answer the questions WHEN? and WHERE?
When did she arrive? – She arrived yesterday (time)
Where did he go to? – He went to church (place)
When will you eat lunch? – In an hour (time)
Where is my shoe? – Under the bed (place)
When all these three types of adverb appear in a sentence, they always go in this manner:
| Manner | Place | time | |
| She arrived | safely | in Jos | at two |
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