In this mini episode, you will learn about something strange that happens with the pronunciation of two very common verbs.
Episode 279 of the Everybody ESL podcast is a mini episode about something strange that happens with the pronunciation of two very common verbs. Send your questions about English and your suggestions for future episodes to EverybodyESL@gmail.com! (And let me know if you’d like to record the introduction to a future episode.)
Intro
“Hello! This is Hyeonjeong, from Seoul. And you’re listening to Everybody ESL.”
Welcome to episode 279 of Everybody ESL, the podcast for everybody who wants to improve their English, practice their English, or just learn more English. My name is Ben, and I have a mini episode for you today, where I am going to teach you about one English topic. You can subscribe to the Everybody ESL podcast at Apple podcasts, on the Stitcher app, and wherever you find your podcasts. If you like Everybody ESL, leave it a good review so other people can find out about it too. And if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for me, please send an email to everybodyESL@gmail.com. Okay! Let’s get on with this mini episode.
The episode
Today, I want to talk about an unusual thing that happens with the pronunciation of two very common words. These are two of the most common verbs in English. If you are listening to people speak English, if you are around people who are speaking English, you will hear these two verbs every day many times.
The two verbs are say: s-a-y and do: d-o.
There is something very strange about these two verbs—and only these two verbs. These two verbs are special in one strange way.
Before I say more about that, I want to talk about how this works with every other verb, every verb that isn’t say or do. Let’s look at the word go. When I use that in the first person singular, present tense, it just sounds like [go].
“I go to the movies every weekend.” I go. What does it sound like if we say that same sentence, but we change the subject. We change the subject from I—that’s the first person singular—and we change it to she. That is a third person singular form. So instead of saying, “I go to the movies every weekend,” we say, “She goes to the movies every weekend.”
You see that we have to change the form of the verb. In the third person singular, it becomes goes. We add an “s” when we spell it (but in a word like go, it does sound like a “z”). But something did not change. And that is the vowel. The vowel is exactly the same. “I go, she goes.” That’s the same vowel.
This is how it works for every verb—except for say and do. For say and do, we change the vowel in the third person singular, present tense form. What does it sound like? It sounds like this:
“Every night I do my homework.” I do my homework. [doo]. That’s what that verb sounds like there: [doo]. What if the subject is he instead? “Every night he does his homework.” [duhz]. We don’t say [dooz]. We say [duhz]. You can hear, the vowel changed. In the first person singular, the vowel is [oo]. [doo]. But in the third person singular, the vowel is [uh]. [duhz]. That is a little bit strange.
And something similar happens with the verb say. It sounds like this: “I [say]” or “she [sez].” [say], [sez]. You can hear that the vowel is different. With do and say, the vowel changes when we make the third person singular, present tense form: I [doo], he [duhz]. I [say], she [sez].
I should point out that in some varieties of British English—in some varieties of UK English—the vowel in say does not change in the third person singular, present tense form. In those varieties of English, people will say, “I [say],” “she [says].” Now, in that case, it does not change, but in American English, it does change.
Outro
This is the end of episode 279 of Everybody ESL. Remember: if you have any questions about English, or if you have comments or suggestions for the podcast, or if you would like to record an introduction that I can play at the beginning of future episodes—the same way Hyeonjeong recorded the introduction you heard at the beginning of this episode—send an email to everybodyESL@gmail.com. I’ll be back soon with a new episode, and until then, keep going, keep practicing, and keep learning. I’ll see you soon. Goodbye!