This is an English lesson designed to help you practice and improve your English listening and pronunciation skills. The listening lesson is a short story about something that happened in my life in Canada. There is also a short pronunciation explanation about a word or sound I used in the story.

Story: A recent family reunion!
Pronunciation explanation: when the letters ‘t’ and ‘d’ are silent in a word!

If you have trouble with your listening skills, here’s something that may help:
How to practice listening

Listen to the podcast:
*Try to listen at least once without looking at the words!

*music by Incompetech

Download the podcast in .mp3 from Podbean.com or itunes!

Listening Comprehension Questions:

1. Why does my family have a reunion in December?

2. Who passed away this year?

3. How many people came to the reunion?

4. What did we talk about at the reunion?

5. What happened after the party?

Transcript:

(*Click on the links to learn more about the grammar, vocabulary and expressions used in the story!)

I have a big extended family. I’m very lucky that both my parents came from big families, so I have a lot of aunts, uncles, and cousins who are married and have children of their own.

My maternal grandmother’s birthday was close to Christmas. She passed away 10 years ago, but her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren still gather every year in December for a family reunion to remember her. It’s the one time a year that I see many of my cousins. The family reunion this year was even more poignant because my uncle – my grandmother’s oldest child – passed away in October. He was 79.

At this year’s family reunion there were over 30 people in my house. The youngest person was 6 and the oldest was 78! It was a beautiful day. Outside it was snowing and everything was covered in white. Inside there were a lot of laughs and a lot of love. There was also a lot of food! Every family that came brought something to eat. We shared memories of my grandmother and of my uncle, and we caught up on what had happened in each other’s lives over the past year.

After the party, my parents and I spent the rest of the evening cleaning up. It took 3 dishwasher loads to clean up all the glasses and dishes! There were a lot of empty beer and wine bottles, too. My goodness my family drinks a lot! Two days after the party we’re still eating leftovers!

I look forward to next year’s reunion.

Pronunciation:

In English, particularly American English, there are a lot of words with silent letters. In the story, I talked about my grandmother.

Can you hear the ‘d’ in ‘grandmother’?

Can you hear the ‘t’ in 78 or 79?

In ‘grandmother’ and ‘seventy,’ the ‘t’ and ‘d’ come after the letter ‘n.’

To make the ‘n’ sound, your tongue is pressed to the top of your mouth: /n/

The ‘t’ and ‘d’ sounds have the same mouth position. Both sounds begin with the tip of the tongue moving up to touch the top of your mouth – the same tongue position as the ‘n’ sound.

So, instead of raising your tongue up for the ‘n’ sound, and then again for the ‘t’ or ‘d’ sounds, just leave the tongue up and forget about the ‘t’ and ‘d’ sounds!

Listen again:
Grandmother
78
79

The silent ‘t’ and ‘d’ often occur when people are speaking quickly. Listen to some more examples:

I have a dentist appointment on Thursday.
(Did you hear the word ‘dentist’? When I said it quickly, I said ‘dentist.’)

You can find the information on the internet.
(Did you hear the word ‘internet’? When I said it quickly, I said ‘internet.’)

The Christmas party will be at the community centre.
(Did you hear the word ‘centre’? When I said it quickly, I said ‘centre.’)

Vocabulary:

an extended family
I have a big extended family.
= grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.; your ‘immediate family’ is your parents and siblings, or your husband/wife and children.

maternal (adjective)
My maternal grandmother’s birthday was close to Christmas.
= used to talk about your mother’s side of the family

great-grandchildren
…her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren still gather every year in December …
= the adjective ‘great-‘ is added to any generation after grandparents/grandchildren (great-grandmother, great-grandfather, etc.)

a family reunion
…her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren still gather every year in December for a family reunion to remember her.
= a party/event where family members who haven’t seen each other for a long time spend time together

poignant (adjective)
The family reunion this year was even more poignant because my uncle – my grandmother’s oldest child – passed away in October.
= something that causes a strong, sharp feeling of sadness

leftovers
Two days after the party we’re still eating leftovers!
= food leftover from the previous day; there was a lot of food at the reunion but not all of it was eaten at the party.