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English Listening: My Car Died

By Melanie 9 min read

English Listening: My Car Died
Photo by Павел Хлыстунов on Pexels
English Listening: My Car Died | Episode 19 | English Teacher Melanie
Episode 19 · AI voice reconstruction My Car Died

The original recording of this episode was lost. This version was rebuilt with an AI voice from Melanie's own transcript, so the words are hers and the voice is not.

Listen to a story about how my car died!

You’ll also learn how to pronounce the vowel combination AU, like in the words “August” and “auto.”

Welcome to the English Teacher Melanie Podcast, a podcast for intermediate to advanced English learners who want to improve their English listening and speaking skills!

Each episode includes a story and a pronunciation tip. In the story, I use core vocabulary, the most common words in English, to tell a real world story. The pronunciation tip will help you understand natural spoken English.

You’ll hear the story twice. The first time, the story is a little slower than normal. It sounds funny because I used editing software to change the speed of the story and make it slower. After the pronunciation tip, you’ll hear the story again, but at a regular speed.

THE STORY

My car died last October. I was sad, but I wasn’t surprised. I knew my car was on its last legs. It happened on a Wednesday while I was driving around doing some errands. As I was driving, I noticed that the steering wheel was slowly moving to the left on its own, even though I was driving in a straight line and the wheels weren’t turning. I could also hear something rattling underneath the car. I finished my errands and got home safely, but I knew it was the last time I would ever drive my car.

It’s hard to explain what went wrong with my car, because I don’t know a lot about cars. Here’s what my dad explained to me. There are small rods underneath the car that are part of the steering system. These rods are important, because they connect the front wheels to the steering mechanism. The rods underneath my car had rusted and part of one had broken off, which meant that I couldn’t completely control the front wheels with the steering wheel. There was no point in getting it fixed because the repairs would have cost more than the car was worth.

I sold the car to the scrapyard. Nowadays scrapyards are called auto recycling companies, or auto recyclers. They pay cash for scrap cars, which are broken-down cars that can no longer be driven. The rest of the car was still in great condition, especially the interior, so the scrapyard will take the car apart and sell the parts to other customers.

It was a sad day when my car was towed away to the scrapyard. I loved my car. I bought it brand new in 2001 and I drove it everywhere. It was the only car I’ve ever owned. I haven’t bought another car yet. I work from home, so a car isn’t a necessity. I’m thinking about buying a one- or two-year-old used car. That’s more affordable than buying a brand new car.

Listen:
The Car Accident | Episode 32
My License Plate | Episode 08

PRONUNCIATION TIP

How to pronounce the vowel combination AU
This transcript uses IPA symbols to represents sounds and teach pronunciation. Learn more about the IPA here.

In the story, I used the word auto. This is a great opportunity to look at how to pronounce the vowel combination AU.

You’re probably saying to yourself, “Melanie, I already know how to pronounce words with AU.“ I want you to listen to this pronunciation tip anyway, because you may be surprised by it.

Many of my students try to say the sound /aʊ/ when they see this vowel combination. They say things like August /ˈaʊgəst/ instead of August /ˈɑɡəst/.

The vowel combination AU is almost never pronounced /aʊ/, so if you’ve been pronouncing it that way, you’ll need to relearn a few words!

The vowel combination AU is pronounced /ɑ/.

This is a very easy sound to make. Your mouth opens from your jaw, as if you were yawning. Your lips are relaxed and not rounded. Your tongue is flat on the bottom of your mouth. /ɑ/

Here are some words with the AU vowel combination at the beginning of a word:

August
audience
author
autumn
automatic
audition
auto [automobile]

Here are some words with the AU vowel combination in the middle of a word:

laundry
daughter
caught [past tense of catch]
taught [past tense of teach]
haunt

Of course, there are exceptions to every rule in English. There are some words where the AU vowel combination is not pronounced /ɑ/, for example, the words laugh & laughter, and dinosaur. However, these are exceptions and most of the time, the vowel combination AU is pronounced /ɑ/.

QUESTIONS

Do you have a car?

Have you ever had a problem with your car?

Leave me a comment below!

EnglishTeacherMelanie.com

Comments

  1. Hello my teacher
    tank you so much.
    but i want tell you,h like listen fun story,be cause.i think ,fun story is very helpful.
    tanks a lot.my good teacher

  3. Hi Melanie,

    I loved this lesson, you teach pohonetic the way I learned in USA.

    I lived in Canada-Vancouver for 6 months and it´s the place I would live forever.

    Congratulations for your site – classes I learn a lot with you.

    Have a nice day
    Celi

  4. dear Melanie, Your english podcasts are one of a kind, i was missing your podcasts , it is so easy to learn english with you. Good luck with your new car, hope that you get a deal with the new one .

  9. Hi my teacher
    Thank you for this story, especially that associated with voice and pronunciation. Always healthy and Have a nice day
    Behzad

  10. How can I have acces to the ebooks refering to the other lessons? Or is this one the only one available?

  11. There’s an slightly error in this sentece of the script: “The vowel combination AU almost never pronounced /aʊ/,…”
    You can observe that the ‘verb to be’ is missing. The correct sentence is: “The vowel combination AU is almost never pronounced /aʊ/…”

    • Thank you so much for letting me know, Vinicius! I appreciate it. I read through the transcript many, many times and yet I never noticed the missing verb!

  13. love your classes! It’s very difficult to find good materials online. Thank you for providing these study sessions. It’s very helpful for foreigners with an accent. THANK YOU

  16. Hello,my dear teacher. It’s my first time to join your class. I love English so much that I want to improve it. I hope I can read and speak English fluently, but I don’t know how. I hope I can reach my goal through your class

  17. Hi
    Your lessons have helped me alot most especially in preparing for my TOEFL exams. Your doing well, keep it up.

    • Thank you so much, Emmanuel! I’m so happy to hear that my lessons have helped you prepare for the TOEFL, because I know difficult the TOEFL is & how much preparation it takes! All the best to you on the TOEFL! 🙂

  18. Hi Melanie!
    Thank you very much for your lessons. They are very helpful. I’ve improved my pronunciation a lot! You´re doing an excellent work!!!
    Greetings from Chile:)

    • Yay! I’m so happy to hear that my lessons are helpful & that you’ve improved a lot! I’m so excited for you! Thank you. 🙂

  20. hello Melanie. thank you for your awesome site. it is very helpful for my improving English. i am just beginner and i hope that i can take your lessons.

  21. Hi Teacher Melanie! Thank you so much for helping us study English in enjoyable way! you have no idea how thankful i am! May God bless you back in million ways beyond your imagination! 🙂

  22. Hi.
    I have joined your website recently.please tell me how can I get the study guide of previous lessons.I’m looking for study guide of lesson 1-18.
    thank you

  23. I have another question about the pronunciation of the word ‘mechanism’.although there is a vowel “e” after first letter but I’ve heard it “a”.I’ve seen it in dictionary like this”mekəˌnizəm” not makenizem.please help me

    • I pronounce MECHANISM as /ˈmɛkəˌnɪzəm/. I pronounce the first E as /ɛ/ like in MET.

      Hope that helps!

        • Hi I would like to appreciate you for innovating a new method of teaching English lessons for your students.
          In my point of view that it is the best way to learn and practice English and never have I seen such a nice choice before as I have been learning English for a long time,
          With the best regards,

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