English Listening: My License Plate | Episode 08
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Listen to a story about I had to spend $74 to get a new sticker to put on my car’s license plate.
You’ll also learn a tip to help you remember how to pronounce some one-syllable words, like “plate.”
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
It’s that time of year again: Time to spend $74 to get a new sticker to put on my car’s license plate. A license plate is the rectangular piece of metal on the front & back of a vehicle. It has numbers or letters on it to identify the vehicle. Every car in the world needs one. For some reason, every year the provincial government requires that I renew my license plate by paying for a new sticker to put on it.
However, before I could get a new sticker for my license plate, there was one more layer of bureaucracy: The government also required that my car pass an emissions test to make sure it was not polluting the air. This is the same test that my car passed two years ago. I doubt my car had become a polluting machine since the last test, but I had to take my car to the mechanic anyway and spend $35 for the test. My car passed. Again.
I took the test results and drove down to the Driver and Vehicle Licence* Issuing Office, only to find that it was temporarily closed, and there was no indication of when it would reopen. That’s OK! Fortunately, there was a government service kiosk at the nearby mall where I could get a new sticker. It was easy to use the kiosk, but when I looked at the receipt, I noticed that I was charged a ‘convenience fee’ of $1.00 for using the service kiosk. I’ve been completely inconvenienced by this entire situation, yet the government charged me a ‘convenience fee.’ If this were a company, I would make myself feel better by calling the customer service department to complain. It’s the government, though, so, what can you do?
NOTE: Canada is divided into provinces. A province is like a state in the U.S. My province is Ontario. The provincial government is the government of the province.
Listen:
The Car Accident | Episode 32
My Car Died | Episode 19
PRONUNCIATION TIP
Here’s a quick tip to help you remember how to pronounce some one syllable words.
You’ll notice that the word plate ends with a vowel + a consonant + e.
Whenever a word ends with vowel + consonant + e, the e is silent (it’s not pronounced), but the vowel is pronounced like it’s name.
For example, in the word plate, the letter a is pronounced /eɪ/: plate
In the word these, the letter e is pronounced /i/: these
In the word drive, the letter i is pronounced /aɪ/: drive
In the word drove, the letter o is pronounced /oʊ/: drove
In the word rule, the letter u is pronounced /u/: rule
In the word cute, the letter u is pronounced /ju/: cute
You can also use this tip when vowel + consonant + e occurs in a stressed syllable, for example:
escape
extreme
describe
suppose
reduce
However, this tip does NOT help with unstressed syllables:
late (but chocolate)
rise (but promise)
LISTEN TO MORE LESSONS HERE!
Comments
In my country (Brazil), we have to renew the licence plate every year, too. It costs about US 50,00. We can pay this fee in a bank or in an ATM. We need a car insurance too, and every year we have to drive down to a local, where they will check if your car is polluting the air. We need to pay for it too, a good US 30,00. If the car doesn’t pass in the check up, we will need to charge extra fee again for a new test. So, don’t sweat it. Unfortunately, we have to deal with these things. Magda
Hi, Magda!
Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment! Wow, it’s amazing that we live in different countries but we have to do the exact same thing! I still think it’s a big money grab!
Take care,
Melanie
Hi Melanie,
Thank you for this useful website. I hope you’ll continue on teaching and sharing the English lessons on this website.
Thanx
Nui
Hi Melanie, the entire situation indicates a legal rip off .I am looking at the bigger picture . The government by keeping close the issuing office is not only saving money on operative costs, also by directing the people to the service kiosk is making a profit, as if they weren`t satisfied with the already paid 74 canadian dollars . very smart guys !!!
You are so right, Julio! I wrote this story in 2010. Since then, the price of the sticker has increased to $90!!! It is indeed a rip-off!
Thank you for the wonderful website. Do you think you would create a video that focus on words starting with PL (place, plate, plan) and PR (preplan, premium, previous)
Those are very hard sounds for me and it would help quite a bit. Thank you once again for all your hard work.
Thank you for the suggestion, Lulu! I will think about how I can teach those consonant blends!
= )
Thanks a lot Melanie, you are the only English Teacher who I prefer:)))