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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: Winter in Canada!
Pronunciation explanation: How to pronounce ‘temperature’!

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. What was the temperature outside today?

2. How cold was it during the cold spell?

3. Do we have lots of snow now?

4. What do you need to put on to go outside when it’s cold?

5. What did I do to winterize my car?

Transcript:

(*The words in blue are links to other posts here on my blog. Click on the links to learn more about the grammar, vocabulary and expressions used in the story!)

It’s definitely winter now in this part of the world! It was -5º C today, which is a normal temperature for December. It’s only the first official month of winter, but we’ve already had a cold spell – a couple weeks ago it was -20º outside!

In November and early December I was worried that we wouldn’t have any snow for Christmas, but now we have lots of snow and it doesn’t look like it’s going anywhere for a while! It had snowed a few times early in the season, but the snow would melt as soon as it hit the ground or as soon as the sun came out.

We’re used to the cold and snow in Canada! The cold isn’t so bad once you put on a hat, scarf, gloves, warm socks, winter boots and layers of warm clothes underneath your winter coat. I don’t mind the cold! I think it makes us tough! In fact, I always find it funny when people from warm countries, like Australia, complain about the cold weather! I always tell people, it’s not cold until your nose hairs freeze together! The only thing I don’t like about the cold is that it lasts so long. We won’t see warm weather again until late March or early April.

It’s important to winterize my car now, too. I need to put snow tires on my car so that it doesn’t slip and slide on the icy roads. I park my car in the garage now instead of outside, so I don’t have to scrape the ice off the car or brush off the snow every time I want to go somewhere. Newer cars have an ingenious invention: seat warmers! Not only does the heating system heat up the inside of the car, [but] there’s also a heater in the seat, so your bum doesn’t get cold!

So, do you have a winter season in your country? What is winter like in your country?

Pronunciation:

English learners often struggle with the word temperature because there are some misleading letters! Like many words in English, the pronunciation does not match the spelling!

This word is only 3 syllables: /ˈtɛm.prə.tʃɚ/

The first syllable is easy: tem /tɛm/. This is the stressed syllable, so it’s said louder and longer than other syllables.

In the second syllable, forget the 2nd e in the word! It’s not /ˈtɛm.per-əˌtʃɚ/, it’s /ˈtɛm.prə.tʃuɚ/, so the second syllable is: pra / prə/

This occurs in a couple other words in English, where the vowel is ignored before an r, for example:
camera /ˈkæm.rə/ -or-
favourite /ˈfeɪv.rət/

The third syllable in temperature is pronounced: cher /tʃɚ/. Anytime the letters –ture are in a syllable at the end of a word, they are always pronounced ‘cher’ /tʃɚ/, for example:
future /ˈfju:.tʃɚ/
nature /ˈneɪ.tʃɚ/ -or-
picture /ˈpɪk.tʃɚ/

Now, put all three syllables together:
tɛm – prə – tʃɚ
/ˈtɛm.prə.tʃɚ/

Vocabulary:

-5ºC
= minus five degrees Celsius
When writing the temperature in English, it is not necessary to write out each word. ‘Degrees’ is represented by the º symbol, and ‘Celsius’ is represented by the C,
*In Canada, we use Celsius to measure temperature; in the U.S., they use Fahrenheit.

a cold spell
…we’ve already had a cold spell – a couple weeks ago it was -20 degrees outside!
= a short period of time of very cold temperatures
A spell = a short period of time of some continuous activity or a state

it’s not cold until your nose hairs freeze together
*Due to the moisture in your nose, if you go outside in extremely cold temperatures, the hairs in your nose freeze together or freeze to your skin!

to winterize (something – your car, your home)
It’s important to winterize my car now, too.
= to make sure your car or house is prepared for the effects of winter (temperatures below zero, ice, snow, etc.).

ingenious (adjective)
Newer cars have an ingenious invention: seat warmers!
= something smart/clever (in this case, a very clever invention)