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: Borrowing books from the library!
The pronunciation explanation: The weak form of the preposition ‘to’!

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. For how long can I borrow books from the local public library?

2. Why does it make more sense to borrow books from the library than to buy them?

3. What do I do with books I don’t want anymore?

4. Does my local library have a lot of books?

Transcript:

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

I never remember to return my library books on time. It’s a terrible habit. I’m surprised my local public library even lets me take out more books. The library lets patrons take out books for three weeks at a time. I can go to its website and renew my borrowed books for another 3-week period, and another after that. Yet, I can never remember to renew or return any borrowed books on time, and I end up paying fines.

I like to read anything and everything: fiction, biographies, history books, books about politics…you name it! New books in Canada are expensive, and since I like to read a lot of books, it could become an expensive hobby. There’s nothing worse than spending $20-$30 on a new hardcover book, only to discover the book is awful and a waste of my money! It makes more sense to take out books from the library instead since it’s free! If I like the book and I think I’ll read it again, then I’ll buy it

I have two large bookcases full of books and there’s very little room for new ones. Every once in a while I clean out my bookcases and take the books I don’t want any more to the second–hand bookstore. If the person at the bookstore thinks they’ll be able to resell some of the books, they’ll pay me cash for them or give me credit to buy more books at their store. Usually I take the store credit. Any books unwanted at the second-hand store, I usually donate to Goodwill.

The local public library is amazingly well-stocked! I’m very impressed with its collection of books. It always seems to have whatever I’m looking for, no matter how obscure the book is! If the book I’m looking for is already checked out, I can request the next available copy and the library will notify me as soon as it becomes available.

Since the library offers so many services for free, the least I could do is return my books on time!

Pronunciation: the weak form of ‘to’

In a previous podcast, I told you about the reduced or weak form of the word and. When and is unstressed, it’s reduced to the sound /ən/, for example in the phrase up and down.

Something similar happens with the preposition to.

Listen carefully to some sentences from the story:

I never remember to return my library books on time.

I like to read anything and everything…

It makes more sense to take out books from the library.

Did you hear the word to in those sentences?

The preposition to is a function word: while the sentences would not make sense without to, it’s not an important word. Within a sentence, function words are often unstressed. The vowel sound changes to the unstressed vowel sound /ə/. When to is unstressed in a sentence, it’s pronounced /tə/.

Listen again:
I didn’t say: I like /tu:/ read… I said: I like /tə/ read
I didn’t say: /tu:/ take out books… I said: /tə/ take out books

Can you hear the difference?

Listen to some more examples of the unstressed to and repeat after me:
to tell the truth
I’d like to go
give it to me
Can I talk to you?
listen to music

Listen to the story again. Can you hear more examples of the reduced to?

Vocabulary:

public library
I’m surprised my local public library even lets me take out more books.
= a public library is a place where residents of a town or city can go to borrow books for free

a patron
The library lets patrons take out books…
= I used ‘patron’ in the story to refer to someone who takes out books from the library. Since people don’t pay for books, they are not really ‘customers’ or ‘clients’

a fine
…I end up paying fines
= a small amount of money paid in punishment for not returning library books on time

You name it!
I like to read anything and everything: fiction, biographies, history books, books about politics…you name it!
= there is a long list of things to choose from; any genre of books you can name, I probably like reading those kinds of books!

a hardcover book
There’s nothing worse than spending $20-$30 on a new hardcover book…
= when a book is first published, it is a book with a stiff, hard cover; the ‘cover’ of a book is the front and back of the book.

second-hand bookstore
[I] take the books I don’t want any more to the second–hand bookstore.
= a bookstore that sells used books (books that people have read)

store credit
Usually I take the store credit.
= the people at the second-hand bookstore determine the value of the books I want to sell to them, but instead of giving me cash they say ‘you can by $X worth of books at our store.’ I can then buy other books at their store without paying them any money.

Goodwill
Any books unwanted at the second-hand store, I usually donate to Goodwill.
= a thrift store in North America; people can donate (give for free) their unwanted items, and Goodwill sells them to other people for a very low price.

obscure
…no matter how obscure the book is!
= not well-known, unknown to most people

a copy
…I can request the next available copy…
= a single book; this can also be used to talk about magazines, movies on DVDs, etc.; when a book is published many copies of the book are made available to the public to buy.