跟學口語:地道英語脫口而出的祕訣

Say this sentence aloud and count how many seconds it takes.
首先請大聲朗讀下面這個句子，算算花了幾秒。

The beautiful Mountain appeared transfixed in the distance.

Time required? Probably about 5 seconds. Now, try speaking this sentence aloud.
需要多長時間？差不多5秒。現在，大聲朗讀下面這個句子：

He can come on Sundays as long as he doesn't have to do any homework in the evening.

Time required? Probably about 5 seconds.
需要多長時間？也就5秒。

Wait a minute the first sentence is much shorter than the second sentence!
等等等等，第一個句子比第二個短好多啊！兩個句子放到一起比比看：

The beautiful Mountain appeared transfixed in the distance.
He can come on Sundays as long as he doesn't have to do any homework in the evening.

You are only partially right!
你說對了一半。

This simple exercise makes a very important point about how we speak and use English. Namely, English is considered a stressed language while many other languages are considered syllabic. What does that mean? It means that, in English, we give stress to certain words while other words are quickly spoken (some students say eaten!). In other languages, such as French or Italian, each syllable receives equal importance (there is stress, but each syllable has its own length).
這個簡單的練習體現了我們說英語非常重要的一個問題，就是，和其他音節語言不同，英語一種重音語言。這是什麼意思呢？意思就是說，在英語中，我們會重點強調特定的詞，而其他的詞就說的很快，有的學生說是吞音了。其他語言中，比如法語或者意大利語，每個音節都是同等重要的，他們也有重音，但是每個音節的長度是固定的。

Many speakers of syllabic languages don't understand why we quickly speak, or swallow, a number of words in a sentence. In syllabic languages each syllable has equal importance, and therefore equal time is needed. English however, spends more time on specific stressed words while quickly gliding over the other, less important, words.
很多說音節語言的人不明白爲什麼我們能把英語說的這麼快或者吞掉這麼多音，因爲音節語言中每個音節都是同等重要的。英語是突出強調重要的詞，剩下的不太重要的詞就帶過了。

Let's look at a simple example: the modal verb "can". When we use the positive form of "can" we quickly glide over the can and it is hardly pronounced.
舉個簡單的例子，我們用肯定式的"can"的時候，會很簡單的滑過這個詞，"can"幾乎不發音。

They can come on Friday . (stressed words underlined)
他們週五能來。（有下劃線的單詞應該重讀。）

On the other hand, when we use the negative form "can't" we tend to stress the fact that it is the negative form by also stressing "can't".
而當我們用否定的"can't"的時候，我們會加強否定語氣。於是重讀的單詞就變成了：

They can't come on Friday .
他們週五不能來。

As you can see from the above example the sentence, "They can't come on Friday" is longer than "They can come on Friday" because both the modal "can't" and the verb "come" are stressed.
所以大家就知道，上面的例句中，"They can't come on Friday"說起來就比"They can come on Friday"要長了。因爲"can't"和"come"都重讀了。

So, what does this mean for my speaking skills?
那麼，這對我們說英語來說意味着什麼呢？

Well, first of all, you need to understand which words we generally stress and which we do not stress. Basically, stress words are considered CONTENT WORDS such as
首先，你需要知道什麼樣的詞通常會重讀什麼樣的詞不重讀。基本上重讀的都是有實際意義的詞，如

* Nouns e.g. kitchen, Peter
　　　名詞。 例如：kitchen, Peter
* (most) principal verbs e.g. visit, construct
　　　大部分重要的動詞，例如：visit, construct
* Adjectives e.g. beautiful, interesting
　　　形容詞，例如：beautiful, interesting
* Adverbs e.g. often, carefully
　　　副詞，比如often, carefully

Non-stressed words are considered FUNCTION WORDS such as
不重讀通常都是功能性的詞，如：

* Determiners e.g. the, a, some, a few
　　　限定詞，比如the, a, some, a few
* Auxiliary verbs e.g. don't, am, can, were
　　　助動詞，如don't, am, can, were
* Prepositions e.g. before, next to, opposite
　　　前置詞，如before, next to, opposite
* Conjunctions e.g. but, while, as
　　　連詞，如but, while, as
* Pronouns e.g. they, she, us
　　　代詞，如they, she, us

Let's return to the beginning example to demonstrate how this affects speech.
現在讓我們回到開始的例子來看看這些是怎麼影響我們說話的。

The beautiful Mountain appeared transfixed in the distance . (14 syllables)
He can come on Sundays as long as he doesn't have to do any homework in the evening . (22 syllables)

第一個句子有14個音節，第二個句子有22個音節。

Even though the second sentence is approximately 30% longer than the first, the sentences take the same time to speak. This is because there are 5 stressed words in each sentence. From this example, you can see that you needn't worry about pronouncing every word clearly to be understood (we native speakers certainly don't). You should however, concentrate on pronouncing the stressed words clearly.
即使第二個句子比第一個長了差不多30%，兩個句子說出來用的時間都是差不多的，這是因爲他們都有5個重讀的詞（劃線的部分）。從這個例子中，大家就可以看出你不見的要把每個詞都清晰的說出來（我們英語母語的人從來不這麼說）。你應該把注意力放在應該重讀的詞上，把這些詞說清楚。