Free Tutoring

I am willing to tutor the following subjects via a blog of mine
without charge:
~ Fractions, decimals, arithmetic
~ English as a second (3rd or 4th)language.

Please leave comments, questions, or requests here.

Patterns of Sound, Spelling, and Meaning

What do you make of the final consonant sounds in words like the following? Do you find any interesting patterns? Do you find a useful pattern? We are pattern finders aren't we?

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
hiss, his, bus, buzz, buzzes, buses, words, ways, means, business, businesses, parts, homes, benefits, boss, bosses, markets, as, ass, rise, rice, sources, sores, noose, rides, rites, news, tens, tense, trends, niches, competitors, success, successes, profits, sites, opportunities, brands, edges, tactics, qualities, prioritize, less, sells, seals, budgets, solutions, costs, places, place,palms, sides, says, avoids, navels, press, peas, peace, piss, hands, force, fours, lungs, exercise, exercises, states, is, politics, rights, powers, acts, has, this, these, those, acts, ease, Texas, foods, fishes, was, dollars, does, doze, cheeks, checks, deposits, keys, kiss, things, thinks, pays, pace, bays, bees, base, lights, reasons, friends, problems, pause, paws, cares, mouse, bits, pieces, pis, fords, speakers, perhaps, materials, plurals, groups, bottoms, features, taxes, mince, rice, source, sores, noose,
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Add as many of your own as you wish.

A way to begin to find patterns is by dividing them into two groups; the ss group and the zz group. The ss group could be made up of words ending in an 's' sound as in: tactics, hiss, parts, success. The zz group could be made up of words ending in a 'z' sound as in the words: buzz, buzzes, his, words.

Can you hear the difference?

I'll try to get back to this to point out some patterns I find.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

6-10-9 PATTERNS continued
Here are some words which I say end in the zz sound: symbols, his, has, is, years, clues, these, fifties, areas, journeys, tales, others, problems fields, falls, letters, names, terms, sins, suggestions, references, tens, advise, raise, bards,heroes, stories, practices, believes, questions, peoples, sores, cultures, resemblances, places. What words might you add?
Here are some which I believe end in the ss sound: myths, hiss, base, this, house, limits, evidence, false, accents, cents,scents, science, books, looks, likes, acknowledgements, visits, advice, groups, assistance, helpfulness, race, acquaintance, works, giants, religious, beliefs, Celts, attacks, less, ships, source, tense noose, shops. What ss ending words might you add?

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
6-15-9

Have you found any patterns yet?
Here is a pattern I found that relates to spelling and pronunciation:
(likes, looks, lakes, walks, woks, wakes) The words in parentheses all end in the ss sound, don't they. Can you find a word that ends i the ss sound that doesn't have the 'k' sound as it's penultimate sound. We may not only be finding a pattern but also a law. We might start by saying that when a word ends in an s preceded by a k the s sounds ss.
What can you add to the list? Find another pattern or rule.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
What might say about pairs like the following? Are there pairs of more than one sort here?
sores ...... source
as ......... ass
news ....... noose
rise ....... rice
his ........ hiss
tens ....... tense
plays ...... place
keys ....... kiss
What similar pairs can you add?
How about:
saves ...... safes
sins ....... since
fours ...... force
bays ....... base
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
6-29-9
Who is interested in spelling and pronunciation?
How interested are they?
Have you noticed that English speakers like the final 'ss' sound when it is preceded by a 't' sound?
For example: parts, profits, budgets, rights, acts, limits, visits, giants, Celts.

I'm failing to start conversations here. I've made about 500 attempts without one success. I'm not ready to give up completely, but I am ready to give up this attempt to discuss English pronunciation.

Let's get the 'h' out of here

Is that what they want .... to get rid of the 'h?'
Do they know why we have two definite articles?
Do they know why we use 'a' and 'an?'
Why are so many saying 'an historical?'
Why are some beginning to say 'an history?'
When will they begin to say 'an hat,' 'an house,' or 'an hit?'
Haven't they noticed that we say 'an elephant,' 'an apple,' 'an orange,' but 'a car,' 'a fruit,' 'a mammal?'
Can't they hear the sounds of English?
Can't they distinguish the sound of a consonant from the sound of a vowel?
Who are they?
They have their rights, but it would be of some comfort to know that they were aware of what they were doing.

Affirmations Tie to Thai

I was just posting some affirmations to my Affirmation blog form the notebook I am making use of today. The first part of this particular note contains notes of mine on Thai vocabulary and very rudimentary pronunciation.
I has taken me a little over a half a century to learn my ímperfectismo´Spanish. Thai writing and pronunciation both seem much more difficult to try to learn than does Spanish. It seems more difficult than pronouncing in French or writing in Japanese. The culture comes with the territory. I have slowed a bit so I expect that it would take me well over a half century to get a good grasp on the Thai language. A man could run out of time!

I hope that you have checked out my "Affirmations" blog. May not excite immediate interest, but there is good stuff there. I have learned something about making my kind of affirming pay. You may find something there to make yours pay more systematically. My affirmations are aimed at me with goodwill and honesty. An interested party might learn a great deal about me not otherwise available and perhaps a bit about mankind in general. I try to include a bit of wisdom.
You could benefit. Click on: htt://afirmationsofmine.blogspot.com

I will offer elementary Thai vocab notes below:
The word "mai" (in my phonetic spelling) may be used in the place of 20 or so English words. Great, one for 20! It is true that "mai" may be used for most of the verbs used to initiate questions in English and to ask for yes and no answers in Thai. However I write it as "mai" which is close to its pronunciation in accord with Latin phonetics, but there are, at least, four other variations; inflections one might say. For example, "mai" for "new" is not inflected like the question "mai." And, the "mai" for "no" or "not" is not inflected like the proceeding "Mai"s. Then there is the "mai" meaning "wood" which is bit like a strongly defined English diphthong.

Gerry's Genealogy

Check out http://gerrysgenealogy.blogspot.com to begin to find out what made it hard for an Irishman to stay at home.

Power in the language.

Radio English.

On the two PBS stations available locally I now regularly hear "large" pronounced the same as "larch" and "news" pronounced the same as "noose."

I hope I don't get a large noose when I'm expecting news about the larch.