The three “Cs” of conversation
Curiosity: The art of conversation embraces the ability to listen to other people and take an interest in what they have to say. Listening is learning, i.e. to listen you need to ask questions
– and to ask questions you need to listen!
Connecting: Conversations explore common interests or talking points. If the person you are talking to does not reciprocate or show any interest, then perhaps you shouldn’t be having the conversation. Connecting also means being able to “steer” conversations if necessary to avoid an unwanted “lull.”
Confidence: Whether you are talking with one person or an audience, it helps to be confident in your approach. This includes pronunciation, tone of voice, eye contact and body language, i.e. how you say it rather than just what you say. Background knowledge and advance preparation are also keys to avoid being at a loss for words.
Curiosity: The art of conversation embraces the ability to listen to other people and take an interest in what they have to say. Listening is learning, i.e. to listen you need to ask questions
– and to ask questions you need to listen!
Connecting: Conversations explore common interests or talking points. If the person you are talking to does not reciprocate or show any interest, then perhaps you shouldn’t be having the conversation. Connecting also means being able to “steer” conversations if necessary to avoid an unwanted “lull.”
Confidence: Whether you are talking with one person or an audience, it helps to be confident in your approach. This includes pronunciation, tone of voice, eye contact and body language, i.e. how you say it rather than just what you say. Background knowledge and advance preparation are also keys to avoid being at a loss for words.
Presentations
Confidence and the ability to “connect” are also an essential part of presentations, particularly because the object is to persuade the audience to take some form of action. Similar to writing a report, you need to make sure that as many people as possible understand your message, your line of thought and what actions they can take.
This also means the contents of the presentation must be clear and concise in order to provide the information that your audience needs and wants. By focusing on the message you wish to convey, you are doing both yourself and the audience a favor because people understandably have a limited span of attention.
Winning people’s attention involves presenting your message in a friendly but authoritative manner, involving them via eye contact, facial expressions (sometimes smiling, sometimes serious), gestures and anecdotes (e.g. humorous, descriptive, motivating). To avoid having people “drift off,” keep the number of slides limited, with key information preceded by meaningful titles and headers, supported by appropriate charts and images – and involve them by intermittently asking questions. Remember: you want people to look at you and not just focus on the slides!
Confidence and the ability to “connect” are also an essential part of presentations, particularly because the object is to persuade the audience to take some form of action. Similar to writing a report, you need to make sure that as many people as possible understand your message, your line of thought and what actions they can take.
This also means the contents of the presentation must be clear and concise in order to provide the information that your audience needs and wants. By focusing on the message you wish to convey, you are doing both yourself and the audience a favor because people understandably have a limited span of attention.
Winning people’s attention involves presenting your message in a friendly but authoritative manner, involving them via eye contact, facial expressions (sometimes smiling, sometimes serious), gestures and anecdotes (e.g. humorous, descriptive, motivating). To avoid having people “drift off,” keep the number of slides limited, with key information preceded by meaningful titles and headers, supported by appropriate charts and images – and involve them by intermittently asking questions. Remember: you want people to look at you and not just focus on the slides!
Pronunciation
All the letters in the alphabet are either consonants or vowels. The majority of letters in the alphabet are consonant letters that make various sounds.
Some rules for consonants
"B" can be hard sounding like the “b” in “big” or silent in words ending with “-mb” such as climb.
"C" can be hard sounding like the “c” in “care,” soft sounding like in “church” or pronounced like an “s” when it precedes “e,” “i” or “y,” as in cease, city, cynic.
"G" can be hard sounding like the “g” in “go” or soft like “j” when it appears in words before “e”, “i” or “y”, e.g. geopolitics, gin, gymnasium or silent in words like “sign.”
"Gh" can be hard like in “ghost” or pronounced like “f” in some words like “tough” or silent like in “though.”
"H" can be pronounced like “h” in “how” or silent as in “hour.”
"K" can be hard sounding like in “kink” or silent when followed by “n” as in knife.
"L" can be like the “l” in “link” or silent when followed by “f” and “k” as in “half” or “talk.”
"S" can be like the “s” in “save” or pronounced like “z” as in resident or vision.
"Th" can be soft like in “think” and “both” or harder like in “this, that and the other”.
"Y" can be pronounced like the “y” in “yesterday,” or with an “E” sound as in “ready,” or an “I” sound as in “buy.”
Some rules for vowels
Vowels (A, E, I, O, U and sometimes Y) help to form words. When a vowel sounds like its name, it has a long sound. Vowels also have short sounds. Here are some rules and examples…
Long vowel rules:
(1) When a word has two vowels, the first vowel usually sounds like its name and the second vowel is silent. In particular, when a vowel and consonant are followed by an “e,” the “e” is almost always silent, but causes the preceding vowel to be long.
Long “A” words: day, name, wait, date, make, save, sale, etc.
Long “E” words: teach, real, seat, weak, mean, team, seek, key, cease, etc.
Long “I” words: side, hike, smile, time, line, rise, ripe, size, hire, site, dive, tie, etc.
Long “O” words: road, roam, home, boat, oak, smoke, stone, hole, close, boast, grow, etc.
Long “U” words: use, true, rule, tube, suit, tune, etc.
Long “Y” words: type, pyre, etc.
(Note that a single consonant before the letters “le” such as the "b" in "ble" in "stable" suggests that the preceding vowel sound is long, e.g. ladle, title, idle, noble, ruble (with notable exceptions such as angle, gentle, triple, double).
(2) If a word has one vowel that comes at the end of the word, it usually has a long vowel sound, e.g. he, she, by, no, go (exceptions: to and do).
(3) The vowels “I” and “O” usually have a long vowel sound when followed by two or more consonants, e.g. find, high, right, old, most.
Short vowel rules
(1) When there is a vowel at the beginning of a word, it often has the short vowel sound, e.g. at, end, in, on, up (some exceptions are after, enough, icon, overt, or usual).
(2) When there is a vowel between two consonants, the word usually has a short vowel sound, e.g. sat, man, was, red, hit, beyond, ton, fund.
(3) Words ending in the letter “r” take on the “r” sound, e.g. bar, her, sir, for, blur (note what happens when we further add an “e” on the end of some of these words, e.g. bare, here, sire).
(4) Generally, a vowel before a double consonant takes a short sound, e.g. apple, better, tipping, dotted, tunnel.
Articles
Definite versus indefinite
“a” and “an” are known as indefinite articles, and are used when introducing something or not talking specifically about a particular thing or object. The article “an” is used before nouns starting with vowel sounds and “a” is used before nouns starting with consonants.
“the” is called a definite article and is used when talking about something in particular that is already known to the listener or has been previously discussed.
Countable versus non-countable
Most nouns are countable in English, including people, places, animals, objects or ideas (e.g. friend, town, horse, factory, machine, job, answer...) and require an article.
Many nouns cannot be counted or are grouped together (e.g. advice, money, equipment, academia, heat, air, sunshine, water, economics, politics…) and do not take an article. Most plural nouns do not require articles.
In some cases, however, “the” can be used for non-countable and plural nouns if referring to them specifically (e.g. “air is all around us” versus “the air that we breathe” or “advice is cheap” versus “take the advice he gave you”) or referring to a particular group of things (e.g. “the machines need replacing”).
All the letters in the alphabet are either consonants or vowels. The majority of letters in the alphabet are consonant letters that make various sounds.
Some rules for consonants
"B" can be hard sounding like the “b” in “big” or silent in words ending with “-mb” such as climb.
"C" can be hard sounding like the “c” in “care,” soft sounding like in “church” or pronounced like an “s” when it precedes “e,” “i” or “y,” as in cease, city, cynic.
"G" can be hard sounding like the “g” in “go” or soft like “j” when it appears in words before “e”, “i” or “y”, e.g. geopolitics, gin, gymnasium or silent in words like “sign.”
"Gh" can be hard like in “ghost” or pronounced like “f” in some words like “tough” or silent like in “though.”
"H" can be pronounced like “h” in “how” or silent as in “hour.”
"K" can be hard sounding like in “kink” or silent when followed by “n” as in knife.
"L" can be like the “l” in “link” or silent when followed by “f” and “k” as in “half” or “talk.”
"S" can be like the “s” in “save” or pronounced like “z” as in resident or vision.
"Th" can be soft like in “think” and “both” or harder like in “this, that and the other”.
"Y" can be pronounced like the “y” in “yesterday,” or with an “E” sound as in “ready,” or an “I” sound as in “buy.”
Some rules for vowels
Vowels (A, E, I, O, U and sometimes Y) help to form words. When a vowel sounds like its name, it has a long sound. Vowels also have short sounds. Here are some rules and examples…
Long vowel rules:
(1) When a word has two vowels, the first vowel usually sounds like its name and the second vowel is silent. In particular, when a vowel and consonant are followed by an “e,” the “e” is almost always silent, but causes the preceding vowel to be long.
Long “A” words: day, name, wait, date, make, save, sale, etc.
Long “E” words: teach, real, seat, weak, mean, team, seek, key, cease, etc.
Long “I” words: side, hike, smile, time, line, rise, ripe, size, hire, site, dive, tie, etc.
Long “O” words: road, roam, home, boat, oak, smoke, stone, hole, close, boast, grow, etc.
Long “U” words: use, true, rule, tube, suit, tune, etc.
Long “Y” words: type, pyre, etc.
(Note that a single consonant before the letters “le” such as the "b" in "ble" in "stable" suggests that the preceding vowel sound is long, e.g. ladle, title, idle, noble, ruble (with notable exceptions such as angle, gentle, triple, double).
(2) If a word has one vowel that comes at the end of the word, it usually has a long vowel sound, e.g. he, she, by, no, go (exceptions: to and do).
(3) The vowels “I” and “O” usually have a long vowel sound when followed by two or more consonants, e.g. find, high, right, old, most.
Short vowel rules
(1) When there is a vowel at the beginning of a word, it often has the short vowel sound, e.g. at, end, in, on, up (some exceptions are after, enough, icon, overt, or usual).
(2) When there is a vowel between two consonants, the word usually has a short vowel sound, e.g. sat, man, was, red, hit, beyond, ton, fund.
(3) Words ending in the letter “r” take on the “r” sound, e.g. bar, her, sir, for, blur (note what happens when we further add an “e” on the end of some of these words, e.g. bare, here, sire).
(4) Generally, a vowel before a double consonant takes a short sound, e.g. apple, better, tipping, dotted, tunnel.
Articles
Definite versus indefinite
“a” and “an” are known as indefinite articles, and are used when introducing something or not talking specifically about a particular thing or object. The article “an” is used before nouns starting with vowel sounds and “a” is used before nouns starting with consonants.
“the” is called a definite article and is used when talking about something in particular that is already known to the listener or has been previously discussed.
Countable versus non-countable
Most nouns are countable in English, including people, places, animals, objects or ideas (e.g. friend, town, horse, factory, machine, job, answer...) and require an article.
Many nouns cannot be counted or are grouped together (e.g. advice, money, equipment, academia, heat, air, sunshine, water, economics, politics…) and do not take an article. Most plural nouns do not require articles.
In some cases, however, “the” can be used for non-countable and plural nouns if referring to them specifically (e.g. “air is all around us” versus “the air that we breathe” or “advice is cheap” versus “take the advice he gave you”) or referring to a particular group of things (e.g. “the machines need replacing”).