Contents
Bad is the soldier who does not imagine himself a general, and bad is the student who does not dream of English with a real British accent. It is believed that Russian speakers pay little attention to the production of English pronunciation, and therefore their speech is often imperfect. Today we want to contribute to correcting this sad statistics, and the famous “She sells seashells on the seashore” will help us in this - a tongue twister that every Briton knows from an early age. Believe me, even the indigenous people of Foggy Albion are not given an ideal pronunciation from birth: all this is the result of hard and fairly long work. But the effect is worth the effort, because the correct pronunciation will be developed for a lifetime!
She sells seashells on the seashore - a patter with a real life story
Before we start practicing British pronunciation, I would like to acquaint readers with the fascinating history of this English tongue twister.
The fact is that the very tongue twister She sells seashells on the seashore became popular back in the middle of the 18th century. In those days, such rhymes were called didactic exercises, since the very word "tongue twister" ( in English tongue twister , literally "language frills" ) appeared only in 1895. But the storyline of this story began even earlier, and in order to tell about it in detail, you need to get acquainted with one famous British lady - Mary Anning.
The girl was born to Richard Anning and Mary Moore on May 21, 1799. The parents were from the working class and belonged to the narrow religious movement "congregationalism", as a result of which the family was rather limited in means and opportunities. Nevertheless, in the town of Lyme Regis, the Anning family owned their own house, located on the seashore. Moreover, the housing was so close to the sea area that the often raging winds over the UK more than once flooded the modest house of the Annings.
But it was thanks to the proximity of the sea that the famous story about “She sells seashells…” appeared. As a child, Mary Anning loved to walk along the coast with her father. And since storms in this English town were quite frequent, almost every time the sandy beach was strewn with various marine gifts: shells, pebbles, algae, etc. Once, when Mary was 12 years old, the girl managed to find the ancient remains of some creature on the coast. The Annings at first suggested that these were crocodile bone fossils, but as it turned out later, the unexpected find was the skeleton of a real dinosaur!
So Mary became interested in the search for ancient fossils, and this hobby determined her whole future life. Even despite the strong conservatism of the then society, a woman from a poor family was able to become a famous paleontologist, who was responsible for dozens of the most important scientific discoveries. And not only scientific: after all, the English tongue twister She sells seashells on the seashore is dedicated to Mary Anning! Moreover, later this common rhyme, through the efforts of the poet Terry Sullivan and composer Harry Gifford, turned into a popular song.
Here is such an interesting "background" for our today's material. And now let's move on to practical work: we will try to learn and translate the tongue twister She sells seashells on the seashore. Believe me, this will be an exciting and extremely useful lesson!
We learn the tongue twister She sells seashells and correct our pronunciation
So, let's get down to practical work. Of course, in order to learn English tongue twisters, you need at least to have an advanced reading skill. But even if you are still a beginner and cannot always correctly pronounce some difficult English syllable, then join our work anyway! Especially for greater self-confidence of beginners, we will give not only the text of the tongue twister, but also a detailed transcription, both in the British version and in the approximate Russian sound.
| String tongue twister | Transcription | Russified pronunciation |
| She sells sea-shells on the sea-shore. | [ʃiː] [sɛlz] [siː-ʃɛlz] [ɒn] [ðə] [siː]-[ʃɔː]. | [shi] [selz] [si-shelz] [he] [ze] [si-shoo]. |
| The shells she sells are sea-shells, I'm sure. | [ðə] [ʃɛlz] [ʃiː] [sɛlz] [ɑː] [siː-ʃɛlz], [aɪm] [ʃʊə]. | [ze] [shelz] [shi] [selz] [a] [si-shelz], [aim] [shue]. |
| So if she sells seashells on the seashore, | [səʊ] [ɪf] [ʃiː] [sɛlz] [ˈsiːˌʃɛlz] [ɒn] [ðə] [ˈsiːʃɔː], | [sou] [if] [shi] [selz] [ˈsiˌshelz] [on] [ze] [ˈsishoo], |
| Then, I'm sure she sells seashore shells. | [ðɛn], [aɪm] [ʃʊə] [ʃiː] [sɛlz] [ˈsiːʃɔː] [ʃɛlz]. | [zen], [aim] [shue] [shi] [selz] [ˈsishoo] [shelz]. |
The pronunciation of this tongue twister is relatively easy, the main thing is not to get confused in the order of words. By the way, we note that during its existence, the exercise has “overgrown” with dozens of different variations. True, significant changes are rarely observed: most often prepositions and other functional words change. For example, a tongue twister may begin with the phrase "She sells sea-shells by the seashore." Or the third line, instead of the union "so if", begins with a combination of the words "for if".
In general, working with this exercise should not cause any difficulties. Unless, the translation of the tongue twister She sells sea-shells on the seashore may be incomprehensible. Frankly speaking, translation of such materials is not really needed, because the main goal is to pronounce English words as quickly and correctly as possible. But, of course, everyone is interested in what these phrases are about. Therefore, we provide a ready-made Russian translation for “She sells sea-shells on the seashore”.
- She sells sea-shells on the sea-shore - She sells shells on the seashore ;
- The shells she sells are sea-shells, I'm sure - The shells she sells are sea-shells, I'm sure;
- So if she sells seashells on the seashore, - After all, if she sells shells on the seashore;
- Then, I'm sure she sells seashore shells.
This is the meaning of this famous English tongue twister. But the main task, of course, remains the difficulty of fast and correct pronunciation. So practice the right British accent and keep improving your English. Good luck!
