Speaking Your Best (SM) Inc.

2. white collar worker: This is a term used to describe a salaried individual or a person whose job is clerical in nature.

Ex: The individuals who live in this apartment building are all white collar workers.

3. blue collar worker: This is a term used to describe individuals whose job is more in line with manual labor. Manual labor refers to physical work done with the hands, especially in an unskilled job such as field working, road building.

Ex: My grandfather was a blue collar worker all his life.

To bend over backwards is a very common expression in American English. It means to do as much as possible or to try as hard as possible to please someone.

Let's look at example of how we might use this expression. In the work setting, let's say you have an important project that you are trying very hard to complete for your team on time. You might say "I am bending over backwards to meet my deadline on this project".

Another example might be "I always bend over backwards to make sure my in-laws have a good time when they visit us." In this example, you are saying that you try as hard as possible to please your in-laws and make them happy when they visit you.

Try using this idiom during your everyday conversation, when it is appropriate. Will you bend over backwards to make this a part of your American English?

In last month's issue, we reviewed how to make the American English voiced "th" sound, as in the word "the". and practiced some common words using this sound. Let's continue with our practice of this sound with a few more words and begin practicing some sentences.

Remember, to make this sound, you must put the tip of your tongue in between your upper and lower front teeth. Keep your tongue and teeth in contact while you push the air and your voice out of your mouth. You should feel your tongue vibrate when you say this sound.

All words are made up of a combination of consonants and vowels that occur in various patterns in a words. In American English, words that have more than one syllable can be divided into parts based on specific rules.

Practice the following rules for dividing words into syllables.

C = stands for consonant

V= stands for vowel

When a word has two different consonants together

and has the vowel-consonant-consonant-vowel combination, divide the word between the two consonants.

Ex: "actor" has two syllables "ac-tor"

Ex: "handy" has two syllabes "han-dy"

Ex: "lantern" has two syllabes " lan-tern"

Ex:"master" has two syllables "mas-ter"

Ex: "marker" has two syllables "mar-ker"

When a word has a vowel-
consonant-vowel-consonant combination, where you divide the word depends on if the vowel is long or short.

If the vowel is long, divide the word before the consonant

Ex: "paper" is divided into "pa-per"

Ex: "teacher" is divided into "tea-cher"

Ex: "hotel" is divided into "ho-tel"

Ex: "writer" is divided into "wri-ter"

Ex: "leader" is divided into "lea-der"

If the vowel is short, divide the word after the consonant

Ex: "panic" is divided into "pan-ic"

Ex: "measure" is divided into "mea-sure"

Ex: "orange" is divided into "or-ange"

Ex: "river" is divided into "riv-er"

Ex: "ever" is divided into "ev-er"

When a word has two same consonants together, divide the word in between the consonants.

Ex: "kitten" is divided into "kit-ten"

Ex: "puppy" is divided into "pu-ppy"

Ex: "rotten" is divided into "rot-ten"

Ex: "apple" is divided into "ap-ple"

Ex: "cotton" is divided into "cot-ton"

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