Fun Easy English - new american english standard conversation for beginners lesson 9 Birthdays discourse.

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Home - Conversation - Lesson 9

Conversation Lesson 9

Lesson 9 - Birthdays

Dialogs for everyday use. Short situational dialogs for students of English as a Foreign (EFL) or Second (ESL) Language.

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Birthdays

Patty: How old are you?

Susan: Nine... but I’ll be ten on May sixteenth.

Patty: I’m older than you! I’ll be ten on May fourteenth.

Susan: Are you going to have a birthday party?

Patty: Maybe. I’ll have to ask my mother.

Conversation Notes

Nine...
A short form equivalent to I’m nine years old.
sixteenth
Notice that the strongest stress in this word is on the second syllable. (The stress pattern, as well as the final /n/, differentiates sixTEEN from SIXty.) Some speakers insert the between the month and the numeral: May the sixteenth, May the fourteenth.
I’ll be ten on May fourteenth
The contrastive stress on the first syllable of FOURteenth. Normally, the stronger stress falls on the second syllable of this word: fourTEENTH (like sixTEENTH in the line above). However, to bring out the contrast, the speaker emphasizes the contrasting element, four.
going to
The rhythm pattern of English requires that this weak stressed, potentially threesyllable, element be reduced in length. In the process of reduction some of the consonants are lost or modified and the vowels changed to more centralized, lax forms.
birthday party
Notice that the normal stress for a compound noun falls on the first element of the compound.
Maybe
Notice that the intonation falls only slightly—indicating doubt, indecision, or lack of completion. Have to. See Lesson 7.

Source: U.S. State Department

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