The Use of Pauses in English Speech

Teacher: Welcome to daily tips on learning English. Today's tip is on the use of pauses in English speech.

Teacher: Although written English has spaces between every word, spoken English does not have pauses between each word. Rather, words are linked together. However, people do not normally speak without pausing at all. We do pause in speech. Where in written English, there are periods, comas, semicolons, and question marks. But we also pause in long sentences without punctuation marks.

Teacher: Let's look at some examples, my mother listens to the radio in the evening. This sentence can be said without pausing because it isn't very long. But if I were to pause, I would say my mother (pause) listens to the radio (pause) in the evening. Why? Because pauses come between thought groups, groups of words that express one thought.

Teacher: For example, "In the evening" is a thought group. Let's make the sentence longer. My mother listens to the radio (pause) in the evening, plays tennis (pause) in the afternoon, and cleans the house (pause) in the morning. Now, it's necessary to pause, because this sentence is very long.

Teacher: Pauses come between thought groups, and help the listeners organize the information they hear. Listen to the sentence again, my mother listens to the radio in the evening, plays tennis in the afternoon, and cleans the house in the morning. If you pause in the wrong places, listeners will have a harder time organizing the information. Listen to the sentence read again with improper pausing, my mother listens (pause) to the radio in (pause) the evening plays tennis in (pause) the afternoon and cleans the (pause) house in the morning. Now, the sentence is almost impossible to understand. So remember to pause between thought groups to help your listeners easily organise what they hear.

Teacher: This has been today's tip on learning English. Tune in tomorrow for another tip on learning English.