Pronunciation, Accent, and Basic Phonics Awareness
What pronunciation and phonics items test
Nara's English paper includes sound awareness: letter-sound relationships, syllable stress, final endings, and intonation. These items are not about perfect native accent; they check whether you can distinguish and produce contrasts that affect meaning, such as long and short vowels, /r/ and /l/, and voiced and voiceless endings.
Core rules
- English stress is not uniform: content words such as nouns, verbs, and adjectives are usually stressed; function words such as articles, prepositions, and auxiliaries are usually weak.
- Final -ed has three sounds: /t/ after voiceless sounds (worked, stopped), /d/ after voiced sounds (played, cleaned), /ɪd/ after t or d (wanted, needed).
- Plural and third-person -s: /s/ after voiceless sounds (books), /z/ after voiced sounds (dogs), /ɪz/ after s, sh, ch, x, z (boxes).
- Do not insert a vowel between consonants: 'strike' is one syllable, not su-to-ra-i-ku.
- Intonation carries meaning: falling for statements and wh-questions; rising for yes/no questions.
Worked example
Which is pronounced with /ɪd/? played / wanted / stopped. Reasoning: 'Played' ends in a voiced sound /eɪ/, so -ed is /d/. 'Stopped' ends in voiceless /p/, so -ed is /t/. 'Wanted' ends in /t/, so -ed is /ɪd/. The answer is 'wanted'.
Traps that cost marks
Pronouncing every syllable with equal weight; using katakana approximations that add vowels; ignoring the difference between 'walk' and 'work'; missing sentence stress that changes focus; and confusing spelling with sound, as in 'have' and 'gave'. Listen for the ending, not just the root.