Sometime ago, it occurred to me that an effective way to teach English to non-native speakers would be to start with words of one syllable that rhyme. I don't have any research to support the idea but it seems like it would be easy and fun, as opposed to some of the dreadful approaches to learning the language adopted by institutions like English First. Maybe later, when I've retired from formal teaching, I can experiment with this approach in Indonesia.
For the time being, I'll use this blog to refine my ideas. I'm going to begin with the root sound ake that we find in words like bake and cake. It's a good place to start because this sound is fairly well-behaved, meaning that it doesn't change its sound within different words. Other root sounds such as own that we find in words like grown and sown can be confusing because the same three letters can appear in words like crown and town and be pronounced quite differently.
My approach will be to follow the letters of the alphabet sequentially from a to z, noting as many monosyllabic words as I myself know. I'm deliberately avoiding finding all possible words because I want to stick with words that are in common use. I'll refer to proper names as well because these will be probably be encountered by the language student. Any exceptions to the pronounciation will be noted as well as any alternative spellings.
In the case of ake, the very first letter of the alphabet presents as with an exception but only one of spelling. A type of pain or discomfort can be described as an ache and in fact a common expression is aches and pains. After this however, it's all smooth sailing with bake, blake, brake, break, cake, drake, fake, flake, jake, lake, make, quake, rake, sake, shake, snake, stake, steak, take, wake. These words are all widely used and I won't formally define them here (any dictionary can do that) but instead I'll make some comment or illustrate the use of the word in some common expressions.
- You can bake a cake.
- Blake is a proper name used as a first name for males e.g. Blake Carrington or as a last name e.g. William Blake.
- You can brake sharply to avoid a collision when you're driving. The car's brakes are what helps you avoid a collision.
- You can break a bone if you don't brake quickly enough in the car you're driving and have an accident. In this case, break and brake have the same pronunciation. In the common word breakfast however, the break part is pronounced differently (like eck). If you have a break from work, it means you have a rest.
- You can cake your face with make-up or bake a cake but, to quote a common expression, you can't have your cake and eat it too.
- A drake is a male duck but it's also a popular surname e.g. Francis Drake.
- You can fake an injury or you can spot a fake banknote if you look at it carefully.
- Flake: have as much chance as a snow flake in hell, then you have no chance at all really.
- Jake is common first name for males e.g. Jake Gyllenhaal.
- Lake Baikal is the most voluminous freshwater lake in the world and is the deepest lake in the world at 1,642.
- Make: you can make hay while the sun shines. Dirty Harry said go ahead punk, make my day.
- You may quake in fear when the werewolves are near.
- You can rake the leaves on your lawn, gather them up and use them as compost.
- For the sake of your health, you might avoid getting too stressed out about work.
- You might shake a bottle of juice to remove the sediment from the bottom.
- A snake in the grass is a person who is not be trusted because he or she could turn treacherous.
- Your reputation could be at stake if you are found to be dishonest. Vampires are commonly disposed of by means of a stake through the heart.
- A steak is part of the flesh of a dead animal that is cooked and eaten by those who enjoy such food.
- Take away food is becoming increasingly popular in our fast-paced society.
- A wake is often held when somebody dies. You wake up in the morning when your alarm goes off.
