For instance, how would you explain to non-native English-speakers why "supposed" is pronounced two different ways in these sentences (recognizing that some of you may not in fact pronounce them differently, but many still do, I for one):
"Why isn't this done? You were supposed to do this two hours ago!"
"Einstein is, by many, supposed to be the smartest man in history."
In the first sentence I dare say practically all of us say "suh-POST" (and, no, I do not tell my English students that this is a "wrong" pronunciation; it is correct, standardized, conventional, accepted).
In the second, I think many of us would say suh-POZD, with a slightly elongated "o." Because we're not thinking of "supposed" as "had to" (or as we say in the present tense, "hafta"); rather we are literally thinking about "supposing" with a "z." As in "I supposed he would be here but as it turned out I supposed wrong!"
So what's going on there?
In Russian there's a universal, standardized little device in pronunciation where they let consonants morph between voiced (where your vocal cords vibrate) and unvoiced (where they don't), thus "distorting the letter" into a different sound (exactly as we do when we say "have to" as "haff to", de-voicing the "v").
In Russian they do this all the time.
In English we do so in only a few, rare instances.
So if you say, in Russian, "to Kiev", which is "v Kiev," the "K" of "Kiev," being unvoiced (you don't use your vocal cords to say it), de-voices the "v" and makes it an "f", so you say "f Kiev."
That's a standard "rule" in Russian. Now, you don't actually learn it like a rule that you have to remember to apply in the, oh, bazillion instances when voiced and unvoiced consonants happen to smash into each other in everyday conversation. Instead, you learn it as an instinct and it just starts happening naturally (even, unfortunately, when you revert to English).
(By the way, in Russian it works the other way around, too: an unvoiced consonant will become voiced in submission to a following voiced one, so "s Bogom" is "with God" but voiced "B" turns the "s" into a "z" and so you say "z Bogom." In short, the last consonant in the cluster rules, forcing the ones before it to be the same kind, voiced or unvoiced.)
We don't do this in English, 99% of the time. If you do do it, you'll immediately be talking with a "foreign" accent. It's the easiest way to put one on, in fact. Try it. Impress your friends!
But there are three curious instances in English where doing this has become essential to intelligible communication:
used to
have to
supposed to
Contrast "I used to live in New Jersey" with "I used two markers but Fred used three."
Contrast "I have to leave soon if I'm going to catch my bus" with "I have two hens and a rooster."
Contrast "Tommy's supposed to rake the yard this afternoon" with "I supposed they intended to help us, just as you supposed, too."
Where we say "yoostoo" and "haftoo" and "suh-post-too", what they all have in common is: 1) the verbs have lost their essential meaning; we're not thinking of using, having or supposing; what they mean to us in such sentences is "earlier" and "must" and "is obligated/must/should/presumably will;" 2) they're all followed by a verb in the infinitive, starting with "to", and the reason we cut these words short (by devoicing the final consonant, which make you say them faster) is that we're not thinking of them as full-fledged actions (like real using, having and supposing) but simply as markers indicating the conditions for the main verb: I yoosta LIVE...., I hafta LEAVE..., Tommy's suh-posta RAKE....
These are things we never stop to think about as native English-speakers in everyday conversation. We know it on an instinctual level, way, way, waaay beneath the level of consciousness. We did, of course, actually learn these things, in some way thinking about them, processing them, experimenting with them, sorting them out and putting the puzzle pieces in place, way back there between two and four years old, though we were likely rather older, maybe 8-11 years old, before we realized that "suhPOSta" came from "supposed" or "HAFta" had any connection with "have".
We just don't remember learning these things.
And for most of us, they are things we never would need to think about, ever.
But when you're teaching English, and suddenly you hear your student read a text: "Do you know that you're suh-POOOOOOZED ...TOObee at the train station in five minutes?", or "I heV, TOO-say that...", or, "I YOOZD...TOOliv in...", your native instincts immediately flash "Warning! Warning!", because something is Just Not Right about that.
Well, that's when you have to understand why it doesn't seem right, and formulate a coherent, precise explanation.
And, believe me, the right explanation is not, "Well, in that sense of the word, most Americans say it wrong. So you're saying it right, just like it's spelled."
Good grief, no!
No, it is one of the signs of an inexperienced English teacher to explain any divergence or inconsistency between written and spoken English (and I don't just mean spelling) as "bad English that you don't want to imitate." You recognize this immediately when a well-meaning American starts talking to a roomful of Ukrainians in stilted, unnatural English:
"Hello, studEnts (vaguely reminiscent of "dEntal"). THEE ("-ee" because after all it's written "thE") first thing I want TOOO ("oo" because after all it's written "tO") do is wriTe-uh down (spitting the "t" to separate it from the "d", resulting in a bizarre approximation of an Italian accent) THEE rules...," etc.
Which is the sort of approach that leads to one telling students that the correct pronunciation of "I used to live there" is "I yoozd to...."
No. Wrong. That's not American English. (Arguably it's British English, though hardly universal, as British English itself is no monolith; but you must simply decide which English you're interested in teaching and be consistent about it.) The occasional American, who's decided that spelling reigns supreme and anything diverging from it in the spoken word is wrong, will self-consciously and forcedly talk that way. It's something they didn't learn from the cradle but decided on much later, in an effort to conform to an artificial concept of correctness.
But in reality practically everybody says:
"I YOOSTa live there." It's correct.
And "You're suhPOSTa help him." It's correct.
And "I HAFta go now." It's correct.
I do.
I hafta go now.
😊
