10.6 Fluency and rhythm

The eight following exercises (see 1, 2, 4 ... buttons below), picked from the book Flyt og rytme, will help you in obtaining more fluent speech and a more Norwegian-like speech rhythm. You will be working with speakers from various parts of Norway who all will be speaking Bokmål. Normally the exercises will be guided by a teacher. Unfortunately we are not able to give the detailed instructions to self-study students, but below you will find some simple guidelines.

How to do the exercises:

• Select an exercise below. Work with tab A first, then tab B.
• Click the button to the left and try to imitate the voice you are listening to.
• Try to connect all sounds together to one continuous chain.
• Try to make stressed syllables strong and dominant, and unstressed syllable light and short.

Each column contains 12 sentences reflecting the same speech rhythm pattern.
Number 1 to 3 have the following order. You are supposed to listen to the first sentences, and then repeat them:

1	2	3	4
SPEECH	SILENCE	SPEECH	SILENCE
LISTEN	SPEAK	LISTEN	SPEAK

We expect you to pick up the rhythmical pattern with the first three sentences.
In number 4 to 12 the order is changed to the following:

1	2	3
SILENCE SPEAK	SPEECH LISTEN	SILENCE SPEAK

If you feel the progress is too fast, we advise you to use the book Flyt og rytme and its complete set of exercises.