full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Denice Frohman: "Accents"

Unscramble the Blue Letters


I'm Denice Frohman, and this is "Accents." my mom holds her accent like a shotgun, with two good hands. her tonuge, all brass knuckle slipping in between her lips her hips, are all luhteagr and wind clap. she speaks a sanchocho of sispanh and english, pushing up and against one another, in riapd fire there is no telling my mama to be "quiet," my mama don't know "quiet." her voice is one size better fit all and you best not tell her to hush, she waited too many years for her voice to arrive to be told it needed house keeping. egnilsh sits in her mouth remixed so "strawberry" becomes "eh-strawbeddy" and "cookie" becomes "eh-cookie" and kitchen, key chain, and chicken all sound the same. my mama doesn't say "yes" she says, "ah ha" and suddenly the sky in her mtouh becomes a Hector Lavoe song. her tongue can't lay itself down flat enough for the English lauggane, it got too much hip too much bone too much conga too much cutaro to two step got too many piano keys in between her teeth, it got too much clave too much hand clap got too much salsa to sit still it be an anxious cihld wanting to make Play-Doh out of concrete English be too neat for her kind of wonderful. her wrods spill in conversation between women whose hadns are all they got sometimes our hands are all we got and atccens that remind us that we are still bomba, still plena you say "wepa" and a stranger becomes your hermano, you say "dale" and a crowd becomes a family reunion. my mother's tongue is a telegram from her mother decorated with the coqui's of el cmpao so even when her lips can barely stretch themselves around english, her accnet is a sbortubn caopmss always piionntg her towards home.

Open Cloze


I'm Denice Frohman, and this is "Accents." my mom holds her accent like a shotgun, with two good hands. her ______, all brass knuckle slipping in between her lips her hips, are all ________ and wind clap. she speaks a sanchocho of _______ and english, pushing up and against one another, in _____ fire there is no telling my mama to be "quiet," my mama don't know "quiet." her voice is one size better fit all and you best not tell her to hush, she waited too many years for her voice to arrive to be told it needed house keeping. _______ sits in her mouth remixed so "strawberry" becomes "eh-strawbeddy" and "cookie" becomes "eh-cookie" and kitchen, key chain, and chicken all sound the same. my mama doesn't say "yes" she says, "ah ha" and suddenly the sky in her _____ becomes a Hector Lavoe song. her tongue can't lay itself down flat enough for the English ________, it got too much hip too much bone too much conga too much ______ to two step got too many piano keys in between her teeth, it got too much clave too much hand clap got too much salsa to sit still it be an anxious _____ wanting to make Play-Doh out of concrete English be too neat for her kind of wonderful. her _____ spill in conversation between women whose _____ are all they got sometimes our hands are all we got and _______ that remind us that we are still bomba, still plena you say "wepa" and a stranger becomes your hermano, you say "dale" and a crowd becomes a family reunion. my mother's tongue is a telegram from her mother decorated with the coqui's of el _____ so even when her lips can barely stretch themselves around english, her ______ is a ________ _______ always ________ her towards home.

Solution


  1. accents
  2. stubborn
  3. words
  4. child
  5. spanish
  6. laughter
  7. language
  8. accent
  9. cuatro
  10. mouth
  11. compass
  12. english
  13. pointing
  14. hands
  15. rapid
  16. campo
  17. tongue

Original Text


I'm Denice Frohman, and this is "Accents." my mom holds her accent like a shotgun, with two good hands. her tongue, all brass knuckle slipping in between her lips her hips, are all laughter and wind clap. she speaks a sanchocho of spanish and english, pushing up and against one another, in rapid fire there is no telling my mama to be "quiet," my mama don't know "quiet." her voice is one size better fit all and you best not tell her to hush, she waited too many years for her voice to arrive to be told it needed house keeping. English sits in her mouth remixed so "strawberry" becomes "eh-strawbeddy" and "cookie" becomes "eh-cookie" and kitchen, key chain, and chicken all sound the same. my mama doesn't say "yes" she says, "ah ha" and suddenly the sky in her mouth becomes a Hector Lavoe song. her tongue can't lay itself down flat enough for the English language, it got too much hip too much bone too much conga too much cuatro to two step got too many piano keys in between her teeth, it got too much clave too much hand clap got too much salsa to sit still it be an anxious child wanting to make Play-Doh out of concrete English be too neat for her kind of wonderful. her words spill in conversation between women whose hands are all they got sometimes our hands are all we got and accents that remind us that we are still bomba, still plena you say "wepa" and a stranger becomes your hermano, you say "dale" and a crowd becomes a family reunion. my mother's tongue is a telegram from her mother decorated with the coqui's of el campo so even when her lips can barely stretch themselves around english, her accent is a stubborn compass always pointing her towards home.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations




Important Words


  1. accent
  2. accents
  3. anxious
  4. arrive
  5. barely
  6. bomba
  7. bone
  8. brass
  9. campo
  10. chain
  11. chicken
  12. child
  13. clap
  14. clave
  15. compass
  16. concrete
  17. conga
  18. conversation
  19. crowd
  20. cuatro
  21. decorated
  22. denice
  23. el
  24. english
  25. family
  26. fire
  27. fit
  28. flat
  29. frohman
  30. good
  31. hand
  32. hands
  33. hector
  34. hermano
  35. hip
  36. hips
  37. holds
  38. home
  39. house
  40. hush
  41. keeping
  42. key
  43. keys
  44. kind
  45. kitchen
  46. knuckle
  47. language
  48. laughter
  49. lavoe
  50. lay
  51. lips
  52. mama
  53. mom
  54. mother
  55. mouth
  56. neat
  57. needed
  58. piano
  59. plena
  60. pointing
  61. pushing
  62. rapid
  63. remind
  64. remixed
  65. reunion
  66. salsa
  67. sanchocho
  68. shotgun
  69. sit
  70. sits
  71. size
  72. sky
  73. slipping
  74. song
  75. sound
  76. spanish
  77. speaks
  78. spill
  79. step
  80. stranger
  81. stretch
  82. stubborn
  83. suddenly
  84. teeth
  85. telegram
  86. telling
  87. told
  88. tongue
  89. voice
  90. waited
  91. wanting
  92. wind
  93. women
  94. wonderful
  95. words
  96. years