Welcome back! Have you checked out my Accent Reduction classes yet? In spoken English consonant and vowel sounds change depending on their location in a word or phrase. Learning some of the rules or patterns for these types of sound changes can make your pronunciation sound more natural.
Here is one pattern. When a /d/ sound [...]
Posts under ‘American English Consonant Sounds’
Make Your American English Sound More Natural
American English:The Sounds of ed
Several of the students that I am coaching have trouble hearing the ed that comes at the end of past tense verbs. One reason why they are having this problems is that ed does not always sound like /ed/. Sometimes ed sounds like /d/ and sometimes it sounds like /t/.
The other reason the word final [...]
Why You Have an Accent When You Speak American English, Part 3
This is Part 3 of a series of posts that describe why you have an accent when you speak American English.
In the past two posts I wrote about syllable stress and the duration of vowel sounds. Today I will write about voiced and voiceless consonant sounds.
Using voiceless consonant sounds instead of voiced consonant sounds at [...]
American English Pronunciation:Consonant Clusters
On her blog this week Lisa Mosjin, author of Mastering the American Accent writes about the pronunciation of the words months and clothes. These words contain the difficult consonant cluster th+s.
She says that you should always pronounce the th + s as in words like strengths and Smiths. In order to do this you must quickly [...]
The Best Online Dictionary for American English Pronunciation
Lots of my students have asked me what the best online dictionary is for learning to pronounce American English words. I like to use http://dictionary.reference.com/ because they show both the spelled pronunciation and the IPA spelling.
The audio is not terrific though.
The Merriam-Webster ESL Learner’s Dictionary has a great section called Pronunciation Exercises that I frequently [...]
American English Pronunciation for Portuguese Speakers
Here is an accent reduction tip for Portuguese speakers who want to improve their spoken American English.
Be careful when you pronounce the letter P. Portuguese speakers often pronounce the American English /p/ sound like a /b/ sound. This can be confusing to American listeners because when you do that:
pill sounds like bill
pull sounds like bull
poor sounds like boor [...]
American English Pronunciation Tips for French Speakers
Here are a couple of tips for French speakers who want to improve their American English pronunciation.
1. Pronounce S at the end of English words.
Word final s is always pronounced in English. Word final S often has a /z/ sound as in the words: boys, girls & dogs.
The S may also have a /s/ sound [...]
American English Pronunciation for Russian Speakers
One way for native Russian speakers to reduce their accent is to change the way they make the R sound. The Russian R is very distinctive because it is trilled or rolled as the tongue taps quickly on the gum ridge behind the upper teeth.
American English speakers do not tap their tongue on the gum [...]
American English Pronunciation:The Voiced & Voiceless Th Sounds
In spoken American English the letter combination TH makes two different sounds. One of these sounds is voiced and the other is voiceless.
The IPA symbol for the voiced th sound looks like this /ð/.
The IPA symbol for the voiceless th sound looks like this /θ/.
While both of these sounds cause problems for non native speakers [...]
Pronunciation Problems for Korean Speakers-American English Consonant Sounds
Here are two American English consonant sounds that are problematic for Korean speakers. The first is the /f/ sound. This sound does not occur in Korean.
Korean speakers often pronounce the /f/ sound as a /p/ sound . That means that the word stuff sounds like stop, the word coffee sounds like copy and the word [...]
