American English Pronunciation blog

Words with /u/ & /ʊ/

Many non native English speakers don’t always tell the difference between the /u/ sound and the /ʊ/ sound. For example: When they say the word pull, it sounds like pool. When they say the word look, it sounds like Luke. When they say the word good, it sounds like gude. In order to address this

Accent Reduction on Kindle

My American English pronunciation and accent reduction blog is now available on amazon’s Kindle. Just follow the link below to sign up. You’ll see that amazon is charging a small fee for this download ($0.99 a month). I apologize for that! I wanted to offer it for free….but they require a convenience payment. Give it

Speak Business English Like an American

I buy a lot of American English pronunciation and accent reduction books because I like to have a variety of interesting materials to use with my students and clients. Last week a couple of people asked me if I used the book titled Speak Business English Like an American. I did not have a copy

Pronouncing Voiced & Voiceless Consonant Sounds

When you are speaking American English it is really important to recognize the difference between voiced sounds and voiceless sounds! A voiced sound causes your vocal chords to vibrate. A voiceless sound does not cause your vocal chords to vibrate. American English has 8 voiced/voiceless consonant pairs such as /z/ & /s/ and /v/ & /f/. Here are a couple of examples:

Foriegn Doctors & Communication

This article from the September Wall Street Journal describes some of the communication problems encountered by foreign doctors, most of whom are from India. While the article doesn’t mention accents, it does describe the cultural differences between the doctors and their Iowa patients and what one local hospital is doing to bridge the gap. It’s

Friendly Intonation

Do you ever feel like people misinterpret your meaning when you speak with them in American English? Have people commented that your speech sounds blunt, flat or even unfriendly? This has happened to several of my accent reduction coaching clients. When this happens I teach them how to use American English intonation patterns. Intonation is

What is the Schwa Sound?

Both British English and American English have a vowel sound that you’ve probably never heard of. This sound is called the schwa sound. It looks like this /ə/. Native English speakers use the reduced schwa sound to create rhythm in words and sentences. Even though most native and non native English speakers are not aware

Accent Reduction for Spanish Speakers

Here is an accent reduction tip for Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese speakers. American English has about 15 vowel sounds. These 15 sounds include several pairs of vowels which are pronounced with your lips and tongue in approximately the same position, but where one vowel sound is considered “tense” and the other is “lax”. For tense

Merriam-Webster’s Perfect Pronunciation

The Merriam-Webster Learner’s Dictionary online has a great interactive component titled Perfect Pronunciation. This section has lots of American English pronunciation exercises that you can use to learn and practice your spoken American English. There are exercises on contrasting vowel sounds, syllable stress, homophones and sentence stress. There’s even a short exercise on the syllabic

American English Audio Courses

A couple of people have emailed me this week to ask about American English Audio courses that they can buy and listen to in their car. While audio courses are not nearly as effective as accent reduction coaching (that’s because you don’t get the feedback that you need) they do provide opportunities for learning and

← Previous Page