Welcome back! Have you checked out my Accent Reduction classes yet? WOW! This week many people have emailed to ask me to explain the English schwa vowel sound. This vowel sound is found in both American and British English and it is the most common sound in the English language.
The best place to learn about [...]
Posts under ‘Learn American Accent’
The Importance of the Schwa Sound
Syllable Stress in Nouns & Verbs
A couple of days ago I explained that heteronyms are two words that are spelled identically. The way the words are stressed determines the meaning.
One good example is the word: OBJECT.
The way you use syllable stress say the word ‘object’ changes the meaning of the word.
When the stress is on the first syllable the word [...]
American English Pronunciation Practice-Mirroring
Lots of people will tell you to watch American television shows to hear authentic examples of American English. That’s an excellent idea but you can take it a step further to get some serious pronunciation practice.
Instead of simply watching your show, choose a character to imitate. As soon as your character starts to speak, try [...]
Accent Reduction Books & Audio Courses
Students who are really motivated to improve the way they speak English should invest in some training. One way to do this is to buy an Accent Reduction or American English pronunciation book with CD’s. There are several books with CD’s that are very affordable.
Here are some of the most popular choices:
1. For people who [...]
When O is Pronounced With the /ɑ/ Sound
There are many English words spelled with the letter o in which the o is pronounced like /ɑ/ as in the word father.
To make the /ɑ/ sound relax your lips and your tongue. Your tongue should be low in your mouth when you articulate this sound. Here is a list of words in which the letter [...]
Make Your American English Sound More Natural
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 is followed by a /y/ sound the result is a /dʒ/ [...]
American English Syllable Stress Patterns
If you are a frequent reader of my blog you know that one of the best ways to improve your American English pronunciation is to use syllable stress correctly.
In spoken English words with multiple syllables, one syllable is always more prominent than the others. We call this the stressed syllable.
Stressed syllables are pronounced:
with a [...]
Free American English Audio
This is a nice, clean webiste that you can use to listen to and repeat American English words. I like the audio on this site because it’s easy to hear the syllable stress and the schwa sound in reduced syllables.
The site has both audio and video.
American English Audio
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 [...]
American English Pronunciation: Syllable Stress Rules
This week I have been teaching many of my students how to improve their English pronunciation by using syllable stress. Here are two rules that you can use to apply syllable stress correctly.
1. Compound nouns are stressed on the first syllable (or part). Here are a few examples:
CLASSroom
LIVing room
POST office
PARKing lot
BIKE rack
2. Compound verbs are [...]
