The Center for Confident American English Communication

Lots of people send me email messages asking me to explain some of the intonation patterns that we use in American English. In fact this is one of the most important things that I teach my clients in my accent reduction coaching course. Let me describe the most common type of intonation. The most common

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Like the past tense “ed”, the plural and possessive “s”  has three different sounds in spoken English. These are: /ez/ as in the wordz churches & marshes /s/ as in the wordz cats & stops /z/ as in the wordz loves & hugs In order to improve your American English pronunciation you must learn the

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I work with many Spanish speakers in my accent reduction coaching course. A common word that they have trouble pronouncing is the word problem. The reason is this. The O in the the word problem does not sound like the O as in no or go. This O sounds like the A in the word

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If you are a Chinese speaker you may have found that Americans don’t always understand your pronunciation. Here is one accent reduction tip you can use to help. Pronounce your voiced final consonant sounds more clearly. In American English some of the most common voiced consonant sounds are: /b/,/d/, /g/, /ð/,/z/, /r/, /m/, & /n/. You need

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Most non-native speakers of American English have problems articulating the two ‘th’ sounds that we use so frequently in spoken American English. Most of my clients including Spanish, Chinese and Indian language speakers pronounce the voiceless th as a /t/ sound and the voiced th as a /d/ sound. Since the ‘th’ sounds are used

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One of the biggest pronunciation problems that my accent reduction coaching clients have is using word stress. They frequently use word stress incorrectly. Stressing the wrong word creates an accent and it contributes to breakdowns in communication. Learning to use word stress correctly will greatly enhance your spoken English skills. Here are two rules you

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One common pronunciation problem  for non-native American English speakers is the pronunciation of the words can and can’t. Here are a couple of accent tips that will help you pronounce these words correctly. 1. When you say the word can’t you should give it extra stress or emphasis (like all negative auxiliary verbs). 2. The

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When you are speaking American English it is very important for you to use syllable stress correctly. One reason is because English has many heteronyms. Heteronyms are two words that are spelled identically. The way the words are pronounced determines their meaning. One good example of this is the word: ADDRESS. When you say the

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Do you wonder why your American colleagues and friends don’t always understand you when you speak English?  Do you find  that people continually look at you quizzically or ask you to repeat what you said? Do people seem to “give up” on  talking to you after a few minutes? It’s time to stop struggling! Find

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Non-native English speakers think that they should pronounce each word, sound and syllable clearly and distinctly but that’s not how spoken English works. Americans use reduced vowels and speech when they talk. They do not say every sound and syllable clearly and distinctly. Look at the words in the careful speech column below. If you

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