The Center for Confident American English Communication

In spoken American English we use different types of intonation and pitch to express meaning and emotion. Since you can’t learn about intonation without listening to native speakers, you MUST use audio courses or CDs to practice this skill. One of the best ways to learning and practice the rhythms and intonations of spoken American

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When you are speaking American English, there are many consonants  that don’t always sound like you expect them to. Here is an example. When a word that ends with an /s/ or /z/ sound is followed by a word that starts with a /y/ sound the linked blended sound is a /sh/. Examples include: that’s

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Intonation refers to the rise and fall of pitch in spoken language. Intonation patterns convey meaning and emotion so it’s important to use these correctly. If you are trying to improve your American English speaking and communication skills you must learn to use the correct types of intonation. The most common type of intonation in

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Last week I had many visitors here on the blog from Singapore. Thanks for visiting, I’m happy that you’ve found my site! Keeping in mind that Singaporeans come from many language backgrounds, here are a few problems that Singaporean English speakers often have when they speak American English. Syllable Structure and Stress American English pronunciation

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Linking happens in every English sentence. We connect two words together when the first word ends in a vowel sound and the next word begins with the same vowel sound. that table sounds like thattable next time sounds like nexttime We also connect words when the first word ends with a consonant sound and the

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I get a lot of questions from people about the reduced speech forms that they hear when they listen to American English conversations. Examples include: gonna, wanna and hafta. Here is a link to Nina Weinstein’s Voice of America episode on reduced speech. Nina is the author of the book Whaddaya Say. You can see

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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

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One American English vowel sound that many non native speakers have problems with is the /ae/ sound as in the words: cat, bad and man. To articulate this sound your tongue should be flat and very low in the front of your mouth. Your lips should be open. Many non native American English speakers us

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If you are looking for an affordable American English audio course you may want to check out the short course offered by Accent Workshop. The course contains eight mp3 audio lessons with workbooks that you can use to study American English pronunciation at home or on the go. I have not personally used the course

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One key feature of good spoken English is syllable stress. In spoken English one syllable is each word is stressed. The vowel in the stressed syllable is lengthened and pronounced with a higher pitch. Spoken French does not employ syllable stress in this way. French syllables are evenly stressed until you reach the last syllable

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