American English Pronunciation Blog » american accent

American English Pronunciation for Singaporeans

susan — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 16:10:14 +0000

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 patterns are based on syllable stress patterns. You must know and use these stress patterns if you want to sound more “American”.

American English speakers also delete syllables in many multi-syllabic words. Singaporean English speakers tend to pronounce all the syllables in a word and that sounds strange to Americans.

Vowel Lengthening

In spoken American English we lengthen the sounds of vowels in stressed syllables. We also lengthen the sounds of vowels that occur before voiced consonants. Many Singaporean English speakers do not lengthen their vowel sounds enough and this makes their speech sound choppy to American listeners.

These are just a couple of examples that I’ve heard when I’ve done accent coaching with professionals living in Singapore.

American English Pronunciation: Linking and Liasons

susan — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 11:00:38 +0000

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 next word begins with a vowel sound.
about it sounds like aboudit
passed out sounds like passdout

If you use liaisons like native speakers do your speech will sound smoother and less choppy to American listeners.

Ann Cook’s book American Accent Training does an excellent job of teaching you to use linking to improve your accent.

Here is some more information about how to improve your American English pronunciation using linking or liaisons.
Liaisons in American English

Reduced Speech in American Spoken English

susan — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 11:00:26 +0000

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 the book by clicking on the link below.
Whaddaya Say? Guided Practice in Relaxed Speech, Second Edition

When O is Pronounced With the /ɑ/ Sound

susan — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 11:00:25 +0000

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 o has an /ɑ/ sound.

1. hot

2. lot

3. stop

4. job

5. office

6. modern

7. confident

8. clock

9. dollar

10. doctor

To see the detailed articulation of this sound go to the University of Iowa Phonetics site and choose Vowels, Monothongs, Back.

American English Pronunciation-The /ae/ Sound

susan — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 22:35:06 +0000

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 the /ɜ / sound when they should use the /ae/ sound. That means that:

man sounds like men
sad sounds like said
had sounds like head

Try to pronounce these phrases using the /ae/ sound. Remember to keep your tongue low, forward and flat in your mouth with your lips open when you make the sound.

That was your last chance.
That is an angry man.
The bad cat made me mad.

American English Audio Course

susan — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 16:00:08 +0000

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 but I have heard from many people that the instructor (Shari) is a great teacher! You can check it out by clicking on the link below.

Learn American Accent

American English Pronunciation Problems for French Speakers

susan — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:38:27 +0000

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 in a phrase or thought group. The last word in a phrase or thought group will be stressed.

Given that correct syllable stress is key to a good American English accent, how can you learn to use it?

There are some rules or patterns you can use to determine which syllable to stress in American English words.

Here are the two “rules” that students find easy to remember:

1. 90% of two syllable nouns are stressed on the first syllable (STU-dənt, NOTEbook, COF-fee)

2. 60% of two syllable verbs are stressed on the second syllable (rə-TURN, də-LAY, əf-FEND)

Also, remember that the vowel sound in unstressed syllables is frequently reduced to schwa.

Here is a Syllable Stress Chart that you can use to practice syllable stress in 2 syllable, 3 syllable and 4 syllable English words.

American English Pronunciation: How to Pronounce Can & Can’t

susan — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 12:00:11 +0000

One common pronunciation feature that is troublesome for non-native American English speakers is the pronunciation of the words can and can’t.

Here are a couple of tips that will help you with the pronunciation of these words.

1. When you say the word can’t you should give it extra stress or emphasis (like all negative auxiliary verbs).

2. The vowel sound in the word can’t is /æ/ as in man. Let your jaw drop a bit to make this sound. The tip of your tongue is behind your lower teeth. When you say the /æ/ sound you can lengthen it a bit.

3. When you say the word can’t you should also make sure that you fully pronounce the final /t/ sound.

4. The vowel sound in the word can is often a schwa /ə/ sound. The schwa is reduced vowel sound and the length is short.

Here are a couple of example sentences:

A: When cən you go to the movie with me? (reduced vowel sound)

B: I cænt go this weekend because I have to work. (lengthened vowel sound)

Here is a nice table that shows how to pronounce can and can’t.

American English Pronunciation-The Tapped T Sound

susan — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 15:13:45 +0000

When you are listening to American English speakers you may have noticed that when the letter “t” is in the middle of a word it often has a /d/ sound. Pronunciation teachers call this sound the flap or the tapped T because when we make this sound we slightly flap or tap our tongues behind the gum ridge of our upper teeth.

The tapped T sound is frequently heard in everyday communication with American English speakers.

The tapped T appears when when a “t” is between vowels when the preceding vowel is stressed as in the words; patio, party, forty & water.

This sound also appears when a “t” comes before a syllabic [l] as in the words; petal, metal & settle.

There are numerous other situations where this very “American” sound occurs. You can read more by going to the link below-

The Tapped T Sound

Improve Your American Accent with Sentence Stress

susan — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 12:00:22 +0000

One great way to improve your American accent is to learn how we use sentence stress in American English through the use of CONTENT, FOCUS and function words.

Click on the link above to read my complete article on how Americans use sentence stress.