The Center for Confident American English Communication

The schwa + r sound /ɚ/ is frequently a confusing feature of American English pronunciation. In many situations when a vowel is followed by an /r/, only the /r/ sound is heard. The vowel sound isn’t really heard at all! This is called the schwa + r /ɚ/. The letter combinations or, er, ur &

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During my accent reduction tutoring sessions I frequently see students hesitate when they come across  words that are spelled with ough. And no wonder! This letter combination has many different sounds in spoken American English. Here are * examples of the most frequent sounds of ough. /u:/ as in through (sounds like blue) /ɔːt/ as

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The vowel O has many sounds in American English. It can be confusing to know the correct pronunciation of this vowel. I can think of five different pronunciations for the vowel O, but there could be even more. Here are my five examples: 1. In these words the O is pronounced as a schwa sound

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Image via Wikipedia One of the most problematic American English vowel sounds for Spanish speakers is the /iy/ sound as in the words cheap, meet & piece. Spanish speakers often pronounce this sound as /ɪ/ so that: cheap sounds like chip meet sounds like mit piece sounds like piss To articulate the /iy/ sound you

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I found a great vowel chart from the University of Texas. This chart shows where each of the 11 simple American English vowel sounds are articulated in your mouth. The website has audio so you can listen to each sound. You can use the chart as a guide as you pronounce the words below. When you

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American English has about 15 different vowel sounds. Some of these sounds are considered short and others are considered to be long. Here is a list of long vowel sounds in American English. If you are a non native English speaker who wants to improve your American English vowel sounds in order to reduce your

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