The Center for Confident American English Communication

This week on the blog there have been a lot of you looking for information on American English intonation patterns. One of the best books for learning and practicing the rhythms and intonations of spoken American English is Ann Cook’s American Accent Training. American Accent Training includes a book plus 5 CDs that you can

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Continuing on my theme of American English vowels I’m going to write briefly on the pronunciation of the vowel combination ou. This vowel combination can be pronounced 3 ways in American English. Here are some examples. ou can be pronounced like /oʊ/ shoulder soul though doughnut although ou can be pronounced like schwa /ə/ cousin

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Several of my students tell me that they have trouble understanding the spoken English of native speakers. This is not at all unusual. One reason that native English speakers are difficult to understand is because they often use reduced speech. When native speakers use reduced speech the words seem to run together and this can

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