The Center for Confident American English Communication

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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I meet many non-native English speakers who have excellent grammar. However, they do not articulate word final consonant sounds strongly enough and this contributes to their accent. One word final sound that many people fail to articulate is the past tense ed. Failing to pronounce the ed will definitely contribute to your accent! Most of

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Last week, I was working on vowel sound articulation with one of my accent reduction coaching students. We were working on the tense /iy/ sound in the words feet & leave and the lax /I/ sound in the words fit & live. My student, a project manager at an international communications company, said “but Susan,

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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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Those of you who read my blog frequently know that using syllable stress correctly is one of the very best ways to improve your comprehensibility when you speak English.  That said, here are a few syllable stress patterns for compound words that you may find useful. Compound nouns are stressed on the first word in

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If you are an advanced student of American English pronunciation you have probably learned about linking (or liaisons). Linking refers to the connections between words. Ann Cook, author of American Accent Training, says that these connections “allow us to speak in sound groups” instead of word by word. Spoken English has linking between words and

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Chinese speakers from some dialects tend to confuse word medial and word final /l/ & /n/ sounds when they are speaking English. This causes communication problems and contributes to your accent. The /n/ & /l/ sounds are articulated in almost the same manner as the tongue touches behind the tooth ridge. The tongue is a

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In spoken American English both the /r/ & /l/ sounds are called “liquids”. That’s because the air stream moves around the tongue in an unobstructed manner. Both the /r/ & /l/ sounds are voiced so you should feel a vibration in your throat when you say them. When you make the light /l/ sound, the

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