The Center for Confident American English Communication

I work with many Spanish speakers in my accent reduction coaching course. A common word that they have trouble pronouncing is the word problem. The reason is this. The O in the the word problem does not sound like the O as in no or go. This O sounds like the A in the word

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One way for native Russian speakers to reduce their accent is to change the way they make the R sound. The Russian R is very distinctive because it is trilled or rolled as the tongue taps quickly on the gum ridge behind the upper teeth. American English speakers do not tap their tongue on the

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In spoken American English the letter combination TH makes two different sounds. One of these sounds is voiced and the other is voiceless. The IPA symbol for the voiced th sound looks like this /ð/. The IPA symbol for the voiceless th sound looks like this /θ/. While both of these sounds cause problems for

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