Welcome back! Have you checked out my Accent Reduction classes yet? Most non-native English speakers have problems articulating the two ‘th’ sounds that we use so frequently in in spoken American English.
Here is a link to a lesson on the 2 ‘th’ sounds. At the end of the lesson is an audio practice activity that [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Spanish & Portuguese Speakers’
American English Audio Lesson: The 2 Sounds of TH
Accent Reduction Techniques for Spanish Speakers
Spanish speakers frequently drop the consonant sounds at the ends of words. This can cause your speech to sound both accented and grammatically incorrect.
If you are a Spanish speaker, here is one technique you can use to reduce your accent.
Words in Spanish do not typically end in a consonant clusters but English words frequently do. [...]
American English: Don’t Drop Word Final ‘ed’
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 my students [...]
American English Vowel Sounds-How Can You Tell the Difference?
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, I [...]
The Most Common Sound in Spoken English
Linguistic research indicates that the most common sound in spoken English is the schwa vowel sound. This is because native English speakers pronounce the vowels in most reduced syllables with the schwa sound. The phonetic symbol for schwa is /ə/.
Here is an example. When I say my name, Susan, the first syllable is stressed so the [...]
American English Pronunciation: Linking and Liasons
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 [...]
American English Pronunciation Tip-Don’t Drop Word Final Sounds!
Many non-native English speakers tend to drop word final consonants such as the S sounds in words such as: boys, washes and stops.
When you do this it contributes to your accent and it creates grammatical errors that will confuse your listeners.
Keep in mind that word final S has 3 sounds in spoken English. In the [...]
Accent Reduction Tips for Spanish Speakers
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 should pull your lips back into [...]
American English Pronunciation for Portuguese Speakers
Here is an accent reduction tip for Portuguese speakers who want to improve their spoken American English.
Be careful when you pronounce the letter P. Portuguese speakers often pronounce the American English /p/ sound like a /b/ sound. This can be confusing to American listeners because when you do that:
pill sounds like bill
pull sounds like bull
poor sounds like boor [...]
American English Pronunciation:The Voiced & Voiceless Th Sounds
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 non native speakers [...]
