American English Pronunciation Blog » spanish speakers

American English: How to Pronounce Can & Can’t

susan — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 12:00:11 +0000

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 vowel sound in the word can’t is /æ/ as in man. Let your jaw drop a bit to make this sound. The tip of your tongue is behind your lower teeth. When you say the /æ/ sound lengthen it and raise your pitch just a bit.

3. The vowel sound in the word can is often a schwa /ə/ sound. The schwa is the reduced vowel sound that sounds like “uh”.

Here are a couple of examples of sentences with can and can’t.

Person A: When cən you go to the movies with me? (reduced vowel sound)

Person B: I cæn’t go this weekend because I have to work. (clear, long vowel sound)

Person A: Cən you go on Monday? (reduced vowel sound)

Person B: Yes, I cən go then. (reduced vowel sound)

This cən be a tough distinction to make. Lengthening the vowel sound in cæn’t is probably the most helpful thing you cən do!

American English:The Sounds of ed

susan — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 11:00:08 +0000

Several of the students that I work with in my accent reduction coaching program have trouble hearing the ed that comes at the end of past tense verbs. One reason why they are having this problems is that ed does not always sound like /ed/. Sometimes ed sounds like /d/ and sometimes it sounds like /t/.

The other reason the word final ed can be difficult to hear is because native English speakers link words together so that the /d/ & /t/ sounds become part of the following word. That means that:

passed out sounds like pass dout

looked over sounds like look dover

talked about sounds like talk tabout

laughed at sounds like laugh tat

Click here to read more about this on my post called How to pronounce ed in American English.

Accent Reduction Tips for Spanish Speakers

susan — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 11:00:21 +0000

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 a tense smile. The muscles in your face should feel tight or tense. Your tongue should be high and forward in your mouth.

Other words with the /iy/ sound include: feel, team, receive & these.

American English Pronunciation-Vowels /iy/ & /I/

susan — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 10:20:57 +0000

In my pronunciation and accent reduction classes I work with many people who speak Spanish and Filipino as their first language. One American English vowel sound that both these groups have trouble pronouncing is the /iy/ sound as in the word “sheep”. They often confuse this sound with the /I/ vowel sound as in the word “ship”.

On her website, speech pathologist Cheryl Posey explains how to make these two vowel sounds and she provides a nice picture that should help you see the difference.