The Center for Confident American English Communication

While teaching an accent reduction class last week I noticed that my students were not pronouncing acronyms (or initialisms) correctly. This caused some communication confusion! In spoken English acronyms are stressed on the last syllable or letter. That means you must lengthen the last letter and pronounce it with a higher pitch. After the stress

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One key feature of good spoken English is syllable stress. In spoken English one syllable is each word is stressed. The vowel in the stressed syllable is lengthened and pronounced with a higher pitch. Spoken French does not employ syllable stress in this way. French syllables are evenly stressed until you reach the last syllable

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This week I found an excellent American English Pronunciation Audio Course on the web. In this audio course instructor Charles Becker teaches you American English vowel & consonant sounds, syllable stress & intonation as well as linking and connected speech. This is a very complete course and I advise you to check it out! You

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One of the most effective ways to improve your American English pronunciation is to use syllable stress correctly. The problem is that many students of spoken English don’t know the syllable stress patterns. Here is a general rule that will help you- Most two syllable nouns are stressed on the first syllable. Other two syllable

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Many pronunciation experts say that learning to use syllable stress in words is the best way to improve your American English pronunciation. That’s because when you use American English syllable stress correctly you create the speech rhythm that Americans use to identify words. Although you can’t see syllable stress in the written form of the language, you

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One accent reduction technique that I recommend to the students in my accent reduction classes is to listen for the syllable stress, sentence stress and intonation patterns used by American English speakers. You must practice listening to these patterns in order to use them like American English speakers do. Learning to use syllable stress, sentence

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In spoken American English many numbers sound very similar. In order to pronounce numbers clearly you must pay attention to syllable stress, the sound of the “t” and word endings.  Here are a few rules you can use to help you. 1. Tens numbers have major stress on the first syllable. Say the first syllable

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In order to improve your American English pronunciation you must learn English syllable stress correctly. That’s because Americans listen for syllable stress patterns in order to identify words. Here is a common syllable stress pattern: In English words with two or more syllables, one syllable always receives strong stress or emphasis. Here is a common

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