The Center for Confident American English Communication

Are you an Arabic,  Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese or Spanish speaker who is working to improve your American accent? If you are….it’s really important that you learn to use  voiced consonant sounds! Let me explain what I mean….. A voiced sound causes your vocal chords to vibrate. A voiceless sound does not cause your vocal chords to vibrate. TRY THIS

Read more →

One of the key skills that I teach my accent reduction coaching clients from Japan & China is how to articulate voiced &  voiceless consonants. Here is a brief description~ American English has 24 consonant sounds. 15 of these sounds are voiced & 9 are voiceless. Voiced sounds create a vibration in your vocal chords

Read more →

Thanks to all the nice people from India who read my blog. I am very happy that you found this website and I hope you find it helpful. I recently came across a website that featured 10 Tips on English Pronunciation & Accent Improvement (for Indians). I think that the following tips on the website

Read more →

Do you ever feel like the English spelling system does not match the sounds of spoken American English? It seems that way doesn’t it? English spelling is the way that words are written using the 26 letters of the Roman alphabet. Since English is not a phonetic language there is not always a one-on-one relationship

Read more →

In spoken American English there are many pairs of consonant sounds that are articulated using the same tongue and mouth shape. The difference between these pairs of sounds is that one sound is voiced and the other is voiceless. Voiced sounds cause the vocal chords to vibrate. Voiceless sounds are softer and do not cause

Read more →

Here is an accent reduction tip for Brazilian-Portuguese speakers who want to improve their spoken American English. Be careful when you pronounce the letter P! Brazilian-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 because: pill sounds like bill pull

Read more →

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

Read more →

The voiced th sound is one of the most problematic sounds for non-native English speakers to pronounce. To make the sound place your tongue slightly between your teeth. Vibrate your vocal chords as you push the air through your throat. While there are not that many words that have the voiced th sound, the words

Read more →

If you are originally from the Philippines, you may be experiencing some problems with your American spoken English. Don’t blame yourself!  It’s just that Filipino English is a bit different than the English we speak in America. Specific pronunciation problems for Filipinos include: the schwa vowel sound how to use voiced consonant sounds such as the  /z/, /b/

Read more →

Most of the people who I work with in my accent reduction coaching program need to learn the rules for pronouncing the sounds of the letters S & Z . Note how I wrote SOUNDS & LETTERS above. ☛ That’s a reminder that in spoken English, many letters have multiple sounds. Now…. back to  the

Read more →