Why You Have an Accent When You Speak American English, Part 2

Welcome back! Have you checked out my Accent Reduction classes yet?

This week I am writing about factors that contribute to accented speech. Yesterday I wrote about syllable stress and intonation. Today I will talk about lengthening your vowel sounds.

When you are speaking American English you must lengthen the duration of vowel sounds in stressed syllables. You must also lengthen vowels that come before voiced consonant sounds such as /z/ and /d/.

Many non native speakers say the vowel sounds in stressed syllables and before voiced consonants with a short duration. If you do that it will cause communication problems and make your speech sound choppy to American listeners.

You can read more about this on my post titled: Voiced & Voiceless Sounds in American English.

Related posts:

1. American English Pronunciation for Singaporeans
2. Why You Have an Accent When You Speak American English, Part 3
3. Why You Have an Accent When You Speak American English, Part 1
4. Why You Have an Accent When You Speak American English, Part 4
5. Syllable & Sentence Stress in American English