This week I am writing about why you have an accent when you speak English. Yesterday I wrote about syllable stress and intonation. Today I will talk about the importance of lengthening certain vowel sounds.
When you are speaking English you must lengthen the vowel sounds that occur in stressed syllables. You must also lengthen vowels that occur before voiced consonant sounds such as /z/ and /d/.
Many non native speakers say the vowel sounds in stressed syllables and before voiced consonants in a short manner. Doing that it will make your speech sound choppy to American listeners.
You can read more about vowel length on my post titled: Voiced & Voiceless Sounds in American English.
Tags: Accent Reduction Techniques, American English Pronunciation, american english vowels, Syllable stress
