We may not say this sound often but when we do, it is commonly mispronounced. If your goal is to speak English 100% better so that you can sound natural (and with confidence!) learn how to say this awkward sound with preciSIon. Hint: it’s in that word….
Here are the professional techniques that you can use on your own while using a YouTube video. Listen to the podcast here-
Let me introduce you to some behind the scenes techniques. If you are studying to learn to pronounce American English, be sure that you find a native American English speaker. Although to be honest, there are many English speakers that are not native to the US that will also be using this English melody that we are listening to today. Once you find the video that you would like to study from, see if there is a transcript.
Here’s a description of how to find the youtube transcript.
Copy and paste the transcript on a word doc so that you can read along and make notations.
Also, you may want to slow the speed of the speaking.
I recommend slowing the speaking speed down one level to .75
At this speed, you will begin to hear
This practice will help you comprehend what others are saying. If you need more ideas for finding good speakers, people enjoy playing English speaking TV shows such as the sitcoms (Friends) or movies. As long as there is a transcript. Using your own listening skills and taking the time to study this technique, is an excellent way to personally understand what you can do to polish your own abilities.
The English spelling system has 5 letters that represent the vowels A-E-I-O-U (and sometimes Y), but when talking, these vowels have at least 20-different vowel sounds!
Pronouncing English vowels are defined by changes made with the tongue, the degree of muscle tension (tense or relaxed), and lip movements. These tiny little changes make a BIG difference successfully communicating your intended words. For example, the comparisons below show that if you try to pronounce a word with one vowel sound, ex: head, but pronounce the word with a different sound, the desired word may sound more like ‘had’, ‘hat’, or ‘hot’. This week’s podcast will help you hear the differences and give you words to practice saying the differences.
Listen to Ep. 26 Pronouncing English With Pam Podcast
/ɛ/ This is a relaxed sound. Our mouth is open slightly, lips are neutral.
pen, men, slept, head, better
/æ/ tense sound (mouth open). lips are back slightly.
fast, had, slap, clap, man, pan, Pam
/ɑ/ tense sound (mouth is open the most), lips are forward a little or neutral.
stop, daughter, fought
Can you say these two words differently?
/ɛ/ – /æ/
head -had
men -man
guess- gas
said- sad
slept -slapped
end- and
then- than
/ɑ/- /æ/
hot-hat
mop-map
rock-rack
How did you do? Do you have difficulty hearing the difference between words? Tell me in the comments below!
Pronouncing American English vowel sounds requires a good description and model for you to imitate. After all, when vowel sounds are not accurately pronounced- the word will sound totally different than the one you intended! There are other times that vowels are surrounded by sounds that also can be difficult to form correctly. In this lesson, you will practice both: a two-part vowel sound AND a difficult concept…the final L sound.
I love writing these lessons and enjoy teaching to you the sounds that many require help with. I guess it’s not a coincidence that this week you will practice the word enJOY.
https://youtu.be/FBDXuFLgSpM
Learning how to pronounce sounds and use the American English melody takes time and patience! Here are some videos to help you understand commonly difficult words and concepts. Check out our YouTube channel! Our latest video is about pronouncing the vowel sound O for the word FOCUS. This is important to learn especially if you are using this word in your profession. If the sound O is not pronounced fully, it may be embarrassing.
Today we Celebrate Our Anniversary! And yesterday we “celebrated”! Since we are always talking about past events, let’s learn how to pronounce the -ED using the American English Pronunciation. With regular verbs, we add an -ed to the verb to change the word to mean something that has happenED in the past. There are a few different ways to pronounce the ED sound, so to simplify this for you, here are the 2 most important pronunciation changes:
That extra syllable will sound like “did”
pound + ed (pounded) will sound like “poun-did” and wait + ed (waited) will sound like “wai + did”
2. All other verbs will have a small sound at the end of the word.
cook + ed = “cookt”
play + ed = “playd”
Listen to this lesson and practice repeating after me.
And by the way, Happy Anniversary. It’s been 4 years since I have been recording my podcast. And thank you for listening!
Please comment below about verbs + ed that you have questions about.
“You can never trust spelling to guide you with pronouncing English words”
Today’s lesson gives true meaning to this quote that I find myself repeating many times a day. The English spelling system is not consistent. One letter does not represent one sound. Listen to the lesson about using the most popular vowel sound. Learn what it means to stress a syllable in the word and how to reduce syllables in a word. This lesson is 7 minutes long. Email me for the written lesson. Just write STATES in the subject line. Pam@proaccentcoaching.com
Using Your Voice Like A Pro Learn how to stretch your voice and raise your pitch. This is the cornerstone of learning how to make your voice sound more natural and native to English. Raising your pitch while placing stress on words will help the listener hear what you are saying! First let’s learn how […]
