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Real Easy English - Talking about the office

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Real Easy English - Talking about the office

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Listen to the podcast and pay attention to the pronunciation

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How to Pronounce Anglais Naturally | YouGlish

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Struggling with Anglais pronunciation? YouGlish uses real people speaking real Anglais to help you master tricky sounds. No more dictionary confusion!

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Are you looking for the best way to learn accent and improve your English pronunciation? How about using a language learning app to improve accent and speak fluently in American or British accent?

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Listen and compare English words in real British English or American English voice. Practice English pronunciation with British and American accent practice mode. Hear how to pronounce English words and practice.

Clear pronunciation of words is essential for a fluent English conversation. You can learn English sounds and their spellings and then compare them with similar sounds as you practice!

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английское произношение

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نطق الانجليزية

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English Pronunciation & Accent Training App

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Are you looking for the best way to learn accent and improve your English pronunciation? How about using a language learning app to improve accent and speak fluently in American or British accent? Unlike other English pronunciation apps, this language learning aid enables you to see your progress and take help from speaking cues to improve accent.

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Six months ago, I was promoted to a big international project, and I recognized the urgent need to improve my fluency in English. During client meetings, I felt nervous and frequently made mistakes in front of native-speaking clients. My colleague recommended that I try SmallTalk. I took the English level test, loved it on the first try, and subscribed to the Pro plan. I've made English practice a part of my morning routine - 20 minutes every day. I started with the Business English course, the General Course, and then moved to an Advanced Speaking course. I love teaching material and how the AI highlighted my errors. Within just a few months, I saw a significant improvement in my fluency, and my spoken English level increased. Now, I can lead meetings in English fluently and with complete confidence. I tell everyone that SmallTalk is a fun and very effective way to improve your English.

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SmallTalk2Me - AI-powered simulator to improve spoken English

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SmallTalk2Me helps non-native English speakers make their spoken English fluent and enables businesses assess their employees' English proficiency.

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SPEAK your languages for FREE with the 1st AI-based language teacher 👩‍🎤

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Take a free online English test, and then practise!!

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Take a free online English test, and then practise!!

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Here you can find activities to practise your speaking skills. You can improve your speaking by noticing the language we use in different situations and practising useful phrases.

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Talk to Sandi, the robot, to know more about your speaking and pronunication skills!

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Talk to Sandi, the robot, to know more about your speaking and pronunication skills!

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Get your grade and improve it.
Start Speaking

It's free!

Speak & Improve is a research project from the University of Cambridge. By using it you are helping us improve technology that will help English learners around the world.

1. Talk to our speech robot, Sandi, who will ask you some questions.

2. Afterwards, Sandi will give you a grade for your speaking.

3. Were some questions difficult for you? Try them again to improve your score.

Sandi, our speech robot, uses new technology developed at the University of Cambridge. It can tell how well you speak English just by listening to you.

Sandi gives your Speaking an accurate grade on the internationally-recognised CEFR scale.

This can help you understand your speaking ability for work, study, exams (including Cambridge exams), or just for fun.

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Speak & Improve is a research project for learners of English to practise their spoken English. Take a test and get an estimated score for your English speaking.

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Speaking English confidently is an important goal for many. Often, we hesitate because we are afraid of making mistakes or embarrassing ourselves in front of others. Sometimes mistakes are unavoidable. But like any other skill, you can improve your spoken English if you practise regularly and follow these simple techniques.
1. Listen
The first step in improving your speaking skills is actually working on your listening.

Listening to English has several benefits - it allows you to pick up new words, phrases, and ways to respond in conversations. Secondly, listening provides opportunities to understand pronunciation, how some words are omitted when speaking, how some are joined together, the rhythm, the intonation, and the sounds of language.

What should you listen to? There are many resources available to you to listen to for free. Start with short English clips or videos: pick your favourite English TV show or YouTube channel. Listen to a clip and notice carefully what the characters are saying. Repeat any dialogues or phrases that interest you. Replay the same clip until you understand every word. You could also turn on the subtitles or look at the transcript of the video if available and practise saying the dialogues with the characters.

Here are some easy conversations in English with transcripts. The practice activities that accompany these audios and videos will provide you plenty of opportunities to practise the new vocabulary and pronunciation.

English podcasts are another popular way to listen to English and improve your listening and speaking skills. Podcasts are short audio clips that are available online on various topics. They are usually released regularly as episodes on a larger theme or range of topics. Our Podcasts for Professionals is a great resource to listen to some English in the context of the workplace. Each episode focuses on a different business issue and provides some useful tips and techniques to deal with that issue. We also have an app - LearnEnglish Podcasts. A new episode is released weekly on the app, so you never run out of content to listen to.

The third most interesting way to improve your listening and speaking is by listening to audio books. Audio books have become very popular over the past couple of years. They are great for people who are have no time to invest in reading books. They are also a wonderful way to perfect your pronunciation. Here is a great selection of books for people who are learning English. Try to listen to a portion of the text, pause the audio, and read aloud to practise saying the words yourself.

Finally, nothing can beat actual English conversations with people. Listen to your colleagues speaking in English, listen to your boss giving presentations and conduct meetings in English, listen to your teacher speaking in English - all of these real-life conversations will help you become a better listener and a better speaker of the language. Remember that listening as much as possible will help your speaking significantly.
2. Imitate
Now that you have listened to lots of English conversations, it's time for some imitation. Yes, that's right! Imitating or copying someone is a wonderful to improve your speaking skills. Not convinced? Watch babies and children - how do they learn a language? They copy everything an adult says.

Another benefit of imitation is that it will help you become more accurate in English without having to learn grammar rules. With lots of practice you will begin to remember chunks of words and phrases. This helps in remembering word patterns in a sentence and how certain words go with others.

To effectively improve your speaking skills, you need to follow these steps:

Listen: Pick your favourite video or audio clip from any of the sources provided in the earlier section of this article. Play the audio and listen to it carefully. Play as many times as you like to understand how each word is spoken.

Repeat and record: After playing the audio, repeat saying the words and conversations exactly as you heard. Pay special attention to the intonation, stress, and rhythm of language. Record yourself while repeating the words. You could use a voice recorder on your phone or a use a web-service like Vocaroo. Recording will provide you an opportunity to listen to yourself and self-correct. So, do not skip this step.

Compare: Listen to the audio again and compare it with your recording. Does it match? Note down changes that you may need to make.

Correct: Repeat the entire process again until you get better and more accurate.

As this process involves listening to the same audio clip several times, choose a topic that is interesting to you. If you stick with the routine, you will see improvement in your pronunciation, vocabulary, accuracy, and overall speaking abilities in no time!
3. Read
Reading is yet another important skill to have when learning a language. Whether you prefer a novel or an article, reading a few minutes every day will help you acquire new vocabulary.

The most common reason why people hesitate with reading is that it takes quite a lot of time to read a book from start to finish. However, when learning English, reading even for a few minutes is greatly beneficial. Short articles or notes in English are great for this. They only take a few minutes to read and are quite easy to find.

You can start with materials you find every day. Think of notes and memos at work, pamphlets and brochures at your local supermarket, or notices and safety instructions in the elevators - wherever you are there is always something to read.

Here is a selection of reading materials specifically designed to help you improve your language abilities. There are different types of texts and interactive exercises with which you can practise the reading skills you need to do well in your studies, to get ahead at work, and to communicate in English in your free time.

These articles provide a chance to learn about global issues, special days, and festivals while learning English. You will improve your reading comprehension and develop your vocabulary on a diverse range of international events, celebrations, and topics. Each article has interactive exercises to help you understand and use the language.

If you prefer stories, the Story Zone on our LearnEnglish website gives you a wide range to choose from. There are several stories written specifically for language learners. They are easy to read and provide language practice though short activities.

If you are looking to improve your workplace skills along with your vocabulary, try our Business Magazine. You will learn useful language for a wide range of business topics from different perspectives, as well as tips and techniques for dealing with business issues.

Remember that if your goal is improving speaking skills, it is a good idea to read aloud. This will not only help you practise unfamiliar words, but also help you improve your pronunciation and fluency.
4. Reflect
Reflection is a very useful step in improving your speaking skills. Reflection is nothing but asking questions to think about what you learnt, how you learnt, what progress you see, what could be done differently, and how to change the way you learn to allow progress.

It is important to reflect on your language learning abilities on a daily basis, especially if you are learning a new language independently. Reflection is another way to provide yourself some good feedback in the absence of a teacher.

Say you had a great conversation in English. After your conversation is over, take a moment to reflect. Ask yourself questions such as the following:

How was it?

How much did you understand the other person?

How confident did you feel in responding to the questions asked or continuing the conversation?

How comfortable did you feel about the topic of discussion?

How quickly were you able to think of the right thing to say or the right word to say?

Did you come across any unfamiliar words?

What did the other person do when they couldn't think of the right word?

Thinking about these questions will help you see your strengths more clearly and gain confidence. You will also find opportunities for improvement and specific areas to work on.

You could also reflect after reading or listening to something in English. Ask yourself these questions.

What are some of the key points you learned from the article or podcast?

Can you summarise them in your own words?

Are there some words or ideas that were new to you?

Can you use the words and sentences around the new word to guess the meaning of this new word? Look up a dictionary soon after to confirm if you really got the meaning right.

Recording your reflections in a notebook after every learning session will help you see your progress over time.
5. Prepare
A lot of us hesitate to speak or take part in conversations in English because we are nervous about what to say. We are anxious that what we say may not be appropriate or we may make mistakes. We can easily fix this problem by preparing ahead. Are you going to a restaurant with your colleagues? Think of situations that require you to speak English. Order food, perhaps? Ask for changes to a dish? Ask your colleagues' preferences? Ask for the bill? What vocabulary do you need in these situations? Write up a simple list of phrases to use.

Here is an example:

Create similar cheat sheets for everyday situations. You will find yourself becoming more confident and ready to speak in English. If you need help, you will find many useful phrases for different situations here.
6. Speak
Yes, speaking. There is no magic pill that would help you speak better. You must put yourself in situations where you are forced to speak in English to get better at it. Start small. Do you live or work at a place where you need to speak English to get by? Great! Take advantage of this situation by speaking to people around you. It could be at your workplace or even at a coffee shop - doesn't matter where, as long as you can speak.

If you don't have that advantage, practise speaking in English with your colleagues or classmates. It is easier if you choose someone who speaks a different language than you do as it forces you to communicate in English.

You could also consider joining an English language course to improve your range of vocabulary and speaking. You get tons of practice and a teacher to provide you with some personal feedback on your speaking skills. You will meet likeminded learners from all over the country or even another country.

These days, a lot of online forums and discussion groups focus on language learning as a goal. Joining such a forum will help you practise speaking with students from different parts of the world with similar goals. Many of these groups are easy to find. Try Facebook, Reddit, or Discord. Just a word of caution - it is important to keep in mind internet safety and security. Remember safety should be your priority. Read these online safety tips before joining a group.
7. Practise
We cannot stress this enough. Regular and consistent practice is the key to success when it comes to speaking English. The tips and suggestions that we've described above only work if you use them regularly. So, here's what we recommend. Start small - spend just 10 minutes every day doing 1-2 of the above things. Maybe listen to a short video clip today and imitate. Reflect on what you learned. Tomorrow, pick up a short article. Read aloud and summarise in your own words. Reflect on what you read and the new words.

Some days you will find more time. Dedicate more time when you can but do the minimum every single day. You will see a big change in your abilities in no time! As you improve, you'll get more confident and more ready for bigger challenges. This is the time to find speaking partners and to put yourself in situations that require speaking in English. Don't worry about making mistakes. Most people don't care if you make mistakes.

Finally, don't forget to have fun. It's easier to learn something new and commit to learning when you're having fun. Practise English by singing along to popular songs. Practise tongue twisters with your friends. There are several here.

Try all these tips today and start your language learning journey right away!

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Seven simple ways to improve your speaking skills

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Speaking English confidently is an important goal for many. Often, we hesitate because we are afraid of making mistakes or embarrassing ourselves in front of others. Sometimes mistakes are unavoidable. But like any other skill, you can improve your spoken English if you practise regularly and follow these simple techniques.1.

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British English Pronunciation in 50 Minutes - ALL 150 words you need  (+ free Pronunciation Ebook)

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Sur ce blog vous trouverez six conseils pour améliorer, pratiquer et perfectionner votre prononciation en anglais. Écoutez de la musique en anglais, regardez un film en version originale, enregistrez-vous, etc.
Tous ceux qui apprennent l'anglais savent qu'épeler un mot ne nous aide pas particulièrement à le prononcer correctement. Regardez cette phrase en vous concentrant sur les mots en caractères gras - savez-vous les prononcer ?

The man didn't feel very comfortable in his grey suit. He didn't enjoy wearing smart clothes, and when he wore them he felt a subtle difference in his personality.
(L'homme ne se sentait pas très à l'aise dans son costume gris. Il n'aimait pas porter des vêtements élégants, et quand il les portait, il percevait un subtil changement de personnalité.)

L'orthographe anglaise n'a pas beaucoup évolué au fil des ans, c'est notre façon de prononcer les mots qui a évolué. Cela fait de la prononciation un véritable défi pour ceux qui apprennent la langue. Une bonne prononciation ne consiste pas simplement à connaître la sonorité des mots et des lettres. Il faut également tenir compte d'autres caractéristiques tout aussi importantes, telles que l' intonation (comment le ton de la voix change, à quel moment il monte ou descend dans la phrase), l' accentuation (quels sont les mots et les syllabes qui sont accentuées lorsque nous parlons) et les liaisons dans le discours - comment les mots arrivent à sembler différents lorsqu'ils sont liés entre eux naturellement dans le langage. Toutes ces caractéristiques contribuent à une bonne prononciation - mais ne les confondez pas avec l'accent.

Au Royaume-Uni, aux États-Unis ou dans d'autres pays anglophones, il existe de très nombreux types d'accents, mais les personnes possédant des accents différents peuvent toutes avoir une prononciation correcte. Lorsque vous apprenez l'anglais, vous ne devez pas forcément parler comme un britannique ou un américain. Avoir une bonne prononciation c'est pouvoir se faire comprendre et non parler comme si vous étiez né à New York ou à Londres. En fait, de nombreux anglophones aiment entendre parler anglais avec un accent espagnol, italien ou français. Alors, comment pouvez-vous travailler sur votre prononciation afin que les gens puissent vous comprendre facilement dans le monde entier, même si vous conservez l'accent de votre langue maternelle?

Voici six astuces pour vous aider à perfectionner votre prononciation

1. Écouter des personnes parler dans des situations réelles est la façon la plus sûre d'améliorer votre propre prononciation. Il existe de nombreuses façons de le faire - regarder un film dans sa version originale, écouter des podcasts en anglais sur un sujet qui vous intéresse (vous pouvez tester ici l'application de podcasts en anglais du British Council), ou même écouter de la musique. Essayez de remarquer l'intonation que ces personnes utilisent. Vous pouvez ajouter à cela le 'shadowing'. Le 'shadowing' est une technique qui consiste à écouter une phrase courte ou une expression, puis à la répéter, en essayant d'imiter les sons, l'intonation et l'accentuation des mots en prêtant attention aux mouvements de la bouche et de la langue.

2. Enregistrez-vous
Après avoir pratiqué cette technique, enregistrez-vous en répétant une phrase courte que vous venez d'écouter ou en faisant un exercice plus long à partir d'un livre de cours, par exemple, décrire une image. Réécoutez l'enregistrement et notez tous les sons qui vous ont posé des problèmes. Entraînez-vous à dire ces mots ou ces sons lentement, puis enregistrez-vous à nouveau. Constatez-vous une amélioration ?

3. Familiarisez-vous avec le diagramme phonémique.
L'Alphabet Phonétique International (API) est une représentation visuelle de différents sons. Ce diagramme peut vous sembler étrange et vous donner l'impression que vous apprenez une nouvelle langue, mais il vous aidera vraiment pour la prononciation. Tous les dictionnaires ont une transcription phonétique des mots qui indique comment les prononcer. C'est très utile pour l'anglais car, comme nous l'avons déjà vu, l'orthographe anglaise ne correspond pas toujours à sa prononciation. Pensez aux lettres "ough" dans les mots 'through', 'tough', 'ought' (à travers, dur, devrait). Il serait impossible de deviner sans aide comment prononcer ces mots. Examinez le diagramme phonémique du British Council ou téléchargez l'appli Sounds Right. En cliquant sur les différents phonèmes, vous pouvez écouter leur son. Cela vous aidera à entendre les différences entre des sons similaires.

4. Utilisez un dictionnaire
Outre les dictionnaires imprimés qui vous donnent la transcription phonétique d'un mot, il existe de nombreux dictionnaires en ligne qui vous offre la possibilité de cliquer sur le mot pour écouter sa prononciation. L'un d'entre eux, howjsay est particulièrement utile. Le nom même de ce site vous indique comment prononcer naturellement la question habituelle 'How do you say...?' (Comment dit-on ...?). C'est une excellente ressource pour vérifier le son des mots que vous ne connaissez pas.

5. Faites des exercices - Différentes langues ont des sons différents et nos bouches doivent s'adapter à ces sons. Certains sons sont très difficiles à reproduire car ils n'existent pas dans notre langue maternelle. Comme lorsque vous apprenez un sport ou un nouveau mouvement de danse, il est important que vous vous entraîniez pour arriver à former ces nouveaux sons Nous faisons le son / b / en joignant nos lèvres puis en les lâchant. Le son / v / est similaire, mais les dents du haut doivent toucher la lèvre inférieure avant d'ouvrir la bouche. Plus vous vous vous entraînerez, plus ces sons deviendront facile - essayez de dire 'I'd like a very big beverage please!' (J'aimerais une très grande boisson, s'il vous plaît !). La section Sounds of English du site Learning English de la BBC offre une bonne sélection de tutoriels vidéo qui expliquent comment créer différents sons et propose des activités pour s'entraîner.

6. Familiarisez-vous avec les paires minimales - Les paires minimales sont des mots qui ont presque la même prononciation, mais dont un seul son diffère - par exemple, ship et sheep (bateau et mouton). La différence entre le / I / de et le / i: / de correspond à la longueur de la voyelle. Cette différence peut être difficile à percevoir pour de nombreuses personnes apprenant la langue mais elle existe dans de nombreux mots. La première étape consiste à pouvoir faire la différence entre les sons lorsque vous les entendez.

Enfin, ne vous inquiétez pas si vous faites encore des erreurs de prononciation - l'anglais est une langue réputée pour sa difficulté. En 1922 déjà, un étudiant néerlandais a écrit un très long poème sur les problèmes de prononciation de l'anglais intitulé ' The Chaos' (le chaos) - certes l'anglais peut être chaotique, mais en s'entraînant le chaos peut définitivement s'atténuer !

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Améliorer sa prononciation en anglais | British Council

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Sur ce blog vous trouverez six conseils pour améliorer, pratiquer et perfectionner votre prononciation en anglais. Écoutez de la musique en anglais, regardez un film en version originale, enregistrez-vous, etc. Tous ceux qui apprennent l'anglais savent qu'épeler un mot ne nous aide pas particulièrement à le prononcer correctement.

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For learners of English, perfecting the pronunciation of English sounds can be quite challenging. Although we normally rely on spellings for pronunciation, often in English, spellings only make it harder. That is because, unlike many other languages, English letters tend to have multiple sounds also called as phonemes associated with them. What's more, English has borrowed words from a lot of other languages like Russian, German, Spanish etc., and spellings may reflect the origin of the word or phrase.

Let's take a look at this sentence for instance:
English can be weird. It can be understood through tough thorough thought, though.
How do you pronounce 'ough' in the last five words? The answer is that each one is pronounced differently! Isn't this confusing?

This popular 'meme' (a funny piece of text, picture or video that spreads on the internet) about English pronunciation may make you laugh and also wonder why English pronunciation is so difficult to master. You may be wondering about the secret to good pronunciation skills. You may even be wondering if you'll ever be able to learn the pronunciation in English correctly.

It's natural for someone who is learning English as an additional language to ask these questions. But, fear not! Here are some fun and easy ways to help you master the features of English pronunciation, without getting bogged down.
1. Say it out loud
If you haven't already tried this, now is a good time to start. It isn't enough to think in your head how to pronounce a new word. Learning pronunciation is all about making your brain and your mouth coordinate. Every time you say a new word, you're teaching your mouth to move in a new way, which means your teeth, your lips, your tongue, the muscles in your mouth are moving in a completely new manner.

For example, to say the /w/ sound, which comes in the word 'win', form a tight circle with puckered lips brought out and away from your face as if you're going to blow a kiss. Your lips should form a tight 'O'. With your lips in this position, produce a sound while holding the back of your tongue towards the roof of your mouth. If you touch your throat with the palm of your hand, you should feel your vocal cords vibrating.

Although this sounds super complicated, it actually isn't when you say it aloud. BBC's The Sounds of English is an amazing page that provides video lessons on how to pronounce English sounds the right way. You could also download the free pronunciation app ' Sounds Right' by the British Council.

Learning how to pronounce sounds is somewhat like learning how to write by hand. It's a physical process and the more we practice, the better we get at it. As so many physical changes happen when we produce a sound, it is essential to say it out loud and practice until you get it absolutely right.
2. Sing-along
Songs are a great way to learn pronunciation, which is also why we're taught nursery rhymes in kindergarten. Several studies have shown that singing enhances memory and brain power. It also relieves stress. Moreover, it is a good way to improve your vocabulary, grammar, and listening too. So, if you want to sound like a fluent speaker of English, you can begin by singing like one!

Start by finding the lyrics of the song you want to sing. Listen to the song more than once to catch the tune. There are hundreds of catchy numbers in various genres like melody, country, pop, rock, jazz to choose from. These are easily accessible on the internet. Feel free to pick your favourite artist or song. It would be a good idea to choose slower songs first and then gradually speed things up.

You may not be able to sing everything right the very first time but learning pronunciation is a time-consuming process. So, just 'Shake it off' and give it another try. The goal here is to not sing faster, but clearer.

Singing songs will allow you to get comfortable with new sounds and the rhythm of the language. Once you feel more confident, you can even try singing 'karaoke' where a recording of the music is played with no words, so that you can sing the words yourselves. So, get ready to rock the stage and get your pronunciation on point.
3. Twist it up
Unable to pronounce certain sounds like /r/ , /w/ or /l/?

An incredibly fun way to overcome this difficulty is by practicing tongue twisters every day. They are enjoyable and they make learning interesting and effortless.

Try saying this now: "How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?"

Did you pronounce /w/ and /ch/ sounds correctly? How fast can you say this without getting the words mixed up?

Hundreds of popular tongue twisters can be found online for free. Find the ones that are relevant to your problem sounds. If you have a partner to practice this with, turn it into a game and get ready to laugh your heart out for the next half an hour. Remember, practice makes perfect. So, don't give up until you can say it like a pro!
4. Imitate
Learning pronunciation is not just about saying sounds and words right. It's also about getting these other very important pronunciation features right.

Word stress: The way a syllable is pronounced with greater force than other syllables in a word.
E.g., In the word 'electricity', there are five syllables and we stress on the third syllable 'tris' /el-ec-TRIS-i-ti/. You can understand more about word stress by looking a word up in an online dictionary, like the Cambridge, Oxford or Longman dictionaries online.

Sentence stress: The way a word is pronounced with greater force than other words in a sentence which often changes the meaning that's conveyed.
E.g., In this sentence 'Nick hates chocolate', if we stress on Nick, the meaning is that it's not Mark or Shaun who hates chocolate but Nick. If we stress on the word chocolate, it means he hates chocolate, not ice cream or anything else.

Intonation: The sound changes produced by the rise and fall of the voice when speaking. Usually when fluent speakers talk, they use intonation to convey the meaning they want.
E.g., Let's look at the word 'Really?' used as a question.
When the tone of our voice goes up, it sounds like we're surprised.
When the tone of our voice goes down, it sounds like we're doubtful.

Connected speech: The way in which sounds get linked, added or dropped in spoken English.
E.g., I want to go to the park.
Want and to in this sentence get scrunched up together to become 'wanna'.
I'm going to the park
In this statement, going and to is said like 'gowing', with an additional /w/ sound.

Weak forms: In connected speech, fluent speakers emphasise only certain words. The non-essential words get reduced and become weak sounds, in order to convey more meaning in less time.
E.g., Pencil and pen
In this phrase, the word and gets reduced to just 'n', making it 'Pencil n pen'. However, remember that this would not happen in formal speech or writing.

Chunking: Dividing speech into chunks of smaller information and pausing appropriately so that listeners understand us clearly and don't get overwhelmed with information.
E.g., It rained yesterday but only for five minutes.
In this sentence, there are two ideas. The first one is that it rained yesterday. The second one is it rained only for five minutes. In order to let the listener know the first idea is over and that we're moving on to the next idea, we take short pause after yesterday.
Similarly, when speaking multiple sentences, we take a longer pause at the end of each sentence to alert the listener that we're moving on to the next sentence. This is similar to using a full stop at the end of a sentence when writing. This helps you to make your speech more clear and easily understood.

Contractions: The shortened form of a word or group of words in conversational English.
E.g., In this sentence, I have got to leave tomorrow, I and have get contracted to become I've. They are pronounced slightly differently when spoken, and not just like a combination of two words.
Few more examples of contractions are
She has - She's
We would - We'd

The first key step is to listen carefully and notice the different features of pronunciation described above. Once you can hear them, the next step is to try and produce them. So try to actively listen to the experts, analyse their speech, and imitate them. You can do so by watching movies, listening to podcasts, news or other sources. A good place to start is the British Council's LearnEnglish website, which has a series of podcasts for learners of English, just like you.
Sign up for a Demo Session of our Live Online Classes 5. Role-plays
Another way in which you can practise your speaking skills and learn how to speak without being too fast, too slow, mechanical, quiet, or high pitched is by doing role-plays. Sounding natural when trying to incorporate all the aspects of pronunciation can be tricky. Therefore, role playing or pretending to be someone else in a different situation can make the learning process easier. Role playing has been used as a learning tool for over a hundred years. It allows us to explore a variety of scenarios without having to actually be in that situation.

You can find a friend who is also learning English and role-play a situation like phoning a travel agent to find out about a holiday, or role-play an important client meeting at work. If you want it to be more challenging, you can pretend to be the host of your favourite Talk show. Some popular talk show hosts are Graham Norton, Ellen Degeneres and Jimmy Fallon.

You can also watch influential videos from TED Talks, a website where expert speakers talk on education, business, science, tech, creativity, and so much more. These videos come with transcripts or subtitles which will easily allow you to follow them. If you don't understand something, you can pause and repeat at your own convenience. This can not only improve your pronunciation skills but also your presentation skills.

All in all, role-play helps in elevating your pronunciation skills but be sure to watch your tone, pace of speech, volume, and try to sound natural and conversational.
6. Record, Listen, Repeat
This is one of the best ways to self-check and correct your pronunciation. Every phone comes with a built-in audio recorder these days you can make use of this.

Even though we listen to ourselves talk every day, only when we record ourselves and play it back, do we understand how different we actually sound. Choose a situation, for example, making a presentation about a topic, record what you say and listen to it later. By doing so, you become your own teacher and correct your own mistakes. Although this might feel a bit weird at first, this can be a very enlightening experience and probably one of the fastest ways to repair our habitual errors.

I hope these tips will help you master the art of English pronunciation. This may seem strange and mysterious at first but remember, it can be understood through tough thorough thought, though!
Related Links:

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How to improve your English pronunciation skills

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For learners of English, perfecting the pronunciation of English sounds can be quite challenging. Although we normally rely on spellings for pronunciation, often in English, spellings only make it harder. That is because, unlike many other languages, English letters tend to have multiple sounds also called as phonemes associated with them.

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In part one of this series, Mastering the Basics of Communication, I shared strategies to improve how you communicate. In part two, How to Communicate More Effectively in the Workplace, I examined how to apply these techniques as you interact with colleagues and supervisors in the workplace. For the third and final part of this series, I'm providing you with public speaking tips that will help reduce your anxiety, dispel myths, and improve your performance.

Here Are My 10 Tips for Public Speaking:

1. Nervousness Is Normal. Practice and Prepare!

All people feel some physiological reactions like pounding hearts and trembling hands. Do not associate these feelings with the sense that you will perform poorly or make a fool of yourself. Some nerves are good. The adrenaline rush that makes you sweat also makes you more alert and ready to give your best performance.

The best way to overcome anxiety is to prepare, prepare, and prepare some more. Take the time to go over your notes several times. Once you have become comfortable with the material, practice-a lot. Videotape yourself, or get a friend to critique your performance.

2. Know Your Audience. Your Speech Is About Them, Not You.

Before you begin to craft your message, consider who the message is intended for. Learn as much about your listeners as you can. This will help you determine your choice of words, level of information, organization pattern, and motivational statement.

3. Organize Your Material in the Most Effective Manner to Attain Your Purpose.

Create the framework for your speech. Write down the topic, general purpose, specific purpose, central idea, and main points. Make sure to grab the audience's attention in the first 30 seconds.

4. Watch for Feedback and Adapt to It.

Keep the focus on the audience. Gauge their reactions, adjust your message, and stay flexible. Delivering a canned speech will guarantee that you lose the attention of or confuse even the most devoted listeners.

5. Let Your Personality Come Through.

Be yourself, don't become a talking head-in any type of communication. You will establish better credibility if your personality shines through, and your audience will trust what you have to say if they can see you as a real person.

6. Use Humor, Tell Stories, and Use Effective Language.

Inject a funny anecdote in your presentation, and you will certainly grab your audience's attention. Audiences generally like a personal touch in a speech. A story can provide that.

7. Don't Read Unless You Have to. Work from an Outline.

Reading from a script or slide fractures the interpersonal connection. By maintaining eye contact with the audience, you keep the focus on yourself and your message. A brief outline can serve to jog your memory and keep you on task.

8. Use Your Voice and Hands Effectively. Omit Nervous Gestures.

Nonverbal communication carries most of the message. Good delivery does not call attention to itself, but instead conveys the speaker's ideas clearly and without distraction.

9. Grab Attention at the Beginning, and Close with a Dynamic End.

Do you enjoy hearing a speech start with "Today I'm going to talk to you about X"? Most people don't. Instead, use a startling statistic, an interesting anecdote, or concise quotation. Conclude your speech with a summary and a strong statement that your audience is sure to remember.

10. Use Audiovisual Aids Wisely.

Too many can break the direct connection to the audience, so use them sparingly. They should enhance or clarify your content, or capture and maintain your audience's attention.

Practice Does Not Make Perfect

Good communication is never perfect, and nobody expects you to be perfect. However, putting in the requisite time to prepare will help you deliver a better speech. You may not be able to shake your nerves entirely, but you can learn to minimize them.

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10 Tips for Improving Your Public Speaking Skills - Professional Development | Harvard DCE

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Few are immune to the fear of public speaking. Marjorie North offers 10 tips for speakers to calm the nerves and deliverable memorable orations.

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Apprendre à parler anglais, c'est bien, prononcer correctement l'anglais, c'est encore mieux. Cet article va vous donner plein d'astuces pour y parvenir.

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Comprenez l'anglais oral et parlez anglais !

Rejoignez 46 223 personnes qui apprennent l'anglais et reçoivent chaque semaine des leçons gratuites, avec de l'audio enregistré par des natifs.

En bonus, recevez le premier chapitre de ma méthode Comment devenir bilingue en anglais !

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Comment améliorer sa prononciation en anglais ? · Bilingue Anglais

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Comprenez l'anglais oral et parlez anglais ! Rejoignez 46 223 personnes qui apprennent l'anglais et reçoivent chaque semaine des leçons gratuites, avec de l'audio enregistré par des natifs. En bonus, recevez le premier chapitre de ma méthode Comment devenir bilingue en anglais !

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ESL Pronunciation Exercise:  Breakfast (Ben Franklin Exercise)

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How to Learn a British Accent *Fast* (Modern RP)

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Accent Reduction tips

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Record yourself.

Recording yourself is also an important part of your plan. Every once in a while, choose a short speech or passage from a book. If possible, choose something that you can listen to first in the accent you're trying to accomplish. Use our voice recording and say the passage out loud. Then listen to the native accent, compare it with yours and identify sounds and words you can improve.

Go to online voice recorder

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Record yourself. Recording yourself is also an important part of your plan. Every once in a while, choose a short speech or passage from a book. If possible, choose something that you can listen to first in the accent you're trying to accomplish. Use our voice recording and say the passage out loud.

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List of tongue twisters along with practice tool.

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Tongue twisters are a great and fun way to practice speaking clearly and at the right pace.

This page allows you to practice clear pronunciation of tongue twisters. Tongue twister practice improves your articulation and softens your accent if you are not a native speaker.

Better articulation
Tongue twister practice stretches and strengthens the muscles you use to speak. Practice leads to improved pronunciation and clearer speech patterns.

Enhanced awareness
Tongue Twister practice highlights you what words and sounds you have trouble pronouncing. Enhanced awareness will let you focus on where you can improve the most. For non native speakers this will also lead to accent softening

A fantastic warm-up
Tongue Twister helps you warm up your speaking ability. They are commonly used by public speakers, singers and actors before their performance.

Tongue Twisters List

The tongue twisters used on this site can be found below:

1. Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers Where's the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked

2. Betty Botter bought a bit of butter The butter Betty Botter bought was a bit bitter And made her batter bitter But a bit of better butter makes better batter So Betty Botter bought a bit of better butter Making Betty Botter's bitter batter better

3. How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood A woodchuck would chuck all the wood he could chuck if a woodchuck would chuck wood

4. She sells seashells by the seashore The shells she sells are seashells I'm sure For if she sells seashells on the seashore Then I'm sure she sells seashore shells

5. How can a clam cram in a clean cream can

6. I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream

7. I saw Susie sitting in a shoeshine shop Susie works in a shoeshine shop Where she shines she sits and where she sits she shines

8. Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair Fuzzy Wuzzy wasn't fuzzy was he

9. Can you can a can as a canner can can a can

10. I have got a date at a quarter to eight I'll see you at the gate so don't be late

11. You know New York you need New York you know you need unique New York

12. I saw a kitten eating chicken in the kitchen

13. If a dog chews shoes whose shoes does he choose

14. I thought I thought of thinking of thanking you

15. I wish to wash my Irish wristwatch

16. Near an ear, a nearer ear, a nearly eerie ear

17. Eddie edited it

18. Willie's really weary

19. A big black bear sat on a big black rug

20. Tom threw Tim 3 thumb tacks

21. He threw three free throws

22. 9 nice night nurses nursing nicely

23. So, this is the sushi chef

24. Four fine fresh fish for you

25. Wayne went to wales to watch walruses

26. Six sticky skeletons

27. Which witch is which Which witch is which Which witch is which

28. Snap crackle pop Snap crackle pop Snap crackle pop

29. Flash message Flash message Flash message

30. Red Buick blue Buick Red Buick blue Buick Red Buick blue Buick

31. Red lorry yellow lorry Red lorry yellow lorry Red lorry yellow lorry

32. Thin sticks thick bricks Thin sticks thick bricks Thin sticks thick bricks

33. Stupid superstition Stupid superstition Stupid superstition

34. Eleven benevolent elephants Eleven benevolent elephants Eleven benevolent elephants

35. Two tried and true tridents Two tried and true tridents Two tried and true tridents

36. Rolling red wagons Rolling red wagons Rolling red wagons

37. Black back bat Black back bat Black back bat

38. She sees cheese She sees cheese She sees cheese

39. Truly rural Truly rural Truly rural

40. Good blood bad blood Good blood bad blood Good blood bad blood

41. Preshrunk silk shirts Preshrunk silk shirts Preshrunk silk shirts

42. Ed had edited it Ed had edited it Ed had edited it.

43. We surely shall see the sun shine soon

44. Which wristwatches are Swiss wristwatches

45. Fred fed Ted bread and Ted fed Fred bread

46. I slit the sheet the sheet I slit and on the slitted sheet I sit

47. A skunk sat on a stump and thunk the stump stunk but the stump thunk the skunk stunk

48. Lesser leather never weathered wetter weather better'

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Articulation Practice via Tongue Twisters

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Tongue twisters are a great and fun way to practice speaking clearly and at the right pace. This page allows you to practice clear pronunciation of tongue twisters. Tongue twister practice improves your articulation and softens your accent if you are not a native speaker.

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How many times per week do you find yourself participating in small talk about topics you have no interest in or have already discussed a million times-just for something to say? Whether it's waiting for a really slow elevator with a co-worker, talking to an acquaintance at an industry event, or chatting with a complete stranger at a networking event, it happens to all of us.

So, to combat these incredibly boring conversations, I started asking people unexpected, thought-provoking questions that couldn't be answered with a simple yes or no. The results were awesome: I learned cool facts about other people that I would've never picked up in "normal" conversation-and as a bonus we became closer. (And as a double-bonus, I got to stop weighing in on the weather.)

If you're ready to start having awesome conversations, check out my list of favorite questions, divided by small talk topics that most people can get behind. Obviously these don't apply to everyone in every situation-but there are certainly enough here that you should be able to avoid awkward silences for a long, long time.

1. Are you reading any good books right now? I'd love some recommendations. How about shows?

2. Are there any apps on your phone that you can't live without?

3. If you could only watch one genre of movies for the rest of your life, what would it be?

4. What's a book you hated that everyone else loved, and vice versa?

5. Do you have any podcast suggestions for my commute?

6. What's the last movie that made you cry? Or laugh aloud?

7. Whom would you want to be your Amazing Race partner?

8. Who is your favorite person to follow on Instagram?

1. What's the best "hidden gem" around here?

2. If you could fly anywhere for free, where would you go?

3. What's the coolest road trip you've ever been on?

4. Where's the last place you traveled? What did you do there?

5. Do you prefer action-packed vacations or relaxing on the beach?

6. What's the next trip you have planned?

7. If you could take a workcation or sabbatical, where would you go and what would you do?

8. What's your favorite thing to do around here on the weekends?

What questions do you like to ask to jumpstart a cool discussion? Let me know on Twitter!

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48 Questions That'll Make Small Talk Easier

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How many times per week do you find yourself participating in small talk about topics you have no interest in or have already discussed a million times-just for something to say? Whether it's waiting for a really slow elevator with a co-worker, talking to an acquaintance at an industry event, or chatting with a complete stranger at a networking event, it happens to all of us.

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Pronunciation Practice with Tongue Twisters

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Are you ready for some advanced English pronunciation practice? Try these tongue twisters!

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Unique New York.

Many an anemone sees an enemy anemone.

Freshly-fried flying fish.

She stood on the balcony,
inexplicably mimicking him hiccoughing,
and amicably welcoming him home.

Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager
imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.

The epitome of femininity.

A skunk sat on a stump and thunk the stump stunk,
but the stump thunk the skunk stunk.

Greek grapes.

There are dozens more on our other tongue twister pages! Click the twister links below:

Do you know anyone else who would enjoy this? Email this page to a friend.
Also: Sign up for our free web site updates here.

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Tongue Twisters > Example tongue twisters

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Unique New York. Many an anemone sees an enemy anemone. Freshly-fried flying fish. She stood on the balcony, inexplicably mimicking him hiccoughing, and amicably welcoming him home. Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie. The epitome of femininity. A skunk sat on a stump and thunk the stump stunk, but the stump thunk the skunk stunk.

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l r, v w and s sh - Practice these sounds with English tongue twisters

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Practice the English v and w, l and r and s and sh sounds. Improve your pronunciation and diction with this free English tongue twisters video.

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Learning to pronounce English words correctly can be one of the hardest parts of learning English, especially if there are sounds that your native language doesn't have or you tend to get tripped up on tricky vowel pronunciation

Just see how "way," "weigh" and "whey"are all said the same, for example, while "comb," "bomb" and "tomb" are all pronounced differently.

That's why I have 15 tips for you, to help you pronounce English words better.

Contents

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere.Click here to get a copy. (Download)

1. Learn to listen.

Before you learn how to speak, you'll need to learn how to listen. Some sounds can be hard to tell apart when you're listening. Did the speaker sleep or slip? Did he hurt his chin or his shin? If you can hear the difference, it will be easier to speak the difference.

There are many guides to get you started in learning to listen. We have some great articles here about learning to listen from movies, songs and music and podcasts. You can also find listening exercises online, like this one from Rong-chang.

The pronunciation practice at Many Things is really slick, especially its huge selection of lessons on minimal pairs. Minimal pairs are pairs of words like sleep and slip, that are only different by one sound. You can click on each word to hear a complete sentence with each, then quiz yourself in the second box and click the correct answer.

2. Learn with the Best English Pronunciation Dictionaries Online

You probably already use a dictionary to translate English words, but online or digital dictionaries can offer many additional benefits, including pronunciation guides. These kinds of dictionaries can be one of the most useful tools you can have for practicing English pronunciation-best of all, they're available online for free!

Here are some of the best pronunciation dictionaries you can find and use online.

Google Translate

You may have already used Google Translate during your English studies. Google Translate is an easy-to-use translator that also provides pronunciation guides for single words and whole sentences. As soon as you get to Google Translate's interface, you can look up any word and it will give you a number of definitions and an audio pronunciation.

If you're just looking for pronunciation help, type in Google search "how to say (insert word)." You will get both an audio pronunciation guide (which you can slow down) and a visual guide that shows how your mouth should move when saying the word.

FluentU

Many dictionaries don't have pronunciation recordings made by an actual native speaker, and most don't give you good examples of how to use words in context. Dictionaries can also be inefficient to use since you can't know which definition out of several possibilities you're looking for.

FluentU's video and audio dictionary attempts to correct these problems. The program has many videos that give you context and let you hear words in natural situations, like in movie trailers, commercials, inspirational talks, music videos and more. It uses these videos to support its dictionary and give you specific definitions right from the subtitles of a video.

For example, when I did a search within the program for "date," here's what the program showed me:

But if I'm watching a clip from "Friends" and I want to know what Monica means when she says "date," I can hover my mouse over the word and see the correct definition:

If I click on the word, I can even see other videos that use the word with that same meaning for more examples. I can also add the word to a vocabulary list as a flashcard.

FluentU provides native pronunciation at every step of the way: in the transcripts, subtitles, example sentences and even in the quizzes that follow videos and review flashcard decks.

Forvo

Forvo is a user-generated pronunciation guide in which native speakers submit audio clips of themselves saying certain words or phrases. You can look up a word, learn its definition and listen to how different people from different places say it. There are also pronunciations for whole sentences and phrases as well!

Forvo is well-liked because real people are the ones speaking the words. You can also see how certain speakers are ranked in their pronunciations; the pronunciations with the most likes may be the ones you should focus on.

Because the audio submissions can come from all over the world, you can listen to how the same word is said in different regional accents; the importance of this will be discussed in more detail later on.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary

Merriam-Webster is also known as "America's most useful and well-known dictionary." It's no surprise then that it's here on this list! The dictionary offers detailed definitions and information about the words you look up, as well as clear, good-quality audio pronunciations.

You can also download the free app version of this dictionary, which comes with some special features. With the app, you can search for words by speaking them out loud into your device's microphone-this is great for when you don't know how to spell a word, but it's also good speaking practice. If there are any words that interest you, you can save them into your own "favorites" list.

WordReference

WordReference is a helpful multilingual dictionary. It supports translations for a lot of languages, so if your native language is included, you can find words in English by writing it out in your language, or search for English words and get translations in your language. This is very helpful when you want to make sure you're getting the right translations.

WordReference also lets you listen to audio pronunciations in different English accents, more than many other dictionaries. Most online dictionaries may just offer one British pronunciation and one American pronunciation, but WordReference also specifies other specific accents such as Irish, Scottish, American Southern and even Jamaican. After you look up a word, you can click on the "Listen" button to pick the accent you want to hear and change the speed of the audio.

Oxford Learner's Dictionaries

Oxford's online dictionary, provided by the well-respected Oxford University Press, is a great resource for beginner learners. Sometimes, dictionaries can offer a lot of information that can make things confusing-Oxford's dictionary takes out a lot of the confusion and gives you the main things you need. The definitions are written in an easy-to-understand manner and you get plenty of example sentences that show you how the word is used.

The dictionary has two pronunciation options: you can listen to the word spoken in British English or in American English. The pronunciations are done by different male and female humans (not robots!), which can be great for your listening practice.

Collins Online Dictionary

This dictionary offers most of what the other listed dictionaries have, but with some extra audio features. Once you look up a word, Collins dictionary also provides audio pronunciation of the word in its different forms (such as in past tense or participle form). There are even audio pronunciations for the example sentences that show the word in use, which can be very useful when you want to practice speaking in whole phrases.

Collins dictionary provides slightly different definitions: the first "Collins" definition, the second "British English" definition and the third "American English" definition. With each definition section, you can hear either the British or American pronunciation of the word. In some cases, there may even be a video clip of a real person saying the word!

One thing to note is that the example sentence pronunciations are done by a text-to-speech robot instead of a human. However, the voice doesn't sound too unnatural or strange, so you can still find these pronunciations helpful!

A dictionary is a study tool that you'll always want to have around when you're studying and practicing English. If you ever learn a new word and aren't sure how to pronounce it, then a dictionary with audio functions can give you immediate help.

3. Notice how your mouth and lips move.

When you speak, you move your mouth. How you move your mouth affects how you pronounce a word.

The first step to correcting your mouth shape is to notice it and pay attention. There are a few ways you can check that your mouth and lips are making the correct shape:

Use a mirror. This is by far the simplest way to tell what your mouth is doing while you talk.

Put a finger in front of your lips (like you're saying "shh"). As you speak, don't move your finger. You should feel your lips moving away from or pushing against your finger.

Watch other people and notice the shape their mouth and lips make when they talk. Try following along with your favorite TV show or movie. Can you repeat the faces and sounds that the actors are making?

There are guides and pictures online that will help you learn how to move your mouth. Sounds of English has some good explanations for pronouncing specific words. This guide is for people making 3D animations, but the pictures are a great start to understanding how your mouth should look when you speak.

You can also find great videos showing how to properly form the mouth and lip shapes when you're speaking, like this one from Georgie Harding:

Feeling stiff? Loosen up your mouth and tongue and get ready to practice your speech with this fun warm-up exercise from Howcast!

4. Pay attention to your tongue.

The main difference between rice and lice is in your tongue. When you speak, you move your tongue to make sounds. You probably didn't even notice that, since you do it without thinking. To improve your English pronunciation, it's a good idea to check what your tongue is doing.

Some difficult sounds for non-native speakers to make are the letters "L" and "R," and the sound "TH." Pronouncing them correctly is all in the tongue!

To make the "L" sound, your tongue should touch the back of your front teeth and the top of your mouth, just behind your teeth. Try it now: Say the word "light." Say it a few times. Feel where your tongue is in your mouth. Make sure it touches the top of your mouth. For further practice, here's a handy resource: scroll down for a free worksheet with L sound sentences and phrases specifically chosen by our linguist. It includes practical tips too that you can apply right away to improve your L sound pronunciation.

To make the "R" sound, your tongue should not touch the top of your mouth. Pull your tongue back to the middle of your mouth, near where it naturally rests if you weren't saying anything. As you say the sound, your lips should be a little rounded. Try it now: Say the word "right" a few times. You should feel air blowing between your tongue and the top of your mouth as you speak. You should also feel your lips get a little rounder when you make the sound.

Now for the "TH" sound. This one may seem strange if you don't have a similar sound in your native language. To make this sound, put your tongue between your top and bottom teeth. Your tongue should stick out a little between your teeth, and as you push air out of your mouth, let some air escape between your tongue and teeth-that's what makes the sound. Try it now: Say the word "think." Repeat it a few times. Make sure you push your tongue between your teeth.

Now that you know where to put your tongue, can you hear the difference?

For a more detailed explanation on how to make those three sounds correctly, watch this video from the Woosong University:

Or check out this one from Club English:

There are many other pronunciation guides on YouTube, so look around for one that helps you master the sounds of the language!

If you can't figure out what to do with your tongue to make the right sound, try asking someone. Ask them to say a word with that sound, then tell you where they put their tongue. They probably never thought about it before, either!

5. Break words down into sounds.

Words are made up of syllables, or parts. The word "syllable," for example, has three syllables: syl-la-ble. Turning words into parts can make them easier to pronounce.

To check how many syllables a word has, place your hand flat just under your chin. Say the word slowly. Each time your chin touches your hand, that's a syllable.

You can even write the word down in parts. Leave a space or draw a line between each syllable (every syllable should have at least one vowel: a, e, i, o, u, y). Now try saying the word. Say it slowly and pause after each syllable. Isn't that easier?

If you're having trouble with syllables, you can check out How Many Syllables. This website shows you the syllables in any word you look up, and even shows you how to pronounce it.

6. Add stress to sounds and words.

English is a stressed language. That means some words and sounds are more important than others. You can hear this when you say a word out loud. For example, the word "introduce" is pronounced with a stress at the end, so it sounds like this: "in-tro-DUCE."

Sometimes where you put the stress in a word can change the word's meaning. Say this word out loud: "present." If you said "PREsent," you are talking about a noun that means either "right this moment" or "a gift." If you said "preSENT," you are talking about a verb that means "to give or show."

There are rules for where the stress goes in each word. Here's one rule:

Most two-syllable nouns are stressed on the first syllable, and most two-syllable verbs are stressed on the second syllable.

That's just like the word "present." Here's another example: the noun "ADDress" is the place where you live, and the verb "addRESS" is to speak to someone.

If this all sounds too complicated, don't worry about memorizing all these rules-the best way to learn is by listening and practicing. Remember that most native English speakers don't know the rules either, they just say what "sounds right." With enough practice, you can get what sounds right too.

This video about six common English mistakes goes over word stress in detail in the first point:

Keep watching the rest of the video for other useful tips for avoiding some of the most common English learner mistakes.

Watch this video from mmmEnglish for more information about syllable stress in English:

Sentences have stresses too; some words are more important, and are said with more clarity and strength than the rest of the sentence. Try reading this sentence aloud: "I ate some toast with butter in the morning."

The sentence should have sounded like this (the bold words are the stressed ones): "I ate some toast with butter in the morning." Notice how you slow down every time you get to an important word, and quickly pass over the less important ones?

Keep practicing by reading out loud, having conversations and listening well to where others place stress when they speak.

7. Ask yourself which dialect of English you want to learn.

When you speak English, do you want to sound like you're from America or England? Australia or New Zealand? Maybe Canada or South Africa.

Choosing your dialect of English is one of the first decisions to make on your English-learning journey. First of all, it will determine much of the vocabulary you learn. For example, English speakers in Ireland use different terms for certain things than English speakers in the United States-especially when it comes to slang.

Second, this choice will drastically affect your pronunciation.

The two most common types of English for ESL students are probably American English and British English.

Choosing which type will affect how you pronounce sounds. For example, in America, the "r" sound at the end of a word is much harsher.

And when a "t" appears in the middle of a word, Americans often pronounce it as a "d," while the British pronounce it as a hard "t." Think of words like "water," "whatever" or "lighter."

That's just the beginning. I could go on and on!

Choosing between American and British English will also drastically alter how you say words like "aluminum," "schedule," "garage" and "mobile," just to name a few.

Once you've chosen which dialect of English you want to take on, base your studying methods and tools on that decision.

For instance, if you want to learn American English, you wouldn't want a British language exchange partner, would you? You're going to emulate the sounds you hear, so you want to find people and resources that will feed you the right accent.

Watching movies and TV shows are fantastic ways to learn English and pick up accents. I particularly love watching TV series, because you have hours of content, and you learn to understand characters' accents over time.

If you're looking for a British TV show, I recommend "The Crown," a drama about Queen Elizabeth II. I also love "The Great British Baking Show." This reality show is lighthearted and fun to watch, and you'll pick up modern slang.

How about English shows? "Friends" is a classic option for learning English, and many Americans will love to talk about it with you. "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" is a sitcom that's currently on the air that centers around cops (policemen and women) in New York City.

You can also find learning materials that expose you exclusively to your desired dialect. Take apps, for example.

If you want to learn British English, LearnEnglish Sounds Right will provide an English pronunciation guide for people wanting to attain a British accent, and you can download it for your iOS or Android device.

ELSA Speak: English Accent Coach is a great app for learning how to speak like an American. Download it at the Apple or Google Play store.

You can also use resources besides apps, and they can be just as useful in helping you get the dialect you want.

As you can see, your choice of dialect will affect every other decision you make regarding English pronunciation!

8. Exaggerate certain sounds (make them bigger).

Anyone who has acted in the theater knows about exaggeration.

Have you ever been on stage and made a facial expression or reacted to someone else's line, only for your director to yell, "Do it bigger!" On the stage, you have to exaggerate to appear normal to the audience.
English pronunciation is the exact same way.
Depending on what your native language is and which dialect of English you're studying, you'll find certain sounds to be difficult. Actually, I think every ESL student I've met who is learning American English struggles with the American "r" sound!

So how do you master a tricky sound like this?

Exaggerate. Exaggerate the sound until you feel ridiculous. Exaggerate until you're sure it's so over the top that people are going to make fun of you.

Are you exaggerating to the point that you feel stupid? Then you're probably on the right path.

If you're super over the top in your pronunciation, you'll become more and more aware of the shape of your mouth and the placement of your tongue when you make that sound.

Believe it or not, exaggerating these sounds will likely make it easier for native speakers to understand you. You may think you sound corny because you aren't used to making these sounds. But for a native speaker, you'll sound way more authentic than a foreigner who is shy about these sounds.

What's the goal? Eventually, you will be so used to the shape your mouth makes that you won't be conscious of exaggerating, and you won't be thinking of English pronunciation rules as you speak. And that's when you know you're on the path to fluency.

9. Write out difficult words by their sounds.

Having trouble with certain words? Try writing them out.

No, not just the word. Try writing it out phonetically (by their sounds instead of their spelling).

Let's say you're struggling with the word pizza. Write it out phonetically: piːtsə.

When you look at the phonics, you can see that the double-z is pronounced like a "ts."

Try making flashcards. Write the word on one side, then spell it out phonetically on the other side. If it helps, you can highlight the letters on each side that you're testing yourself on. (This can be especially useful for visual learners!)

Writing things out phonetically can be difficult, especially if it's in your second language. If you need help, visit EasyPronunciation.com. Type in the word or sentence you need help with, and the website will transcribe it phonetically for you. (Bonus-it lets you choose between American and British English!)

10. Write down what you hear.

Want to master English pronunciation? Sit down and listen. Listen to someone speak and write down what they are saying.

You might be thinking, "Hey, I'm here to practice English speaking, not listening!"

However, listening is an excellent way to improve English pronunciation.

In my high school French classes, we had to take dictation (write what the teacher said) every week. The teacher spoke for 20 minutes, and we had to write down exactly what she said. Trying to decipher her accent and write down what we heard made me understand French spelling and pronunciation better.

Don't have an English teacher who wants to talk aloud for 20 minutes at your disposal? There are plenty of ways to find a resource!

EnglishClub is a great dictation website, regardless of your learning level. Choose from elementary, intermediate or advanced dictation.

You'll listen to the dictation once at normal speed. Then a second time at a slowed-down speed so you can write it down. Listen for a third time at a normal speed. Then check your answer.

YouTube also has many options to practice your listening and writing skills. Get started with Speak English with Vanessa's Dr. Seuss dictation video:

You can also watch a scene from a TV show or movie and write down what you hear. If you're watching on a service that provides subtitles, play the scene again with subtitles to check your work.

If you recognize difficult sounds when you hear them, it's likely that you'll learn how to say them.

11. Practice with tongue twisters.

When speaking English, do you struggle with sounds that are similar? Like "sh" and "ch," "t" and "th" or the short and long "e" sounds?

Don't worry, you're not the only one. Not by a long shot.

Wondering how to improve your English accent in a way that's a bit more entertaining? Tongue twisters can be a fun (but tricky!) way to practice differentiating between two sounds.

Tongue twisters are poems that can be hard to recite because a lot of the sounds are similar. In English-speaking countries, people say them just because it's funny when you mess up and sound silly. And it's satisfying when you finally master the poem!

Here are a few examples of popular, effective English tongue twisters:

Want to practice the "s" and "sh" sounds? Here's one:
She sells seashells by the seashore.
That's a very famous tongue twister. But once you've got that down, try adding on a few less well-known lines:

The shells she sells are sea-shells, I'm sure.
For if she sells sea-shells on the sea-shore
Then I'm sure she sells sea-shore shells.

Alright, now let's try one to practice the "cl" and "cr" sounds:
How can a clam cram in a clean cream can?
And now one for the "sh" and "ch" sounds:
If a dog chews shoes, whose shoes does he choose?
Want to practice different sounds with tongue twisters? Take a look at this list here.

You can also hear some tongue twisters spoken by a native English speaker on Rachel's English (and see that even native speakers can have trouble mastering these tricky twisters!):

12. Use pronunciation podcasts and videos.

There are some excellent video and audio guides on English pronunciations that you can use to improve. The English Language Club has videos that show how to make different sounds in English. Rachel's English has friendly videos on how to speak and pronounce American English in everyday conversations.

If you like podcasts better, Pronuncian has over 200 audio files that help with everything from pronunciation to stress and pitch (how you raise and lower your voice while you speak).

If none of these are what you're looking for, there are many more to choose from. Find the one that's right for you.

13. Record yourself.

One way to tell if all your practice is working is to record yourself with a camera. Use a camera and don't just a sound recorder because it's important to see how you speak, not only hear it.

Compare your recording to someone else saying the same words or sounds. Find a video of your favorite part from a movie. Choose one or two sentences and record yourself trying to match the stress, tone and pronunciation of the video. Then you can compare the two and see what you did differently, and try again.

Ask a friend or watch a video to check. If your pronunciation doesn't sound the same, ask yourself some questions: Are you moving your mouth the right way? Is your tongue in the right place? Are you stressing the right part of the word? Use everything you learned in this article so far!

14. Practice with a buddy.

Practicing with a buddy (friend) will give you a chance to try everything you learned, and learn new things from each other. Plus, it's fun!

15. Speak as much as you can.

If you don't speak often, you can become nervous when it's finally time to open your mouth and say something in English.

It's like playing basketball. You might be good at running, dribbling and passing. But you never shoot the ball.

You know how to shoot the ball. You watch other people do it all the time. But you've never done it.

When it's time to play and you get a chance to shoot, it would be hard. Plus, you'd become so nervous by doing something new in front of other people that your nerves could paralyze you.

It's the same with speaking English. Not only do you need English pronunciation practice, but you need to get over your nerves so that you feel comfortable speaking in front of others. Nerves can lead to a lot of mistakes, especially regarding pronunciation.

Try making a rule for yourself: You must speak English to yourself at home. To start, try just narrating what you're doing when you're cooking dinner or getting ready for bed.

Promise yourself that you're going to speak aloud for at least a few minutes per day.

Remember, practice makes perfect!

Pronunciation is as important to learning English as vocabulary and grammar. Thanks to these 15 tips, you'll soon be on your way to pronouncing English like a native.

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere.Click here to get a copy. (Download)

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How to Greatly Improve Your English Pronunciation in 15 Steps - FluentU English

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Learning to pronounce English words correctly can be one of the hardest parts of learning English, especially if there are sounds that your native language doesn't have or you tend to get tripped up on tricky vowel pronunciation Just see how "way," "weigh" and "whey"are all said the same, for example, while "comb," "bomb" and "tomb" are all pronounced differently.

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Pronunciation teaching exercises and ideas for English language learners.

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Learning and understanding English language pronunciation is essential for ESL students. Pronunciation exercises need to be repeated and recycled. So it's good to have an arsenal of teaching materials to keep students engaged and help them progressively improve their speaking clarity and fluency.

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Spanish Dictionaries

There are two free Spanish-English dictionaries: our own dictionary and one from Collins. Each has its own strengths. Combined, they are unbeatable.

French and Italian Dictionaries

WordReference has two of its own dictionaries plus those of Collins. The French dictionary has over 250,000 translations and the Italian dictionary has nearly 200,000. These dictionaries continue to grow and improve as well. If you don't find what you are looking for in any of the dictionaries, search or ask in the forums.

Language Forums

The WordReference language forum is the largest repository of knowledge and advice about the English language, as well as a number of other languages. If you have a question about language usage, first search the hundreds of thousands of previous questions. If you still are unsure, then you can ask the question yourself. Native speakers from around the world will be happy to assist you.

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English to French, Italian, German & Spanish Dictionary - WordReference.com

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Free online dictionaries - Spanish, French, Italian, German and more. Conjugations, audio pronunciations and forums for your questions.

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How To Sound Like A Native English Speaker: Connected Speech

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Below I summarized all the tips I used to improve myself

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Record yourself.

Recording yourself is also an important part of your plan. Every once in a while, choose a short speech or passage from a book. If possible, choose something that you can listen to first in the accent you're trying to accomplish. Use our voice recording and say the passage out loud. Then listen to the native accent, compare it with yours and identify sounds and words you can improve.

Go to online voice recorder

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Record yourself. Recording yourself is also an important part of your plan. Every once in a while, choose a short speech or passage from a book. If possible, choose something that you can listen to first in the accent you're trying to accomplish. Use our voice recording and say the passage out loud.

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Free Text to Speech Online with Realistic AI Voices

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Convert text into ultra-realistic audio. Have any text read aloud with AI Voices. AI text reader for pdfs, books, documents, and webpages.

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Access denied | texttospeech.io used Cloudflare to restrict access

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Welcome

Text2Speech.org is a free online text-to-speech converter. Just enter your text, select one of the voices and download or listen to the resulting mp3 file. This service is free and you are allowed to use the speech files for any purpose, including commercial uses.

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Text2Speech.org is a free (also for commercial purposes) online Text to Speech Synthesis tool.

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Learn The 43 Sounds of American English Pronunciation - Pronuncian: American English Pronunciation

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Learn how to pronounce and spell the 43 sounds of American English, then practice with listen-and-repeat for each sound

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Tim
Hi. I'm Tim and this is my Pronunciation workshop. Here I'm going to show you how English is really spoken. Come on, let's go inside. Well, here we are in the pronunciation workshop for the final time. Today, let's look back on what we've covered in this series and I'll offer some final tips and words of advice. When we write English, each word is separate; there are spaces between the words. But, that's not how we speak English. If. We. Did. It. Might. Be. Easier. To. Understand. But. We. Would. Sound. Like. Robots. No. When we speak English, although there are some pauses, we mostly bump the words together. And when these words bump into each other certain things can happen that affect the sounds. We've learned that /t/ and /d/ sounds disappear between consonants:

Tim
Consonant sounds can link with vowel sounds:

Tim
Certain vowel sounds can link with certain other vowel sounds by adding sounds:

Tim
Two consonant sounds can join together, or twin.

Tim
Some sounds can change completely:

'Green Park' /griːn pɑːk/ becomes /griːmpɑːk/.

Tim
Unstressed grammar words are often weak:

'I'd have been late' becomes /aɪdəv bɪn leɪt/

Tim
And we've also seen how a little sound, schwa, is important to the rhythm of natural spoken English.

'A piece of cake' /ə piːsə keɪk/

Tim
These are all features of what we call connected speech. Natural speech is full of these features. And for native speakers, these changes happen automatically. The more you can get used to listening to and speaking English, the more naturally they'll come to you too. But my advice is that the most important thing to pay attention to is schwa. Getting schwa in the right place is the first step to getting English pronunciation right. And that, for the last time, is about it from the pronunciation workshop. And always remember that if you want to learn more about pronunciation or other aspects of English, then please visit our website, bbclearningenglish.com. Thank you so much for watching this series and I'll see you soon. Bye bye! Erm, hello? Hello? Erm. I can't get out. What do I do? Help! Help! Oh. Somebody?

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BBC Learning English - Pronunciation / Tim's Pronunciation Workshop: Summary

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Tim Hi. I'm Tim and this is my Pronunciation workshop. Here I'm going to show you how English is really spoken. Come on, let's go inside. Well, here we are in the pronunciation workshop for the final time. Today, let's look back on what we've covered in this series and I'll offer some final tips and words of advice.

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Kabaddi Is The Fastest-Growing Sport In India Posted on January 7, 2023 Listen here Kabaddi is a contact sport that originated in India. It is played between two teams of seven players. The object of the game is to score points by sending a single player, raider,...

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Basic website
Basic website
A very fast way to check words pronunciation
esl-about
esl-about
Improve Your Accent!
Improve Your Accent!
Very basic but effective!
Very basic but effective!

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But always practice with the 2nd option (more than one way to pronounce is suggested)

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How To Pronounce: Online Multilingual Pronunciation Dictionary

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HowToPronounce.com is a crowdsourced audio pronunciation website that helps you learn how to say words, names and phrases contributed by native speakers.

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Teaching English pronunciation is a challenging task with different objectives at each level. This guide on how to teach pronunciation provides a short overview of the main issues to be addressed at each level, as well as pointing to resources on the site, such as lesson plans and activities, that you can use in class to help your students improve their English pronunciation skills. Following each level are a few suggestions for level appropriate activities.

Finally, the best way to help students improve their pronunciation skills is to encourage them to speak English as much as they possibly can. Introduce the idea that even when doing homework students should be reading aloud. Learning to pronounce English well takes muscle coordination, and that means practice - not just mental activity!

Beginning Level English Learners
Key Points:

1. Syllable Stress - students need to understand that multisyllabic words require syllable stress. Point out common syllable stress patterns.

2. Voiced and Voiceless Consonants - Teach the difference between voiced and voiceless consonants. Have students touch their throats to note the difference between 'z' and 's' and 'f' and 'v' to demonstrate these differences.

3. Silent Letters - Point out example of words with silent letters such as the 'b' in 'comb', '-ed' endings in the past for regular verbs.

4. Silent final E - Teach the influence of the final silent 'e' generally making the vowel long. Make sure to point out that there are many exceptions to this rule (drive vs. live).

Discussion:
At the beginning level, English learners need to focus on the basics of pronunciation. In general, the use of rote learning is best for this level. For example, the use of grammar chants is a great way to help students pick up pronunciation skills through repetition.Teaching the IPA ( International Phonetic Alphabet) is too challenging at this point as learners are already overwhelmed with the challenges of learning a language.

Learning another alphabet for pronunciation is beyond the capability of most beginning level English learners. Certain patterns such as silent letters in English and the pronunciation of -ed in the simple past is a good starting point for future pronunciation drills. Students should also learn the difference between voiced and voiceless consonants.
Beginning Level Pronunciation Activities

Slap That Word! - Fun game for learners asking them to associate words that are posted on the wall of the classroom. This exercise will reinforce pronunciation patterns during a fun, competitive activity

Read and Rhyme - Rhyming game asking students to come up with words that rhyme with others presented on cards.

Intermediate Level English Learners
Key Points:

1. Use of Minimal Pairs - Understanding the small differences in pronunciation between similar words is a great way to help students notice these differences.

2. Word Stress Patterns - Help students improve their pronunciation by focusing on short sentences using standard word stress patterns.

3. Introduce Stress and Intonation - One of the best ways to help students is to focus their attention on the music of English through the use of stress and intonation.

Discussion:
At this point, English learners will feel comfortable with relatively simple pronunciation patterns in English. Moving on to exercises using minimal pairs will help learners further refine their pronunciation of individual phonemes. Intermediate level learners should become aware of common word stress patterns, as well as sentence stress types. At this point, students can also begin becoming familiar with the IPA.
Intermediate Level Pronunciation Activities

IPA Symbol Card Game - This card game helps students learn phonetic symbols. Cards are included on the site that you can print out and use in class.

Tongue Twisters - Classic English tongue twisters to help students focus on some of the more challenging phonemes.

Advanced Level English Learners
Key Points​:

Refine Understanding of Stress and Intonation - Further students' understanding of stress and intonation by changing up particular words stress to change meaning.

Use of Register and Function - Introduce the idea of changing through pronunciation depending on how formal or informal the situation is.

Improving pronunciation through focus on stress and intonation is one of the best ways to improve higher intermediate to advanced level English learners. At this level, students have a good grasp on the basics of each phoneme through the use of exercises such as minimal pairs, and individual syllable stress. However, English learners at this level often focus too much on correct pronunciation of each word, rather than on the music of each sentence. To introduce the concept of stress and intonation and the role it plays in understanding, the students first need to understand the role of content and function words. Use this lesson on practicing stress and intonation to help. Next, students should learn how to use sound scripting - a way of marking up texts to help prepare for reading aloud. Finally, advanced level students should be capable of changing meaning through word stresses within sentences to bring out contextual meaning through pronunciation.
Advanced Level Pronunciation Activities

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What to Focus on When Teaching Pronunciation by Level

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Teaching English pronunciation is a challenging task with different objectives at each level. This guide on how to teach pronunciation provides a short overview of the main issues to be addressed at each level, as well as pointing to resources on the site, such as lesson plans and activities, that you can use in class to help your students improve their English pronunciation skills.

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Read about my award Hi, my name is Luke and I'm an accent coach. I teach non-native English speakers how to communicate more clearly. I've taught people from over 70 different countries how to improve their accent. I'm the winner of UK Freelancer of the Year 2017.

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A very fast way to check words pronunciation

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learn how to pronounce english words free

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how to improve english accent and pronunciation

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how to improve english accent and pronunciation

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how to pronounce english words correctly with audio

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how to improve english accent and pronunciation

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how to pronounce english words correctly with audio

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how to improve pronunciation and fluency

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Free Online English Pronunciation Dictionary | Howjsay | Learn to Pronounce English Words | Howjsay

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Learn How to Pronounce English Words | Natural Recordings by Native Speakers

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Why is English word pronunciation important?

Click Here for Step-by-Step Rules, Stories and Exercises to Practice All English Tenses

Why is English word pronunciation important?

Have you noticed that sometimes, even though you can speak English well, have a good vocabulary, and use grammar properly, something still does not sound natural? Or in other words, your foreign accent is just too obvious... This can also make understanding you more difficult for other people.

This could be a common problem among English learners. Each comes from a different country, a different language, with its different pronunciation ways and accents.

However, is it unchangeable? Do you have to keep your original accent when speaking English?

That depends on how hard-working you are in practicing the new sounds. But let's agree on one thing: with some decent practicing you can definitely improve your pronunciation and your accent!

Click Here for the American Accent Audio Course.

What Makes an Accent?

Accent seems so natural to us, that we sometimes forget what makes an accent.

Basically, the way you pronounce each sound of the language affects your overall accent.

For example, the sound of the letter R is pronounced differently by Spanish, German and English speakers. The same is true for many other sounds. And so you get your accent...

The method to improve your English accent, or your English word pronunciation, is to practice the proper ways to pronounce the sounds of English.

Each sound is produced in a certain way, and when you produce it right, it sounds natural.

Here you have a special step by step tutorial, which will gradually lead you through the different English sounds. And hopefully, after completing it, you will not be the same person! Or at least, you will not have the same accent...

The tutorial is composed of explanations, examples, exercises and videos. The videos were collected from several sources, and from different English teachers. These teachers share their skill and knowledge with us in the most efficient way - videos. And this is truly awesome.

So do this tutorial! Learn to speak english...

To begin lesson 01 and improve your English word pronunciation and accent click here.

List of Lessons
Learn English Video Section

For additional tips on how to improve your English pronunciation and accent click here.

See also Phonology in the English Language (Phonology is the study of the basic sounds and speech patterns of a language.)

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English Word Pronunciation: Improve that Accent!

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Why is English word pronunciation important? Click Here for Step-by-Step Rules, Stories and Exercises to Practice All English Tenses Why is English word pronunciation important? Have you noticed that sometimes, even though you can speak English well, have a good vocabulary, and use grammar properly, something still does not sound natural?

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Listen and Repeat Podcast: Improve Your English Pronunciation

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Commonly-used Irregular Verbs - Part 1 (2:00) There is also a Video of Commonly-used Irregular Verbs - Part 1

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You definitely need to check the Phonetic Alphabet to better reinvest words encountered while reading.

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Learn the sound and characters of the international phonectic alphabet.

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Not bad but not free...

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Pronunciation | Learn English | EnglishClub

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Learn to pronounce English with audio, video, tests and basic rules. EnglishClub helps ESL learners study pronunciation to improve speaking and listening.

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"What?"

"Can you say that again?"

How many times do you hear this when you're speaking? Even if your vocabulary and English grammar are perfect, it can still be difficult for people to understand you because of your pronunciation.

Learning to pronounce English words correctly can be one of the hardest parts of learning English.

The English language has some sounds that your native language might not, so you will have to learn how to make completely new sounds.

Plus, English vowels make it really tricky to know how to say a word. "Way," "weigh" and "whey"are all said the same, for example, while "comb," "bomb" and "tomb" are all pronounced differently.

Ah! Yeah, we know it can make you crazy.

So that's why we have eight tips for you, to help you pronounce English words better.

1. Learn to listen.

Before you learn how to speak, you'll need to learn how to listen. Some sounds can be hard to tell apart when you're listening. Did the speaker sleep or slip? Did he hurt his chin or his shin? If you can hear the difference, it will be easier to speak the difference.

There are many guides to get you started in learning to listen. We have some great articles here about learning to listen from movies, songs and music and podcasts. You can also find listening exercises online, like this one from Rong-chang.

The pronunciation practice at Many Things is really slick, especially its huge selection of lessons on minimal pairs. Minimal pairs are pairs words like sleep and slip, that are only different by one sound. You can click on each word to hear a complete sentence with each, then quiz yourself in the second box and click the correct answer.

When you want to listen to authentic English instead of pronunciation exercises, you can watch videos on FluentU. FluentU is an online immersion platform that takes real-world videos-like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks-and turns them into personalized language learning lessons.

Every word comes with an in-context definition, image, audio and example sentences, so you have enough support to make native English accessible to you. FluentU's "learn mode" takes your learning history into account, and asks questions based on what you already know, which sets you up for success.

The better you get at hearing words, the better you will become at pronouncing them.

2. Notice how your mouth and lips move.

When you speak, you move your mouth. How you move your mouth affects how you pronounce a word.

The first step to correcting your mouth shape is to notice it and pay attention. There are a few ways you can check that your mouth and lips are making the correct shape:

Use a mirror. This is by far the simplest way to tell what your mouth is doing while you talk.

Put a finger in front of your lips (like you're saying "shh"). As you speak, don't move your finger. You should feel your lips moving away from or pushing against your finger.

Watch other people and notice the shape their mouth and lips make when they talk. Try following along with your favorite TV show or movie. Can you repeat the faces and sounds that the actors are making?

There are guides and pictures online that will help you learn how to move your mouth. Sounds of English has some good explanations for pronouncing specific words. This guide is for people making 3D animations, but the pictures are a great start to understanding how your mouth should look when you speak.

3. Pay attention to your tongue.

The main difference between rice and lice is in your tongue. When you speak, you move your tongue to make sounds. You probably didn't even notice that, since you do it without thinking. To improve your English pronunciation, it's a good idea to check what your tongue is doing.

Some difficult sounds for non-native speakers to make are the letters "L" and "R," and the sound "TH." Pronouncing them correctly is all in the tongue!

To make the "L" sound, your tongue should touch the back of your front teeth and the top of your mouth, just behind your teeth. Try it now: Say the word "light." Say it a few times. Feel where your tongue is in your mouth. Make sure it touches the top of your mouth.

To make the "R" sound, your tongue should not touch the top of your mouth. Pull your tongue back to the middle of your mouth, near where it naturally rests if you weren't saying anything. As you say the sound, your lips should be a little rounded. Try it now: Say the word "right" a few times. You should feel air blowing between your tongue and the top of your mouth as you speak. You should also feel your lips get a little rounder when you make the sound.

Now for the "TH" sound. This one may seem strange if you don't have a similar sound in your native language. To make this sound, put your tongue between your top and bottom teeth. Your tongue should stick out a little between your teeth, and as you push air out of your mouth, let some air escape between your tongue and teeth-that's what makes the sound. Try it now: Say the word "think." Repeat it a few times. Make sure you push your tongue between your teeth.

Now that you know where to put your tongue, can you hear the difference?

For a more detailed explanation on how to make those three sounds correctly, watch this video from the Woosong University, this one from Club English, or any number of other pronunciation guides you can find on YouTube.

If you can't figure out what to do with your tongue to make the right sound, try asking someone. Ask them to say a word with that sound, then tell you where they put their tongue. They probably never thought about it before either!

4. Break words down into sounds.

Words are made up of syllables, or parts. The word "syllable," for example, has three syllables: syl-la-ble. Turning words into parts can make them easier to pronounce.

To check how many syllables a word has, place your hand flat just under your chin. Say the word slowly. Each time your chin touches your hand, that's a syllable.

You can even write the word down in parts. Leave a space or draw a line between each syllable (every syllable should have at least one vowel: a, e, i, o, u, y). Now try saying the word. Say it slowly and pause after each syllable. Isn't that easier?

If you're having trouble with syllables, you can check out How Many Syllables. This website shows you the syllables in any word you look up, and even shows you how to pronounce it.

5. Add stress to sounds and words.

English is a stressed language. That means some words and sounds are more important than others. You can hear this when you say a word out loud. For example, the word "introduce" is pronounced with a stress at the end, so it sounds like this: "in-tro-DUCE."

Most two-syllable nouns are stressed on the first syllable, and most two-syllable verbs are stressed on the second syllable.

Sometimes where you put the stress in a word can change the word's meaning. Say this word out loud: "present." If you said "PREsent," you are talking about a noun that means either "right this moment" or "a gift." If you said "preSENT," you are talking about a verb that means "to give or show."

There are rules for where the stress goes in each word. Here's one rule:

That's just like the word "present." Here's another example: the noun "ADDress" is the place where you live, and the verb "addRESS" is to speak to someone.

If this all sounds too complicated, don't worry about memorizing all these rules-the best way to learn is by listening and practicing. Remember that most native English speakers don't know the rules either, they just say what "sounds right." With enough practice, you can get what sounds right too.

Sentences have stresses too; some words are more important, and are said with more clarity and strength than the rest of the sentence. Try reading this sentence aloud: "I ate some toast with butter in the morning."

The sentence should have sounded like this (the bold words are the stressed ones): "I ate some toast with butter in the morning." Notice how you slow down every time you get to an important word, and quickly pass over the less important ones?

Keep practicing by reading out loud, having conversations and listening well to where others place stress when they speak.

6. Use pronunciation podcasts and videos.

There are some excellent video and audio guides on English pronunciations that you can use to improve. The English Language Club has videos that show how to make different sounds in English. Rachel's English has friendly videos on how to speak and pronounce American English in everyday conversations.

If you like podcasts better, Pronuncian has over 200 audio files that help with everything from pronunciation to stress and pitch (how you raise and lower your voice while you speak).

If none of these are what you're looking for, there are many more to choose from. Find the one that's right for you.

7. Record yourself.

One way to tell if all your practice is working is to record yourself with a camera. Use a camera and not just a sound recorder because it's important to see how you speak, not only hear it.

You don't need to download any special software to record yourself; most computers and mobile devices have built-in video recorders. You can use PhotoBooth on a Mac or Movie Moments on a Windows computer. Your phone or mobile device also has a video capturing app, usually as part of the camera app.

Compare your recording to someone else saying the same words or sounds. Find a video of your favorite part from a movie, like this clip from "Earth to Echo." Choose one or two sentences and record yourself trying to match the stress, tone and pronunciation of the video. Then you can compare the two and see what you did differently, and try again.

Ask a friend or watch a video to check. If your pronunciation doesn't sound the same, ask yourself some questions: Are you moving your mouth the right way? Is your tongue in the right place? Are you stressing the right part of the word? Use everything you learned in this article!

8. Practice with a buddy.

As always, "Practice makes perfect!" And it's easier to practice with a friend. Find someone to practice pronunciation with, either in person or through online communities like Language Exchange or InterPals.

Practicing with a buddy (friend) will give you a chance to try everything you learned, and learn new things from each other. Plus, it's fun!

Pronunciation is as important to learning English as vocabulary and grammar. Thanks to these eight tips, you'll soon be on your way to pronouncing English like a native.

And One More Thing...

If you liked these tips, then you'll love FluentU. FluentU uses popular talk shows, catchy music videos, and funny commercials to teach you English:

FluentU makes it really easy to watch English videos. How? There are interactive captions. In other words, you can tap on any word to see an image, definition, and useful examples.

For example, if you tap on the word "brought", then you see this:

You can learn any video's vocabulary with FluentU. Swipe left or right to see more examples for the word you're learning.

The coolest part? FluentU knows the vocabulary that you're learning. It uses your vocabulary to recommend you examples and videos. You have a truly personalized experience.
Experience English immersion online!
Start using FluentU on the website with your computer or tablet or, better yet, download the FluentU app from the iTunes store.

If you liked this post, something tells me that you'll love FluentU, the best way to learn English with real-world videos.

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How to Greatly Improve Your English Pronunciation in 8 Steps

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"What?""Can you say that again?"How many times do you hear this when you're speaking? Even if your vocabulary and English grammar are perfect, it can still be difficult for people to understand you because of your pronunciation.Learning to pronounce English words correctly can be one of

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One of the most important aspects of learning English is pronunciation. Without clear pronunciation, it is difficult to make yourself understood. First, start by learning individual sounds. After that, focus on the music of the language.

You might be surprised by the following statement: Pronouncing every word correctly leads to poor pronunciation! Good pronunciation comes from stressing the right words - this is because English is a time-stressed language. In other words, some words - the content words - receive more focus, whereas other words - function words - are less important.

1. Start by learning individual sounds. These are called phonemes.

2. Use minimal pairs to practice individual vowel sounds. Minimal pairs are words in which only one sound changes. For example, pop - pep - pip - pap changes the vowel sound. Using minimal pairs helps you isolate a sound to really focus on the small changes in sounds between vowels.

3. Learn pairs of consonants that are voiced and voiceless and practice through minimal pairs. For example, f / v the 'f' sound is voiceless and the 'v' voiced. You can recognize the difference between voiced and voiceless by placing a finger on your throat. Voiced sounds vibrate, whereas voiceless sounds do not vibrate. These pairs include: b / p - z / s - d / t - v / f - zh / sh - dj / ch.

4. Learn the difference between pure vowels and diphthongs such as the 'oi' sound in 'boy' or 'aee' sound in 'tray'.

5. Learn the following rules concerning pronunciation.

6. English is considered a stressed language while many other languages are considered syllabic.

7. In other languages, such as French or Italian, each syllable receives equal importance (there is stress, but each syllable has its own length).

1. English pronunciation focuses on specific stressed words while quickly gliding over the other, non-stressed, words.

2. Stressed words are considered content words: Nouns e.g. kitchen, Peter - (most) principal verbs e.g. visit, construct - Adjectives e.g. beautiful, interesting - Adverbs e.g. often, carefully

3. Non-stressed words are considered function words: Determiners e.g. the, a - Auxiliary verbs e.g. am, were - Prepositions e.g. before, of - Conjunctions e.g. but, and - Pronouns e.g. they, she.

4. Read the following sentence aloud: The beautiful mountain appeared transfixed in the distance.

5. Read the following sentence aloud: He can come on Sundays as long as he doesn't have to do any homework in the evening.

6. Notice that the first sentence actually takes about the same time to speak well!

7. Even though the second sentence is approximately 30% longer than the first, the sentences take the same time to speak. This is because there are five stressed words in each sentence.

8. Write down a few sentences, or take a few example sentences from a book or exercise.

1. First underline the stressed words, then read aloud focusing on stressing the underlined words and gliding over the non-stressed words.

2. Be surprised at how quickly your pronunciation improves! By focusing on stressed words, non-stressed words and syllables take on their more muted nature.

3. When listening to native speakers, focus on how those speakers stress certain words and begin to copy this.

1. Remember that non-stressed words and syllables are often 'swallowed' in English.

2. Always focus on pronouncing stressed words well, non-stressed words can be glided over.

3. Don't focus on pronouncing each word. Focus on the stressed words in each sentence.

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Follow These Tips to Improve Your English Pronunciation

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One of the most important aspects of learning English is pronunciation. Without clear pronunciation, it is difficult to make yourself understood. First, start by learning individual sounds. After that, focus on the music of the language. You might be surprised by the following statement: Pronouncing every word correctly leads to poor pronunciation!

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Videos are a great way to make progress!

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Videos are a great way to make progress!

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How To Improve Pronunciation When Speaking English

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Join our free Facebook Group (for serious English learners) https://www.facebook.com/groups/88452212437/

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Apprendre l'anglais avec les Tutos de Huito

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10 conseils pour trouver ses mots en anglais

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Good pronunciation is very important for good spoken communication. However you do not have to speak like a native English speaker to have good pronunciation.

There are many different natural varieties of English pronunciation in Britain and around the world. The activities and resources in this part of the site are designed to give an introduction to certain features of standard southern British English pronunciation.

There are videos, interactive quizzes and downloadable activities and materials which can be used for self-study or for teachers with lower-intermediate students.

Sorry, you can't see this video in the page :-(

However, you can download it to play on your computer.

To see the video in the page you need to enable JavaScript in your browser's preferences.

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BBC Learning English | Pronunciation Tips

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Learn about and improve your spoken English with free pronunciation downloads. There are videos, audio examples, quizzes and other activities to help you study.

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DOGO News - Kids news articles! Kids current events; plus kids news on science, sports, and more!

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DOGO News has fun articles for kids on current events, science, sports, and more! There are also lots of stories, pictures, videos, games and the DOGO news map for kids! Add your comments, read reviews of cool websites, and more!

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Now practice YOUR pronunciation with the script

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Now practice YOUR pronunciation with the script

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In most English-speaking countries, it is normal and necessary to make "small talk" in certain situations. Small talk is a casual form of conversation that "breaks the ice" or fills an awkward silence between people. Even though you may feel shy using your second language, it is sometimes considered rude to say nothing. Just as there are certain times when small talk is appropriate, there are also certain topics that people often discuss during these moments.

Read through the Who, What, Where, When, Why page to gain a better understanding of small talk. The hardest part about making small talk is knowing how to start a conversation. Review the conversation starters and practise them with a friend. Finally, take the time to see how much you have learned about small talk by taking the Small Talk Quiz. And remember, in an English-speaking environment it is often better to make a few mistakes than to say nothing at all!

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In most English-speaking countries, it is normal and necessary to make "small talk" in certain situations. Small talk is a casual form of conversation that "breaks the ice" or fills an awkward silence between people. Even though you may feel shy using your second language, it is sometimes considered rude to say nothing.

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English | definition in the Cambridge English Dictionary

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English meaning: 1. the language that is spoken in the UK, the US, and in many other countries: 2. the people of.... Learn more.

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Tongue twisters are a great way to practice and improve pronunciation and fluency. They can also help to improve accents by using alliteration, which is the repetition of one sound. They're not just for kids, but are also used by actors, politicians, and public speakers who want to sound clear when speaking. Below, you will find some of the most popular English tongue twisters. Say them as quickly as you can. If you can master them, you will be a much more confident speaker.

1. Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.
A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked.
If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,
Where's the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?

2. Betty Botter bought some butter
But she said the butter's bitter
If I put it in my batter, it will make my batter bitter
But a bit of better butter will make my batter better
So 'twas better Betty Botter bought a bit of better butter

3. How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
He would chuck, he would, as much as he could, and chuck as much wood
As a woodchuck would if a woodchuck could chuck wood

4. She sells seashells by the seashore.

5. How can a clam cram in a clean cream can?

6. I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream.

7. I saw Susie sitting in a shoeshine shop.

8. Susie works in a shoeshine shop. Where she shines she sits, and where she sits she shines.

9. Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear. Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair. Fuzzy Wuzzy wasn't fuzzy, was he?

10. Can you can a can as a canner can can a can?

11. I have got a date at a quarter to eight; I'll see you at the gate, so don't be late.

12. You know New York, you need New York, you know you need unique New York.

13. I saw a kitten eating chicken in the kitchen.

14. If a dog chews shoes, whose shoes does he choose?

15. I thought I thought of thinking of thanking you.

16. I wish to wash my Irish wristwatch.

17. Near an ear, a nearer ear, a nearly eerie ear.

18. Eddie edited it.

19. Willie's really weary.

20. A big black bear sat on a big black rug.

21. Tom threw Tim three thumbtacks.

22. He threw three free throws.

23. Nine nice night nurses nursing nicely.

24. So, this is the sushi chef.

25. Four fine fresh fish for you.

26. Wayne went to wales to watch walruses.

27. Six sticky skeletons. (x3)

28. Which witch is which? (x3)

29. Snap crackle pop. (x3)

30. Flash message. (x3)

31. Red Buick, blue Buick. (x3)

32. Red lorry, yellow lorry. (x3)

33. Thin sticks, thick bricks. (x3)

34. Stupid superstition. (x3)

35. Eleven benevolent elephants. (x3)

36. Two tried and true tridents. (x3)

37. Rolling red wagons. (x3)

38. Black back bat. (x3)

39. She sees cheese. (x3)

40. Truly rural. (x3)

41. Good blood, bad blood. (x3)

42. Pre-shrunk silk shirts. (x3)

43. Ed had edited it. (x3)

44. We surely shall see the sun shine soon.

45. Which wristwatches are Swiss wristwatches?

46. Fred fed Ted bread, and Ted fed Fred bread.

47. I slit the sheet, the sheet I slit, and on the slitted sheet I sit.

48. A skunk sat on a stump and thunk the stump stunk, but the stump thunk the skunk stunk.

49. Lesser leather never weathered wetter weather better.

50. Of all the vids I've ever viewed, I've never viewed a vid as valued as Alex's engVid vid.

Practice some common tongue twisters with me in these videos:

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50 Tongue Twisters to improve pronunciation in English

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Tongue twisters are a great way to practice and improve pronunciation and fluency. They can also help to improve accents by using alliteration, which is the repetition of one sound. They're not just for kids, but are also used by actors, politicians, and public speakers who want to sound clear when speaking.

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learn how to pronounce english words free

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how to improve english accent and pronunciation

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how to improve english accent and pronunciation

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how to pronounce english words correctly with audio

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how to improve english accent and pronunciation

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Free Online English Pronunciation Dictionary | Howjsay | Learn to Pronounce English Words | Howjsay

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Learn How to Pronounce English Words | Natural Recordings by Native Speakers