Assimilation Within American English Pronunciation

Author: Ryan Denzer King

Article to help English Speaking and English Pronunciation by PronouncePro American English Pronunciation Writing Staff.

Many languages utilize some type of assimilation – a change in a certain sound based on the sounds that come before or after it. One example of this is the difference in plural -s in "cats" versus "dogs". Pronounce each word while touching your throat. You should be able to feel that your vocal cords do not vibrate for the final -s in "cats", but they do vibrate for the final -s in "dogs", turning it into a z sound. This type of assimilation is widespread throughout the world’s languages. However, American English pronunciation also fails to assimilate sounds in some places where other languages do.

Another type of assimilation occurs when a consonant occurs before a u or o sound. (NB: sometimes the letters u and o represent other sounds, for instance the "uh" sound in "but" or the "ah" sound in "father".) These vowels are pronounced with the lips rounded. In many languages, consonants before these vowels will also be pronounced with the lips rounded. However, in American English pronunciation this is not the case. Set up your lips and tongue to pronounce the word "do". You should notice that your lips are not rounded or pursed. If they are, relax them. One way to practice this pronunciation is to insert another vowel between the d sound and the oo sound in "do". The extra vowel should sound something like the u in "but" or the a in "about". Once you are able to pronounce the d without the lip rounding, get rid of the extra vowel. Working with this advice will help improve your pronunciation.

English Pronunciation: Intonation for Questions

Author: Mary Gillespie

Article to help English Speaking and English Pronunciation by PronouncePro American English Pronunciation Writing Staff.

Have a look at these two sentences, and read them out loud to yourself:

1) He goes to school.

2) He goes to school?

Looking at the sentences, you can see clearly by the punctuation that one is a statement and the other is a question. How do we convey that difference when we are speaking?

If you are an experienced speaker of English, you will have noticed something important about what happens to your pronunciation when you wanted to make the question. In both sentences, there was stress on the main words (goes and school). This means that these words were spoken with more emphasis, and the other words (he and to) were not emphasized. The main words were spoken slightly more loudly and longer, and were spoken at a slightly higher pitch than the non-stressed words.

In the question, the same words were stressed, but an additional layer of information was added. Experienced English speakers would have raised the pitch of their voices at the end of the question considerably higher than for the statement. That raised pitch indicates to the listener that a question is being asked.

In fact, turning a statement into a question by raising pitch conveys even more information. The raised pitch tells the listener that the speaker is surprised or even amazed. (What? He goes to school? I can't believe it).

Here are intonations patterns for questions that are important to recognize within American English pronunciation:

1- Rising intonation at the end of a yes/no question:

Do you live in New York?

Are you married?

2- Falling intonation at the end of a wh- question:

Where do you live?

What is your marital status?

Changes in these typical patterns convey extra information. If a speaker's voice falls when asking a yes/no question, the listener may easily interpret it to mean the speaker is annoyed or frustrated. If a speaker's voice rises at the end of a wh- question, the speaker is indicating to the listener that he or she is surprised by the information, or that the information needs to be repeated because it wasn't heard clearly.

Intonation patterns can be confusing for language learners, and it can be difficult to master them. It is important to be aware of them, though, and recognize how they can convey meaning in English. Improving your intonation patterns is a guaranteed way to improve your English pronunciation.

Tapped t’s in American English Pronunciation

Author: Ryan Denzer King

Article to help English Speaking and English Pronunciation by PronouncePro American English Pronunciation Writing Staff.

One of the features that distinguish American English pronunciation from some other types of English pronunciation is the use of the so-called “tapped” t or d. This English sound is called an alveolar tap (also alveolar flap) by linguists, and corresponds to an r sound in many languages, such as the non-trilled r in Spanish and Italian, or the standard r sound in Arabic or Finnish. The general rule in American English pronunciation for whether a t or d is tapped says that these sounds should be tapped when they come after a stressed syllable, such as in ‘butter’ or ‘lady’. In both of the words, the first syllable is stressed, and so the t or d becomes tapped. Note that because both of these sounds become the same when tapped, it is not always possible to tell whether something is a t or a d if you don’t already know the word. Thus, in standard American English pronunciation, ‘ladder’ and ‘latter’ sound exactly the same, even though in very careful speech one has a d and one has a t; in everyday speech both of these words have a tapped t in the middle.

In a word like ‘table’, on the other hand, the t is not tapped because it is in the stressed syllable. This general rule within pronunciation, that t’s and d’s are tapped after a stressed syllable, usually only applies if they come before and after a vowel, as in ‘ladder’, ‘latter’, ‘butter’, and ‘lady’. In a word like ‘antler’ or ‘bandage’ they are not tapped, because they are not between two vowels.

Tense vs. Lax "i" in American English Pronunciation

Author: Ryan Denzer King

Article to help English Speaking and English Pronunciation by PronouncePro American English Pronunciation Writing Staff.

American English has more vowel quality distinctions than any other language, so no matter what language you speak, it probably does not have as many distinctions as English. English pronunciation has several pairs of vowels which are pronounced with your lips and tongue in approximately the same position, but where one of the vowels is "tense" and one is "lax". The fact that these vowels are so similar makes them difficult to distinguish for non-native speakers.

The first tense/lax pair is what many people call long e versus short i. The fact that one is called an 'e' sound and one is called an 'i' sound is only because of spelling; more technically, these are both 'i' sounds. If you are familiar with the International Phonetic Alphabet, this is the distinction between /i/ (long e) and / i / (short i). Long e is often spelled ee or ea in English spelling (which is why it is called long e). Examples include 'feed', 'seat', 'see', and 'bead'. Short i is usually spelled with a single i and usually comes before two consonants in the middle of a word or before a single word-final consonant. Examples include 'bitter', 'fit', 'tipsy', and 'lip'.

The easier sound to make for most people is the long e sound; almost every language in the world uses this as one of its vowels. In your language, this sound is probably spelled with the letter i. Beginning with this long e sound, relax your tongue without moving your lips. If done properly, this should get you very close to the short i sound. A good practice exercise is to listen to minimal pairs - words that differ only in one sound. Pairs which differ only in tense versus lax i are: feet/fit, seat/sit, bead/bid, leap/lip.

American English Pronunciation: T or D?

Author: Mary Gillespie

Article to help English Speaking and English Pronunciation by PronouncePro American English Pronunciation Writing Staff.

Non-English speakers are often puzzled by the American English pronunciation of the letter ’t’. Sometimes it sounds clearly like a /t/ in the word determine), but other times it sounds almost like a /d/.

There are a lot of technical descriptions of this phenomenon, and linguists, phoneticians and language teachers can have lively conversations and debates about how best to describe it. For most learners, however, it helps to know a few simple facts about what happens to the /t/ sound in American English pronunciation.

Let's take a look at two words which sound almost alike when spoken by an American speaker of English.

ladder                      latter

Ladder is an object used for climbing, and latter is used to refer to the second of two previously mentioned items. There spelling and meanings are different, but in American English pronunciation, the two words sound the same.

What is happening here? First, it's important to understand the stress patterns in the words. Both words are stressed on the first syllable. In American English pronunciation, when a stressed syllable occurs before the letter 't', the /t/ sound is pronounced with a sound similar to a /d/. This happens only when the stressed vowel is followed directly by the ’t’. If a consonant comes between the vowel and the 't', the 't' keeps its regular pronunciation. For example, in the word "lasting", the first syllable is stressed, but there is an 's' between the stressed vowel and the 't', so you clearly hear the /t/ sound.

Here are some examples:

words with a /d/ sound	words with a /t/ sound
butter better sitter greater hated	deter fester hasty pasted faster

There are other ways in which the 't' can be pronounced differently in American English pronunciation. But for now, see how many examples of the /d/ phenomenon you can hear in the English around you.

About Author: Mary Gillespie, ESL Teacher and Owner of the Online ESL Tutoring Service, www.AtHomewithEnglish.com.

American Accent Pronunciation and English Spelling

Author: Mary Gillespie

Article to help English Speaking and English Pronunciation by PronouncePro American English Pronunciation Writing Staff.

Many students learning English are puzzled by the connection between English spelling and English pronunciation. They look at words with similar spelling patterns like rough (pronounced like "ruff") and cough (pronounced like "coff") and wonder if they will ever be able to figure out how to pronounce American English words!

Many native speakers, too, complain about the seeming irregularity of English spelling. There have been various movements that have tried to reform English spelling, but to date none have been successful.

What is it about English spelling that makes it appear so confusing? Before answering that question, it is important to understand what the words are representing. In alphabetic languages like English, the letters and letter combinations represent the sounds of the language. Some languages, like French, have standardized these representations so that there appear to be fewer irregularities than we have in English.

However, English spelling gives us not only information about the sounds and pronunciation of the words, but also the history. English has been a remarkably adaptable language, and English speakers have incorporated words and pronunciation from many languages. English words like "phone" or "photo", for example, show us with the "ph" spelling of the /f/ sound that they are words derived from Greek. Other unusual spelling patterns have their roots in the history of English.

So what does this all mean for English language learners? Well, first of all, you don't have to go out and study the history of the English language in depth, but developing a curiosity about English words can really help. English spelling is not as irregular and unusual as many people think it is. Knowing a bit about the history of some English words can help you begin to see the pattern behind American spelling and American English pronunciation.

We use words to tell the stories of our world and lives. Words have their own stories to tell us about the development of our languages.

About Author: Mary Gillespie, ESL Teacher and Owner of the Online ESL Tutoring Service, www.AtHomewithEnglish.com.

English Pronunciation: Improving with Nursery Rhymes

Author: Mary Gillespie

Article to help English Speaking and English Pronunciation by PronouncePro American English Pronunciation Writing Staff.

How can children's nursery rhymes help adults improve their pronunciation of English? For some of the same reasons they help English-speaking children learn the rhythms and rhyming patterns of their first language.

Nursery rhymes draw children's attention to important features of language, and have been demonstrated to help children learn the rhythms and intonation patterns of English pronunciation. They also help children learn to articulate different sounds because they often use repetition within the nursery rhyme.

While adults learn language differently from the ways that children do, learning and repeating nursery rhymes can still be of great benefit to adult learners of English. Nursery rhymes provide short chunks of language that can be easily learned and repeated. They provide a manageable piece of connected language for practice and review. In addition, nursery rhymes provide access to a part of English speaking culture that is shared across countries. As there are many references to nursery rhyme characters, having knowledge of the more common rhymes gives English-language learners insight into an important part of the culture, and pronunciation.

Another advantage of nursery rhymes is that they are very easy to find. Any bookstore that carries English books for children will almost certainly have some kind of collection of nursery rhymes. English public libraries have many different versions of the familiar rhymes, and an internet search of "nursery rhymes" or "Mother Goose" will bring up many useful links. Some of these will have audio files so that adults can listen and repeat the rhymes. YouTube even has a series of American English pronunciation lessons for ESL learners based on nursery rhymes.

It's clear that nursery rhymes are not just for children! They are an effective way for English learners to improve their pronunciation.

About Author: Mary Gillespie, ESL Teacher and Owner of the Online ESL Tutoring Service, www.AtHomewithEnglish.com.

American English Pronunciation: Different Stress, Different Meaning

Author: Mary Gillespie

Article to help English Speaking and English Pronunciation by PronouncePro American English Pronunciation Writing Staff.

Word stress is important in English pronunciation, and in some cases can signal a difference in meaning or word category between two words with the same spelling.

Here is a list of some common words that change from nouns to verbs with a shift in the word stress:

NOUNS stress on the first syllable	VERBS stress on the second syllable
CON-flict	con-FLICT
COM-bat	com-BAT
PRO-duce	pro-DUCE
PER-mit	per-MIT
OVER-run	over-RUN
COM-press	com-PRESS
SUS-pect	sus-PECT
CON-vict	con-VICT
CON-sult	con-SULT
EX-ploit	ex-PLOIT
SUB-ject	sub-JECT

Sometimes, when this stress shift occurs, there is a significant difference in meaning between the two words. For example, EX-ploit means adventure, and ex-PLOIT means to take advantage of a person or situation.

Next time you listen to the news in English, try to listen for some of these words. See if you can distinguish which stress pattern you are hearing. American English Pronunciation improvement need not be difficult. Practicing word stress is an efficient way to quickly improve your pronunciation.

About Author: Mary Gillespie, ESL Teacher and Owner of the Online ESL Tutoring Service, www.AtHomewithEnglish.com.

English Pronunciation: Some Silly Tips

Author: Mary Gillespie

Article to help English Speaking and English Pronunciation by PronouncePro American English Pronunciation Writing Staff

Do you want to improve your English Pronunciation? Here's some advice you might not have heard before: start acting silly. That's right: silly. It might be just what you need to help yourself reach a new level of pronunciation expertise.

Before looking at some examples of silly American English Pronunciation practice, let's take a look at the reasons why this is actually an effective way to improve English pronunciation. When we are having fun, our muscles are usually more relaxed, and English pronunciation involves working with a lot of little muscles that don't always work as well when we are tense. For example, fun role plays can help people adopt an imaginary English persona, and reduce the anxiety they feel about making mistakes.

So, let's try getting silly.

First, stand up and stretch. Try to get your body relaxed. Now, stretch the muscles in your face by making silly faces and sounds. Roll your shoulders and shake out your hands. Whenever you find yourself feeling frustrated, stretch out again. Try to keep your body relaxed.

Choose a short video clip of an actor or other person that you admire. You can record these from TV or the internet. Now play the clip and try to imitate the speaker. Don't just imitate their words or American accent, imitate their actions and expressions. Pretend that you are that actor, and walk around the room speaking his or her words. If your friends are also trying to silly practice activities, you can perform for each other later and see if you can guess each other's character.

Keep standing for rhythm and intonation practice. Grab a pencil and move it like a conductor's baton as you practice rising and falling intonation. Open your eyes wide for rising intonation, and close them for falling intonation. Stand on the tip of your toes as your intonation rises, and bend your knees as it falls.

Practice changing the loudness of your voice during pronunciation practice. Choose words or phrases and whisper them, then speak them as loudly as you can. Feel the difference in your body as you change the volume of your voice. When you get tired and need a break, keep your pencil in your hand and as you listen to the English pronunciation move your hand in time with the rhythm that you hear.

Try some of these activities for a change. If your family or roommates wonder what you are doing, invite them to join you for some English pronunciation fun!


About Author: Mary Gillespie, ESL Teacher and Owner of the Online ESL Tutoring Service, www.AtHomewithEnglish.com.

How To Learn American English Pronunciation?

How To Learn English?
How To Learn Pronunciation?
How To Learn English Pronunciation?
How To Learn American English?
How To Learn American Pronunciation?
How To Learn American English Pronunciation?
How To Speak English?
How To Speak American English?

Answer: PronouncePro