95% of the major world languages don't have the voiced TH sound. ๐ข In English, though, it's hard to think of a sentence without it. ๐ค So, it didn't take us long to come up with a mnemonic phrase with five /รฐ/ sounds! ๐คฃ Try it: That's their mother, father, and brother. ๐ง
#MnemonicPhrase
#MnemonicPhrase
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Some say that English pronunciation rules are hard to grasp and impossible to remember. ๐ญ For example, why the heck is the letter 'A' pronounced as /รฆ/ in 'apple' but as /eษช/ in 'maple'? ๐ค Can we explain this? Well, we can try! When vowel letters are followed by '-PLE' or '-BLE,' they're pronounced the same way as if they were in a 'Silent E' syllable: 'table,' 'stable,' 'cable,' 'disable.' ๐ You can find more about the 'A' rules in this article on Sounds American.
#Pronunciation #Chart
#Pronunciation #Chart
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There are two different ways Americans pronounce the /r/ sound, but there's no way your tongue should touch the alveolar ridge. ๐ค This is really important because if it does, the sound becomes "trilled" or "tapped," and Americans never trill or tap their Rs. Try it: ๐ง A rat rode a train in the rain. ๐
#MnemonicPhrase
#MnemonicPhrase
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The /f/ sound is the second most common fricative consonant in American English. It comes just after /s/. ๐ Thanks to loanwords from Greek ๐ฌ๐ท and German ๐ฉ๐ช, the English spelling for /f/ isn't always straightforward. ๐ฅ To cut a long story short, words like 'ฯฮนฮปฮฟฯฮฟฯฮฏฮฑ' and 'lachen' are the origins of the 'PH' and 'GH' digraphs. ๐ค
#CommonSpelling
#CommonSpelling
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Most world languages have the /f/ sound, so you might think that you don't have any issues with American /f/s. ๐ฎ We hate to break it to you, but it's one of the sounds that gives your foreign accent away. ๐ข Here's a quick tip on how to pronounce it like an American: Lightly touch the back of your lower lip with your upper teeth. ๐ Make sure you do it gently: Friendly frogs fry figs on Fridays. ๐ง
#MnemonicPhrase
#MnemonicPhrase
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Ever wonder why the letter 'B' is silent in words like "dumb" or "lamb"? ๐ค That's because there isn't a single English word where the /m/ and /b/ sounds appear back-to-back in the same syllable. ๐ฒ A few hundred years back someone decided to ditch the /mb/ endings and keep it simple with just /m/. ๐คฃ What can we do about it? Well, practically nothing except for this handy pronunciation exercise. ๐
#Exercise
#Exercise
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Voiceless stop sounds are aspirated at the beginning of a word and at the beginning of a stressed syllable. ๐จ What about the voiced stops? Are they aspirated, slightly aspirated, somewhat aspirated, or unaspirated? ๐ค Listen to our mnemonic phrase and tell us what you think: ๐ง A black baby bat in bed.
#MnemonicPhrase
#MnemonicPhrase
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English pronunciation is all about patterns. ๐ For example, the 'AIR' letter combination is always pronounced as the R-Colored vowel /ษr/, as in words like "hair," "chair," or "dairy." ๐ This is a very consistent pattern, so we can safely call it "a rule." ๐ก Now, let's see if we can find any rules or patterns for the 'IAR' combination, as in the word "diary." ๐ค
#PhonicsRules
#PhonicsRules
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Over ten percent of Americans dress up their pets in a Halloween costume. ๐คช Our cats categorically refuse to wear any clothing, so we came up with a better idea: ๐ก a video where you can practice pronouncing the 100 most common words related to Halloween. ๐ Hope you'll like it! ๐
#Exercise
#Exercise
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Could the words "knees" and "niece" be homophones? ๐ค Of course they could! ๐ Many English words have different spellings but are pronounced the same way, like "would" and "wood," or "pair" and "pear." ๐ฒ Still, are "knees" and "niece" homophones or not? ๐
#PhonicsRules
#PhonicsRules
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The glottal 'T' sound doesn't occur in American English very often, and even when it does, you can safely replace it with a regular 'T.' ๐ฒ Don't worry; you'll still be perfectly understood. So, in the grand scheme of things, it's not a very important sound, right? ๐ค Except for one tiny detail: it can make your speech more natural. Give it a try: ๐ง Kittens in satin mittens.
#MnemonicPhrase
#MnemonicPhrase
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In American English, the 'OUR' letter combination is pronounced either as /ษ/ or /ษr/. We wish there was a rule, but unfortunately, there's none. ๐ฅ It's just happened that 'OUR' represents the /ษ/ sound in words like "courage" and /ษr/ in words like "course." ๐ค So, we made two lists of words you can practice when you have a spare minute. Don't worry; they're pretty short and easy to memorize. ๐ง
#Exercise
#Exercise
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Many non-native speakers don't have any issues with the American /v/ sound, or at least they believe they don't. ๐ However, some English learners are quite aware of their difficulties with it. ๐ข Regardless of which category you fall into, we've recorded a cool mnemonic phrase for you to check how close you are to the classic General American pronunciation: ๐ง Vivid vacation in a vintage van.
#MnemonicPhrase
#MnemonicPhrase
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Can you tell whether the words 'weather' and 'whether' are pronounced the same or differently? ๐ค And while you're at it, what about the word 'wether?' ๐
#PhonicsRules
#PhonicsRules
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If you've been learning American pronunciation for a while, you might know that there are two variations of the /l/ sound: the "regular" L and the "dark" L. ๐ Though you'll sound pretty much like an American even if you always use the regular one. ๐ But what if "pretty much" isn't good enough for you? ๐ค Well, here's a quick test: ๐ง listen to the phrase A lone lamb lost his land and try to catch the difference between the /l/ sounds.
#MnemonicPhrase
#MnemonicPhrase
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The words 'axis' and 'access' are perfect examples of how English spelling begins to make sense when you know a couple of phonics rules and a few exceptions. ๐ง The pronunciation of these two words is different, but possibly not in the way you might expect. ๐
#PhonicsRules
#PhonicsRules
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There is no big difference between the /ษ/ and the /ษ/ sounds. ๐ค Some linguists even consider them to be the tense and the weak versions of the same sound. ๐คจ Fair enough! Their pronunciation is almost the same, except the /ษ/ is always relaxed and only occurs in unstressed syllables. Check it out: ๐ง Eager tigers hammer spiders.
#MnemonicPhrase
#MnemonicPhrase
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You know how the letter 'S' is not always pronounced as /s/?
For example, when 'S' is followed by '-UAL,' it represents the voiced /ส/ sound in 'visual,' but the voiceless /ส/ sound in 'sensual.' Why? ๐ค It depends on what comes before 'S!' ๐ก By the way, the same goes for 'S' followed by '-ION': 'S' in 'version' is pronounced differently from 'S' in 'pension.' ๐ Check out this article for more details.
#PhonicsRules
For example, when 'S' is followed by '-UAL,' it represents the voiced /ส/ sound in 'visual,' but the voiceless /ส/ sound in 'sensual.' Why? ๐ค It depends on what comes before 'S!' ๐ก By the way, the same goes for 'S' followed by '-ION': 'S' in 'version' is pronounced differently from 'S' in 'pension.' ๐ Check out this article for more details.
#PhonicsRules
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Nearly all North American native speakers pronounce the letter 'Y' as the tense /i/ sound when it occurs at the end of words like 'happy' or 'very'. ๐ค This makes 'Y' the most common spelling for the /i/ vowel, at least in General American English. ๐ฅณ Our chart would probably have looked different if we were talking about British pronunciation. ๐
#CommonSpelling #Chart
#CommonSpelling #Chart
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The most common spelling for the /eษช/ vowel is the letter 'A.' The opposite is not true because, in most English words, the letter 'A' represents the /รฆ/ sound. ๐คฏ The good news is that there are two pretty consistent patterns: the digraphs 'Ai' as in 'wait' and 'AY' as in 'say' are almost always pronounced as /eษช/. ๐ We know, we know, these spelling patterns might take some time to process. ๐
#CommonSpelling
#CommonSpelling
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