#82 Our favourite mistakes: Pronunciation

▶️ Try pronouncing the following words:
• bargain
• Britain
• captain
• certain
• curtain
• fountain
• mountain

❓What do these words have in common?

❗️ The unstressed -ain is pronounced like something between [ə] and short [ɪ]:
• barg-ɪ-n
• Brit-ə-n
• capt-ə-n
• cert-ə-n
• curt-ə-n
• fount-ɪ-n
• mount-ɪ-n

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#86 Our favourite mistakes: Pronunciation

▶️ Try pronouncing the following words:
• colleagues
• friends
• parents
• sometimes
• states
• themselves
• tourists
• words

❓What do these words have in common?

❗️ Uzbeks often insert a little [ɪ] before the final -s. For clarity in Cyrillic (not Russian pronunciation):
• colleagues – wrong: коллийгиз, correct: коллийгз
• friends – wrong: фрэндиз, correct: фрэндз
• parents – wrong: перентис, correct: перентс
• sometimes – wrong: самтаймиз, correct: самтаймз
• states – wrong: стейтис, correct: стейтс
• themselves – wrong: земселвиз, correct: земселвз
• tourists – wrong: туристис, correct: туристс
• words – wrong: вѳрдиз, correct: вѳрдз

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#90 Our favourite mistakes: Pronunciation

▶️ Try pronouncing the following words:
• ask
• bath
• castle
• class
• fast
• glass
• maths
• pass
• passport
• passed
• past
• task

❓What do these words have in common?

❗️ They have the long vowel [a:] in British English or [æ:] in American English. Some students want to sound more American but unfortunately pronounce a short [e] here. Whether you prefer British or American accent, the vowel MUST be long!

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#94 Our favourite mistakes: Pronunciation

▶️ Try pronouncing the following words:
• aubergine
• August
• aunt
• Australia
• Austria
• automatic

❓What do these words have in common?

❗️ Easy, they all start with “au”! But does that mean they are pronounced [aʊ]? Unfortunately not:
• Long o [ɔ:] – August, automatic
• Short o [ɒ] – Australia, Austria
• Long a [a:] – aunt
• Diphthong [əʊ] – aubergine

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#98 Our favourite mistakes: Pronunciation

▶️ Try pronouncing the following words:
• coincide, coincidence, coincidental
• communicate, communicative, communication
• economy, economist, economic, economics
• educate, educator, educated, education
• exam, examine, examiner, examination
• photo, photographer, photography, photographic
• politics, policy, political, politician
• social, society, sociology, sociological
• technical, technique, technology, technological

❓What do these words have in common?

❗️ They have variable stress, i.e. different word stress:
• COincide, coINcidence, coinciDENtal
• comMUnicate, comMUnicative, communiCAtion
• eCOnomy, eCOnomist, ecoNOmic, ecoNOmics
• Educate, Educator, eduCAted, eduCAtion
• Exam, eXAmine, eXAminer, examiNAtion
• PHOto, phoTOgrapher, phoTOgraphy, photoGRAphic
• POlitics, POlicy, poLItical, poliTIcian
• SOcial, soCIety, soCIOlogy, socioLOgical
• TEchnical, techNIque, techNOlogy, technoLOgical

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#100 Our favourite mistakes: Review

▶️ Time to look back at a big bunch of favourite mistakes before we go on!

To help you navigate between the different posts, Afandi English uses *hashtags*.

❓You’re interested in any kind of typical mistakes of Uzbek English learners?
❗️Browse #mistakes (99 posts).

❓Vocabulary is what worries you?
❗️Follow #vocabulary (35 posts).

❓You want to work on your grammar?
❗️Check out #grammar (33 posts).

❓Your pronunciation needs polishing?
❗️Go for #pronunciation (30 posts).

❗️Besides, there’s also #writing (11 posts) for issues in spelling, punctuation and spacing.

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#102 Our favourite mistakes: Pronunciation

▶️ Try pronouncing the following words:
• bowl
• dough
• focus
• ghost
• goal
• hotel
• joke
• lonely
• most
• notice
• own
• Seoul
• sew
• soap
• won’t

❓What do these words have in common?

❗️ They contain the double vowel [əʊ], or in American English [ou]. For clarity in Cyrillic (not Russian pronunciation):
• bowl – ❌ баул, ✅ боул
• dough – ❌ дау, ✅ доу
• focus – ❌ фокус, ✅ фоукус
• ghost – ❌ гост, ✅ гоуст
• goal – ❌ гол, ✅ гоул
• hotel – ❌ хотел, ✅ хоутел
• joke – ❌ джок, ✅ джоук
• lonely – ❌ лонли, ✅ лоунли
• most – ❌ мост, ✅ моуст
• notice – ❌ нотис, ✅ ноутис
• own – ❌ аун, ✅ оун
• Seoul – ❌ Сеул, ✅ Соул
• sew – ❌ сю, ✅ соу
• soap – ❌ суп, ✅ соуп
• won’t – ❌ вонт, ✅ воунт

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#106 Our favourite mistakes: Pronunciation

▶️ Try pronouncing the following words:
• childhood
• happy
• have
• hobby
• homework
• house

❓What do these words have in common?

❗️ They contain the soft [h]. Do not pronounce the hard [x] as it is not found in any variety of English. On the other hand, Russian only has the hard [x] but not the soft [h] sound. In Uzbek there are actually both sounds but due to Russian influence the two have become largely indistinguishable. Make sure that every ‘h’ is soft when you speak English!

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#110 Our favourite mistakes: Pronunciation

▶️ Try pronouncing the following words:
• alcohol
• Alzheimer’s
• hamburger
• Hamlet
• Harry Potter
• Harvard
• Hawaii
• Hong Kong
• Hitler
• hyena
• hygiene
• Ohio

❓What do these words have in common?

❗️ The [h] in these international words and names was changed to [g] in Russian - here's why. Make sure you do not pronounce [g] in English!

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#114 Our favourite mistakes: Pronunciation

▶️ Try pronouncing the following words:
• bull
• bullet
• bully
• bush
• butcher
• cushion
• pudding

❓What do these words have in common?

❗️ The ‘u’ in these words is pronounced [ʊ], as in “book”, not [ʌ] as in “bus”. For clarity in Cyrillic (not Russian pronunciation):
• bull – ❌ балл, ✅ булл
• bullet – ❌ баллет, ✅ буллит
• bully – ❌ балли, ✅ булли
• bush – ❌ баш, ✅ буш
• butcher – ❌ бачер, ✅ бучер
• cushion – ❌ кашин, ✅ кушин
• pudding – ❌ паддинг, ✅ пуддинг

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