Native French speakers who wish to learn to Speak English with a modified accent usually find they have difficulty adjusting to the short "i" sound in American English given that all the vowels in French are naturally long. They also struggle at times with clearly enunciating the "th" syllable when it is found at the [...]
For many people, the process of going from merely thinking about learning the American accent to acting on such ambitions by contacting an accent reduction service like AccentPros is an intimidating journey. One fraught with indecision. After all, accent reduction training forces clients to not only modify their accent, a longstanding part of their personal [...]
How to Speak English: The Alveolar Sounds ( /n/, /l/, /t/ & /d/) The good news for native Russian speakers striving to learn how to speak English is that, unlike many of the English sounds previously featured in this series, all the English sounds described in this article have near equivalent sounds in Russian. Unfortunately [...]
Vowels /æ/ and /e/ Due to the dissimilarities in phonological systems, native Russian speakers who wish to learn how to speak English with a neutral sounding accent,--an attribute most often given to English speakers in the Midwestern United states--find it relatively challenging to pronounce English vowels in such a way that when necessary, the vowels [...]
Analyzing the /w/ and /v/ Sounds in American English If you were to run into a native Russian speaker on the street and engage them in a conversation in English, you might notice they rarely differentiate between /w/ and /v/ sounds and don't pronounce them as two separate, unique entities. This is not because Russians [...]
The word "live" can be confusing to ESL speakers because the word can potentially be pronounced two different ways and have a multitude of meanings depending on the sentence. As you progress through your English accent training, always be aware of the context in which a difficult word or sound is being presented, as this [...]
English and Russian are part of the Indo-European family of languages. Russians who hope to learn how to speak English more clearly may believe the two languages are completely different from one another. Such differences begin to erode when one begins to compare and contrast the two languages' cursive alphabets. For example, some letters in [...]
What Accent is That? Do you usually notice when an actor or actress is using an accent for their character in a movie? An actor's poor attempt at adopting a particular accent can also ruin otherwise good movies by making their character's dialogue difficult or impossible to understand. Depending on the number of accents present, [...]
American Sniper The Clint Eastwood directed film American Sniper was given a worldwide release on January 16, 2015, and--as of this writing--has generated $247 million at the American box office. American Sniper, the biographical war film is based on the experiences of the late US Navy Seal Chris Kyle, who is regarded as the most [...]
Nautical Idioms and Accent Reduction Tips Shiver me timbers! Who knew that knowing these American Idioms can help out your English skills in the work place and community? Nautical Idioms 1 – High and Dry Definition: Describes a state of abandonment or feeling left behind in a conversation due to the lack of knowledge about [...]
American Accent Training: Why Take It? English is the most recognized language in the world. People who don’t speak English can sing in English, recognize celebrities who speak English, and the only reason it isn’t the number one language in the world is because there are many types of Chinese languages and dialects. However, distribution-wise, [...]
Books, lectures, and other learning materials are helpful resources when it comes to providing basic information on a specific topic. If you are looking to learn more about the sounds of the Standard American accent, you may find it most beneficial to first try out an American accent tutorial. Not only will a tutorial provide [...]
