The French have always had difficulty in pronouncing a few sounds in the English language – the soft “th”, the “h”, the soft “r”, and the short “i”. Note: Read Part 1 first. As you'll see below, words such as "thousands" and "hedgehog" feature letters that are mistakenly omitted by native English and French speakers, [...]
In today's commonly confused words blog post we are showcasing the words "flour" and "floor." Like the other words featured in our commonly confused word pairings series, these words differ from one another by a single vowel. However, those working to refine their speech in English accent training may not be aware that "flour" is [...]
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 [...]
Pronouncing the English /r/ Sound Native Russians speakers who are studying to learn how to speak English more clearly may have noticed that the English r sound bears a striking similarity to the r in Russian. The Russian r is also similar to the /r/ sound in various languages, notably Italian, Spanish, and Arabic, Portuguese, [...]
Learn to Speak English- Frequently Mispronounced Words: Places Business professionals and others who speak English as a second language (ESL) know that when speaking, they are likely to be judged by strangers for speaking American English with an accent. Any advantage an ESL speaker can find as they learn to speak English will help in [...]
Learn to Speak English: Working Towards Clearer Pronunciation Business professionals and others who speak English as a second language (ESL) know that when speaking, they are likely to be judged by strangers for speaking American English with an accent. Any advantage an ESL speaker can find as they learn to speak English will help in [...]
Accent Reduction Tongue Twisters Many of our clients at Accent Pros, who are interested in learning accent reduction techniques and how to speak with an American accent, have advanced degrees and have excellent command of the English language. Given the evolving state of the English language; however, they may not understand informal slang and phrases that [...]
Accent Reduction: Tongue Twisters Part 4 Many of our clients at Accent Pros, who are interested in learning accent reduction techniques and how to speak with an American accent, have advanced degrees and have excellent command of the English language. Given the evolving state of the English language; however, they may not understand informal slang and [...]
English Accent Training Self-Evaluation: Correct Pronunciation Part of any effective English accent training course is knowing how to pronounce words properly. The essence of a word sometimes disappears when mispronounced, causing misunderstandings between people who are trying to communicate effectively. English Accent Training: The Importance of Correct Pronunciation Correct pronunciation is very important, especially for [...]
English Accent Training: The Disappearing Philadelphia Accent The evolution of a dialect once believed to be strictly regional is usually a slow process, marked by the gradual merging of vowels, where two formally distinct vowel sounds merge into one, such as the case with the A and E vowel sounds in the Philadelphian dialect. [...]
Featured earlier today on the Ellen DeGeneres show were two insightful ways to pronounce words in the American English language. The Pronunciation Book is a series of English pronunciation videos of single words correctly spoken. The other, The Pronunciation Manual, is a spoof on the Pronunciation Book videos. Here is a video of Ellen's feature on the topic: What is [...]
