To an English speaker, there is a very clear difference. Learning exactly where your tongue and lips should be, and how wide open your mouth should be, can help produce that moment in which you suddenly find yourself making a sound you never knew existed. Why is English Pronunciation so Difficult? English Pronunciation Guide Another odd thing is that we only use 5 letters — a,e,i,o and u — to write all 17 sounds. That meant that many, many French words also become part of the English language.
Words like: person, fruit, order, prayer, prince, lion, captain, justice, art, paint, November , etc. Are you ready for the challenge of getting your English pronunciation perfect? Take a look at our range of courses at www. August 16, Pray , console your loving poet , Make my coat look new , dear, sew it! Just compare heart , hear and heard , Dies and diet , lord and word. Now I surely will not plague you With such words as vague and ague , But be careful how you speak , Say: gush , bush , steak , streak , break , bleak … Liberty , library, heave and heaven, Rachel, loch, moustache, eleven.
We say hallowed, but allowed, People, leopard, towed but vowed. The big question though, is: why? Too Many Tongues! Prev Next. So, when you have a word that can be both a noun and a verb, the stress changes:. If the word ends in -ic or -tion we put the accent on the second to last syllable.
If the word ends in -cy, -ty, -phy, -gy, or -al, we put the stress on the third to last syllable:. With compound nouns, which is a word created by two words put together, we put the stress on the first part of the word:.
AD - ver - tise - ment U. It turns out that native speakers are, too. Firstly, English is a language that has been heavily influenced over many centuries by other languages and by the rules of languages such as German, Latin, French. Secondly, English linguists believe that something strange happened to the language during the centuries of Middle English: The Great Vowel Shift.
Essentially, linguists believe that over the course of three centuries, from around the 15th to 18th century, the pronunciation of long vowels of English changed so that they were pronounced using a lower part of the tongue and mouth to a higher part. Basically, the vowels shifted upwards. This meant that the long vowels in the words like sweet, which use to rhyme with fate, shifted so that it now rhymes with feet.
This also meant that words like good , blood , and food actually used to rhyme at one point before they changed as well. So, what happened? Before the printing press, English texts were handwritten according to the way scribes pronounced them and spelled them. And, when the Great Vowel Shift began, the spellings of some words had begun to change according to their new pronunciation. But, when the printing press came along, the printers were not aware of all the new spellings and pronunciation shifts that had begun to take place.
So, they began printing more texts according to the pre-shift spellings of words. So, in the end, linguists and historians believe that it was probably the shift in English pronunciation, the inconsistent changes in spelling, and the increase of literacy and spelling awareness that have probably given us difficult words like:. This, combined with influences from other languages, is also probably the reason we have so many words that are spelled the same but pronounced differently:.
And why we have so many words that are spelled differently but pronounced the same :. But, after you record yourself, you can listen to the recording a couple of times so that you get a sense of the sounds, words, or phrases that are the hardest for you. In the beginning, you can commit to reading a couple of paragraphs out loud. It can be tiring for your facial muscles and your lungs when you first start.
But, as you build up stamina, build on your habit by reading more and more of the content out loud. We recommend that you download the app, take the pronunciation test, and commit to spending ten minutes every day on your speaking. Marta is an online ESL teacher who works with students from around the world.
As a writer, language nerd, and content contributor for In English With Love, her mission is to empower English learners with knowledge and positivity. And that can be really hard! For example, they might: Drop the consonant sound completely.
Try to add a vowel sound at the end. Or, try these tongue twisters : Six Czech cricket critics.
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