– English Pronunciation Guide

English

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English Pronunciation Guide

We’ve put together our best tips and the most helpful web resources for you to use to improve your English
pronunciation:

1. Why is it Important to Improve Your English Pronunciation?

1. To be Understood When Speaking English
2. Because Bad Pronunciation Makes You Seem Bad at English in General
3. Because it’s One of the Easiest Ways to Improve your Overall Level of English
4. To Stand Out in the Business World
2. Why Do We Have Trouble with English Pronunciation?
3. 1. Because our School System and Environment Aren’t Helping Us
2. Because it’s Impossible to Guess the Way Words are Pronounced!
3. Because There are English Sounds that don’t Exist in Other Languages
4. Which Accent Should I Choose: British or American English?
1. British English
2. American English
5. How to Work on Your English Pronunciation
1. Step 1 – Learn a Little Bit About How English Phonetics Work
1. Why it’s important?
 2. How to learn the English phonetic alphabet?
3. Take it a step further
2. Step 2 – Learn the Correct Pronunciation of Important Vocabulary
3. Step 3 – Listen
4. Step 4 – Practice
1. How to practice?
5. Ready to Get Started?
6. The Best Web Resources for Improving English Pronunciation
1. Websites to Help Demonstrate Good Pronunciation
2. Want to Work Specifically on your English Pronunciation?
3.

Why is it Important to Improve Your English Pronunciation?^

Many people don’t realize how important it actually is to improve their English pronunciation. Just between
us, there are others who purposefully don’t put in any effort to improve because they think their native accent is
sexy. That might be true, but only if the accent is subtle. If it is too thick, you risk not being understood when you
speak, or even being made fun of… With that in mind, here are a few reasons to start working on your
accent:

To be Understood When Speaking English^

This is, of course, the most obvious reason. After all, we learn languages because we want to be able to
communicate. Sure, we understand other speakers of our mother tongue when they pronounce English words
with a heavy accent. But to others it sounds like gibberish… (Celebrity names are particularly tough to figure out!)
And I’m not talking about having an accent. A slight accent won’t keep people from understanding you. I’m not
talking about the differences between British and American accents either. I’m talking about plain old bad
pronunciation.

I’ll share a personal example to illustrate my point:

A few years back I was convinced that the word heavy was pronounced “hi:vi” instead of “hɛvi“. One day, at the
airport, I warned the airline personnel, “Be careful, my luggage is heavy,” but with the wrong pronunciation.
Clearly he didn’t understand me, because he nearly broke his back picking up my bag! It may sound
ridiculous, but you’d be surprised how many words you’ve memorized with the wrong pronunciation. There
are countless examples of misunderstandings like this due to mispronunciation. Probably the most common, and
maybe the most embarrassing, is confusing “I am hungry“ with “I am angry.“

Misunderstandings can create frustration for both parties involved, which can lead learners to have negative
feelings about English or foreign language in general (ex. “I suck at English,” “I don’t like English,” “Help, I have a
job interview in English!” etc.)

Because Bad Pronunciation Makes You Seem Bad at English in General^

You might have been at the top of your class in English in high school, and still not make a good impression
when speaking. Let’s look at an example, two non-native English speaking candidates competing for the same
job:

the first has a good academic level of English, but rarely practices speaking:
His grammar is correct and he has a wide vocabulary, but he has bad pronunciation
the other has a lower academic level, but speaks English regularly:
He has a very basic understanding of grammar and knows only about 1500 words, but has good
pronunciation
Often what will happen is that the candidate who has a higher academic level will not be able to speak confidently
or smoothly because he’ll constantly be worrying about getting his grammar perfect and finding the best
vocabulary. He will probably speak slowly and with many long pauses as he constructs his sentences, and some
words will be hard to understand due to his poor English pronunciation.

The other has a decent accent, and speaks fluidly, which offset his simple sentence structures and limited
vocabulary.

Good English pronunciation: the key to a successful job interview?

Which candidate do you think will be hired based on his English? The second one, of course, because his
good pronunciation gave the employer confidence in his English skills right off the bat.

Because it’s One of the Easiest Ways to Improve your Overall Level of
English^
You can spend years doing grammar exercises and studying textbooks but still have poor speaking skills.
Surprisingly, if you spend just 10 minutes a day focusing on your English pronunciation, you’ll see massive
improvement. We’ll go into more detail about that later on in the article, but for now, here are the 4 main steps to
improving pronunciation:

1. Study the different English sounds, especially those that don’t exist in your native language
2. Relearn common words with the correct pronunciation. You can do this quickly with the MOSA Learning
method (and even more quickly with our Speak English With Confidence class that I’ll introduce later)
3. Listen to as much English as possible, using podcasts, films, English and American TV series, or audiobooks
(we have a long list of suggestions here)
4. Practice speaking with conversation partners and English-speaking friends

If you follow these four steps, you’ll be speaking English in no time. Not to mention that the process will be fun
and rewarding!
 To Stand Out in the Business World^

Your pronunciation is like your business card: it’s the first thing people notice and something they will
remember about you
Often, this first impression, good or bad, will determine your future success.

As globalization becomes more and more prominent, many people find themselves working in an international
context. English is known as the “international language of business,” so you’ll probably need to use your
language skills at some point in your career. It’s hard to be taken seriously, create convincing arguments, and
come off as credible when business partners have to first decipher your thick accent!

Why Do We Have Trouble with English Pronunciation?^

^
Because our School System and Environment Aren’t Helping Us^
Here are some of the most common reasons for poor English pronunciation:

In school we tend to focus too much time on grammar and written work, and not enough time on speaking
skills. We believe that learning grammar rules shouldn’t be your first priority when learning a new language…
Most of our English teachers aren’t natives (which doesn’t make them bad teachers, but does generally affect
their accent)
When an English word makes its way into our language, we are usually taught to pronounce it using the
closest sounds we know. This causes us to pick up bad pronunciation habits. Unfortunately, when we try to
pronounce these words with the correct English accent, we might even be made fun of for trying
In most countries, we don’t get much exposure to spoken English if we don’t go out of our way to find it.

Because it’s Impossible to Guess the Way Words are Pronounced!^

One of English’s biggest challenges is its pronunciation. Don’t believe me? See for yourself:

1. In Spanish, there are 35 sounds and roughly 38 ways to write them

2. French, has about 32 sounds and over 250 ways to write them
3. In English, there are more than 44 sounds and over 1100 ways to write them

There are over 1100 ways to write the 44 sounds in the English language, so we can’t rely on a word’s spelling to
figure out how it should be pronounced. The same combination of letters can be pronounced completely
differently depending on the word. What this means for you is that you’ll have quite a bit of memorization to do if
you want to be able to speak English well.
 Because There are English Sounds that don’t Exist in Other Languages^
In French for example, of those 44 sounds there are 17 that don’t even exist! Whatever sounds these are (like the
famous “th”) are especially difficult because we aren’t used to making them. (Similarly, this is why both the French
and the Spanish “r” are very difficult for Anglophones; they don’t exist in English.)

And that’s not all. Our ear isn’t used to hearing and differentiating between different English sounds. Our
brain generally equates these unfamiliar sounds with the closest sound that exists in our native language. This is
why, even with lots of practice listening to native speakers and reproducing the sounds we hear, we still
pronounce some sounds incorrectly (and don’t even know it!)

When we are born, our brain is able to distinguish between a lot more sounds – which is a great reason to start
teaching your kids English when they are young. Little by little, they forget the sounds that aren’t useful for
pronunciation in everyday speech.

Keys to English pronunciation: listen to native speakers, associate written words with their pronunciation, and
practice saying them for yourself

Every language has its own particularities and presents unique challenges for students. We have several
teachers on the MosaLingua team who teach French to Spanish speakers. These learners have a lot of trouble
hearing the difference between the French v and b sounds, because in Spanish they are pronounced in the same
way. Nasal sounds like “an,” “in,” and “un” are also especially tricky. These are easy for Francophones, since
they start learning them at birth, but they are difficult for students. So rest assured, if you struggle with
pronunciation, you are not alone!

Which Accent Should I Choose: British or American English?^

British English^
Some people think that British English is easier to understand, and that Brits articulate more than Americans.
This is actually probably just due to the fact that this is the accent we tend to learn in school. We promise that the
American accent is just as easy to understand: it’s just a matter of practice!

If you’re still not convinced, check out this video of a talented Englishman who imitates 67 different English
accents:

In this video alone you can hear at least 10 very different British accents. Accents in England are much more
distinctive than in France. When we talk about “the British accent” we are generally referring to the standard
London pronunciation (used by the BBC, for example).

The problem is that very few people actually speak like this (compared to the entire English-speaking population)
and even other Brits sometimes have trouble understanding the different regional accents. So spending a lot of
time perfecting an accent used by a (relatively) small group of people doesn’t seem like a very good use of your
time!

American English^
Here are 4 reasons why we think it’s a smart idea to choose the American accent when learning English
pronunciation:

1. Americans make up about 65 % of the world’s English speakers (compared to about 17% Brits) –> you’re
more likely to have the opportunity to converse with an American.
2. American English is the most universally spoken and understood version of English –> which means
you’ll be able to communicate wherever you go
3. There are lot more resources to help you learn American English, thanks to the abundance of movies, TV
series, and songs produced in the United States –> you probably already watch or listen to them on a daily
basis
4. There are fewer major differences between regional accents: of course American accents differ slightly if you
go to the East Coast, the Midwest, or the South, but in general these differences are less pronounced than
they are in England (source Wikipedia) –> this saves a ton of time (since you won’t need to sift through the
particularities of the different British accents)

We also have found that most people have an easier time imitating the American accent as opposed to its British
counterpart. For these reasons, we think that American English is the most useful, not to mention the
easiest, variety to learn.
Of course, if you have a particular soft spot for the British accent, feel free to do what makes you happy! Just
know that it might not be the simplest path to choose.

How to Work on Your English Pronunciation^

To have great English pronunciation, you need to be aware of new sounds, nuances, different intonations, the
tonic accent, and the rhythm of the language. Academic methods generally focus too much on written skills
and not enough on speaking and pronunciation. But English pronunciation and phonetics are incredibly important
for being understood and communicating in general. To our teachers’ credit, it isn’t easy to incorporate speaking
practice into the classroom, especially when students aren’t motivated to learn.

But you’re already in a great position to learn and make progress because you are actually interested in
improving your English. This is far from impossible; with good methods and exercises you can do on your own,
you, too, can have a very nice English accent. Believe in yourself!

Ever feel like people just don’t understand you? Work on your English pronunciation!

We often aren’t even aware that we are making pronunciation mistakes… until we start studying phonetics and
record ourselves. Give it a try! Record yourself saying a simple English sentence out loud.

Having poor English pronunciation isn’t the end of the world. With a little bit of practice you’ll be able to easily
correct the most common mistakes made by English learners. Then, it will be a matter of making smaller
adjustments and reaching a level you are happy with. Here are four steps to help you get started:

Step 1 – Learn a Little Bit About How English Phonetics Work^

The International Phonetic Alphabet is a tool that can help you identify all of the different English sounds. As
we mentioned earlier, some sounds overlap with other languages, and some don’t. Learning English phonetics is
one of the first important steps toward correcting your English pronunciation.

Why it’s important?^

 learn about all of the sounds that exist in English but not in your mother tongue (like we mentioned
before, sometimes our brain doesn’t even recognize these sounds, but when you see them written down they
might make more sense)
learn to recognize intonation patterns, the tonic accent, and the language’s rhythm
train your ear (or rather, your brain) to recognize these new sounds and then train your voice to recreate
them

How to learn the English phonetic alphabet?^

You can start right here, right now! To keep things interesting, we’ve created a series of video lessons just for
you. Each video is less than 5 minutes long. In each video, our team member Sean introduces a new English
sound and explains how to pronounce it correctly.

The videos are available on our YouTube channel. Or, take a look at the following free lessons:

/ð/ (Th part 1): the unvoiced th sound in English

/r/: the American English r
/ʌ/: the short u sound, (ʌ in IPA)
/ə/: the schwa sound, one of the most common sounds in English
/ŋ/: last but not least, the ng sound

Subscribe to our YouTube channel for all of our latest videos on English pronunciation and other tips and tricks to
help you perfect your language skills.

Take it a step further^

We also strongly recommend our Speak English With Confidence MasterClass. Our MasterClass is a training
program that was specifically designed to help people who want to improve their English pronunciation. You’ll
have access to 10 unique modules, tons of bonus content, exercises you can use to practice at home, videos to
help you perfect specific sounds, and many other multimedia resources. For more info, click the picture below.
 Step 2 – Learn the Correct Pronunciation of Important Vocabulary^
For this step, focus on the vocabulary you already know (or the basic vocabulary you should know), but make
sure your pronunciation is perfect. You’ll need an audio recording for this step, preferably one that was made
by a native English speaker. The MosaLingua app is a great tool for this.

The MosLingua English app includes over 3,500 vocabulary flashcards and audio recordings for each
card. You’ll not only be able to memorize these words using the SRS method, but you’ll learn them (or relearn
them) with the correct pronunciation. The more you review them, the more naturally the correct pronunciation will
come to you.

Click here to download the MosaLingua English app.

Step 3 – Listen^
Listening is a crucial step because it gets your ears and brain used to new sounds. There are tons of
resources available online that can be of help for this step in the process.

Listen to the radio or podcasts in English; you can choose shows that are dedicated to learning English or
English pronunciation, or pick any other topic that interests you.
Watch movies and TV shows in English, and focus on the characters’ pronunciation, including their intonation,
rhythm, and accent.

Pro tip: have you ever heard of shadowing? It’s a technique focused on repeating things you hear. It’s an easy,
effective, and free way to improve your English pronunciation. The next time you watch a movie in English,
pause it whenever you hear a particularly interesting line (maybe a character asked another character on a date,
and you’d like to perfect your own pick-up lines). Try repeating the line back, paying particular attention to your
intonation and pronunciation. Then, rewind the movie and play the line again, to see how well you did. Keep
repeating this process until you get it just right. You can even record yourself for easy comparison.

This technique of repeating the words and sentences you hear is almost the exact same process that we all go
through as children, when learning our native language.

Step 4 – Practice^
Of course, if you want to get better at English pronunciation, you’ll need to practice these skills. Do it as often
as possible. The more you practice, the more naturally you will be able to reproduce new sounds you learn.
How to practice?^
Sing!
Recite poems or speeches
Chat with Anglophones. We can’t stress this enough: finding an English-speaking conversation partner will
help you broaden your vocabulary, speak English on a regular basis, and get pronunciation corrections on the
spot. Don’t be afraid to ask your partner to correct you, especially when you make the same mistakes over
and over again.

Ready to Get Started?^

This might seem daunting, but you can do it! Don’t forget, language learning is possible at any age. You will have
fun imitating the English accent, and your self-confidence will get a major boost. Fear of not being understood,
and being ashamed of one’s accent are the two main reasons why people don’t even try to express themselves
in the language they are learning.

It is important to learn pronunciation as early in the learning process as possible. If you continue learning
and speaking English without making yourself aware of new sounds, different intonation patterns, word stress,
and rhythms of speaking, you will memorize the wrong pronunciation. It’s much harder, and takes longer, for our
brains to overwrite bad habits with the correct pronunciation than it is to learn it correctly the first time around.

The Best Web Resources for Improving English Pronunciation^

Websites to Help Demonstrate Good Pronunciation^
In addition to our Learn English app that can be a big help when working on your pronunciation in particular, there
are several other web resources that we recommend:

Wordreference: a great online dictionary. Along with the

definition of the word, they include both American and
British pronunciations. All you have to do is click on the
little speaker icon next to the word. They also write the word out phonetically, which can be very useful for some
people. This site is an excellent resource!

Rhinospike: use this website to get your sentence or short

passage pronounced correctly by a native English speaker.
Rhinospike has an interesting concept: it is free to use, and
relies on a trading system. You submit your request for a
text to be pronounced in English, and in exchange you record a text in your language for someone else. Lang-8
(which is great for getting your written English texts corrected) works in a similar way.

Want to Work Specifically on your English Pronunciation?^

^
Our Speak English with Confidence Masterclass is a complete
guide that walks you through the steps necessary for great
pronunciation. The best part? There are tons of exercises, and
practicing can actually be fun!
 Did you like this article?
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photo credit (CC) : microphone : Brendan Biele, blackboard : cdcoppola, sexy mouth: By: Emilian Robert Vicol, deaf
child: Nationaal Archief, students: Simon Fraser

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