3. 1] Develop your awareness of pronunciation. Listen more
carefully to the sounds you are making and the positions you
are making with your mouth when you speak or read. Pay
more attention to the sounds other people are making and
also the positions that they make with their mouths. The first
step is AWARENESS, once you are aware then you can start
to change and improve your speech.
:
Steps to improve your
English pronunciation:
4. a. mouthmovement (are you opening your mouth
when you speak - see below)
b . rate or volume
c. syllable stress - word stress and sentence
stress
d. sounds - vowel sounds (eg. a, e, i ) and
consonant sounds (eg. r, sh, l)
2] Try to identify what areas of your
pronunciation require improvement:
6. 3. The vowels are VERY important to pay attention to
.
For example : the long vowels are supposed to
take longer to vocalize compared to the short
ones.
Short vowels : rat, leg, pig, Rob, bus: Don’t park
on them, move on to next sound
Long vowels: rate, he, side, robe, tune: Hang in
there, don’t rush .
7. 4. Not too fast or too slow
5. Open the mouth properly
while speaking
6. Syllable stress matters
8. 7. Practice is a must
8. Relax, look at the
bigger picture
9. Exampels consonants sound
Consonants
q as in play /pler/
b as in boy / boi/
t as in tree /tri/
d as in dog /dog/
k as in cat /kaet/
g as in got / got/
t[ as in chin /t [in/
d3 as in judge /d3ud3/
f as in fine / fain/
v as in visit /vizet/
Q as in thin/Qin/
s as in sick / sik/
z as in zoo /zu/
h as inhow /hau/
Consonants
m as in much / mat{/
n as in now / nau/
l as in leg / leg /
r as in read /rid /or/ red/
j as in yes / jes/
w as in wet /wet/
10. Example of vowel sound
Vovel and diphthongs
i as in tree / tri/
I as in insect /insekt/
c as in bet /bet /
ae as in cat/ kaet/
a as in car/ ka/british/kar/
american
o as in baught/bot/
^ as in up /^p/
u as in foot/ fut/
u as in boot /but/
Vovel and diphthongs
er as in play/ pler/
au as in know/ nau/
ar as in sky / skar/
au as in how/ hau/
or as in boy/ bor/
12. Hard and soft sound for ‘C’and ‘G’
The pronunciation of ‘C’ and G’ generally {but not
always. See below} depends upon the letter following
either’C’ or ‘G’.
General Rules
1. If the following letter is ‘E’,’I’, or ‘Y’, the pronuncation
is said to be “soft”
2. If the following letter is anything else-including a
space-the pronunciation is termed “hard”.
3. A soft’C’ is pronunced’s’ as in cell,city,
decision,receive,license,distance,recently,pronounce,juicly,
cylinder.
4. A hard’C’ is pronounced’k’ as in call,
correct,cup,cross,class,fact,public ect.
5. A soft’G’ is pronounced’j’ as in general,giant,gymnastic.
13. Here is a list of common letter combinations with
silent letters
B is not pronounced when following M at the end of a word
Climb
Crumb
Dumb
comb
C is not pronounced in the ending “sele”
Muscle
14. D is not pronounced in the following common words
Handkerchief
wednesday
E is not pronounced at the end of words and usually makes the vowel
long
Hope
Drive
gave
G is not often not pronounced when follwed by an N
Champagne
Foreign
sign
15. GH is not pronounced before T and at the end of many word
Thought
Daughter
light
H is not pronounced when following W. some speakers whisper the H
before the W.
What
When
Where ect
L is often not pronounced before L.D,F,M,K.
Calm
Half
Salmon
wouid
16. K is not pronounced when followed by N at the
beginning of a word
Knife
Know
knock
N is not pronounced following M at the end of a word
Autumn
hymn
P is not pronounced at the beginning of many words using the
suffic”psych” and “pneu”
Psychotherapy
psychiatrist
17. S is not pronounced before L in the following words
Island
isle
T is not pronounced in these common words
Castle
often
listen
U is not pronounced before after G and before a vowel
Guess
Guidance
Guitar
guest
