Pronunciation: Consonants and vowels

HOW TO PRONOUNCIATE CONSONANTS

Consonant Sounds are produced by completely or partially stopping the breath. Consonant Sounds can be voiceless (VL, no vibration of the vocal cords) or voiced (VD, vibration of the vocal cords) and often come in sound pairs.

The symbols used for consonants are shown in the following table. Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the left is voiceless, the one to the right voiced. 

Pronunciation: Irregular Verbs

IRREGULAR VERBS

How to pronounce some of these irregular verbs

Infinitive	Simple Past	Past Participle
A
arise	arose	arisen
awake	awakened / awoke	awakened / awoken
B
backslide	backslid	backslidden / backslid
be	was, were	been
bear	bore	born / borne
beat	beat	beaten / beat
become	became	become
begin	began	begun
bend	bent	bent
bet	bet / betted	bet / betted
bid (farewell)	bid / bade	Bidden
bid (offer amount)	bid	Bid
bind	bound	Bound
bite	bit	Bitten
bleed	bled	Bled
blow	blew	Blown
break	broke	Broken
breed	bred	Bred
bring	brought	Brought
broadcast	broadcast / broadcasted	broadcast / broadcasted
browbeat	browbeat	browbeaten / browbeat
build	built	Built
burn	burned / burnt	burned / burnt
burst	burst	burst
bust	busted / bust	busted / bust
buy	bought	bought
C
cast	cast	cast
catch	caught	caught
choose	chose	chosen
cling	clung	clung
clothe	clothed / clad	clothed / clad
come	came	come
cost	cost	cost
creep	crept	crept
crossbreed	crossbred	crossbred
cut	cut	cut
D

Pronunciation: Silent Letters

Many words in English have silent letters. Silent letters are letters that you can't hear when you say the word, but that are there when you write the word.

Click a word to hear the correct pronunciation 

Why do we have silent letters in English?

The English spelling system is famous for not making sense. The phonetic ideal of having each letter represent exactly one sound, and each sound represented by exactly one letter, is impossible when English has about 45 sounds, or phonemes, and only 26 letters to represent them. But more than that, any language that has been written for a long enough time will have spellings that haven’t caught up with modern pronunciations, because pronunciations change. 

English has been written for about 1,300 years, which is plenty of time for these mismatches to accumulate. One of the more frustrating signs of these spelling mismatches is English’s abundance of silent letters. With a conservative definition of silent letter, more than half of the letters of our alphabet are silent in at least some words. In alphabetical order, they are B, D, E, G, H, K, L, M, N, O, P, R, S, T, W, X, and Z. Today, we’ll find out the stories behind some of these silent letters. 

Source:

1:http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/why-english-has-words-with-silent-letters

Pronunciation: Linking Words

What is linking?

When we speak naturally we do not pronounce a word, stop, then say the next word in the sentence. Fluent speech flows with a rhythm and the words bump into each other. To make speech flow smoothly the way we pronounce the end and beginning of some words can change depending on the sounds at the beginning and end of those words. Linking is the merging of multiple words together until they sound as if they are only one word.

Types of linking:

Blending

Blending is transitioning from the pronunciation of one sound into the next sound. Blending works well for linking from one continuous consonant (a fricative, approximant, or nasal sound) to another different continuous consonant.

In the phrase "this month", the s sound /s/ blends smoothly into the m sound /m/.

Coarticulation

Coarticulation occurs when adjacent sounds overlap one another, causing a change in one or both sounds' pronunciation. An example of coarticulation is nasal aspiration.

An example of nasal aspiration occurs in the phrase "good news": the air is stopped as a /d/, but released as an /n/.

Assimilation

Assimilation is a more drastic type of coarticulation. The merged sounds are pronounced as an entirely different sound. Two examples of assimilation occur when the t sound /t/ or /d/ precede the y sound /y/.

When the /t/ and /y/ assimilate, the sounds merge into the ch sound /ʧ/.

Intrusion

Intrusion is placing an additional sound between other sounds. For example, adding a slight w sound /w/ or /y/ between vowel sounds is a helpful technique for pronouncing both vowels clearly.

In the phrase "he asked," a small /y/ is added between the long e /i/ and short a /æ/.

Elision

Elision occurs when a sound is removed from a word. For example, when a /t/ or /d/ is between two other consonant sounds (but not the first sound of a word), the /t/ or /d/ can be omitted.

In the phrase "kept going," the /t/ is between two consonant sounds and can be omitted.



Sources:

• https://pronuncian.com/introduction-to-linking/
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/pron/features/connected.shtml

Pronunciation: Word Stress

Word Stress

What is Word Stress? 

In some languages, syllables in each word is pronounced with the exact same stress. However, English is not one of those languages, due to the fact that English has its own rhythm, complete with its own vocal music. This fact means that one part of a certain word is said louder and longer than other parts of the same word, all syllables are not pronounced with the same force or strength. This means that only one syllable is accentuated: English speakers say one syllable very loudly (big, strong), and the other syllables very quietly. So, the syllables that are not stressed are weak, small or quiet. As a consequence fluent speakers of English listen for the stressed syllables, not the weak ones. That's why if you use stress in your speech, you will instantly and automatically improve your pronunciation and your comprehension.

Why is Word Stress important?

Word Stress is a key factor to understand spoken English. Word Stress is something natural in native speakers, they don't even know they use it. However, it is not an optional extra that you can add to the English language, because it is part of the language! It is essential if you want to be understood by a native speaker of English.

Some helpful tips to master Word Stress: 

-A word can only have one stress. Although in a very long word you can have a secondary stress, it is always much smaller than the first one.

-Only vowels are stressed, never consonants.

-There are many exceptions to the rules, so use a dictionary to check the word stress of new words. Soon, and as a consequence of that, you will know English well enough to add word stress naturally.