Italian Speakers’ English Pronunciation Errors
10 English Pronunciation Errors by Italian Speakers What are the main errors for Italian speakers in English pronunciation? Here we have highlighted the top ten experienced by Italian speaking students at [...]
How to Teach Pronunciation
How to teach pronunciation - 5 tips for ESL teachers. Of the hundreds of thousands of English classes that have taken place all over the world today, only a tiny fraction [...]
What are the aims of accent reduction?
An authentic ‘English Accent’ or simply ‘Clear Speech’ - what are the aims of accent reduction? Accent reduction is a term being used more and more frequently in the world of [...]
English Vowel Sounds
English Vowel Sounds (19 of them) [ssba] A neutral British English accent uses 19 vowel sounds, they are (in the order they appear in the sound chart above): Written [...]
Why is English so difficult to pronounce?
Why is English so difficult to pronounce? As everybody who has studied English as a foreign language knows - English is a relatively easy language to learn, up to a point. [...]
How to pronounce ‘are’.
'are' - the hardest monosyllabic word to pronounce [ssba] What’s the problem? 'Are' is the trickiest word in English. It can be weak (ə) or strong (ɑ:) [...]
How to pronounce ‘ask’.
'I axed him!' How to pronounce 'ask'. [ssba] What’s the problem? It is very hard to pronounce all of the sounds in the word quickly, so native speakers often [...]
How to pronounce ‘have’.
The 5 pronunciations of 'have'. [ssba] Number 3 in our top 5 most difficult one syllable words is 'have'. What's the problem? It looks simple enough, but hidden under [...]
How to Pronounce ‘world’
'World' - the 4th most difficult 1 syllable word in English [ssba] Have you ever struggled to say the word 'world'? Look no further than today's post: What’s the [...]
How to Pronounce ‘Can’t’
'Can't' - a dangerous word [ssba] On this week's blog we are counting down the 5 most difficult one syllable words in English pronunciation. At number 5 is 'can't [...]
Cockney – England’s Most Famous Accent
Everyone's heard of 'Cockney'. [ssba] If there is one English accent that everyone has heard of, far more so than either RP or Estuary, it is Cockney. Pronunciation teachers will confirm [...]
Received Pronunciation vs Estuary
What are the key differences between RP & Estuary? [ssba] One topic that frequently arises when teaching pronunciation & accent, is which accent to model in class. Most [...]
How to Pronounce Place Names with ‘ham’.
How to pronounce place names with 'ham' in them. [ssba] A group of names that often cause pronunciation errors are those containing the ending 'ham'. Often the error is [...]
What is a consonant sound?
What is a consonant sound? [ssba] It often helps to go back to basics when teaching new skills. What question could be more straightforward in teaching pronunciation than 'What is a [...]
Where’s the stress in ‘afternoon’?
'Afternoon' is deceptively difficult to pronounce due to its stress pattern and vowel sounds. STRESS Firstly, it uses a shifting stress pattern. That means that depending on the words after it, [...]
