Pronunciation Practice

YouTube video series – Lessons for pronunciation of American English

• Rachel’s English

• Boost up English

• English with Jennifer

Producing vowel sounds

• Rachel's English American English vowel sounds videos

• Short vs. long vowel sounds intro video

• Some tips about vowels

• Compare vowel sounds (American)

• American English vs. British English vowel sounds

• Minimal pairs practice

• Ship or Sheep: Practice vowel sounds with minimal pairs (text only)

Short vowels

• Short vowel sounds overview - practice with a mirror

• How to produce the short /a/ sound as in bat

• How to produce the short /e/ sound as in bed

• Compare Short /e/ vs. short /a/ --> bed vs. bat

• How to produce the short /i/ sound as in sit

• How to produce the short /u/ sound as in push

Long vowels

• Long vowel sounds overview - practice with a mirror

• Compare long /e/ vs. short /i/ --> seat vs. sit

• Compare short /i/ vs. long /e/ --> live vs. leave

• Compare short /o/ vs. short /u/ --> shot vs. shut

Producing consonant sounds

• Rachel's English How-To videos list

• Unvoiced vs. Voiced consonant sounds

• How to produce Stop consonants (your mouth stops the flow of air)

• Length of vowel sound is affected by final consonant

B and V

• How to produce /b/ and /v/ (use same mouth position)

• How to produce the V sound

• Minimal Pairs Practice for /b/ and /v/

CH and J

• How to produce /ch/ and /jj/ (use same mouth position)

D and T

• How to produce /t/ and /d/ (use same mouth position)

• I Sleep in a BET (D vs T)

• The Flap T

• T Combined with other sounds

F and V

• How to pronounce /f/ and /v/ (use same mouth position)

• How to make the /v/ sound

• Practice the difference between /f/ and /v/

• How to pronounce OF (final /v/ sound)

G and K

• How to produce /g/ and /k/ (use the same mouth position)

L and R

• How to produce L /l/

• How to produce R /r/

• Compare /r/ and /l/

• How to produce /l/ in the middle of a word

• Compare Work vs. Walk

• Compare Word vs. World

• Practice /l/ and /r/

• Practice /l/ and /r/ with diagrams of mouth

S and Z

• How to produce /s/ and /z/ (use same mouth position)

• Letter S pronounced as /z/

• Final -s plural nouns

• How to pronounce BECAUSE (final /z/)

Y and J

• How to pronounce /y/

• YELLOW versus JELLO

CH and SH

• American pronunciation CH vs SH

• Practice Difference between /ch/ and /sh/

• Compare S and SH /s/ vs. /sh/

TH: /θ/ (unvoiced/soft) and /ð/ (voiced/hard)

• The 2 sounds of /th/

• /TH/ sounds video list

• Practice Unvoiced (soft) /th/

• Practice Voiced (hard) /th/

• Link /th/ to other sounds

• Final -TH + S

• How to pronounce TH after /n/ or /z/

• How to pronounce The word SOMETHING

• Practice The 2 sounds of TH

• Practice Pronunciation tips for /th/

Suffix -ED

• Video 3 ways to pronounce -ed

• Video Final –ed Sounds part 1

• Video Final –ed Sounds part 2

• Video Eva Easton's -ED course

• Video flash cards Final –ed

Consonant clusters

Definition of a consonant cluster: Consonant sounds that are not separated by a vowel sound

• Especially for Spanish-speakers: Consonant clusters that start with S

• How to produce consonant cluster TR as in train

• How to produce consonant cluster THR as in three

• How to produce consonant cluster BR as in bring

• How to produce consonant cluster SHR as in shrimp

• How to produce consonant cluster -TL at end of words such as bottle

• How to produce consonant cluster -NTH at end of words such as tenth

• How to produce consonant clusters -SKS -STS and -SPS at end of words such as desks, tests, wasps

• How to pronounce QU /kw/ as in quiet

• How to produce /sk/ and /dj/ as in schedule

• How to produce /gr/ and /dj/ as in graduate

Minimal pairs – Practice for all letter sounds

Definition of a minimal pair: Two words that are different by only 1 sound, for example, bad/bed or fork/pork

• Audio ManyThings.org

• Video 60 Minimal Pairs

• Audio ShiporSheep.com

Stress and intonation

DefiNItion of stress: A GREATer LOUDness or force you give to a SYLlable of a word when you say it. Some ENGlish words are spelled the same but are stressed DIFferently, for exAMple: CONtent is a noun (= the things that are in something), while conTENT is an ADjective (= pleased and SATisfied)

Definition of intonation: The rise and fall of the sound of your voice when you speak

• What is intonation?

• Stressing content words

• Un-stressing and reducing function words

• Questions and intonation: Up or down?

• Questions vs. statements

• Changing word stress for clarification:

• Intonation Practice: How to greet Americans

• Unstressed vs. reduced syllables

• Stressed syllables within words

• How to stress a syllable: The "shape" of stressed syllable

• Intonation practice part 1

• Intonation practice part 2

• Intonation practice part 3

• Intonation practice part 4

Stress and rhythm

Definition of stress: A greater loudness or force you give to a syllable of a word when you say it. Some English words are spelled exactly the same but are stressed differently, for example: CONtent is a noun (= the things that are in something), while conTENT is an adjective (= pleased and satisfied)

Definition of rhythm: A repeated pattern of sounds that happen at times that are equally separated

• A quick overview of stress and rhythm in English

• Stress and rhythm in American English pronunciation

• English: A stress-timed language

• The rhythm of English

• Stress patterns in phrases and sentences - part 1

• Stress patterns in phrases and sentences - part 2

• Stress patterns in phrases and sentences - part 3

• Imitation exercise: What did you do today?

• Imitation exercise: Talk about Thanksgiving

Tongue Twisters!

• Donna Washington Peter Piper

• Donna Washington Betty Boughta

• Donna Washington Tongue Twister Challenge

• Thistle-Sifter from the movie The King's Speech

• Hank Green - Tongue Twisters

• Try some yourself! Here is a list of tongue-twisters