Practice Reading

EE   vs.  TH

The rich witch wanted to pitch a peach across the beach, but didn’t want any other witches taking a peek as she pitched the peach. So she picked the highest peak of the largest dune on the entire beach – the same peak usually picked by the rich witches who wanted to watch the other witches as they reached for their peaches – pitched her peach halfway across the beach, where it then hit another witch and her stick.

Vicky really thought that Becky had bought both cups of coffee from the booth near thee throng at the top of the escalator, but Vicky guessed she thought wrong. Although Vicky taught Becky to do so and though Becky would follow exactly what Vicky taught. Becky still bought both cups from the other side of the throng, at the booth that sold the only seedy CDs in the entire city.

P   vs.   F

Pin, Fin, Pour, Four, Pace, Face, Pair, Fair, Pan, Fan, Pride, Fried, Cope, Cough, Supper, Suffer, Differ, Dipper, Leap, Leaf, Cheap, Chief, Wipe, Wife, Rifle, Ripe, Tough, Top, Stiff, Steep

B   vs.   V

Bat, Vat, Buy, Vie, Cupboard, Covered, Best, Vest, Ban, Van, Berry, Very, Swab, Suave, Rebel, Revel, Marble, Marvel, Base, Vase

How to Pronounce "THE" in English

Normally, we pronounce "the" with a short sound (like "thuh"). But when "the" comes before a vowel sound, we pronounce it as a long "thee".

vowel sound	we write	we say
A	the apple	thee apple
E	the egg	thee egg
I	the ice-cream	thee ice-cream
O	the orange	thee orange
U	the ugli fruit	thee ugli fruit

It is important to understand that it is what we say that matters, not what we write. It is the sound that matters, not the letter used in writing a word. So we use a long "thee" before a vowel sound, not necessarily before a vowel. Look at these cases:

we write	with	we say	with
the house	consonant (h)	thuh house	consonant sound
the hour	consonant (h)	thee our	vowel sound
the university	vowel (u)	thuh youniversity	consonant sound
the umbrella	vowel (u)	thee umbrella	vowel sound

Emphatic the [thee]
When we wish to place emphasis on a particular word, we can use "emphatic the" [thee], whether or not the word begins with a consonant or vowel sound. For example:

A: I saw the [thuh] President yesterday.
B: What! The [thee] President of the United States?
A: Yes, exactly.

Accent Reduction: Improving Your Pronunciation Skills

Many ESL learners are concerned about eliminating their accents, but before you run out and spend hundreds of dollars on the latest pronunciation course, let me give you some things to think about.

First, the main goal of any pronunciation course should be to focus on accent reduction, not accent elimination, which is virtually impossible. Rather, students should work on reducing areas of their pronunciation that affect comprehensibility, that is, areas of their accents that make it difficult for native speakers to understand them.

Second, with this goal in mind, students need to be able to identify which specific areas of pronunciation give them the most trouble . Of course, there are universal areas of pronunciation that affect specific language groups, and reading up on this commonalities will help you. Furthermore, if you take a class on pronunciation, the teacher probably will ask you to record a speech sample which can be analyzed to check which specific areas you need to work on, for example, vowel and consonant sounds, word and sentence stress, and word reductions, and linking, and intonation.

Finally, you need to practice these features in different situations, from very structured exercises to extemporaneous speech. In other words, let's say you are focusing on past tense, -ed endings (e.g. worked, played, constructed, learned, etc.). The first step would be able to recognize and produce the corrected pronunciation of the endings of each word in isolation by repeating them; however, this does not guarantee that you will be able to use them in natural conversation. Thus, you might want to record yourself talking about the past weekend and what you did - again, using past tenses. Rewind the recording and check to see how well you formed the verbs and if your pronounced them correctly.

Just remember that improving your pronunciation will take a lot of patience and commitment.

by: Randall's ESL Cyber Listening Lab

Reference Guide to Phonetic Symbols

As you probably know, phonetic symbols are a great help when it comes to learning to pronounce English words correctly. Any time you open a dictionary, you can find the correct pronunciation of words you don't know by looking at the phonetic pronunciation that follows the word. Unfortunately, learning the phonetic alphabet is not always the easiest thing to do.


Following the chart is an example of a text that has been transcribed in to phonetics. Notice how the text, as it would be spoken, differs from how each word might be transcribed individually. This is principally due to two factors; elision and unstressed syllables.

This text is the following:

There is a police message for motorists in the Barnet area of London. A lorry has shed its load at the Apex Corner roundabout on the A1. You are asked to avoid the area as much as possible. South-bound traffic will be diverted for the next two hours. That is the end of the message.

As you can see, the phonetic alphabet seems like another language entirely, however, with patience, it can serve you well in improving your pronunciation.

by: about.com

How to Pronounce -ED in English

The past simple tense and past participle of all regular verbs end in -ed. For example: base verb (v1) past simple (v2) past participle (v3) work worked worked In addition, many adjectives are made from the past participle and so end in -ed. For example: I like painted furniture. The question is: How do we pronounce the -ed? The answer is: In 3 ways - / Id/ or / t/ or / d/ If the base verb ends in one of these sounds: example base verb*: example with -ed: pronounce the -ed: extra syllable? unvoiced /t/ want wanted / Id/ yes voiced /d/ end ended unvoiced /p/ hope hoped / t/ no /f/ laugh laughed /s/ fax faxed /S/ wash washed /tS/ watch watched /k/ like liked voiced all other sounds, for example... play played / d/ allow allowed beg begged * note that it is the sound that is important, not the letter or spelling. For example, "fax" ends in the letter "x" but the sound /s/; "like" ends in the letter "e" but the sound /k/. Exceptions The following -ed words used as adjectives are pronounced with /Id/: aged blessed crooked dogged learned naked ragged wicked wretched

by: English Club.com