Learn American English Pronunciation
Learning how to pronounce English words can be difficult. One English letter can make many different sounds. Let’s go step-by-step through each sound in American English so you will feel comfortable and confident as you speak.
Are There Rules for Pronunciation?
There are some rules for English pronunciation, and we’ll learn them. But many times the rules don’t work. As you learn to pronounce English words, it’s best to listen to the word first, and learn to say it correctly. After you have done this, then see how it is spelled.
Listen to as much English as you can while you are learning pronunciation. Even if you don’t understand the meaning, you can hear the sounds and practice saying them.
Some English letters make more than one sound, and some letters don’t have a sound of their own. Two letters can join together to make a new sound. That’s why we will study the sounds of English that appear in the International Phonetic Alphabet for American English.
The International Phonetic Alphabet
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) was created to help identify all the sounds that appear in languages around the world. Some sounds appear in many languages, and some sounds appear only in one or two languages. They are all identified with a different IPA symbol.
The IPA can be very useful to you as you learn the sounds of English. We will learn these symbols one at a time as we learn how to make the English sound they represent. After you have learned them, you can use an English dictionary to discover how to pronounce an English word.
The English Alphabet
It’s important for you to learn the sounds of English so that you can speak clearly and be understood well.
In this pronunciation section, we will just focus on the sounds of English. We will learn more about the letters of English and the different sounds they can make in the spelling section (coming soon).
How to Learn the Sounds of English
In each post, I will show you the IPA symbol for that letter. Then I will tell you how to make that sound. Watch the videos and repeat the sounds and sample words as well as you can. Repeat them many times! Most of the sample words come from the fifth chapter of John.
Click here to learn the vowel sounds.
Click here to learn the consonant sounds.
Read articles about American English Pronunciation.
Stop Consonants – Sound More Fluent in American English
