Unlike other languages, in English you dont always say a word like it is writtenspelt.Not only do the soundpronunciation of letters often change between words, but and in many words some of the letters are not pronounced (are silent).To see the method I use with my students, read the article How to pronounce English words perfectly.
This testexercise will both help you to say some of the most commonly mispronounced words in English and show you that you can pronounce English words correctly. You start by first listening to the word by playing the questions audio player. After this, spell the word in the text box and press the Check button. To do this on a computer, you need to have a microphone connected to your computer. ![]() Most people who do this exercise have more problems with spelling the word correctly than in saying it. British English Pronunciation Online How To Pronounce EnglishTo find out why and how to pronounce English words better, read my article on How to speak better English: Pronunciation. Whereas in American rising tones are more common, so you go up from the main stress. British audio in this article is in black type, American is in blue. And please note that we are talking about standard accents General British (GB) and General American (GA), there is, of course, huge variety on both sides of the pond. Silent r The most obvious difference between standard American (GA) and standard British (GB) is the omission of r in GB: you only pronounce a written if there is a vowel sound after it, so we dont say it in PARK pk, HORSE hs or FURTHER f. In American, though, we pronounce every written r so prk, hrs frr. Roast dinne r will be po r k, carrots and tu r nips. British, 2nd American ) Vowel Sound Changes Many of the 19 vowel sounds are very similar in American and British, however, there are 8 sounds that significantly change as follows: to In British (GB) we use back rounded open sound for words like SHOP p, LOST lst and WANT wnt. There is a group of words, however, containing the spelling ARR, which change from to e in American. CARRY kri is keri EMBARRASS mbrs is mbers and HARRY hri is heri, giving the name the same pronunciation as HAIRY in American. MARRY, MERRY and MARY would all be the same too in American English, but different in British: mri, meri meri Ill c a rry your bags, H a rry. This sound nearly always has an r in its spelling, but even when it doesnt, American speakers say one, like in the word COLONEL krnl, which is knl in British English. This means that for many American speakers, COT ktand CAUGHT kt are the same, though COURT krt would be different. In British English CAUGHT kt and COURT would be the same, COT kt would be different. Most of those words that dont have an r in GB are pronounced in American so AFTER ftr HALF hf. This makes FAIRY feri and FERRY the same in American, but different in British feri feri. There is great variance on both sides of the Atlantic for this sound with old fashioned posh British speakers like the Queen for example, starting at the front GO, NO, SHOW. Vowel Length There is a greater difference in British English between the length of vowel sounds, with some being pronounced significantly longer than their American counterparts. Some of this is owing to the additional pronunciation of r in many American vowel sounds as seen above. Most phonemic charts reflect this by showing five or six English vowel sounds with two triangular dots, whereas most charts do not offer this for American. In Standard British this would be pronounced as a normal t WA T ER, FIGH T ER, GO T IT, though in regional British accents, most famously cockney, this would be a glottal stop: WA T ER, FIGH T ER, GO T IT. ![]() Whereas in British the tongue is flatter and further forward R IGHT, A RR OW. Yod (j) Dropping In British English where j appears after t, d, n, l, s, z (the alveolar consonants) it is omitted in American: t TUNE tjun, tun, d DUTY djuti, duti, n NEW nju, nu, l LEWD ljud, lud, s SUIT sjut, sut z EXUDE gzjud, gzud. Word Stress Some words are stressed differently in American English, particularly those of French origin where American keeps the last syllable stress and British goes for first syllable (audio is British then American ): GARAGE, GOURMET, BALLET, BROCHURE, though this is reversed in the words ADDRESS and MOUSTACHE. Intonation The melody of British and American is quite different, though the structure of speech is very similar. The most obvious difference is the British tendency to use high falling intonation, hitting the main stress high and dropping down.
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