How to learn English pronunciation

English uses different sounds than other languages.. You also have to practice your pronunciation — listen to English words and sentences, and try to repeat the English sounds as well a

How to learn

English pronunciation

1

Learn the sounds

of English

English uses different sounds

than other languages For

example, the first sound in the word

thin and the first sound in the word away are never spoken in many

languages

So you have to know all the

English sounds You also have

to practice your pronunciation

— listen to English words and sentences, and try to repeat the English sounds as well as you can

2

Learn the

pronunciation of English words

Reading an English word does not tell you how it is

pronounced

This means that, generally, you

have to learn the pronunciation of every word that you use

How can you learn the

pronunciation of an English word? You can look it up in a dictionary and read about how it is

pronounced Dictionaries tell you about pronunciation through a

special system called "

phonetic transcription "

Phonetic transcription is written in

a phonetic alphabet The most

popular phonetic alphabet is the

International Phonetic Alphabet

(IPA) Antimoon has also created

the ASCII Phonetic Alphabet, which

is suitable for typing on a

computer

3

Choose American

or British

pronunciation

(or both)

Different kinds of English

have different pronunciation For example, the pronunciation

(the accent) in British English is

different from the pronunciation

in American English

You have a choice between British English and American English, because these are the most important kinds of English in the world Which one should you choose?

Probably the kind that you like the most Whether you choose British or American

wherever you go Of course, you don't

have to decide: you can learn to speak

both kinds of English

4

Learn about both American and

British

pronunciation

Even if you choose to speak one kind of English, you should

learn about both kinds Let's

suppose you want to speak pure British English You don't want to have an American accent at all Should you pay attention to the American pronunciations in your dictionary? We believe you

should

You may want to speak British

English, but you will hear some

American English, too You may go see an American movie, visit the

United States, have an American

teacher, etc You may want to

speak only British English, but you

need to understand both British and American English

Also, consider what happens if you (a student of British English) hear

a new English word from an

American? You may learn the

American pronunciation of the

word And you may start using

that pronunciation in your own

speech So your British English will

no longer be pure

For example, if you hear the word nuke on

American TV, it will be pronounced [nu:k]

If, all your life, you have been reading only British phonetic transcriptions, you will not know that many words which have the

sound [ju:] in British English, have [u:] in

American English So you will probably

learn that nuke is pronounced [nu:k] But

if you learn it like this, you will make your pronunciation "wrong", because a Briton

would pronounce the word [nju:k]

Of course, the same advice is true if you're learning

American English In such a

case, you should be

interested in both British and American pronunciations, too