If you only had 2 hours to learn English pronunciation, what should you study?
Let's say you only have 2 hours to learn the most important elements of English pronunciation. What should you study? What should you spend your time and energy on? It's a very difficult question because the internet and YouTube are full of ideas for what you need to pay attention to.
And when you get overwhelmed with too many teachers telling you to do different things, you start to feel a little helpless. You start to feel overwhelmed or like you want to give up.
And I don't want you to feel that way. Not one bit.
So I created this YouTube playlist with some of the most important elements that you should pay attention to if you are looking to improve your English pronunciation.
The Secret to FAST English- Should, Would, and Could
What will I learn?
In this video, you are going to hear the secrets to fast American speech. How do Americans connect sounds? You'll understand a little bit more at the end of the video. You will learn about "should have, would have, and could have" and how these common grammar components turn into "shoulda, woulda, and coulda."
So what's the secret?
Here it is. In common grammar combinations like should have, we always reduce the words that have only a little meaning. These grammar words get reduced. So even if I’m speaking slow- I shoulda called my mom. I’m not speaking fast, but I’m still reducing because “have” is a grammar word, not a word with a lot of meaning. We do this all the time.
We don't say grammar words clearly. Almost never.
Easy Way to Sound More Native- Question Intonation
What will I learn?
This video is going to talk about intonation. In English, our range of intonation is sometimes more dramatic than other languages, so if you goal is to sound like a native speaker, then intonation is important to learn. Clearer pronunciation helps listeners understand you better. When you are understood, you feel more confident. When you're confident, you feel energized to speak English. Use this video to improve your question intonation. I want you to be clearly understood. I want you to feel confident in your ability to speak English.
How and When Native Speakers Pause- THOUGHT GROUPING
What will I learn?
Thought grouping is so natural to American speech, most Americans will not even recognize that they are doing it. We are taught where to pause when we read out loud as children. You were probably taught this in your own language as a child. The grammar will lead us to pause in the right places. We will never pause in the middle of a prepositional phrase, but we will always pause at a conjunction!
Why do we need to learn this?
When non-native speakers pause in the wrong place, it can sometimes become more work to listen and understand what they are saying. My students are brilliant people, and I want you to look as brilliant as you are, so you can share your brilliant ideas with the world. If you want people to really hear and follow you, then you should learn to pause in the right places, so your listener will have an easier time understanding you.
Help Native Speakers Understand you Better- Prominence and Emphasis in English Pronunciation
What will I learn?
What's one small change you can make in your speaking that will actually make a big difference? Prominence. AKA: Emphasis or sentence stress. Native speakers make the important words sound clearer and longer than other words in the sentence. It helps the listener understand the speaker easier. This is not the case in many languages, but in English all words in a sentence are NOT created equal.
Think about a time when you didn't know much English, you said sentences like "Go friend house." And people understood you!! Your grammar was incorrect, but people got your message. These are the important words in a sentence. Prominence teaches us that these words will be louder, clearer, and longer than the grammar or function words in a sentence. The sentence will sound like: "I will GO to my FRIEND's HOUSE."
Pronunciation Rules in English- The Two Vowel Rule
What will I learn?
There aren't a lot of good rules in English, but this one can get you 70-80% there. As a language learner, I think you deserve any short cut I can give you! The two vowel rule is going to explain a way for you to guess the correct pronunciation of words that you don't know. If there are two vowels in a word, the first one is going to sound like the alphabet name: A, E, I, O, U. For example the words: remain, tea, lie, soapy, and blue. Also, words that end in a silent "e" will also follow this rule: cake, cede, arrive, cone, and excuse.
Does it always work?
No, unfortunately it doesn't always work. English borrows and steals vocabulary words from other languages and the spelling rules do not always transfer correctly. Also, some of the oldest words in English don't follow the rules.
Simplify Final Consonant Sounds in English
What will I learn?
Final consonant sounds do not have to be perfect, but they do need to fall into two main categories: stop and go. If you can improve this part of your English pronunciation, your speech will become more clear. People will understand you easier. When people understand you, your confidence builds. When your confidence increases, you're more likely to take risks speaking to strangers or classmates. Getting to your English goals help you get to your real life goals. And that's what we are here to do, get you to your goals. English is going to help us get there!!
Now there are some stop sounds in English P, B, T, D, K, G. All of these sounds stop the airflow from your lungs out your mouth. Some stop the air with your lips and some with your tongue, but they are going to sound different at the end of a word. The other 18 consonant sounds can be called “go” sounds, but the English teacher name is continuants.
Okay, so in English we put a lot of grammar information at the end of a word. We have past tense endings, contractions, plural words and on and on. But when an American speaks, we don’t always say the endings clearly.
So how do we know? It's as easy as STOP and GO!
