Pronunciation Archives - Espresso English: Recent Episodes
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Free Pronunciation GuidePronunciation & Shadowing Courses Like KS taxi Mexico explain next fox mix extra ex-boyfriend exercise execute Like GZ Two conditions must be true: The X must be followed by a vowel sound The syllable immediately after the X must be the strong one exactly example exam exhibit exotic exult executive exit (exception […]
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Download 30+ “Ask the teacher” lessons How can you make the difference when pronouncing the words battle and bottle? Let me show you – my mouth is a little rounder with the “o” sound in “bottle.” Try it with me – baaaattle, boooottle. Some other pairs of words that have this difference are: hat / hot lack / lock map / mop Let me know if you have any more pronunciation questions and I’ll be happy to answer them!
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Can you say these words fast? Now let me use them in sentences: Learning English on your own can be tough. (= difficult) You really want to learn – your life is busy, though. (= expresses a contrast or counterpoint) That’s why you love learning through Espresso English tips. (= by means of) Have you ever thought about joining an Espresso English course? (= past tense of “think”) Espresso English courses are very thorough. (= careful to cover all the details) Learning English will benefit you throughout your life! (= in/during every part of)
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You’re probably pronouncing these words wrong – yes, even you, native English speakers! Today I’m going to teach you the right way to say 20 English words that are commonly mispronounced – so you can say them confidently. Because this lesson focuses on pronunciation, I’m not going to explain the definitions – but if you download the free lesson guide PDF, each word has its definition and an example sentence. Download lesson PDF OK, are you ready? Make sure to practice with me by repeating these words out loud using the correct pronunciation. How to pronounce ESPRESSO Say espresso, not
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Regular Verbs vs. Irregular Verbs Regular verbs are ones that end in -ED in the past tense and past participle: walk – walked – walked start – started – missed miss – missed – missed Irregular verbs are ones that don’t follow these rules, for example: do – did – done eat – ate – eaten sing – sang – sung How to form regular verbs Simply add -ED to make the past tense form of the verb, as well as the past participle: Present tense: ask/asks I often ask questions in English class. Past tense: asked I asked lots of questions
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Improve your pronunciation FAST! One student said she has difficulty with –STS at the end of words, as in costs and guests – how can she pronounce it better? Well, the way I do it is while making the SSS sound, I just quickly touch my tongue to the back of my teeth to interrupt the S and make a tiny T sound. When speaking fast, we only hear a tiny hint of the T. In fact, sometimes it just turns into a long –SSS sound! Here are some examples: costs – It costs forty dollars. guests – We’re guests
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Improve your pronunciation FAST! Today’s question is about how to pronounce acronyms – terms like CEO – do we say their letters, or do we pronounce them as a word? It depends! I’d say most of them we say their letters – like CEO, BBC, UFO, and Ph.D. But there are some that are pronounced like a word – such as NASA, UNESCO, and AIDS. Can you think of more examples? Here is a good list of different types of acronyms! Speak English More Naturally & Confidently: Learn more & Sign up
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Improve your pronunciation FAST A student asks, “How do you pronounce CON at the beginning of English words?” It depends – there are two pronunciations depending on whether that syllable is stressed. We pronounce it CON in words like CONfident, CONcept, and CONstant – when the stress is on that syllable. But we pronounce it more like “cun” in words like con-FUSE, con-DI-tion, and con-CERN – when the stress is on a different syllable. Pronounce it CON when the syllable is stressed, and “cun” when that syllable is not stressed. Thanks for watching – Keep sending me your questions! Speak
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Pronunciation Course Has this ever happened to you – someone asks you a question in English, and you don’t understand it at ALL? One reason for the difficulty is that when native English speakers are talking fast, we often change how we pronounce the words at the beginning of questions. It can be frustrating and embarrassing when you don’t understand a question… but this video will help! When you know about these pronunciation changes, then you can recognize them when you hear them – and understand questions a lot better. If you want your own pronunciation to get better and
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Learn how to pronounce the names of all 50 states in the U.S.! Listen and repeat after me. You can learn more about the origins of the 50 state names here. For each state, I’ve included its abbreviation, and some things it is known for. I hope you enjoy learning about the 50 states in the U.S.! Join my American English Pronunciation Course to speak English more clearly, correctly, and confidently! How to pronounce ALABAMA Origin of the name: Named after the Alabama Native American tribe, meaning “thicket clearers” or “plant cutters” Alabama is known for its rich musical heritage,
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Wondering how to pronounce the months of the year in English? Listen and repeat after me to practice your pronunciation! I’ve also included each month’s abbreviation (short form) and the origin of its name. Want to improve your pronunciation in the next 30 days? Join my Pronunciation Course! Pronunciation Course How to pronounce JANUARY Abbreviation: Jan Origin: Named after Janus, the Roman god of beginnings and transitions, who had two faces looking both forward and backward, symbolizing the transition from one year to the next. Holidays: New Year’s Day (Jan. 1), Martin Luther King Day (third Monday in January) How
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Wondering whether to use breathe or breath? Today’s lesson will teach you the difference between these confusing English words in meaning and pronunciation. You’ll also learn some collocations and common phrases with breathe and breath! Difference in meaning The word breathe is a verb, referring to the action or process of taking air in and out of your lungs, mouth, and nose. The word breath is a noun referring to the actual air going in/out of you, or to a complete cycle of breathing. Let’s look at some example sentences: Scuba divers use an oxygen tank to breathe underwater. If you don’t brush your teeth regularly,
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A vowel is a sound we make with our mouth and vocal cords open, without touching our tongue to any other part of our mouth. In vowel sounds the air flows freely through our mouth (differently from consonants, in which we block the air with our tongue, lips, or teeth). Vowels in English are represented by the letters A, E, I, O, and U. The letter Y is considered a “semivowel” because sometimes it represents a vowel sound, and sometimes it represents a consonant sound. English vowels can be divided into two types: long vowels and short vowels. The difference
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The English language has a lot of hard words to pronounce! These are words that even native English speakers wonder how to pronounce correctly. Let’s practice pronouncing them with audio – listen and repeat after me. ARCHIVE pronunciation The AR in archive sounds like the AR in “car.” This is the stressed syllable. The “ch” has a “k” sound. The IVE sounds like in “five.” BUFFET pronunciation The BUF rhymes with “fluff” The FET syllable sounds like “fay” (rhymes with “say”) – the T in buffet is silent. This is the stressed syllable VASE pronunciation There are two ways to
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Pronunciation Course Are you ready to try pronouncing some SUPER-LONG English words? Today we’re going to practice pronouncing words with 6 and 7 syllables! Before we begin, two important tips for pronouncing long words – the first is that you need to know which syllable is the strong one, so that you stress the right part of the word. I’ll show you which syllable to emphasize – but you can also find out by checking the dictionary (I especially recommend online audio dictionaries). The other tip is to try it slowly first, then gradually increase your speed until you
Hi! You might be wondering, “How long will it take to improve my pronunciation?” Remember that it’s like going to the gym. Just like physical exercise makes your body stronger, pronunciation practice trains your mouth to speak well. Let me ask you a question: Can a person lose 20 pounds and become perfectly healthy after going to the gym for one day? Or two, three, or four days? No, of course not! To get the results, you need consistent and persistent practice over time. You might not feel much difference after one session, but if you keep going, you WILL
Let’s review: in the previous e-mails you learned: to practice minimal pairs in order to differentiate similar sounds to pay attention to the “music” (rhythm of stress) in words/sentences to speak faster & more continuously by linking or connecting words Today I’m going to teach you how to do “shadowing.” It works like this: Get an audio recording + transcript of a native speaker talking at normal speed. Listen to ONLY the first sentence (or phrase), then pause the audio and try to repeat the phrase exactly, imitating the native speaker’s rhythm and the “flow” of the words Continue – listen, pause, repeat after each phrase
If you’re trying to improve your pronunciation, you should pronounce each word very carefully and clearly, so that you can say it perfectly… right? Wrong! Native English speakers don’t actually do this. Instead, natural spoken English “links” the words together. This is why spoken English often sounds “fast.” Three or four words can get connected together and sound like one word. (That’s why listening is difficult, too!) To make your English faster and more continuous, practice these connections. For example: “How are you feeling today?” Really sounds like: “Howrya feelin’ today?” “I’m going to have lunch.” Really sounds like: “I’m gonna-avlunch.” “Where
Hi! Yesterday you learned about words with similar sounds in the English language. Today’s tip is ALWAYS to pay attention to the “music” of English. What’s the “music” of English? It is the rhythm of stress (“strong” syllables and “weak” syllables) in words and sentences. You probably already know that individual English words have a strong syllable: Eng lish – stress on the first syllable im prove – stress on the second syllable pro nun ci a tion – stress on the fourth syllable If you get the word stress wrong, the word can sound completely different and the other
I’ll never forget my WORST pronunciation mistake when I was learning Portuguese. It was VERY embarrassing: 😱 I wanted to say: “Eu gosto de água de coco” (“I like coconut water”) 🥥 But I said: “Eu gosto de água de cocô” (“I like poop water”) 💩 The problem is that these two words are different by only one sound! We call these MINIMAL PAIRS, and there are a lot of them in English, too. For example: it / eat ship / chip wait / wet bad / bed ice / eyes free / three they / day If you want
Pronunciation Course Once I asked my students, “What are the most difficult English words for you to pronounce?” and I got a lot of great answers! Today we’re going to practice 15 words that English learners often find hard to say. I’ll say each one once slowly, once at normal speed, and then I’ll say an example sentence – so listen and repeat after me each time. Did you know that you can improve your pronunciation a LOT in the next 30 days when you join my American English Pronunciation Course? By doing a lesson a day, you’ll practice
200 Common Errors Course Today I want to help you avoid a very common mistake that lots of people make – and that is writing the word “grammar” like this: G-R-A-M-M-E-R. There’s actually NO “e” in the word grammar; the correct spelling is G-R-A-M-M-A-R. But when we speak, we pronounce it like “er” – grammer, not gram-MAR – so that’s why people often misspell it with -er. It’s an understandable error. Now you know that grammar is always spelled with AR at the end. And if you want to avoid more common errors, I can help you inside my course
Pronunciation & Shadowing Courses Are you ready to practice your pronunciation with some longer words? The ones we’ll practice today all have 5 syllables – like the word vocabulary: vo-CA-bu-la-ry, with the stress on CA. I’ll say each word twice – once a little more slowly with some separation between the syllables, and then once at normal speed, and I’d like you to repeat after me both times. If you’re ready to improve your pronunciation FAST, come join my Pronunciation and Shadowing Courses. My pronunciation course will train you to pronounce all the sounds in the English language clearly and
Pronunciation Course Today I want to help you fix a pronunciation problem that I hear in a LOT of students’ English, and that is saying things like this: I ask-ed him to help me. We pre-par-ed for our trip. The mistake is with the verbs in the past, ending in -ED. The correct way to say them is: askt (not ask-ed) pre-pard (not pre-par-ed) It’s a small mistake, but unfortunately it makes it obvious that someone’s not a native English speaker. So today I’ll explain some simple rules to help you pronounce the -ED ending correctly every time, and we’ll
Pronunciation Course In today’s lesson we’re going to practice our pronunciation a bit and also learn when to use the words proof and prove, belief and believe. These pairs of words are different by only one sound – the F sound and the V sound. We make these by using the same mouth position, with the top teeth touching the bottom lip. The only difference is that for the F sound we only blow air, and for the V sound we use our voice. So first let’s practice pronouncing each word – listen and repeat after me: proof prove Now
Pronunciation Course Today’s lesson is going to be a challenge even for me – we’re working on tongue twisters, short phrases that are very difficult to pronounce, even for native English speakers! I like tongue twisters because they’re a fun way to train ourselves to develop very precise pronunciation, and if you can learn to pronounce a tongue twister well, then regular English sentences will probably feel a lot easier by comparison. Before we begin, I’d like to invite you to join my course focusing on improving your pronunciation. It’s called the American English Pronunciation Course and inside it we
Pronunciation & Shadowing Courses Today you’re going to learn how to pronounce 12 special words ending in -E. You probably know that when we have an English word ending in -E, the final -E is usually silent; we don’t pronounce it. Like in the words date, cheese, fine, spoke, and rude. But there are a few exceptions, and that’s what we’ll work on in today’s lesson. Many of these words came into English from other languages and so they don’t follow the typical trend of a silent E at the end. You can repeat each word after me, and
In video games, a “power-up” is something that increases your skills quickly – and that’s what we’re going to do with your pronunciation 🙂 This mini-course will help you practice 250 words so you can pronounce them correctly and confidently. Review and practice the videos below: To continue your training, join the American English Pronunciation Course! #1 – How to pronounce 50 jobs in English #2 – How to pronounce 50 food and drink words in English #3 – How to pronounce 50 countries in English #4 – How to pronounce 50 brand names in English #5 – How to