10 Main Sounds in English Pronunciation
It is very important to learn the main sounds in English pronunciation so one can converse well with other English speakers. Different letter combinations make different sounds which can make learning English pronunciation difficult. To pronounce these sounds well you need to use your mouth, tongue, teeth and throat. There are 26 letters in the alphabet which make 44 sounds. Here are the 10 main sounds to help you speak English well:
Vowels
There are 20 vowels sounds pronounced from the English alphabet. The main ones are a, e, i, o and you. A combination of vowel sounds produces different vowel sounds and also similar vowel sounds – all pronounced with a different combination of mouth, tongue, teeth and throat.
For example:
Ship Vowel sound is made closer to the tip of one’s tongue and the sound is made closer to the front of one’s mouth.
Sheep Double ‘e’ sound which is again made towards front of mouth although with a slightly different mouth movement.
Book Book has a slightly longer vowel sound of ‘oo’.
Shoot Shoot has a slightly shorter vowel sound of ‘oo’.
Teacher
The ‘er’ sound can sound like ‘schwa’ and this sound is very common speaking English. This sound is also stressed which means it can sound like a a ‘u’ sound like in the word ‘uh’. Other examples of this ‘er’ sound can be found in words like collar and doctor albeit the sound is written ‘ar’ and ‘or’ in these words.
Consonants
Here are some consonant sounds:
Plosives These include the letters b, d, g, k, p, and t.
These sounds are pronounced when the air is stopped in the point and then released suddenly.
Fricatives These include the letters f, h, s, sh, th, v, and z.
These sounds are made by allowing air to pass through a smaller gap in one’s mouth. Television is an example.
Affricates These are consonants blends of letters found at the beginning of words for example in the words cheese and joke.
Nasals These sounds include the letters m, n and ng and sound as if they vibrate through the nasal cavity with the word thing being an example.
All these sounds are made by making these sounds in different places of one’s mouth.
Syllable stress
It is very important to learn where the stress falls in words when speaking as if words are pronounced incorrectly, the words could have a different meaning. An example of this is saying the word permit. To permit is a verb which means to allow something to happen and the syllable stress is on the ‘mit’ of permit. A permit is a noun meaning a piece of paper or document giving permission for a person to do ‘something’ where the stress in English pronunciation is on the ‘per’.
When learning longer words, it is very important to understand how to break the words into syllables, learn where to put the stress and then putting the word back together again using correct English pronunciation.
Sentence stress
English is thought of as a stressed-timed language when speaking. Sentence stress means working out which are the important words in each sentence when talking. Here are some examples of sentence stress where the words underlined are where the sentence stress is most important:
Peter lives in a super old building.
Have you seen his new boat?
Sarah has the book, not Faye.
Intonation
Intonation can be hard to learn but one you understand when the intonation is found in a sentence this will help you with English pronunciation. This can also be referred to as the high point of the sentence.
For example:
Doing housework is such a bore.
The high point of intonation in this sentence is the word ‘bore’ so this is the word which is pronounced with the most stress.
Silent letters
There are many silent letters in English pronunciation which have to be learnt. Here are some examples:
Silent ‘r’ For example in the words bird and mother
Silent ‘p’ For example in the words cupboard and raspberry
Silent ‘t’ For example in the words fasten, hasten, glisten, listen and fasten.
Silent ‘w’ For example in the words wrap, wrapper, wrapped, write, written, wrote,
wrist, wriggle and wreck.
Silent ‘k’ For example in the words knee, knife, knock, knot and know.
Silent ‘g’ For example in the words foreign, sign and design.
Silent ‘h’ For example in the words hour, honest, ghost and hour.
Diphthongs
Diphthongs is a sound when there are two vowels in a word and these vowels sound like one longer vowel sound for example in the word cake or bake. These sounds have to be learnt so that the pronunciation is correct.
Using our voices (voiced sounds)
There are some English sounds which are made using our own voices. It is important to learn which sounds are voiced and which are not. Examples of voiced sounds are joke, bathe and this. Unvoiced sounds include bath and cheese.
Minimal pairs
A minimal pair is a pair of words that vary by one sound only. Examples of these are:
Sit and seat
Desk and disk
Dot and dote
Not and note
Fan and van
The pronunciation of these minimal pairs needs to be learnt.
Homophones
These are words that sound the same but are spelt differently and have different meanings. Here are some examples of homophones:
For/four
He slept for six hours.
They have four children.
Heard/herd
I heard the loud noise.
There is a herd of cows on the farm.
Dear/deer
Dear Sir or Madam
Deer live in hilly areas.
Fair/fare
She has fair hair.
The train fare costs £15.
Where/wear
Where are you going?
What are you going to wear?
Guessed/guest
They guessed the correct answer to the question.
50 guests are invited to the party.
Use a phonemic chart to help you learn English pronunciation well. Record yourself speaking and then play the recording back listening to how well you spoke and then re-record the words to help improve your spoken English. Use a mirror to help with English pronunciation. With regular English speaking practise your pronunciation will improve and you will be able to speak well with native English speakers.
