now i'm sure you're watching this video
because
you want to sound better when you speak
english right
well you're in the right place i'm emma
from um english and in this lesson today
i'm going to show you how to sound more
like a native english speaker
[Music]
you might think that sounding like a
native speaker in a foreign language is
almost impossible sometimes it feels
like that right
you can study grammar and vocabulary you
can work
really really hard on prepositions and
adjectives and verb tenses
and after all of that hard work it's
really really frustrating when it's your
pronunciation that lets you down
right but the ultimate goal of learning
another language is
communication right to be able to
communicate a message
to someone else and your pronunciation
is the first impression that another
person gets when they hear your english
now incredibly good pronunciation can
actually raise the level of your english
can bring it up mistakes are easier to
overlook or ignore
if you sound good if the listener can
understand the words that you're saying
and the message still gets across but
you know what that means right
poor pronunciation can actually bring
the level of your english down
because even if you're speaking perfect
english grammar
your english level seems to be lower
because the listener can't understand
what you're saying
what is the point of perfect grammar
then right
improving your pronunciation will help
people to understand you
and make communicating in english so
much easier
to do it it is going to take some
practice
quite a bit of it but with some
dedication
some helpful tips and space to practice
i'm confident that you're going to be
able to do it you'll improve
your pronunciation i'll give you the
helpful tips
and the space to do it but you have to
bring
the dedication you are the one who has
to
keep coming back completing the
challenges that i set for homework in
every lesson right
keep coming back and keep practicing in
fact
prove that you are a dedicated student
of mine and subscribe to the
english channel right now so at the very
least i know that you'll be back here to
practice
with me every week right and if you're
already a subscriber
let me know in the comments and say hi
i'm here
today to give you the tools that you
need to sound
better in english and i've got five tips
that i want to share with you
but before we get into the lesson i just
want to take a quick moment
to thank the sponsor of today's class my
amazing friends at lingoda
lingoda is an online language school you
might have heard of them
just like any other regular language
school they have qualified
native teachers and a huge list of
different classes
more than a thousand i think and the
classes
relate to all of the different english
skills that you need to develop
reading writing listening speaking
they even have specialties like business
english
but instead of having to travel and
physically attend classes at a time when
the school decides they're going to put
on a class
well with lingoda everything happens
online
like virtual classes at any time of day
or night so you decide when it suits you
to study and practice english now
there's two things
that i love about lingoda and why i
think you should check them out
the first one is the size of their group
classes
they're small so instead of being in a
room full of people
you're going to be getting personal
attention
and you're always going to have a chance
to practice
this is super important when you're
developing your english skills
but particularly your speaking skills
and your pronunciation
especially if you want to do it as
quickly as possible
the other reason why i love lingoda is
that they genuinely care about their
students
like at every step along the way
they're constantly introducing new
features to their platform
and thinking about how to help their
students to enjoy the experience
and improve their skills but also do it
at an affordable price
which is something that i really like
i've been taking spanish classes with
lingoda this year
i think they also have german and french
classes too
but as soon as i signed up i got a free
private lesson for an hour with a
qualified
native spanish teacher mercedes she was
awesome she gave me some hints on how to
use the platform and
recommended a few different classes that
i should sign up for so it was a great
way to start
so guys if you're thinking about taking
your english to the next level this year
then have a look at lingoda's classes
they've even offered
english students a 50 or a 50 euro
discount
when they first purchase just make sure
that you use the link in the description
below
and add my name emma
as the voucher code to get the discount
at the checkout
okay i have to stop talking about
lingoda now
i've got to get back to the lesson but
honestly
i can't recommend them more go and try
them out and let me know what you think
all right back to the five tips
to help you sound better when you speak
english
now tip number one
choose your accent which english accent
do you want
now if you know the answer to this
question already
awesome tell me in the comments what's
the accent that you want
but if you don't have an answer to this
question right now
that's okay we're gonna work on it
because normally
i would tell you that it doesn't matter
what english accent you use
usually i'd say it's more important
that you communicate clearly your accent
doesn't matter but
if you want to improve your
pronunciation as
quickly and as efficiently as possible
at least have an idea about how you want
to sound
know what your goal is that you're
working towards do you want an american
accent
or a british one do you want to sound
like me
my accent's australian so between those
accents
there's actually quite a few different
pronunciation rules
some sounds and particularly vowel
sounds
they're actually quite different when
you compare these accents right so it
gets a little confusing if you're trying
to
learn how to speak clearly
some consonants and linking sounds even
syllable stress can be different between
accents
now if you're not sure exactly what
linking sounds
are or syllable stress well don't go
anywhere
because i'm going to talk about them a
little later in this lesson
now it really doesn't matter what accent
you choose
but knowing the accent that you're
working towards will make things
just a little less complicated while you
practice your pronunciation
to improve how you sound you need to be
able to
hear the difference between all of these
different sounds first right
if you can hear the difference then
you can practice it right and you can
imitate it
so i want you to pick an accent if you
like my accent that's great
if you don't well then you're crazy
just kidding if you want a different
accent to mine
then you'll need to find someone with
the accent that you want
listen carefully to the sounds that they
make
spend some time each week training and
practicing
your pronunciation with that person
there are just so many different
resources available to you
online in the accent that you want to
practice
right videos songs lessons
just focus on the sounds that you need
to hear
and just to be clear this tip this one
here
is specifically for sounding better in
english
for improving your pronunciation
listening to a mix of accents
is an absolute must you can't just
listen to one person or one teacher
and then expect to go out in the world
and understand everyone
right i hope that's clear for
pronunciation practice
focus on the accent that you want to
create for yourself
but for all other english skills make
sure you use a range of different
teachers and different accents and
different videos and resources
all right let's keep going with the
lesson tip number two
is vowel sounds now correct
vowel pronunciation is really important
in english
saying the wrong sound can completely
change the meaning of the word
can you pronounce this word
that was a trick question actually it's
kind of impossible because you really
need to have a vowel sound in there
otherwise it can't get pronounced all
right let's try
it now so how would you pronounce this
word
would you say heart
or would you say hot
it's just one tiny little vowel
isn't it but the two accents
pronounce it slightly differently and
if you use a different vowel sound
altogether maybe you make a mistake
it could come out sounding like hat
or hut or hit
or heart or
hurt hate vowels are
torturous in english pronunciation
aren't they but there's nothing that you
can do about it
put your frustration to the side push it
over there
and focus on the training that you need
to do to make
the right sounds in your speech so when
you're
listening to someone speaking english
pay close
attention really close attention to the
vowel sounds
in fact slow down this video if you need
to focus
on some of the sounds that i'm making
did you know that you can do that
just click the settings icon below and
click the speed
and reduce it then try to imitate
or copy me or whoever you're listening
to
that's one of the best ways to check and
improve
your vowel pronunciation if you've
practiced with my imitation lessons
before
well you already know how simple it is
to practice your pronunciation at home
improving your vowels is a huge step
towards sounding better in english
tip number three the schwa bless you
no i wasn't sneezing
the schwa is the name for the most
common
vowel sound in the english language
that's the schwa the schwa is the
laziest sound
and it shows up everywhere in english it
even shows up in words that
don't even have a vowel and still
there's the schwa sound there
and english speakers tend to get very
lazy
when we speak we reduce our sounds down
and so
our sentences fill up with this lazy
sound take a look at this sentence
now if you look up each of these words
in a dictionary
well then you'll see that they should be
pronounced
like this do
you want
a cup
of water but you're more likely to hear
a native english speaker say something
like
do you want a cup of water do you want a
cup of water
now notice how this sentence is suddenly
full of schwa sounds when it's spoken at
natural speed
like i said the schwa pops up everywhere
now if you've never heard of the schwa
before
if you're not sure what reduced forms
are and other things i've been talking
about
don't worry this video right here will
explain
everything that you need to know about
this
important and very common english sound
okay so there's two more tips to keep
going with right
to improve your pronunciation number
four
syllable stress now stress is really
important in
english i'm not talking about stress
that you feel before
a big exam when you can't sleep and you
get really nervous
i'm talking about how some syllables in
english
are stronger than others
and that means you pronounce one
syllable more clearly
in a louder in a stronger way with a
higher pitch
okay and this can be quite challenging
if your native language
doesn't have any stress you're not used
to it right some languages have
very simple rules about where and when
to stress a syllable right it's so easy
in spanish
you probably already know that english
is not a flat language
right there's rises and falls and rhythm
in the way that we speak and stress can
actually
change the meaning of a sentence so
how do you know which syllable to stress
learning to recognize stress
in the phonemic script is a really good
place to start
so every time you look up a word you'll
see this stress
symbol before the syllable that's
stressed
and it will signal it will tell you
which
syllable needs to be stronger louder
and higher in pitch
except photography
television now if you want to learn more
about
syllable stress in words then check out
this lesson
right here and guess what again
imitating native speakers is a really
great way to practice the correct
syllable stress in a word
and practicing the correct accent is
important here because
sometimes syllable stress between
accents
changes a little so you really want to
make sure that you are
speaking with the accent that you want
to use
number five the last one linking sounds
have you ever heard a native english
speaker say
hello what are
you doing later
probably not that'd be nice because it's
very easy to understand
but not realistic and if you're trying
to sound
more fluent and more natural in english
then you really should try to avoid
that type of speech as well you need to
learn how to link
words together in english and there are
some simple rules to help you do that
you just need to learn
which words can link together and
which linking sounds are commonly used
in english
let me show you some examples he
has an apple he has an apple
now can you hear how all of those words
link together that's the linking that
i'm talking about
i didn't do it do it
do it this is an extra linking
sound one that we've added to help
those words roll out of our mouths
really easily
my next lesson here on the english
channel will help you with this
i'll take you on an adventure to learn
more about the linking sounds in english
just make sure that you're a subscriber
so that you know when that lesson comes
out
practicing linking sounds is actually
really simple
once you know the rules you can practice
just simply by reading out loud
you can look for the clues that will
help you to link words together
and you'll make that a habit it will
become easier and easier each time you
do it
that's right you're done you've got
through the five
tips that i have for you today now i
just want to review them quickly with
you so that you keep them
top of mind when you're practicing your
pronunciation and you
are sounding awesome when you're using
english so say them with me
choose your accent practice vowel
sounds in particular really understand
the schwa
and how it's used use syllable stress
correctly
and learn a little more about linking
sounds
you got it incorporate those five
tips into your pronunciation practice
and i know
you're gonna start sounding more natural
when you use english
now don't forget that next week's lesson
is going to focus on linking sounds so
make sure you come back
and join me next week same time same
place
i really hope this lesson was useful for
you and if you have
any questions or ideas or suggestions
pop them in the comments below now let's
go practice
linking sounds and natural english
pronunciation
right here in my can you say it series
or we can also practice together in this
imitation lesson right here see you in
there