Hello, and welcome back to another Star Pronunciation quick tip
In this tip today I'm going to give you a few
helpful hints on how to pronounce and spell
words clearly over the phone. Over the years I've had many clients come to me
and say
Ough - I hate speaking on the phone. I just get so nervous and I don't like spelling
things over the phone because it always ends up in confusion
So they avoid spelling things like their name or their email address prefering
to use email instead
so let's talk today about how you can confidently and clearly spell things
over the phone
My first tip is to choose
a short email address. I often come across people who have these long email
addresses that are very difficult and time consuming to spell over the phone
So choose one that's
short and easy to spell. For example:
if my name was Mary Chen, I would choose
an email address like "contactmc"
@ gmail
Or, contact (the word "contact") MChen
@ gmail - okay? Or I might choose an email address like
emailmc @ gmail dot com
So, choose something that is short
and easy to spell. My next tip is that some
letters in English sound exactly the same
when they're spelled over the phone. For example:
"M" "N" Now, if I do this,
"M" "N" it sounds the same
It's nothing to do with your accent. It's just the way sounds are
And it's also the way that sounds are perceived
coming through the phone line. So, native speakers
usually will say "M" for mother
or "N" for Nancy. We usually use these prompt words
because those sounds - those letters a very difficult
to catch over the phone. The other letters that you should do this for
are the letters "S" and "F"
They also sound similar "S" "F"
Very easily confused. You should say:
"S" for Sam..."F" for France
or something like that
Now, I actually recommend that people use prompt words
for all the letters. While it may feel like it takes a little bit longer
its actually quicker because the person will
definitely catch the letter that you mean. So let's go through an example
Yes I'll give you my email address
Okay - so it's:
The word "contact" then "M" for mother
"C" for Charlie
@ gmail dot com I'll just repeat that to you
contact...c-o-n-t-a-c-t
"M" for mother, "C" for Charlie
@ gmail dot com
O.k., great - thanks.
Another thing to be careful of is the vowel sound "A"
This vowel is a double vowel
It has two positions
"A"
Can you hear the two positions?
"A"
Now, this affects the letter "a". Often I hear people say
"eh" This sounds to us a bit like
"E". So that can be confusing. You need to make sure that your
"A" vowel is nice and clear. This affects other letters as well
like "H"
It's not
"itch" It's "H"
"J"
"K"
O.k.? So make sure you're not saying
Nice
double vowels there "A" "J"
"K"
Now, to help you with this and give you more practice
I'm going to give you access to one of our Star Pronunciation course
bonus lessons. In a Star Pronunciation course
you will have weekly course lessons which go for about 45 minutes
to an hour. In addition to these lessons you have access to over 23
bonus lessons. And these are shorter lessons
which gives you more practice on things that non-native speakers find difficult
So I'd like to give you access to
our lesson on spelling things on the phone
this lesson also has a practice audio file
and notes. So when you click on the link below
remember to access the audio file
to practice from your phone and also the notes on the lesson as well
Okay - I hope you find it helpful. I'll see you soon. Good luck!