- Most English as second language lessons
don't put enough focus on pronunciation,
and this is a huge part of being able
to express yourself and being able
to speak English with confidence.
There are various parts to pronunciation.
Things like intonation.
If the sentence goes up at the end
or if it goes down at the end.
There is stress, like the stress
of a specific syllable in a word,
or to stress a word within a sentence.
English speakers also link words together,
so for example, I wanted it.
"I wanted it" is I wanted it,
but you'll notice that these three words
are all linked together and they sound like one.
Then there's also relaxed pronunciation, too.
For example, "going to" equals "gonna"
but if you feel like your pronunciation
needs improving, a good place to start
is with the sounds of English.
The number of sounds in English varies depending
on the type of English that you are learning.
However, it's wise to learn the majority
of these sounds and then to be able to produce them.
Here is my method for this.
Know what to do with your mouth
so that you can make specific sounds.
So, know what to do with your teeth, your lips,
your tongue, so that you can produce those sounds.
Next, get feedback.
So, practice this and get feedback.
A good way to do this is to record your version
of the sound and compare it to the original,
and then you can make any changes you need to make.
And finally, get a lot of repetition to build muscle memory.
So, getting this repetition and repeating the sound
over and over again means that when you're speaking
at a later date you can produce this effortlessly.
I've got a couple of examples for you
in this lesson and a really good exercise too.
So, let's start with the /f/ sound.
Fffff, fffff.
To do this, your upper teeth touch
your bottom lip on the inside
and a small bit of air just comes out.
Additionally, this is unvoiced,
which means that your vocal chords don't vibrate.
Let's practice that a little bit now.
Feel free to pause this video if you need to,
but just repeat after me.
Ffff.
Fan.
Like I said before, recording your version
of this and then comparing it to the original
means that you can make any changes
and also be sure to watch what I do
with my mouth and look at yourself
in the mirror when you're doing this too.
The second sound I want to introduce is the /v/ sound.
Vvvvv, vvvvv.
To make this sound, you do the same
as you did with the /f/ sound,
so your upper teeth touch your bottom lip,
a small bit of air comes out,
but in this case your vocal chords vibrate.
So this is a voiced sound.
Vvvv.
Again, repeat after me.
Van.
This is an example of a minimal pair,
and this is where we have two sounds that are similar,
and practicing these sounds together
will help you dramatically because then
you can really notice the difference
and be able to produce that difference
when it comes to an actual conversation,
when it comes to you just speaking in English naturally.
I have a program that goes through
all of these consonant and vowel sounds
and I also give you ways to practice minimal pairs.
So, I go through all the sounds,
give you the audio so that you can get that repetition
and also I can give you feedback
on your version of these sounds.
Being able to produce the sounds of English will
dramatically improve your speaking,
and it's going to improve your comprehension too
because once you know how to make this sound,
you'll be better at listening to it too
and noticing when people use specific sounds.
And specially when it comes to minimal pairs.
But, like I said at the beginning, there are different
areas to pronunciation.
Things like intonation, rhythm, and stress.
But, I feel like the sounds is a really good place to start
and then, you can start putting things together
once you can produce the different sounds of English.
I want to hear from you now.
In English, which sound do you have difficulty producing?
So, which sound in English is difficult for you to say?
Leave your comments below and if you don't know
the terminology for this, you don't know the phonetic
alphabet, then feel free just to highlight a word
and tell me which part of this word is difficult for you.
And then, check out my program if you want this full
pronunciation tutorial and then a method that you can use
on a daily basis to improve your speaking, your grammar,
and your vocabulary.
Thank you for watching.
It's great to have you here.
Bye for now.
(electronic music)