English pronunciation made simple audio

English pronunciation made simple audio

Welcome to #GOALS English.

I teach English as a foreign language and American accent coaching.

Apr 19 All of the Sounds of American English. Made Simple!

Welcome English Learners!

If you have come to this page looking for some help with your American English pronunciation, you are in the right place. I highly suggest ALL English learners who want to improve their pronunciation and fluency (beginners, intermediate, AND advanced English speakers) start with the basic phonemes, that is the basic sounds, that make up the English language.

Even my most fluent and talented English students have found they sometimes mispronounce some of these sounds, especially when it comes to the vowels.

Because of that, I wanted to make a comprehensive video that gives and overview of the main sounds you will need to master in order to improve your English speaking skills.

In this free English video lesson, I will teach you all of the sounds you will need to learn to continue to improve your American accent and start speaking English more fluently and clearly.

Once you become familiar with the sounds of English, then the real work begins and you continue to practice and master each sound in context.

It’s one thing to understand the sounds on an intellectual level, but it’s a different difficulty level entirely to be able to fully integrate what you’ve learned into your every day speech in English. That’s why in all my lessons I provide more than just an explanation of the sounds, but I also always provide example words and practice sentences and paragraphs.

I am always here if you have any questions so feel free to email me at: monica@goalsenglish.com.

Best of luck on your English learning journey.

Keep practicing and you’ll reach your English goals!

English Pronunciation Made Easy: 3 Native Secrets to Understanding and Pronouncing the “T” Sound (with Audio)

Do you have problems understanding native speakers?

Could you use a little help from an experienced American teacher?

Give me 10 minutes and you will learn 3 simple rules that will drastically improve your ability to understand native speakers. Listening along will really help.

Listen and Follow Text Below

First, let’s test your listening with a short paragraph filled with variations of the “T” sound. I’m going to read through the words quickly at first, pronouncing the words naturally, and then a second time slower, with standard textbook pronunciation. There are 41 examples of these three T sounds in this paragraph. I want you to test your listening comprehension the first time we go through it (no text).

Test Your Listening- NO TEXT

Listen and Follow Text Below

How did that go? If you understood the entire paragraph the first time, congratulations! Maybe a different lesson on pronunciation would be a better use of your time (unless you’re curious about the rules behind it). If you didn’t understand 100%, keep reading (and listening). This is an important lesson, and your English will never be the same.

Now I’m going to read the same paragraph two times. First, my natural American pronunciation (again), and second with the “standard” textbook pronunciation. Please read and listen both times. Just so you know, this doesn’t feel natural, so forgive me if this doesn’t flow that well (*The Second Time).

Listen and Follow Text Below (Normal Speed)

Listen and Follow Text Below (Slow, Full T Sounds)

I thought it’d be better to write it out in a paragraph because we tend to not understand a lot of things listening to it. Before we talk about anything, we all know that it is fun learning Real Life English, on the internet with an international site and community that integrates English into your life and lets you learn interesting things along the way to inspire and motivate you to try your best. It’s a really interesting way to learn in today’s world, and if you want to get ahead with your English and make it a convenient part of your life, I can’t imagine a better way to learn.

Why People Don’t Understand the “T” Sound

Listen and Follow Text Below

The “T” sound is everywhere in its many forms, and whether people know it or not, it’s one of the most common pronunciation and listening comprehension difficulties for English learners around the world.

As an American, non-natives generally don’t understand me when I speak at my normal speed (even a lot of advanced students). I normally have to slow down for people to understand me.

The 3 variations of the “T” sound that we’ll talk about today are a very important reason why. I’ve helped several of my students learn this lesson, and today I’m going to show you how it’s done.

I’m also including some important videos that can deepen your understaning. Let’s do this! Here are the “3 Most Confusing ‘T’ Sound Rules Explained.”

1. The Omission of the “T” sound in “INT” Words

Listen and Follow Text Below

This rule is pretty simple once you understand it, and it will be a big help.

A lot of “INT” words in the English language totally omit the “T” sound. Some of the more common “INT” words that I pronounce with this sound are words that have INTER in them. For example, “internet” is pronounced “innernet,” and international “innernational.”

This is a particularly important sound because a lot of languages, especially romance languages have cognates that are hard to understand.

Exceptions: Internal, Intensify, Integrity, interject, Intuitive

An extremely common (but more complicated) example of this is the words “want to,” which are pronounced “wanna.” This happens with “going to” as well, which becomes “gonna.” Both of these are often considered a colloquial contraction (or a sound morph).

Going to = Gonna

Note: Native speakers often eat/omit the “G” in “going,” so when we run the words together in speech it becomes the same “goin’to,” and like “wanto,” the “nt” becomes a “nna” sound.

Let’s end by highlighting the rule in this paragraph (yes, we will read it again!)

Listen and Follow Text Below

We all know that it is fun learning Real Life English, on the internet with an international site and community that integrates English into your life and lets you learn interesting things along the way to inspire and motivate you to try your best. It’s a really interesting way to learn in today’s world, and if you want to get ahead with your English and make it a convenient part of your life, I can’t imagine a better way to learn.

2. The “Stop T” Sound

Listen and Follow Text Below

When a word ends in “T,” the pronunciation of the final “T” sound is often inaudible, or cut off. The back of the throat cuts it off with a slight glottal T.

Hat, What, Fat, Pete, that, feet

Can’t, Doesn’t, Shouldn’t, Won’t (All “n’t” Contractions)

Let’s go through that paragraph again and illustrate the examples. I have to speak slower on this sound so I don’t make the American D sound (rule #3):

Listen and Follow Text Below

Before we talk about anything, we all know that it is fun learning Real Life English, on the internet with an international site and community that integrates English into your life and lets you learn interesting things along the way to inspire and motivate you to try your best. It’s a really interesting way to learn in today’s world, and if you want to get ahead with your English and make it a convenient part of your life, I can’t imagine a better way to learn.

Listen and Follow Text Below

This one is a surprise to most people, and although it’s simple to understand and listen for, it may be the most difficult of all of these to pronounce. Most English learners actually have to learn to make a new sound in their throat.

One thing to keep in mind, as we’ll talk about below (in #3, the “American ‘T’” Sound) is that when this word is followed by another word that ends with a vowel (i.e. Cat and Dog), then the “T” of cat becomes a “D” (“Cad an’ Dog”).

3. The American “T” sound (also known as “Tap” or “Flap T”)

Listen and Follow Text Below

Let’s start with a little text to illustrate this point:

I thought it’d be better to write it out in a paragraph because we tend to not understand a lot of things listening to it. Before we talk about anything, we all know that it is fun learning Real Life English on the internet with an international site and community that integrates English into your life and lets you learn interesting things along the way to inspire and motivate you to try your best. It’s a really interesting way to learn in today’s world, and if you want to get ahead with your English and make it a convenient part of your life, I can’t imagine a better way to learn.

In American English (as well as Canadian, and lot of other accents) whenever you have a “t” sound in between two vowel sounds, the T becomes a soft “d.” Observe the following words. Lets look at a few examples. Vowels sounds in red, the “Flap T” sound is underlined.

Better, Later, Auto, Peter, Totally, British

The first important thing to keep in mind is that the letter doesn’t necessarily need to be a vowel. Here are a few words that employ the the same rule as above, but while they aren’t spelled with vowels on both sides, they employ the vowel sound on both sides.

Daughter, Seattle, Beatles

Even though the “T” in daughter isn’t surrounded by vowel letters (A,E,I,O,U), it employs the American D/Flap T sound (and sometimes British). Because the “gh” is silent, the “t” is still the “au” for a vowel sound,(“dah-der”). The same is true for “Seattle” and “Beatle,” as the “L” in many “le” words oftentimes carries the “ul.”

Remember, it’s not the spelling the determines the pronunciation, but the sound. The word “Pete”, for example, has a hard “T” sound, but if you add an “r” to say “Peter,” the “T” becomes an American “D.”

The second important thing to note is that this same rule applies with words we run together. The best way to illustrate this is with an example.

If I say the word cat alone, the “T” does not acquire a “D” sound, but if I say “Cat AND Dog,” the pronunciation becomes “Cad-an-dog.” This happens all the time.

Cat and Dog = “Cad-an-dog”

Fat and Tall = “Fad-an-tall”

The final variation of the “flap T” sound is that the above tendency (with separate words like “cad-an-dog”) also happens with words that end with an “n” sound. As mentioned above, Americans regularly eat/omit the final “G” on “ing” ending words, and with a lot of other words that end with an “n.”

For example “I’m working tomorrow” is often pronounced “I’m workin’ domorrow” in American English.

I’m working Tomorrow = “I’m workin’ da-morrow”

I’m going to college next year = “I’m goin’ da college next year”

Variations: Neglect our, R Sound (better to), “Inda-the Wild”

How to Make These Sounds a Permanent Part of Your English

Listen and Follow Text Below

Even though the great majority of English schools don’t teach this, it’s very clear that these sounds permeate the English language, and even more in American English.

A lot of grammarticians say that some of these sounds are not correct English, but that’s complete nonsense. Well, if that’s true, then almost everything you hear in songs, movies, and TV is incorrect English.

So, how much of this should you learn? If you’re serious about your English fluency, it is absolutely essential for you to listen and understand.

First of all, learning to understand these sounds will make a huge impact on your listening comprehension.

Do you need to pronounce these sounds in English? Not exactly, but it would definitely help your fluency.

To pronounce the “T” sound phonetically with these words is correct, and people will understand. I tell my students that the first and most important thing is to listen and understand. When you open your ears to these sounds, you will start to understand a lot more, and this tends to naturally influence your pronunciation.

But, if you want to play around with pronunciation and learn to imitate native speakers, this will probably facilitate a higher level of fluency and even impress native speakers.

If you want to learn more about Powerful Native Pronunciation Secrets, we have a few simple and easy to understand videos that condense the very best of Real Life English’s methodology into a simple and easy to digest format.

English pronunciation made simple audio

Sounds Pronunciation App

Sounds Pronunciation App

The ultimate mobile English pronunciation aid for students and teachers. Based on the best-selling Macmillan title Sound Foundations by Adrian Underhill, Sounds helps you study, practise and play with pronunciation wherever you are.

Available on Apple iOS (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch) and Android devices.

INTERACTIVE PHONEMIC CHART
The chart shows all the sounds of English, divided into three sections: vowels, diphthongs (double vowels) and consonants. You can tap on a symbol to hear the sound, or tap and hold to hear the sound plus an example word.

VOCABULARY WORDLIST
The wordlist included with the app contains around 650 items of vocabulary (in both British and American English), with their phonemic transcriptions and audio recordings. Scroll through the list to see all of the words, then tap on a word to hear it. Record your own pronunciation to help you improve and overcome problems with sounds.

BUY STRAIGHTFORWARD WORDLISTS
If you are you studying English using Straightforward and want to practise the vocabulary from your course you can purchase additional wordlists directly inside the app. You will see a list of all the available levels. Once you have the wordlist you can use all the functionality of the app with your Straightforward vocabulary!

QUIZZES
We know that learning should be fun, and that’s why we’ve included the different quiz modes in Sounds. These are perfect for when you have a spare five minutes in your day.

In Sounds you’ll also find three different practice modes. Just like in the quizzes, you can choose to focus on reading, listening or writing. Remember, with Quizzes you can work with the vocabulary from your level of Straightforward, once you purchase the relevant wordlist in the app.

Improve English Pronunciation with Music: 5 Fantastic Songs

Music is a universal language.

It’s so universal, it can help you learn actual languages!

Let’s see how singing in English can help your pronunciation.

Contents

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

Why is Pronunciation So Important for English Learners?

First, having poor pronunciation can make you feel a bit embarrassed or simply uncomfortable while you’re speaking English. You’ll find it difficult to participate in speaking activities, which may significantly hold you back. Students who are aware of having poor English pronunciation often find themselves less motivated to improve their language skills.

Second, even if you’ve mastered every grammatical rule of English and have a wide vocabulary, poor pronunciation can cause some dangerous misunderstandings.

I’ll never forget one summer vacation by the sea when I ran into a bit of conflict with my best friend. I said, “what a beautiful beach over there!” to which he instantly got angry and snapped back at me: “How dare you! That’s my sister you’re talking about.”

You see, because of my pronunciation, he thought I’d used an entirely different word (an offensive English word that rhymes with “witch…”) to talk about his sister!

Finally, if your motivation to learn English is to advance in your professional career, you might want to know that cases of accent or language discrimination on the basis of poor pronunciation aren’t rare. This remains a significant problem that pronunciation practice can help you avoid.

For these reasons, taking the time to improve your pronunciation is more important today than ever. One of our favorite methods to do it—while having a lot of fun—is listening to songs in English.

So, I’ll end the scary road now and get on with ways you can improve your pronunciation with these songs.

How to Use Songs for Pronunciation Practice

First, listen to the song repeatedly. Remember that you need a lot of exposure to the language. And every time—even if it’s the first or the 100th time you listen to the song—your subconscious is learning and picking up a lot more than you think.

Remember that mega-hit (extremely popular song) “Somebody That I Used to Know?” You probably heard it hundreds of times on the radio or at bars and clubs. How much of that song can you sing along to without even thinking? Probably more than you think.

If you’re afraid to confuse the lyrics, most people won’t even notice, especially if it’s from a popular song. Don’t be afraid about making mistakes. Sing like nobody’s listening and if you end up confusing certain parts of the song, that’s okay. Enjoy it!

If you’re having a hard time remembering the lyrics, my favorite memorization trick is to take a picture of the lyrics and save it as my phone’s wallpaper. Think about it. How many times a day do you look at your phone?

As you get better and better, start looking up karaoke versions of English songs. These songs let you practice your pronunciation freely since the original vocals have been removed. You’ll also get some reading practice since the lyrics are provided in text. Try to record yourself and compare to the original!

5 Catchy Songs to Improve Your English Pronunciation

To make it easier and more enjoyable for you, we’ve divided these songs based on their level of difficulty so you can choose and listen to one that fits your needs and goals as an English learner.

You can also find songs (and other authentic content) ordered by difficulty on FluentU, with helpful learning tools.

FluentU takes authentic videos—like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks—and turns them into personalized language learning lessons.

You can try FluentU for free for 2 weeks. Click here to check out the website or download the iOS app or Android app.

Try FluentU for FREE!

“Do-Re-Mi” from “The Sound of Music” (Beginner)

If you’re a beginner, you might want to start with a song like this one. “Do-Re-Mi” is a show tune from the musical “The Sound of Music.” This is a song about the sounds of words, and since it’s designed with children in mind, every word is clearly enunciated.

Just take a look at some of the things we can learn by listening to this song. It teaches several musical sounds by linking them with English words you may recognize. As you sing along, pay particular attention to vowel sounds.

Doe: a deer, a female deer.
Ray: a drop of golden sun.
Me: a name I call myself (the objective first-person pronoun).
…
Sew: (the verb for) a needle pulling thread.
Tea: a drink with jam and bread.

Just like the song says, “when you know the notes to sing, you can sing most (almost) anything.”

I’d rephrase that statement to “when you know the sounds to say, you can say most anything!”

“Seasons of Love” from “Rent” (Beginner)

If you were ever in a choir or musical during your high school years, you might remember this classic song. I remember learning it in high school and having to enunciate every word so that we could be understood.

This song from the Broadway musical “Rent” is ideal for anyone struggling to pronounce numbers in English. The cast continuously sings the line, “Five hundred twenty-five thousand, six hundred minutes” (the number of minutes in a year).

Another reason this song is great to learn English is that the assorted vocabulary in the lyrics is quite simple and consistently repeated throughout the song. You don’t have too worry too much about unfamiliar words—you can just concentrate on pronunciation.

Five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes
Five hundred twenty five thousand moments, oh dear
Five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes
How do you measure, measure a year?

In daylights, in sunsets
In midnights, in cups of coffee
In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife
In five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes
How do you measure, a year in the life?

“The Bare Necessities” from “The Jungle Book” (Intermediate)

There’s nothing like a good old Disney song to improve your English pronunciation! They’re fun. There’s a plot to follow so you won’t get bored. Since nearly all of them are aimed toward children, the words are clear as a bell. Chances are, you know most of the words already, so you can focus on pronunciation rather than comprehension.

“The Bare Necessities,” written by Terry Gilkyson for the animated 1967 Disney film “The Jungle Book,” is an ideal tongue twister to practice several difficult sounds, rhyming words (such as paw/raw or bear/pear) and homophones (words that sound alike but have different meanings) such as bear/bare.

Have I given you a clue of all the things you can practice with these lyrics?

Now when you pick a pawpaw
Or a prickly pear
And you prick a raw paw
Well, next time beware
Don’t pick the prickly pear by the paw
When you pick a pear
Try to use the claw
But you don’t need to use the claw
When you pick a pair of the big pawpaw

“Ironic” by Alanis Morissette (Intermediate)

The pronunciations at the end of regular verbs in the past tense (e.g. ended, packed, died) often cause problems for non-native English speakers, because they can be pronounced in three different ways: (as “id,” as “t” or as “d”).

With plenty of regular and irregular verbs in the past tense, “Ironic” by Alanis Morissette is a great song to practice how to pronounce these difficult words.

Mr. Play It Safe was afraid to fly
He packed his suitcase and kissed his kids goodbye
He waited his whole damn life to take that flight
And as the plane crashed down he thought
“Well isn’t this nice…”
And isn’t it ironic… don’t you think?

“Word Crimes” by Weird Al (Advanced)

Set to the tune of “Blurred Lines” by Robin Thicke, this song is a catchy collection of cheerful jokes on the mistakes people make in written and spoken English.

However, what I like most about this song isn’t the grammar lessons, but the way you can learn to pronounce academic and linguistic terms like nomenclature quickly followed by a line with contractions and slang.

Okay, now here’s the deal… I’ll try to educate ya
Gonna familiarize you with the nomenclature
You’ll learn the definitions
Of nouns and prepositions
Literacy’s your mission

Finally, this song has plenty of lessons that are useful for advanced learners such as the fact that there’s no “x” in espresso, a word that’s often misspelled and mispronounced even by native speakers.

I’ll bet that if you can properly pronounce every word in this song, you’ll be speaking English better than most of the native speakers of the world!

Music offers a great and fun way to improve your pronunciation. Furthermore, simply exposing yourself to these songs in English will help you naturally acquire and incorporate these pronunciation aspects in your own speech.

Another reason for listening to songs to improve your pronunciation is that music can be an effective tool to lower your stress and anxiety toward speaking English. Singing can increase your confidence and your ability to pronounce words in English, which will make sure a very successful English learner.

But don’t forget the best part! You can now sing in English! Isn’t that cool?

What’s your favorite song for practicing English pronunciation? Let us know in the comments below.

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

7 English Pronunciation Apps to Speak Clear, Confident English in 2022

Have you ever discovered that you’ve been pronouncing a word incorrectly?

Everyone makes mistakes, and English pronunciation isn’t easy, so don’t worry about it. They’re a natural part of the language-learning process.

However, any English learner can achieve perfect English pronunciation with a little time, a little patience and perhaps the help of a few apps.

Contents

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Simple Ways to Improve English Pronunciation with Apps

Before we move on to the right apps, it might be useful to keep these tips and tricks in mind:

Speak Confidently with These 7 English Pronunciation Apps

There are several English pronunciation apps out there, which might make it difficult for you to choose the right one. I’ve made a list of seven powerful apps that you can browse through and pick from, based on your needs, goals and budget.

ELSA Speak: English Accent Coach (Android/iOS)

How cool would it be to have a private English tutor who points out all your pronunciation issues and patiently helps you improve your accent?

Well, there’s an app that lets you do just that. Focused on American English, ELSA Speak comes with speech recognition technology that’ll help you correctly pronounce common English words and phrases. Moreover, just as though you were talking to a real person, you’ll receive feedback on the right way to move your lips and tongue to get the sounds just right.

You can even create your own pronunciation curriculum by choosing certain challenges and topics, as well as tracking your progress.

FluentU (Android/iOS)

FluentU is a program that teaches English with videos that native English speakers actually watch like movie trailers, commercials and music videos. Not only do you get to see the language used naturally, but you also get to hear native pronunciations of every word.

Anywhere that you see a word, you’re able to check its definition, hear an audio pronunciation and see the word used in other videos. Whether you’re reading the transcript, browsing a key words list, checking your flashcards or even in the middle of a video, you can tap on a word to hear its pronunciation.

The program has other built-in tools to help you make sense of the authentic content you’re watching. There are video-enhanced flashcards, personalized quizzes, interactive subtitles and more ways to interact with the vocabulary and language.

Pronunroid – IPA pronunciation (Android)

I’ve already mentioned the IPA above, and if you’re interested in taking that route, then this is your go-to app. Through a series of fun guessing games, you’ll learn which spoken sounds are associated with which letters or symbols. Soon, you’ll be able to look at an unfamiliar word and have a pretty good guess of how it’s pronounced.

In addition to learning the IPA, this app also comes with a search feature that lets you look up the pronunciation of any word.

English Pronunciation (Android)

Many of us struggle with pronouncing certain words, while being perfectly fluent with others. There are particular vowel and consonant sounds that give us trouble all the time. If that sounds like you, English Pronunciation will be a great app to download.

With this app, you’ll be able to confidently pronounce different sounds in the correct way. First, you’ll receive detailed guidelines (with pictures) that show you how to move your tongue and jaw in the right way to produce a certain sound. You can also tap on words individually to learn their correct pronunciation, as well as get access to special videos that explain “phonetics” (the art of pronunciation) in a clear way.

Say It: English Pronunciation (Android/iOS)

This app has a unique learning technique that’s especially great for visual learners. If you’re not very confident about judging your pronunciation by listening to your recorded voice, then maybe looking at a visual representation of your voice might help.

A visual representation, you may ask? Allow me to explain. This app generates a picture of the sound wave created when you speak a word. All you have to do is compare the visual sound wave of your voice to the sound wave produced by a native speaker. Moreover, this app has the option of slowing down any recording. So if it’s a particularly long word such as “hypothetically” (I dare you to look up the pronunciation right now!), you can touch and drag on a difficult part, to slow it down and make it easier to learn.

Sounds: Pronunciation App (Android/iOS)

Note: As of January 2022, only the American English version of the app is available. In addition, since this app has changed hands, it is no longer the same quality and is missing some of the original features. Please be aware of this and read the reviews before you install it!

Original description: This is a fantastic app to have, as it includes pronunciation charts in both British and American English. Most of the above apps are geared towards either British or American English, but with this app you can shuffle between both, depending on your learning goals.

Plus, the premium version has pronunciation quizzes, special word lists, videos and some useful tips to help you become a fluent speaker.

Learn English Daily (Android)

This app promises to improve your listening and speaking skills at the same time. There are a lot of everyday conversations all featuring native speakers, which you can listen to and learn from. In addition to learning the right ways to pronounce different words, you’ll also learn useful vocabulary and work on your grammar. The app even provides access to an offline dictionary.

So if you’re looking for a good all-around app to help with learning English, but with a special focus on pronunciation, you’ve found the right one.

The only fool-proof way to improve your pronunciation is to practice speaking English as much as possible.

Yes, when you’re starting out you’ll make a lot of mistakes, and that can feel embarrassing. But the important thing is to learn from those mistakes. It’s the only way to improve.

The more you speak and the more you interact with other English speakers, the faster you’ll learn. So keep trying and don’t give up hope! Soon, you’ll sound like a native speaker.

Archita Mittra is a freelance writer, journalist, editor and educator. Feel free to check out her blog or contact her for freelancing/educational inquiries.

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)