How to Pronounce ALL ENGLISH Sounds American English Lesson
Hi, I’m Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.
Are you ready to practice all the sounds in
English?
Let’s do it.
Are you ready to exercise your pronunciation
muscles?
I hope so, because today we’re gonna go through
all 44 sounds of English.
There’s a little bit of controversy about
how many sounds are actually in English, but
let’s just stick with the standard 44 and
practice together.
This is what I suggest.
I want you to listen to what I’m saying, but
also I want you to pay attention to my lips,
my tongue, my teeth, my facial muscles, because
I want you to try to imitate that as best
as you can.
Do you think that just listening to my pronunciation
is gonna help your pronunciation?
Not really.
You need to speak out loud, so I challenge
you to repeat with me and try to speak during
this lesson.
That’s gonna be the best way for you to improve.
Are you ready?
Let’s go.
Five short vowel sounds.
Short A, a, a, apple, after, a, e, e, every,
pen, e, i, i, interest, busy, English.
Do you notice that some of these words don’t
have an I that makes that short I sound?
Watch out for those words because English
isn’t always consistent, but the sound “i”
is there.
A, a, October, water, ah.
U, u, under, fun, u.
Let’s go into six long vowel sounds.
A, A, make, flavor, A. E, E, feet, evening,
E. I, I, lie, night, I. O, O, over, open,
O. U, U, unique, rescue, U. Ooh, ooh, flu,
flu, group, ooh.
Let’s go into 18 consonant sounds.
Like we saw before with those short vowel
sounds, sometimes the consonant sounds are
not represented by the letter that you think.
So, just watch out for that different color
over here so that you can see that the sound
is represented by those letters.
B, b, bat, bear, bubbles, b.
C, c, care, kindness, c.
D, d, dad, different, better.
What’s happening here with these two Ts?
They’re changing to a D sound in American
English.
Often when there’s a T surrounded by vowels,
those Ts will change to Ds.
Let’s practice that one more time.
Better, better.
F, F, fan, phone, often, enough, F. G, g,
get, guest, egg, g. H, h, hat, happy, who.
J, j, jewelry, giraffe, edge, j.
L, L, life, love, laughter, L. Sometimes you
see that motto on some girly signs.
Life, love, laughter.
M, M, map, summer, some, M.
N, N, funny, nose, note.
Listen to what happens when I hold my nose
and try to say an N. Do you think it’s possible?
Why don’t you try with me?
It’s almost impossible to say an N, so make
sure that there’s a slightly nasal sound.
Your nose is important to say N, N.
P, p, pig, please, flip, p.
R, r, run, carrot, r.
S, s, sun, circle, pace, course, s.
T, t, top, watched.
What about the word sweater?
There is a T, but like we talked about in
American English that T is gonna change to
a D, like the word better.
Sweater, not a T.
V, v, Vanessa, five, of, V. W, w, went, quick,
why, w.
Y, y, yellow, yes, yay, y. Z, z, zip, scissors,
his, z.
Let’s go into seven diagraphs.
Ch, ch, touch, chin, ch.
Sh, sh, ship, shape, sh.
Do you know what ship shape means?
It means clean and tidy.
My house is ship shape.
Sh, sh.
Th, th, thin, Thursday, th.
Th, Th, this, that, these, those, th.
Wh, wh, whip, when.
Personally, I don’t say this.
This is not commonly used, but it’s one of
the 44 sounds.
Sometimes some people will pronounce the W
and the H when they say when, whip.
This is quite uncommon, but I wanted to include
this in case you hear it.
Personally I don’t really recommend using
it, but you might hear this.
Ng, ng.
Make sure you use your nose.
Ng, ng, sing, bring, going, ng.
Nk, nk, sink, blink, crank, nk.
Now let’s go onto three R controlled vowels.
Er, er, bird, turn, her, er.
Ar, ar, park, dark, ar.
Or, or, fork, pork, or.
And finally, let’s go onto some special sounds
and diphthongs.
Oi, oi, boy, toy.
This is a diphthong, which means it’s a vowel
that slides into another sound.
We practiced that with the word boy.
Do you see how my lips are changing?
Boy.
Boy.
Great.
We can do that with toy.
Toy.
Ow, ow, owl, ouch, ow.
Oo, oo, cool, pool, oo.
Aw, aw, jaw, haul, aw.
Zh, zh, television, zh.
How did you do?
Did you exercise your pronunciation muscles?
Now I have a question for you.
I want to know in the comments which sound
was the most difficult for you.
If you want to take it to the next level,
include in your comment a couple words that
use that sound so that you can practice that.
Thank you so much for learning English with
me and I’ll see you again next Friday for
a new lesson here on my YouTube channel.
Bye.
The next step is to download my free e-book,
Five Steps to Becoming a Confident English
Speaker.
You’ll learn what you need to do to speak
confidently and fluently.
Don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel
for more free lessons.
Thanks so much.
Bye.