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Conflicting English Alphabet sounds
A guide to some tricky sounds in English
Pronunciation Conflict
• For most of English learners, it is always concerning to sound natural when speaking to native speakers. Many ask themselves the reason why it is so difficult to speak English without an accent, which comes from the influence of your native language.
• In truth, the first step to speak a new language should always be learning individual pronunciation of the basic sounds to be able to eliminate the first language influence.
B vs. V • One of the most common phonetic
mistakes we encountered is the confusion between the B and V sounds.
• In American English there is a distinct difference in the fact that the /b/ is an abrupt sound, while the /v/ is a friction, or vibrating sound.
• Mispronunciation may cause a disruption in the flow of conversation. Mispronounced words may change the meaning of a word of distort the message.
/b/ ≠ /v/
Voice – Boys
Vote – Boat
Vase – Base
Vein – Bane
Valet – Ballet
Van – Ban
Vet – Bet
Ch vs. Sho These two letters create confusion to
many as to whether the “CH” sound is either a /ch/ sound as in “Children” or an /sh/ sound as in “Show”.
o Why is this happening? The reason may be that the letter C in different languages has two phonetic sounds, /s/ and /k/.
o This may account for why the C is often mistaken with the S sound in /ch/ thus resulting in the mispronunciation.
/ch/ ≠ /sh/
Chair – Share
Cheat –
Sheet
Chip – Ship
Batch – Bash
Catch – Cash
Ditch – Dish
Witch – Wish
E vs. I• These next two letters are
notorious for causing a slew of phonetic mispronunciations because the letter “E“in English is called /ee/ and in other languages the letter “I” is also called /ee/ .
• The fact that both the letter “E” and “I” are vowel sounds and the amount of words in which these two letters appear are countless results in constant mispronunciations and an apparent accent to the end listener.
/i:/ ≠ /I/
Feet – Fit
Eat – It
Keen - King
Sit - Seat
Heat – Hit
Feast – Fist
Sleep – Slip
Sheep - Ship
The Letter H
• The next letter in question is our friend the letter H. In some Alphabets it makes no sound at all, while in English it usually has the distinct aspiration sound of /ha/.
• In standard American English the H sound in grammatical words is generally NOT pronounced when it follows a consonant in the middle of a sentence: “Please get him a paper.”
• However, the H sound is pronounced when the word is stressed: “Officer, that’s him.”
• Hotel• Speak• Small
• Adhere• Human• Helium
H is silent in some words of Romance origin:
• Initially in heir, honest, honour, hour; for American English usually also herb, and sometimes homage.
• For some speakers, also in an initial unstressed syllable, as "an historic occasion"; to retain the "an" and pronounce the H may be considered affected.
The TH• The TH sound both voiced and voiceless
uses different mechanics to be produced and with different phonetic symbols.
• When it is voiced the TH sound is represented with /ð/ as in the word mother. To produce this sound the vocal chords must vibrate.
• The other sound of TH is the voiceless sound, represented with /θ/ and is generated by placing the tongue between the teeth, as we do with the Spanish Z in words like: zapato, arroz.
o Mispronunciation conflicts when the “H” piece is assumed as soundless.o “They” becomes “Day”, “That” becomes
“Dat”
/θ/ ≠ /t/
Fourth – Fort
Math – Mat
Both – Boat
Eighth – Ate
Tenth – Tent
/ð/ ≠ /θ/
Father - Both
Mother - Earth
Other - North
Than - Nothing
That - South
The J vs. Y• The English phonetic sound of the
letter J is usually associated with the Spanish sound of the letter Y. Examples:
▫ “Yellow” becomes “Jello”, “Year” is “Jear”
▫ The letter J in Spanish represents the sound of the previously mentioned letter H in English which again in Spanish is silent.
• Oddly enough via phonetic observation, the bilingual Spanish speaker does not usually change the J sound in a word for an English H, instead they use the English J sound for both English words with J and Y.
/j/ ≠ /Y/
John – Young
Major –
Mayor
Jam - Yam
Pager - Payer
Jack – Yak
Gel - Yell
The Letters S and Z
/z/ ≠ /s/
BUZZ
LAZY
ZOOM
ZONE
BLAZE
GIZMO
SIZZLES
SHOWBIZ
BAPTIZED
• The other confusion that tend to occur is with the mispronunciation of the letter Z pronounced as S.
• This happens because the Z sound has been left unused in many Spanish speaking countries, remaining only in some academic levels and in Spain where even the letter C produces the Z sound as well.
• This causes that English learners pronounce words incorrectly.
▫ “Zero” becomes “Sero”. “Brazil” becomes “Brasil”
Th
an
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keep
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Exploring your potential and taking advantage of the present effort depends mostly on your decision of achieving the dream of being a proficient speaker, but it also takes hard work and commitment.
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