Sounds American

The most common spelling for the /eɪ/ vowel is the letter 'A.' The opposite is not true because, in most English words, the letter 'A' represents the /æ/ sound. 🤯 The good news is that there are two pretty consistent patterns: the digraphs 'Ai' as in 'wait' and 'AY' as in 'say' are almost always pronounced as /eɪ/. 👍 We know, we know, these spelling patterns might take some time to process. 😉 #CommonSpelling

Nearly all North American native speakers pronounce the letter 'Y' as the tense /i/ sound when it occurs at the end of words like 'happy' or 'very'. 🤔 This makes 'Y' the most common spelling for the /i/ vowel, at least in General American English. 🥳 Our chart would probably have looked different if we were talking about British pronunciation. 😉 #CommonSpelling #Chart

You know how the letter 'S' is not always pronounced as /s/? For example, when 'S' is followed by '-UAL,' it represents the voiced /ʒ/ sound in 'visual,' but the voiceless /ʃ/ sound in 'sensual.' Why? 🤔 It depends on what comes before 'S!' 💡 By the way, the same goes for 'S' followed by '-ION': 'S' in 'version' is pronounced differently from 'S' in 'pension.' 😉 Check out this article for more details. #PhonicsRules

There is no big difference between the /ɝ/ and the /ɚ/ sounds. 🤔 Some linguists even consider them to be the tense and the weak versions of the same sound. 🤨 Fair enough! Their pronunciation is almost the same, except the /ɚ/ is always relaxed and only occurs in unstressed syllables. Check it out: 🎧 Eager tigers hammer spiders. #MnemonicPhrase

The words 'axis' and 'access' are perfect examples of how English spelling begins to make sense when you know a couple of phonics rules and a few exceptions. 🧐 The pronunciation of these two words is different, but possibly not in the way you might expect. 😉 #PhonicsRules

If you've been learning American pronunciation for a while, you might know that there are two variations of the /l/ sound: the "regular" L and the "dark" L. 😎 Though you'll sound pretty much like an American even if you always use the regular one. 👍 But what if "pretty much" isn't good enough for you? 🤔 Well, here's a quick test: 🎧 listen to the phrase A lone lamb lost his land and try to catch the difference between the /l/ sounds. #MnemonicPhrase

Can you tell whether the words 'weather' and 'whether' are pronounced the same or differently? 🤔 And while you're at it, what about the word 'wether?' 😉 #PhonicsRules

Many non-native speakers don't have any issues with the American /v/ sound, or at least they believe they don't. 😉 However, some English learners are quite aware of their difficulties with it. 😢 Regardless of which category you fall into, we've recorded a cool mnemonic phrase for you to check how close you are to the classic General American pronunciation: 🎧 Vivid vacation in a vintage van. #MnemonicPhrase

In American English, the 'OUR' letter combination is pronounced either as /ɝ/ or /ɔr/. We wish there was a rule, but unfortunately, there's none. 😥 It's just happened that 'OUR' represents the /ɝ/ sound in words like "courage" and /ɔr/ in words like "course." 🤔 So, we made two lists of words you can practice when you have a spare minute. Don't worry; they're pretty short and easy to memorize. 🎧 #Exercise

The glottal 'T' sound doesn't occur in American English very often, and even when it does, you can safely replace it with a regular 'T.' 😲 Don't worry; you'll still be perfectly understood. So, in the grand scheme of things, it's not a very important sound, right? 🤔 Except for one tiny detail: it can make your speech more natural. Give it a try: 🎧 Kittens in satin mittens. #MnemonicPhrase

Could the words "knees" and "niece" be homophones? 🤔 Of course they could! 😉 Many English words have different spellings but are pronounced the same way, like "would" and "wood," or "pair" and "pear." 😲 Still, are "knees" and "niece" homophones or not? 🔗 #PhonicsRules

Over ten percent of Americans dress up their pets in a Halloween costume. 🤪 Our cats categorically refuse to wear any clothing, so we came up with a better idea: 💡 a video where you can practice pronouncing the 100 most common words related to Halloween. 🎃 Hope you'll like it! 😉 #Exercise

English pronunciation is all about patterns. 😎 For example, the 'AIR' letter combination is always pronounced as the R-Colored vowel /ɛr/, as in words like "hair," "chair," or "dairy." 😀 This is a very consistent pattern, so we can safely call it "a rule." 💡 Now, let's see if we can find any rules or patterns for the 'IAR' combination, as in the word "diary." 🤔 #PhonicsRules

Voiceless stop sounds are aspirated at the beginning of a word and at the beginning of a stressed syllable. 💨 What about the voiced stops? Are they aspirated, slightly aspirated, somewhat aspirated, or unaspirated? 🤔 Listen to our mnemonic phrase and tell us what you think: 🎧 A black baby bat in bed. #MnemonicPhrase

Ever wonder why the letter 'B' is silent in words like "dumb" or "lamb"? 🤔 That's because there isn't a single English word where the /m/ and /b/ sounds appear back-to-back in the same syllable. 😲 A few hundred years back someone decided to ditch the /mb/ endings and keep it simple with just /m/. 🤣 What can we do about it? Well, practically nothing except for this handy pronunciation exercise. 😜 #Exercise

Most world languages have the /f/ sound, so you might think that you don't have any issues with American /f/s. 😮 We hate to break it to you, but it's one of the sounds that gives your foreign accent away. 😢 Here's a quick tip on how to pronounce it like an American: Lightly touch the back of your lower lip with your upper teeth. 😎 Make sure you do it gently: Friendly frogs fry figs on Fridays. 🎧 #MnemonicPhrase

The /f/ sound is the second most common fricative consonant in American English. It comes just after /s/. 🎉 Thanks to loanwords from Greek 🇬🇷 and German 🇩🇪, the English spelling for /f/ isn't always straightforward. 😥 To cut a long story short, words like 'φιλοσοφία' and 'lachen' are the origins of the 'PH' and 'GH' digraphs. 🤔 #CommonSpelling

There are two different ways Americans pronounce the /r/ sound, but there's no way your tongue should touch the alveolar ridge. 🤔 This is really important because if it does, the sound becomes "trilled" or "tapped," and Americans never trill or tap their Rs. Try it: 🎧 A rat rode a train in the rain. 😎 #MnemonicPhrase

Some say that English pronunciation rules are hard to grasp and impossible to remember. 😭 For example, why the heck is the letter 'A' pronounced as /æ/ in 'apple' but as /eɪ/ in 'maple'? 🤔 Can we explain this? Well, we can try! When vowel letters are followed by '-PLE' or '-BLE,' they're pronounced the same way as if they were in a 'Silent E' syllable: 'table,' 'stable,' 'cable,' 'disable.' 😎 You can find more about the 'A' rules in this article on Sounds American. #Pronunciation #Chart

95% of the major world languages don't have the voiced TH sound. 😢 In English, though, it's hard to think of a sentence without it. 🤔 So, it didn't take us long to come up with a mnemonic phrase with five /ð/ sounds! 🤣 Try it: That's their mother, father, and brother. 🎧 #MnemonicPhrase