PRONUNCIATION

English Sounds
The English language has about forty sounds, twenty-four consonants, and
sixteen vowels. Knowing these sounds can help you improve your
pronunciation. Special phonetic symbols are used to represent sounds. Key
places in this book use phonetic symbols to clarify pronunciation. They are
written between slash marks, such as /b/, to indicate that they are symbols.
You do not need to memorize these symbols to learn English—just use them
as references. Many learners’ dictionaries use these symbols, so being
familiar with them will help you when you look up words. Each of these
sounds can be spelled in many ways. For information on spelling, see page 9.

Consonants
This table shows the consonant sounds of English:

VOICELESS

VOICED
Voiced and Voiceless Sounds
Consonants fall into two groups, voiced and voiceless. When you say a
voiced sound, your vocal chords vibrate. When you say a voiceless sound,
your vocal chords do not vibrate. To feel your vocal chords vibrate, place
your hand on your throat and say word pairs such as fan/van, pill/bill, or
Sue/zoo. Your vocal chords should not vibrate when you say the first
consonant in each pair.
Many learners have difficulty with the sounds /θ/ and /ð/. The sound /θ/ is not
voiced (i.e., it is voiceless), which means the vocal chords do not vibrate
when you say it. The sound /ð/ is voiced. The chords should vibrate when
you say this consonant. Practice saying the following groups of words:

AVOID THE Error

To pronounce /θ/ and /ð/, your tongue must be between the upper and
lower teeth. Instead, people may make the mistake of saying /d/, /f/, or
 another sound:

The sounds /θ/ and /ð/ may be difficult for individuals from a culture
where it is not polite to show your tongue. Keep in mind that when
speaking English, showing one’s tongue to pronounce these sounds is
perfectly normal. Nevertheless, if you are shy, you might cover your
mouth when you say these sounds, until you become comfortable saying
them.

To learn /r/, listen to native speakers and practice saying words with many /r/
sounds, such as refrigerator. Saying tongue twisters is also a good way to
practice this sound.
Around the rough rocks the angry rascal ran.

AVOID THE Error

The sounds /l/ and /r/ are often difficult for speakers of Chinese, Japanese,
Korean, and other Asian languages. In fact, their listeners can become
confused by the wrong sound:

Word pairs that can be confused in this way include: right/light, lock/rock,
grass/glass, lamp/ramp, raw/law, row/low.
The sound /l/ is produced by the tip of the tongue touching the roof of the
mouth. The sound /r/ involves no contact between the tongue and the roof
of the mouth.
The spelling of words in English is a reliable clue for when to pronounce
each sound. The letter l is always pronounced /l/, and the letter r is always
 pronounced /r/. However, some words have a silent l: would, could,
should, half, chalk, talk, walk, Lincoln, almond, and salmon.

Vowels
This table shows the vowel sounds of English:

The /εr/ sound is particularly hard to say. To learn it, practice saying words
with vowel + r combinations.

Stress
Stress is the loudness with which we say a word or syllable. (A syllable is a
part of a word that consists of at least one vowel and can have one or more
consonants. A word can consist of one or more syllables.) A word can have
one or more stressed syllables. A one- or two-syllable word can have one
stressed syllable.

A word of two or more syllables can have primary stress and secondary
stress. Primary stress is marked with ’, secondary stress with ‚.
Some words, such as articles and one-syllable prepositions, are not stressed at
all.

In English, unstressed vowels usually become /ă/.

AVOID THE Error

Sometimes the meaning of a word depends on which syllable is stressed.

In suspect/suspect and many other pairs of words, the first syllable is

stressed if the word is a noun, but the second syllable is stressed if the
word is a verb.
Contrastive Stress
In English, we can stress any word, even one that normally is not stressed, to
express a special meaning. Look at how the meaning of this sentence changes
depending on the stress:
We will finish work at 1:00. (Others will finish at another time.)
We will finish work at 1:00. (We won’t finish at another time.)
We will finish work at 1:00. (We won’t start or do something else at that
time.)
We will finish work at 1:00. (We won’t work after that time.)
We will finish work at 1:00. (We will finish at exactly that time.)
We will finish work at 1:00. (We will not finish at 2:00.)
Listen carefully when English speakers give special stress to a certain word.
It means that the person is using contrastive stress.

Rising Intonation for Questions

Intonation is the pitch, higher or lower, of sound. English uses rising
intonation for yes/no questions. With rising intonation, the pitch goes up at
the end of the sentence. The rising intonation signals that the person is asking
a question. Usually, intonation begins rising with the last stressed syllable in
the question.
Are you finished using the computer?
Do you want fries with that?
Can you give me a hand?
Are you going to the supermarket later this morning?
Did you do your homework last night?
Have you seen Lance today?
Chris, were you sick yesterday?

AVOID THE Error

Do not use rising intonation with wh- questions. Use falling intonation.
In wh- questions, the question word signals that the person is asking a
question. Rising intonation is not necessary with wh- questions.