Pronounce English Accurately

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We need to learn a few technical terms before we go on.

Phonemes are the contrastive sounds of a language. Sounds are contrastive if they distinguish two different words. So, for example, the consonant sounds /k/ and /b/ make the difference between the two entirely different words 'cat' and 'bat' – proving that /k/ and /b/ are different phonemes.

Similarly, the vowel sounds /ɪ/ and /æ/ make the difference between the words 'pin' and 'pan', so again they are different phonemes and are contrastive.

The International Phonetic Alphabet transcription we are using is what appears in pronunciation dictionaries – both the Longman Pronunciation Dictionary and the Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary use it – and it is phonemic – it represents phonemes.

Phonemic transcription is written inside oblique slants – like this: / /.

Generally phonemic transcription gives us all the detail we need – it tells us what target sounds to aim at to pronounce a word accurately.

Occasionally, though, we may want to go into more detail, to describe in greater PHONETIC detail how a sound is made or how it varies according to the sounds near it – according to its phonetic environment.

For this more detailed phonetic transcription, we use square brackets [ ].

For instance, in the word 'information' it would be quite unusual and difficult to say the first /n/ as a proper /n/ sound – 'information', although that is how it is transcribed in pronunciation dictionaries: /ɪn.fəˈmeɪ.ʃən/.

It would be much more normal, and much easier, to make the nasal sound with the upper teeth touching the bottom lip, in the position for /f/, so that no movement is required to get to the following /f/ sound.

There is no PHONEME which corresponds to that sound – it's not a recognised sound of English – but there is an PHONETIC symbol for it, [ɱ]. So if I wanted to show the exact pronunciation of the word 'information', in detail, I could use square brackets and the [ɱ] symbol.

Non-native speakers of English will often notice differences such as these better than native speakers because to native speakers these differences are not of any linguistic importance – the difference is not contrastive – they're are just little phonetic details which we wouldn't normally notice.

Now try saying 'car – key – coo'. Can you feel that the /k/ sound is made in a different position each time?

The position of the following vowel is affecting the shape of the mouth during the /k/ sound – you can see my mouth shape is in position for the vowel before I have even started making the /k/.

This means that phonetically there's a difference between the three versions of the /k/ sound, but phonemically there's no difference – all three are still the /k/ phoneme.

For the most part this course is about pronouncing words according to a clear model so we usually use phonemic transcription inside slants, but occasionally I go into greater detail and use phonetic transcription in square brackets.

'Homophones' (from Greek homo- 'the same' and phonos 'sound') are words which sound the same, although they may be written differently.

English has many, many examples of homophones – pairs or even triplets of words like 'meet' and 'meat', 'seen' and 'scene', 'pear' and 'pair', and 'vain', 'vane' and 'vein'.

In each of these sets, the words are all pronounced identically.

It's vitally important that you are aware of words which are homophones, and throughout the course I will be drawing your attention to them.

Every time I put more than one word on a line, separated by commas – like this – that means that those words are homophones.

If you are not fully aware of homophones, you may be trying to make differences which simply don't exist, which is very difficult.

Homographs are words which are spelt the same – they may or may not be pronounced the same.

Examples of homographs are 'wind' and 'to wind' – the noun and the verb. Another such pair are 'tear' – the noun, as in the eyes, and 'to tear', as of paper.

Another example is the pair 'minute', the unit of time, and 'minute', meaning 'tiny', and 'entrance' – the way in or the verb, meaning to 'delight' or similar.

Sometime homographs are pronounced the same but clearly have different meanings – 'match', a football match, match for lighting fires, and 'to match up.

Stressed syllables

Words with more than one syllable are stressed on one of their syllables. The stressed syllable is pronounced with a slightly higher pitch, a bit more loudly and stronger than the unstressed syllables around it.

For instance, the word 'doctor' is stressed on the first syllable, 'doc'; 'indeed' is stressed on the 'deed'.

In IPA transcription, syllable stress is indicated with a high vertical mark BEFORE the stressed syllable: /ˈdɒk.tə/, ɪnˈdiːd/.

In long words there may also be secondary stress. This is indicated with a LOW vertical mark before the syllable with secondary stress: 'counter-revolutionary' /ˌkaʊnt.ə.rev.ə.ˈluːʃən.ri/

The 'loo' in revolutionary has the primary stress, but there's secondary stress on the 'count' in 'counter'.

Syllable breaks are indicated with dots in the IPA to break the word up and make the transcription more readable: /ˈdɒk.tə/.

That's all – and now we're ready to start!