The Vanishing Ending: Not Dropping Final Consonants in English
Every language has its own rules about how syllables are built. English is remarkably flexible in that words can end in a wide…
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Why Americans Say “Twenny” Instead of “Twenty”: The /nt/ Reduction in American English
The t sound is one of the most confounding sounds in American English. You may have been taught to pronounce every t clearly.…
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The Secret to the English /v/ Sound: You Already Know How to Make It
The /v/ sound in English can be surprisingly difficult for many non-native speakers. But you probably already know how to produce every part…
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“Rubber-Band Mouth”: The Simple Trick That Helps “Bit” Stop Sounding Like “Beat”
Differentiating between the vowel sounds in the words “bit” and “beat” is one of the most common pronunciation challenges for non-native speakers of…
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Why Americans Say “Noo,” Not “Nyoo”: The Hidden Rule Behind New, Tune, and Tuesday
Yesterday, we discussed why Americans often insert a small “y” sound (called the “yod”) before the /u/ sound, and showed you some words…
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The Yod: The Hidden Glide Inside “Beautiful” And Other Words
The Tiny Sound Between Two Bigger Sounds Try saying the word beautiful slowly. If you listen carefully, you’ll notice that the transition from…
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Round Your Lips Just a Little: The Tiny Movement That Separates “Sh” from “S”
Why “S” and “Sh” Feel So Similar The sounds /s/ (“s”) and /ʃ/ (“sh”) are actually pretty closely related. Both are produced by…
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The Hidden Buzz in English: Learning the /ʒ/ Sound in “Measure”
There is a less-common sound in American English that isn’t spelled consistently, rarely gets attention in pronunciation textbooks, and is often replaced with…
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Why Americans Smooth the /aʊr/ Sound in “Power” Into One Flowing Syllable
Yesterday, we looked at why words with the /aɪr/ sound, like fire, make up one syllable instead of two. Now let’s take a…
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The Two-Syllable Trap: Why Americans Say Fire and Hire as One Syllable
If you look up the pronunciation of the word fire in a dictionary, you may be surprised to discover that it’s officially one…
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