English tips

English language has become the most important language in the world. The two most important characteristics of modern day English are analytical grammar and large collection of words. Each and every year, more and more people are seeking to learn English to improve their academic and professional lives. English Pronunciation helps in understanding the way in which how a word is pronounced.


Easy Tips to Improve English Pronunciation

It will be very difficult for people to understand what are you speaking even if your vocabulary and English grammar are perfect. Many people believe that learning and understanding to pronounce is the hardest tasks in English leaning. English vowels (a,e,i,o,u) are the major category of tricky sounds in English. For an example to say, consider the following words: ‘’way’’, “weigh”, ‘’whey’’ are all said same while comb,” “bomb” and “tomb” are all not pronounced in the same way. Now you will feel this is all insane, that’s why you need to read the following tips to improve English pronunciation.

English pronunciation listen

 “Listen when it’s time to listen and then respond when it’s your time to respond.”

1.     Learn to listen   

You need to learn to listen before you learn how to speak. Listening properly will build concentration. It is a very common mistake that most people think of what they are going to say, while pretending to listen others.  Your mind will do only one thing at a time, so try to listen when it’s time to listen and then respond when it’s your time to respond. To become a good listener, try to let some silence happen in you and make a practice of deep listening. Consider this as an important tip for improving your English pronunciation as the more you listen, the more you will improve.

2.     Notice mouth and lips movement of yours and of News reader’s from famous News channels

Pronunciation of a word depends on how you move your mouth. So, it is important that you should check how your mouth and lips move and make sure that they are moving in the right way. Using a mirror is the simplest way to understand how your mouth is moving when you speak. You can even watch others and notice how their mouth and lips move while they speak while watching your favourite news channels or movies.

English pronunciation - listen

 “Use a mirror to understand how your mouth is moving when you speak”

movement of tongue for right pronunciation

 ” Pay attention to your tongue which helps in improving your English pronunciation “

3.    Pay attention to your tongue

When you speak something, you move your tongue to make sounds and you may not even notice it. It is very good to pay attention to your tongue which helps in improving your English pronunciation. Even if you think that your English basics like nounsverbs or adjectives are perfect, failure in pronunciation will leave you behind. Take a note of the following examples:

While making ‘L’ sound, your tongue should touch the back of your front teeth and top of your mouth. You can try now itself by saying ‘Line’ a few times. Make sure that the tongue touches the top of your mouth.  Like, for the ‘R’ sound, your tongue should not touch the top of your mouth. Thus, knowing where to move your tongue can make the difference.

4.      Break words down into sounds

Words are made up of different parts or syllables. For example, consider the words like perception (per-cep-tion), gratitude (grat-i-tude). Like this you should try to break down words which helps to make pronunciation easy. There is an easy option to find out how many syllables a word has, just place your hand flat below your chin. Say the word slowly and count each time your chin touches your hand. The total count tells you the number of syllables.

syllables example

 “Try to break down words which helps to make pronunciation easy”

mike - pronunciation

 “use a video recorder to find out to record yourself.”

5.      Record yourself

You can use a video recorder to find out to record yourself to see how you speak. This is one of the easiest way to see how you speak as in today’s era, it is very to get devices with inbuild camera and video recorder. Find a part of your favourite movie and try to record yourself speaking these words. You can compare both the videos and see the difference.

6.      Practice with your friend

Another easy method is to get the help of your friend and practice pronunciation among yourselves. As we say, practice makes a man perfect. Doing this will help all of you to improve the basics.

Pronunciation - men speaking

 “Practice makes a man perfect.”

Guide to understand English pronunciations better

This guide will help you guide with lessons related to symbols found in English dictionaries.

Tapping of / t /

In American English, we can see that the words ‘T’ and ‘D’ are pronounced distinctly in words such as dip and tip. Indians use to stress more on words. For example, you can listen to the audio clip of pronouncing ”put” in two different ways.