English Pronunciation

International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is used to illustrate sounds

A phonetic language is one where each letter represents a single sound, making it easy to read and pronounce words.

Phonetic Languages: Spanish, Italian, Finnish, Turkish, Korean, Serbian, Esperanto, Japanese, Swahili, Polish, Tamil, Vietnamese, Filipino (Tagalog)

Middle (Somewhat Phonetic) Languages: German, Russian, Greek, Arabic, Hebrew, Portuguese, Bengali, Thai, Ukrainian, Dutch, Czech, Hindi, Bengali, Swedish, Norwegian

Not Phonetic Languages: English, French, Danish, Irish Gaelic, Chinese (Mandarin), Japanese (due to kanji), Welsh, Khmer, Burmese, Indonesian, Punjabi.

As a result, English has a lot of homophones – words that are written differently, but sound the same:

to – too – two, for – four, there – their – they’re, sun – son, bare – bear, flour – flower, cell – sell, knight – night, pair – pear, peace – piece, see – sea.

How do people live like that? What can I do?

1. Spell.
2. Use sentences.
3. Use synonyms.

Vowels.

In English there are long and short vowel sounds. 

Vowel letters and vowel sounds in Spanish: 

A – /a/, E – /e/, I – /i/, O – /o/, U – /u/

There are 19 vowel sounds in English, 11 single and 8 combinations.

1. /ɝ/ as in bird – fur, her, learn, church, Burlington, shirt

/a/

2. /ɑ/ as in father – car, hot, dog, Mom
3. /ʌ/ as in cup – bus, love, sun
4. /aɪ/ as in my – fly, time, high (like /aɪ/ in hay)
5. /aʊ/ as in how – now, out, loud (like /au/ in auto)

/e/

6. /æ/ as in cat – man, black, sat, Dad, sad, Mass
7. /ɛ/ as in bed – red, pen, left, said, mess
8. /ə/ (schwa) as in sofa – about, problem, banana
   /ˈsoʊ.fə/ – /əˈbaʊt/, /ˈprɑː.bləm/, /bəˈnæn.ə/
   Does not exist in Spanish. The schwa sound appears in unstressed syllables, but Spanish tends to have more distinct vowel sounds in all syllables.
9. /eɪ/ as in say – day, make, wait, eight, ate
10. /eə/ as in air – fair, care, chair

/i/

11. /ɪ/ as in sit – bit, hit, list, live, bin
12. /iː/ as in see – tree, me, feet, leave, sea, leaf, leave, beans
13. /ɪə/ as in here – beer, fear, clear

/o/

14. /ɔ/ as in daughter – law, saw, caught, auto
15. /ɔɪ/ as in boy – toy, coin, join (like /oi/ in hoy)
16. /oʊ/ as in go – show, no, low, though

/u/

17. /ʊ/ as in put – foot, good, look
18. /uː/ as in blue – too, moon, food, through
19. /ʊə/ as in tour – pure, sure, poor

Consonants.

English consonants can be together. You have to say them all!

Examples: questions, directions, tests, rents, circles, walked

Almost the same in English and Spanish:

• /p/ as in pet – pen, happy (as in papa).
• /b/ as in bat – ball, big (as in banco).
• /t/ as in top – time, table (as in taco).
• /d/ as in dog – done, dark (as in dedo).
• /k/ as in cat – car, king, clock (as in casa).
• /g/ as in go – game, big (as in gato).

• /f/ as in fun – face, fast, fan (as in feliz).
• /s/ as in sit – see, song, sign (as in sal).
• /m/ as in man – mother, money, map (as in mamá).
• /n/ as in net – no, nice, name (as in noche).
• /tʃ/ as in chip – chat, cheese, chair (as in chico).
• /j/ as in yes – yellow, you, year (as in yo)
• /h/ as in happy – he, has, holiday, hotel, alcohol (as in jugar)

Different, but easy:

• /ŋ/ as in sing – song, long, ring 
• /ʃ/ as in she – shoe, shop, fish
• /dʒ/ as in jam – job, joke, judge
• /ʒ/ as in measure – leisure, treasure, vision
• /l/ as in lip – look, love, lamp
• /r/ as in red – rain, road, rose (different tongue position)

Need work:

• /v/ as in van – very, vote, view (vaca is /ˈβa.ka/)
• /w/ as in wet – win, why, wall, wait
• /θ/ as in think (voiceless “th”) – think, thanks, bath
  Castilian Spanish use a similar sound, /θ/, as in cima, zapato.
  /s/ is the most similar
• /z/ as in zip – zero, zoo, buzz
  /s/ is the most similar
• /ð/ as in this (voiced “th”) – that, those, father.
  /z/ is the most similar 

Letter H.

/h/ – hat, hotel, alcohol, how, have, he, history

Combinations: th, sh, ch – this, that, she, think.

Silent: 

• honor, hour, heir, school
• enough, laugh, daughter, thought, bought, brought 
• what, when, where, why, who 

Linking between words.

Same sounds link: all right, get together, had to see it, some money, big guy, black car, limited time, could take, stop playing.

Consonant sounds link with vowel sounds:

How is it going? Have a nice day! 

My car is new.

It’s five o’clock somewhere. Do you speak English?

She worked for ten hours. Just a little.

Video with lyrics
https://youtu.be/vbh4MC_o-wU?si=jRsm_MYgXwtz34gB

English vocabulary ordered by frequency along with the pronunciation: https://frequencylist.com/

Present: I, you, we, they have or do not have (don’t have).
She, he, it has or does not have (doesn’t have).
Past: Everyone had or did not have (didn’t have).
1. I __________ a car. It __________ five seats.
2. We __________ lunch at 1 PM.
3. She __________ a headache today.
4. I __________ lipstick in my purse.
5. My daughter __________ blue eyes.
6. My son __________ brown hair.
7. My neighbours __________ a party yesterday.
8. We __________ a meeting last Monday.
9. He __________ a bike when he was young.
10. I __________ seen that movie already.
(Ya he visto esa película.)
11. She __________ never been to London.
(Ella nunca ha estado en Londres.)
12. We __________ to go now.
13. They __________ to register their car.
14. He __________ to work last week.
Answers.
10 and 11 – only statements.
Statement / negative / question
1. I have a car. It has five seats.
I do not have a car. It does not have five seats.
Do I have a car? Does it have five seats?
2. We have lunch at 1 pm.
We do not have lunch at 1 pm.
Do we have lunch at 1 pm?
3. She has a headache today.
She does not have a headache today.
Does she have a headache today?
4. I have lipstick in my purse.
I do not have lipstick in my purse.
Do I have lipstick in my purse?
5. My daughter has blue eyes.
My daughter does not have blue eyes.
Does my daughter have blue eyes?
6. My son has brown hair.
My son does not have brown hair.
Does my son have brown hair?
7. My neighbors had a party yesterday.
My neighbors did not have a party yesterday.
Did my neighbors have a party yesterday?
8. We had a meeting last Monday.
We did not have a meeting last Monday.
Did we have a meeting last Monday?
9. He had a bike when he was young.
He did not have a bike when he was young.
Did he have a bike when he was young?
10. I have seen that movie already. (Ya he visto esa película.)
11. She has never been to London. (Ella nunca ha estado en Londres.)
12. We have to go now.
We do not have to go now.
Do we have to go now?
13. They have to register their car.
They do not have to register their car.
Do they have to register their car?
14. He had to work last week.
He did not have to work last week.
Did he have to work last week?

Follow me

• Hello! 
• Hi! How are you?
• I am good, thank you. How are you?
• Fine. I am Maria. What is your name? 
• My name is Cathy. Where are you from, Maria?
• I am from Mexico. What about you, Cathy, where are you from?
• I am from Cuba. Where do you live now, Maria?
• I live in Corpus Christi, Texas. What about you?
• I live in Corpus Christi too! Where in Corpus Christi?
• In Flour Bluff. And you?
• On Airline Road. What do you do?
• I am a musician. I am a singer and a music teacher. What do you do?
• I am a homemaker. I am married and have 2 kids. They go to school. What about you, are you married?
• I am not married, I live with my parents. What languages do you speak?
• I speak Spanish, and I am learning English in ESL class. 
• Me too! When did you come to the United States?
• I came to the United States 2 years ago. And you?
• 8 months ago.
• That’s cool. I have to get going now. Nice to meet you!
• Nice to meet you too!