{"id":72,"date":"2025-03-19T03:25:31","date_gmt":"2025-03-19T03:25:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/originals.elenmorell.com\/?p=72"},"modified":"2025-09-21T23:38:51","modified_gmt":"2025-09-21T23:38:51","slug":"english-pronunciation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/originals.elenmorell.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/19\/english-pronunciation\/","title":{"rendered":"English Pronunciation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">English Pronunciation<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is used to illustrate sounds<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A <strong>phonetic language<\/strong> is one where each letter represents a single sound, making it easy to read and pronounce words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Phonetic Languages: Spanish<\/strong>, Italian, Finnish, Turkish, Korean, Serbian, Esperanto, Japanese, Swahili, Polish, Tamil, Vietnamese, Filipino (Tagalog)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Middle (Somewhat Phonetic) Languages: <\/strong>German, Russian, Greek, Arabic, Hebrew, Portuguese, Bengali, Thai, Ukrainian, Dutch, Czech, Hindi, Bengali, Swedish, Norwegian<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Not Phonetic Languages: English<\/strong>, French, Danish, Irish Gaelic, Chinese (Mandarin), Japanese (due to kanji), Welsh, Khmer, Burmese, Indonesian, Punjabi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As a result, <strong>English <\/strong>has a lot of homophones &#8211; words that are written differently, but sound the same:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>to &#8211; too &#8211; two, for &#8211; four, there &#8211; their &#8211; they&#8217;re, sun &#8211; son, bare &#8211; bear, flour &#8211; flower, cell &#8211; sell, knight &#8211; night, pair &#8211; pear, peace &#8211; piece, see &#8211; sea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>How do people live like that? What can I do?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Spell.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Use sentences.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Use synonyms.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Vowels.<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p>In English there are long and short vowel sounds.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Vowel letters and vowel sounds in Spanish:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A \u2013 \/a\/, E \u2013 \/e\/, I \u2013 \/i\/, O \u2013 \/o\/, U \u2013 \/u\/<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are 19 vowel <strong>sounds<\/strong> in English, 11 single and 8 combinations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>\/\u025d\/<\/strong> as in <em>bird<\/em> \u2013 fur, her, learn, church, Burlington, shirt<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>\/a\/<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol start=\"2\" class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>\/\u0251\/<\/strong> as in <em>father<\/em> \u2013 car, hot, dog, Mom<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>\/\u028c\/<\/strong> as in <em>cup<\/em> \u2013 bus, love, sun<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>\/a\u026a\/<\/strong> as in <em>my<\/em> \u2013 fly, time, high (like \/a\u026a\/<strong> <\/strong>in hay)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>\/a\u028a\/<\/strong> as in <em>how<\/em> \u2013 now, out, loud (like \/au\/ in <em>auto)<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>\/e\/<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol start=\"6\" class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>\/\u00e6\/<\/strong> as in <em>cat<\/em> \u2013 man, black, sat, Dad, sad, Mass<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>\/\u025b\/<\/strong> as in <em>bed<\/em> \u2013 red, pen, left, said, mess<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>\/\u0259\/<\/strong> (schwa) as in <em>sofa<\/em> \u2013 about, problem, banana<br>\/\u02c8so\u028a.f\u0259\/ &#8211; \/\u0259\u02c8ba\u028at\/, \/\u02c8pr\u0251\u02d0.bl\u0259m\/, \/b\u0259\u02c8n\u00e6n.\u0259\/<br>Does not exist in Spanish. The schwa sound appears in unstressed syllables, but Spanish tends to have more distinct vowel sounds in all syllables.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>\/e\u026a\/<\/strong> as in <em>say<\/em> \u2013 day, make, wait, eight, ate<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>\/e\u0259\/<\/strong> as in <em>air<\/em> \u2013 fair, care, chair<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>\/i\/<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol start=\"11\" class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>\/\u026a\/<\/strong> as in <em>sit<\/em> \u2013 bit, hit, list, live, bin<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>\/i\u02d0\/<\/strong> as in <em>see<\/em> \u2013 tree, me, feet, leave, sea, leaf, leave, beans<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>\/\u026a\u0259\/<\/strong> as in <em>here<\/em> \u2013 beer, fear, clear<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>\/o\/<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol start=\"14\" class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>\/\u0254\/<\/strong> as in <em>daughter<\/em> \u2013 law, saw, caught, auto<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>\/\u0254\u026a\/<\/strong> as in <em>boy<\/em> \u2013 toy, coin, join (like \/oi\/ in <em>hoy<\/em>)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>\/o\u028a\/<\/strong> as in <em>go<\/em> \u2013 show, no, low, though<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>\/u\/<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol start=\"17\" class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>\/\u028a\/<\/strong> as in <em>put<\/em> \u2013 foot, good, look<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>\/u\u02d0\/<\/strong> as in <em>blue<\/em> \u2013 too, moon, food, through<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>\/\u028a\u0259\/<\/strong> as in <em>tour<\/em> \u2013 pure, sure, poor<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Consonants.<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>English <\/strong>consonants can be together. You have to say them all!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Examples: questions, directions, tests, rents, circles, walked<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Almost the same in English and Spanish:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>\/p\/<\/strong> as in <em>pet<\/em> \u2013 pen, happy (as in <em>papa<\/em>).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>\/b\/<\/strong> as in <em>bat<\/em> \u2013 ball, big (as in <em>banco<\/em>).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>\/t\/<\/strong> as in <em>top<\/em> \u2013 time, table (as in <em>taco<\/em>).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>\/d\/<\/strong> as in <em>dog<\/em> \u2013 done, dark (as in <em>dedo<\/em>).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>\/k\/<\/strong> as in <em>cat<\/em> \u2013 car, king, clock (as in <em>casa<\/em>).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>\/g\/<\/strong> as in <em>go<\/em> \u2013 game, big (as in <em>gato<\/em>).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>\/f\/<\/strong> as in <em>fun<\/em> \u2013 face, fast, fan (as in <em>feliz<\/em>).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>\/s\/<\/strong> as in <em>sit<\/em> \u2013 see, song, sign (as in <em>sal<\/em>).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>\/m\/<\/strong> as in <em>man<\/em> \u2013 mother, money, map (as in <em>mam\u00e1<\/em>).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>\/n\/<\/strong> as in <em>net<\/em> \u2013 no, nice, name (as in <em>noche<\/em>).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>\/t\u0283\/<\/strong> as in <em>chip<\/em> \u2013 chat, cheese, chair (as in <em>chico<\/em>).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>\/j\/<\/strong> as in <em>yes<\/em> \u2013 yellow, you, year (as in <em>yo<\/em>)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>\/h\/<\/strong> as in <em>happy<\/em> \u2013 he, has, holiday, hotel, alcohol (as in <em>jugar<\/em>)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Different, but easy:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>\/\u014b\/<\/strong> as in <em>sing<\/em> \u2013 song, long, ring&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>\/\u0283\/<\/strong> as in <em>she <\/em>\u2013 shoe, shop, fish<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>\/d\u0292\/<\/strong> as in <em>jam<\/em> \u2013 job, joke, judge<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>\/\u0292\/<\/strong> as in <em>measure<\/em> \u2013 leisure, treasure, vision<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>\/l\/<\/strong> as in <em>lip<\/em> \u2013 look, love, lamp<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>\/r\/<\/strong> as in <em>red<\/em> \u2013 rain, road, rose (different tongue position)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Need work:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>\/v\/<\/strong> as in <em>van<\/em> \u2013 very, vote, view (vaca is \/\u02c8\u03b2a.ka\/)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>\/w\/<\/strong> as in <em>wet<\/em> \u2013 win, why, wall, wait<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>\/\u03b8\/<\/strong> as in <em>think<\/em> (voiceless &#8220;th&#8221;) \u2013 think, thanks, bath<br>Castilian Spanish use a similar sound, \/\u03b8\/, as in <em>cima<\/em>, <em>zapato<\/em>.<br><strong>\/s\/ <\/strong>is the most similar<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>\/z\/<\/strong> as in <em>zip<\/em> \u2013 zero, zoo, buzz<br><strong>\/s\/ <\/strong>is the most similar<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>\/\u00f0\/<\/strong> as in <em>this<\/em> (voiced &#8220;th&#8221;) \u2013 that, those, father.<br><strong>\/z\/ <\/strong>is the most similar&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Letter H.<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p>\/h\/ &#8211; hat, hotel, alcohol, how, have, he, history<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Combinations: th, sh, ch &#8211; this, that, she, think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Silent:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>honor, hour, heir, school<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>enough, laugh, daughter, thought, bought, brought&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>what, when, where, why, who&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Linking between words.<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Same sounds link<\/strong>: all right, get together, had to see it, some money, big guy, black car, limited time, could take, stop playing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Consonant sounds link with vowel sounds:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>How is it going? Have a nice day!&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My car is new. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s five o\u2019clock somewhere. Do you speak English?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She worked for ten hours. Just a little.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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, &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/originals.elenmorell.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/19\/english-pronunciation\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;English Pronunciation&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/originals.elenmorell.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/originals.elenmorell.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/originals.elenmorell.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/originals.elenmorell.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/originals.elenmorell.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/originals.elenmorell.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81,"href":"https:\/\/originals.elenmorell.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72\/revisions\/81"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/originals.elenmorell.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/originals.elenmorell.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/originals.elenmorell.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}