How to learn

How to learn

English

English

pronunciation

pronunciation

1.

1.

Learn the sounds

Learn the sounds

of English

of English

English uses different sounds

than other languages. For

example, the first sound in the word

thin and the first sound in the word

away are never spoken in many

languages.

So you have to know all the

English sounds

. You also have

to practice your

pronunciation

— listen to English words and

sentences, and try to repeat

the English sounds as well as

you can.

2.

2.

Learn the

Learn the

pronunciation of

pronunciation of

English words

English words

Reading an English word does

not tell you how it is

pronounced

.

This means that, generally, you

have to learn the

pronunciation

of

every word that you use.

How can you learn the

pronunciation of an English word?

You can

look it up

in a dictionary

and read about how it is

pronounced

. Dictionaries tell you

about

pronunciation

through a

special system called "

phonetic transcription

".

Phonetic transcription is written in

a phonetic alphabet. The most

popular phonetic alphabet is the

International Phonetic Alphabet

(IPA). Antimoon has also created

the

ASCII Phonetic Alphabet

, which

is suitable for typing on a

computer.

3.

3.

Choose American

Choose American

or British

or British

pronunciation

pronunciation

(or both)

(or both)

Different kinds of English

have different

pronunciation

.

For example, the

pronunciation

(the accent) in British English is

different from the

pronunciation

in American English.

You have a choice between British English

and American English, because these are

the most important kinds of English in the

world. Which one should you choose?

Probably the kind that you like the most.

Whether you choose British or American

pronunciation

, people will understand you

wherever you go. Of course, you don't

have to decide: you can learn to speak

both kinds of English.

4.

4.

Learn about both

Learn about both

American and

American and

British

British

pronunciation

pronunciation

Even if you choose to speak one

kind of English, you should

learn about both kinds. Let's

suppose you want to speak pure

British English. You don't want to

have an American accent at all.

Should you pay attention to the

American pronunciations in your

dictionary? We believe you

should.

You may want to speak British

English, but you will hear some

American English, too. You may go

see an American movie, visit the

United States, have an American

teacher, etc. You may want to

speak only British English, but you

need to understand both British

and American English.

Also, consider what happens if you

(a student of British English) hear

a new English word from an

American? You may learn the

American pronunciation of the

word. And you may start using

that pronunciation in your own

speech. So your British English will

no longer be pure.

For example, if you hear the word nuke on

American TV, it will be pronounced [nu:k].

If, all your life, you have been reading only

British phonetic transcriptions, you will not

know that many words which have the

sound [ju:] in British English, have [u:] in

American English. So you will probably

learn that nuke is pronounced [nu:k]. But

if you learn it like this, you will make your

pronunciation "wrong", because a Briton

would pronounce the word [nju:k].

Of course, the same advice is

true if you're learning

American English. In such a

case, you should be

interested in both British and

American pronunciations, too.