Pronunciation - Problem Sounds
There can be many difficulties, but here are a few of the common
problems that learners encounter. This page features IPA characters
and flash applications that allow students to listen and test themselves
on these common sounds. (When you click on 'Listen Here' a popup
window should appear and this can be resized for easy classroom
use)
The great Th
[θ] e.g. thirsty & [ð]
e.g. that
Tongue Twister:
King Thistle stuck a thousand thistles in the thistle of his thumb.
A thousand thistles King Thistle stuck in the thistle of his thumb.
If King Thistle stuck a thousand thistles in the thistle of his
thumb,
How many thistles did King Thistle stick in the thistle of his
thumb?
Y and J
[dʒ] e.g. Jew and [j] e.g. you
Tongue Twister:
Our Joe wants to know if your Joe will lend
our Joe your Joe's banjo. If your Joe won't
lend our Joe your Joe's banjo our Joe won't
lend your Joe our Joe's banjo when our Joe
has a banjo!
If you are wondering why, j is sounds like a y it is because IPA
takes it from the Spanish j sound!
Sh and Ch
[ʃ] e.g. sugar and [tʃ] e.g. cheap
Tongue Twister:
1. Which wristwatches are Swiss wristwatches?
2. Cheap sheep soup
3. She sells sea shells on the sea shore.
Oriental speakers
Japanese can rarely hear the difference between [L] & [R]
Most Koreans can hear a difference, but may have difficulties pronouncing it
and for Chinese speakers it depends on the dialect that they use.
Listen
Here! (Requires Flash)
Tongue Twister:
1. Laughing Laurie Lies to Laurance
2. Lesser leather never weathered wetter weather better.
3. A lusty laboratory lady loved a lawyer and longed to lure him
to her laboratory.
Arabic & Persian speakers
Arabic and Persian speakers have a lot of problems with
[B] & [P]
Listen
Here! (Requires Flash)
Tongue Twister:
1. Rubber baby buggy bumpers
2. Brad's big black bath brush broke.
3.
Give papa a cup of proper coffee
in a proper coffee cup.
Resources on this Website
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This page requires either Firefox 1.5+ or IE6+ to see special
IPA characters and the appropriate fonts. This page also requires
Flash 6+ to listen to the phonemes.
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