It is a common mistake when English learners pronounce America as AA-MEE-RII-KAA.  It is too long and very unnatural. Let’s break it down, shall we? A-ME-RI-CA   so that’s 4 sounds (syllables) and the stress is on the second syllable oOoo. Now, the 1st syllable [A] is a schwa sound /ə/.  What does that mean? That […]

Before I answer this question, you need to know about voiced and voiceless consonants, if you don’t know what these are, go to the Consonant page and study it, and then come back to this question. If you already have, there it is: There are basically 3 types of s pronunciation in English as follows: […]

Before I answer this question, you need to know about voiced and voiceless consonants, if you don’t know what these are, go to the Consonant page and study it, and then come back to this question.  If you already have, there it is: There are basically 3 types of -ed pronunciation as follows: 1-/t/ (When […]

Most English learners pronounce the word “available” the wrong way.  There are 3 reasons that learners mispronounce it. Reason 1: The schwa sounds The word “available” contains 3 schwa sounds.  2 of them are visible and 1 is not. The schwa sound is a weak sound.  When I say weak, it means that we do […]

The word “really” is particularly difficult for Asian learners as it contains /r/ & /l/, two of the toughest consonants in the English language especially for Japanese, Koreans, Thai and Vietnamese.  The word “really” has to be pronounced in 3 steps: Step 1: The lips have to be tightly rounded for /r/ and the tongue […]