It has been said that pronunciation should be 95% practice and 5% thought.  Many students do it the other way around.

You should focus less on worrying about your pronunciation mistakes and more on simply saying the words you want to perfect.

I believe strongly in the contrast method.  By contrasting similar sounding words (or words that appear to be similar) you can fix the little mistakes in your pronunciation.  You know how these words should sound.  You've heard them on TV, in movies and spoken by Westerners, or you can hear them on your electronic dictionary or even read the phonetic guide in any dictionary.   Though there are differences between British and North American accents (and therefore pronunciation), you should choose the style (or English accent) that you want to speak and stay focused on that.

If you would like to print the table, use the pretty printable version.

vowels IPA words listen   cup, luck Amer   arm, father Amer / Brit   cat, black Amer   met, bed Amer 1 away, cinema Amer 2 turn, learn Amer / Brit 2 hit, sitting Amer   see, heat Amer   hot, rock Amer / Brit 3 call, four Amer / Brit 4 put, could Amer   blue, food Amer   five, eye Amer   now, out Amer   go, home Amer 5 where, air Amer / Brit 6 say, eight Amer   near, here Amer / Brit 6 boy, join Amer   pure, tourist Amer / Brit 6

consonants IPA words listen bad, lab Amer did, lady Amer find, if Amer give, flag Amer how, hello Amer yes, yellow Amer cat, back Amer leg, little Amer man, lemon Amer no, ten Amer sing, finger Amer pet, map Amer red, try Amer sun, miss Amer she, crash Amer tea, getting Amer check, church Amer think, both Amer this, mother Amer voice, five Amer wet, window Amer zoo, lazy Amer pleasure, vision Amer just, large Amer

http://www.antimoon.com/how/pronunc-soundsipa.htm

The website below shows the differences in English pronunication among 9 different countries: 

http://www.fonetiks.org/

A list of common minimal pairs:
 

Multiple Contrasts
 

Look at this list of contrasting words and say them aloud several times a day.  Don't think, just do.

fat-fit   /  sit-seat   /  kip-keep   /  say-sigh   /  cob-cub   /  carb-curb   / 

 yo-you   /  line-lion    /   way-why   /   she-see   /   fly-fry   /   road-rude   /

blue-brew   /  climb-crime  /   shall-shell  /   fast-fist  /   drive-dive  /   poor-pool

rabbit-robot /  exist-exit / quiet-quite-quit  /  there-dare  /  about-aloud  / 

design-decide  /  want-won't  /  cheese-chess / right-light  /  rear-rare  / 

Now try these sentences:

I used to be fit, but now I'm fat.     -     Take a drive first, then dive in the pool.

He climbed fast into crime.    -    You need to sit.  Please take a seat.

He won't say what he wants.  -  Why is this the best way?

Yo!  Are you going or not?  -  They will decide on the design this afternoon.

She has a robot that looks like a rabbit.  -  I saw a rude driver on the road.

It's quite funny how quiet they got when I quit. -  I went there on a dare.

Here are some common tongue twisters. (Try saying them 3 or 4 times out loud):

She sits on the sheets, on the sheets she sits.

She sells seashells by the seashore.

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.

Red Leather, yellow leather.

Wetter leather never weathered, wetter weather better.

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http://www.merriam-webster.com/help/pronguide.htm

http://www.behindthename.com/pronunciation.php

www.dictionary.com

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English words that have come into 2nd languages.

Word final /-s/ /-z/ /-iz/

Word final /-t/ /-d/ /-id/

The difference between /l/ and /r/

The difference between /ch/ and /sh/

One way to help students to hear and pronounce this difference is to begin with minimal pairs with the stress being in the middle of the word: dishes, mashes, cashes the only difference between these sounds is whether the tongue touches the roof of the mouth or not; /ch/ touches the roof of the mouth whereas /sh/ does not.

The difference between /v/ and /w/

http://www.teachasiaonline.com/pmwiki/index.php?n=Main.Pronunciation

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Pronunciation of Past Tense Verbs:      by ~John Eric 

The most common mistake, and I think the most serious pronunciation problem, is always adding a second syllable for the “-ed” at the end of the past tense word.

A second syllable is only required when the last sound (not the last letter) is a “t” or “d,” for example, “wanted,” “decided,” “needed.”

For regular verbs, the “-ed” ending has three different pronunciations: “t,” “d,” and “ed.”

Examples of /t/ endings for past tense verbs

“laugh” becomes “laughed” and is pronounced “laugh/t/” (one syllable)

“walk” becomes “walked” and is pronounced “walk/t/” (one syllable)

“kiss” becomes “kissed” and is pronounced “kiss/t/” (one syllable)

“finished” becomes “finished” and is pronounced “finish/t/” (two syllables)

Examples of /d/ endings for past tense verbs

“clean” becomes “cleaned” and is pronounced “clean/d/” (one syllable)

“dream” becomes “dreamed” and is pronounced “dream/d/” (one syllable)

“save” becomes “saved” and is pronounced “save/d/” (one syllable)

“enjoy” becomes “enjoyed” and is pronounced “enjoy/d/” (two syllables)

“marry” becomes “married” and is pronounced “marry/d/” (two syllables)

Examples of /ed/ endings for past tense verbs (this is the only ending that is pronounced with an additional syllable)

“want” becomes “wanted” and is pronounced “want/ed/” (two syllables)

“need” becomes “needed” and is pronounced “need/ed/” (two syllables)

“decide” becomes “decided” and is pronounced “decide/ed/” (three syllables)

“dedicate” becomes “dedicated” and is pronounced “dedicate/ed/” (four syllables)

Deciding when to use the “/ed/” pronunciation is pretty simple. The student just needs to remember that this ending is used only for verbs ending with a “t” or “d” sound.

Many students will think that it is just a matter of memorizing which letters at the end of the word take a “/t/” and which take a “/d/.” This will work for many verbs, but not all.

Practice is the best way to master using these sounds.

As we say in English ‘practice makes perfect’.    Good luck to you!

/t/ endings practice:

 /d/ endings practice:

/ed/ endings practice:

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If you think that was difficult,...try reading the Dr's words below (out loud)!! Very difficult!

ENGLISH IS TOUGH STUFF

Author Dr. Gerald Nolst Trenite (1890-1946) a Dutch observer of English


Dearest creature in creation,
Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.
I will keep you, Suzy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy.
Tear in eye, your dress will tear.
So shall I! Oh hear my prayer.

Just compare heart, beard, and heard,
Dies and diet, lord and word,
Sword and sward, retain and Britain.
(Mind the latter, how it's written.)
Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as plaque and ague.
But be careful how you speak:
Say break and steak, but bleak and streak;
Cloven, oven, how and low,
Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe.

Hear me say, devoid of trickery,
Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore,
Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles,
Exiles, similes, and reviles;
Scholar, vicar, and cigar,
Solar, mica, war and far;
One, anemone, Balmoral,
Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel;
Gertrude, German, wind and mind,
Scene, Melpomene, mankind.

Billet does not rhyme with ballet,
Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet.
Blood and flood are not like food,
Nor is mould like should and would.
Viscous, viscount, load and broad,
Toward, to forward, to reward.
And your pronunciation's OK
When you correctly say croquet,
Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve,
Friend and fiend, alive and live.

Ivy, privy, famous; clamour
And enamour rhyme with hammer.
River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb,
Doll and roll and some and home.
Stranger does not rhyme with anger,
Neither does devour with clangour.
Souls but foul, haunt but aunt,
Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant,
Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger,
And then singer, ginger, linger,
Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge,
Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age.

Query does not rhyme with very,
Nor does fury sound like bury.
Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth.
Job, nob, bosom, transom, oath.
Though the differences seem little,
We say actual but victual.
Refer does not rhyme with deafer.
Foeffer does, and zephyr, heifer.
Mint, pint, senate and sedate;
Dull, bull, and George ate late.
Scenic, Arabic, Pacific,
Science, conscience, scientific.

Liberty, library, heave and heaven,
Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven.
We say hallowed, but allowed,
People, leopard, towed, but vowed.
Mark the differences, moreover,
Between mover, cover, clover;
Leeches, breeches, wise, precise,
Chalice, but police and lice;
Camel, constable, unstable,
Principle, disciple, label.

Petal, panel, and canal,
Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal.
Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair,
Senator, spectator, mayor.
Tour, but our and succour, four.
Gas, alas, and Arkansas.
Sea, idea, Korea, area,
Psalm, Maria, but malaria.
Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean.
Doctrine, turpentine, marine.

Compare alien with Italian,
Dandelion and battalion.
Sally with ally, yea, ye,
Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, and key.
Say aver, but ever, fever,
Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver.
Heron, granary, canary.
Crevice and device and aerie.

Face, but preface, not efface.
Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass.
Large, but target, gin, give, verging,
Ought, out, joust and scour, scourging.
Ear, but earn and wear and tear
Do not rhyme with here but ere.
Seven is right, but so is even,
Hyphen, roughen, nephew Stephen,
Monkey, donkey, Turk and jerk,
Ask, grasp, wasp, and cork and work.

Pronunciation -- think of Psyche!
Is a paling stout and spikey?
Won't it make you lose your wits,
Writing groats and saying grits?
It's a dark abyss or tunnel:
Strewn with stones, stowed, solace, gunwale,
Islington and Isle of Wight,
Housewife, verdict and indict.

Finally, which rhymes with enough --
Though, through, plough, or dough, or cough?
Hiccough has the sound of cup.
My advice is to give up!!!
------------------------------------

"So you think French is hard!"

-- author unknown


I take it you already know
Of tough and bough and cough and dough.
Others may stumble, but not you,
On hiccough, thorough, though, and through -
Well done!
And now you wish perhaps
To learn of less familiar traps?
Beware of heard, a dreadful word
That looks like beard and sounds like bird,
And dead - it's said like bed, not bead.
Watch out for meat and great and threat
(They rhyme with suite and straight and debt).
A moth is not a moth in mother,
Nor both in bother, broth in brother.
And here is not a match for there
Nor dear and fear for bear and pear.
And then there's dose and rose and lose,
Just look them up - goose and choose
And cork and work and card and ward
And front and font, and word and sword
And do and go, and wart and cart -
Come! Come! I've hardly made a start!
A dreadful language? Man alive!
I mastered it - when I was five!!!

Other FREE websites for your pronunciation practice.

howjsay.org
Enter your word
to hear how it is
spoken - free online

shiporsheep.org
Free English language
pronunciation practice
with minimal pairs

spokenenglish.org
Spoken English language
practice with a free online
seven-step grammar course

foniks.org
A free interactive
course in reading
and spelling

onlinedictations.org
Graded English dictations
with fast, studio-quality
sound - free online