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  • I promise you, if you can stop making these three really common mistakes, you will stop sounding like a non native.

  • Ah, lot faster than you think.

  • Let's learn what these mistakes are in this lesson.

  • Hi.

  • Hi, everybody.

  • This is Elliot from E T J.

  • English.

  • Now, lots of you might know already that I have had hundreds and hundreds of students, and usually when people join my course and they first start learning with me, they take something called an accent evaluation.

  • This is where I listen to them speaking, and I tell them exactly what their problems are.

  • I tell them what needs to be fixed.

  • What sounds good.

  • What sounds bad on, uh, generally just kind of give some advice.

  • Now, there are three really, really common mistakes which my students tend to make three really common mistakes which we spend ah, lot of our time working on.

  • Throughout the course, there are more than just three really common mistakes.

  • But these three are the ones which I would say about 90% at least off.

  • My students who have joined my cause have problems with, So I want you to see Do you make these mistakes.

  • Maybe you've worked on perfecting them already, but if you do make these mistakes, I'd suggest you start working on them now.

  • Problem number one is the most common.

  • This is the issue, which almost all of my students have when they join my course on this problem is the difference between it on E.

  • So we have a short vowel e on a long vowel e.

  • You might notice the difference in my face shape already when I pronounce the's two sounds if e.

  • A e.

  • The most noticeable difference is the second sound is a long vowel.

  • Andi.

  • I smile a little bit more.

  • The reason I'm smiling Mawr is actually because my tongue is going higher in my mouth.

  • So when we raise our tongue higher, the mouth will close more because the jaw comes up on.

  • We create more of a smiling shape to produce an e sound.

  • But when we produce the it sound, this is where my students have a really big problem.

  • I've had students from all over the world having problems with pronouncing words like ich because it sounds like each or hit because it sounds like heat on the problem might not be that they're making the vowel long when it's supposed to be short.

  • Sometimes the problem is just the tongue position on the mouth shape.

  • The two sounds of very, very similar for the long vowel.

  • The tongue is higher, as I said, and for the short vowel, the tongue is just below the top teeth.

  • So it's just near the sharp edge of the top teeth kind of floating in the mouth on we don't smile as much.

  • Look at the difference it E.

  • You'll notice when you pronounce the E sound that the sides of your tongue should touch the sides of your top teeth.

  • But when you produce the if sound that doesn't happen.

  • It's more of a relaxed shape with the mouth.

  • So try a few words like hit heat, itch each beach and see if you can do it.

  • Some of my students it takes the months to get this right.

  • They take training, they take lessons with me, but they really find it hard to get this sound consistent on.

  • They might find that sometimes they're pronouncing it right, but not all the time.

  • This is where muscle memory training becomes really important.

  • The next sound, which every non native has a problem with, is the th sound.

  • Well, there's actually two.

  • There's the voiced th on the invoice th now to pronounce the's to sounds, the tongue has to go between the teeth like this, right?

  • This.

  • But I have many, many students who pronounced the word this as dis think as Sink or Tink.

  • And it's a really Shiyu because a native pronounces the th sound correctly with the tongue between the teeth.

  • Every time.

  • Now, there are some parts of the UK where it's more common in the dialect and the accent to say, Think instead of think Parts of London have this style of speaking, but it's not recommended for a learner to speak like this.

  • I'd recommend someone who's learning a British accent to pronounce the th sound with the tongue between the teeth every time.

  • Now, remember when we pronounce the th sound.

  • If we're talking very, very fast, there is a technique I taught in a previous lesson, which is that you can just tap the back of your top teeth.

  • Just tap the sharp edge off your top teeth to create a sound.

  • It's very, very quick, Okay, but it's really really useful to do this when you're talking fast, because sometimes it really is quite difficult to get your tongue between the teeth every single time.

  • But please try and do it when you can, because you will stop sounding like a non native really fast.

  • If you can consistently do this, it's very, very easy to know that someone is a non native or that their English pronunciation isn't very good.

  • Andi.

  • It's usually with the th sound that we can tell immediately.

  • On the other.

  • Number three is quite abroad.

  • A big issue.

  • It's the letter R when we do on when we don't pronounce it.

  • Now the R is, er er in words like red rat travel, right?

  • But sometimes we don't pronounce it.

  • For example, a word like work.

  • We say work, not work Now, lots of students, when they first start learning with me, they have a problem where they pronounce the are quite a lot.

  • They'll say, work or course or here instead of here.

  • Also, they might say, my teacher instead of my teacher, I say teacher okay or doctor.

  • Now we've talked about the Schwab a lot on this channel, and that's because it's about 30 to 40% of British English, and it replaces the letter R ah lot, particularly at the end of words hung relaxed in the middle of the mouth on the mouth is very relaxed.

  • It's the easiest sound to make in English.

  • It's just a in a word, like teacher doctor.

  • Any time a word finishes with an early American sound or international English sound, which you might have learned in school, British people pronounce it as a, but also the R is replaced by lots of different vowel sounds.

  • For example, as I said, work, the R is replaced with an ER sound course.

  • The R is replaced with an or sound, even with a diff thong such as air, for example, the word share.

  • We don't say share, we say share.

  • We're replacing it with what we call a diff thong, a word like car.

  • We don't pronounce the R at the end, So vowels replaced the letter R a lot.

  • When my students first joined the course.

  • They find it really difficult to know when we do and when we don't.

  • Ah, quick tip is that we actually only pronounce the letter R when there is a vowel sound after it.

  • So a word like travel.

  • Yes, we will pronounce the er travel.

  • That's because after the R is a vowel sound.

  • But ah, word like pork, for example.

  • We don't pronounce the R because after the r is a which is a continent sound.

  • Okay, so we're not going to pronounce the R.

  • And also, of course, we don't pronounce the R at the end of words really important to know that.

  • So I guess the final 0.3.

  • What I've been trying to explain is that my students have a problem with when we do and when we don't pronounce the letter R.

  • But that really problem generally is how to pronounce the vowels.

  • How to use the vowels to replace the letter are now.

  • There are lots of other very, very common mistake's, which my students from all over the world makes, such as things to do with intonation and stress, other particular vowel sounds which are very, very common that they make mistakes with.

  • There are lots and lots of things which tend thio kind of trend with all of my students and I can't talk.

  • Talk about all of those today.

  • But if you do want me to make another video about this kind of topic, please let me know.

  • And maybe I'll make a video with another three common mistakes that my students make on.

  • If you really need help with your pronunciation, you want to talk with me directly and learn from me with voice messaging on, of course, learn how to speak with a British English accent.

  • Then you conjoined my pronunciation course by clicking the link below.

  • E.

  • T.

  • J english dot com I can't wait to meet those of you who join and help you achieve your goals.

  • If not, you can find lots of useful videos on this channel about pronunciation and British English.

  • As always, it's been a pleasure.

  • And cheers, guys.

  • Bye bye.

  • Thanks.

I promise you, if you can stop making these three really common mistakes, you will stop sounding like a non native.

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