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  • If you're like most people, you're probably concerned that

  • you're not pronouncing words correctly in English.

  • After all, when we're speaking another language, it can be hard to know if the sounds that

  • we hear inside our heads are actually coming out correctly.

  • In my case, worrying about my accent kept me from speaking confidently for many years.

  • That's why I emphasize helping you speak more clearly so that you're more easily understood

  • by native English speakers.

  • I want you to feel more confident than I did when speaking Spanish.

  • In this video, I'm going to share three reasons you may be mispronouncing words in English.

  • My goal is to help point out these particular mistakes so that you can start focusing attention

  • on them, work on them, improve them so that you can feel a little more confident that

  • you're communicating as clearly as possible.

  • So let's talk about the three reasons you may be mispronouncing words in English.

  • Number one, you're making each and every syllable the same length.

  • This is a super common problem for non-native English speakers.

  • English is what we call a stress-timed language.

  • In a stress-timed language, the rhythm is measured by the beats in between stressed

  • syllables, and I'll talk about that in just a moment.

  • Other languages are syllable-timed languages.

  • This means that the beats are counted by each syllable being more or less the same length.

  • Take a moment and consider this question.

  • Is your language a syllable-timed language or a stress-timed language?

  • Chances are you speak a syllable-timed language.

  • So that means when you're speaking English, you're making each syllable the same length.

  • This means that you're probably mispronouncing the word.

  • In English, words include stressed syllables, unstressed syllables, and reduced syllables.

  • Each word has a syllable that receives the most stress.

  • This is when one syllable is longer, louder and higher in pitch.

  • I'm sure you can understand why, if you're making each syllable exactly the same length,

  • you're not pronouncing words in English correctly.

  • When we have a stressed syllable, the vowel sound is going to be incredibly clear and

  • easy to understand.

  • Like I said, it's longer, louder and higher in pitch.

  • Longer words may also include unstressed syllables.

  • This is where these syllables are a little bit shorter,

  • but the vowel sound is still clear.

  • You'll also hear reduced syllables.

  • This is when we make the vowel sounds sound like the schwa, which is the "uh" sound in

  • "about," or it sounds like "i."

  • We're not going to go into too much depth on word stress here in this video, but if

  • you want more guidance, please be sure to check out my free email course, Sound More

  • Natural in Just Five Days at soundmorenatural.com.

  • To pronounce words more accurately, you need to pay attention to the stressed syllable.

  • One syllable will be longer, louder and higher in pitch.

  • Let me just tell you that one of the reasons I have an accent when I speak Spanish is that

  • I'm still stressing syllables like I would in English.

  • Spanish tends to have more even syllables.

  • And in order to reduce my accent, I'm going to have to reduce the stress that I use naturally

  • as a native English speaker.

  • It doesn't sound natural in Spanish!

  • So now that you're aware of the importance of making sure one syllable is longer, louder

  • and higher in pitch, let's talk about reason number two.

  • The second reason you may be mispronouncing words in English is that you're stressing

  • the wrong syllable.

  • Since you've probably been listening to English for years, whether you're listening to music,

  • watching TV or movies, or even interacting with native English speakers, your ear has

  • started to adjust to stress.

  • You know it exists.

  • But if you're mispronouncing a word, it may not actually be your articulation of sounds,

  • the particular sounds.

  • You may actually be putting stress on the wrong syllable.

  • A common example I hear is the word "hotel."

  • Many non-native speakers stress HO-tel, they put stress on the first syllable.

  • This may be interference from their native language

  • or how it's pronounced in their native language.

  • But in American English we pronounce the word "hotel" with stress on the second syllable.

  • You'll notice that "tel" is longer, louder and higher in pitch: ho-TEL.

  • A longer example is the word "experience."

  • Some people stress the first syllable EXperience, but it's exPERience.

  • You want to make sure that syllable - exPERience - is longer, louder and higher in pitch.

  • If you shift around the stress, the word is going to sound off even if you pronounce every

  • single vowel and consonant correctly.

  • Another example - education, we stress the "a": eduCAtion.

  • Sometimes people stress a different syllable like EDucation and it doesn't sound natural.

  • You can hear it sounds a little weird.

  • EduCAtion: make sure you stress the correct syllable.

  • Another related example: university.

  • Sometimes people say UNiversity.

  • Native English speakers say uniVERsity.

  • If you don't stress the correct syllable, it may be a little hard to understand you

  • and it's going to make the word sound "off."

  • A third reason you may be mispronouncing words in English is that you are substituting a

  • consonant from your native language.

  • At times, there is some overlap between the consonant sounds you use in your native language and

  • we use in English, but at times they're similar, but not quite right.

  • When you're first learning a language, it's very common to find a similar sound,

  • to find a similar mouth position.

  • This helps make it a little easier to try to get the sound out correctly, but as you

  • continue to advance and you want to improve how you sound and reduce your accent, you're

  • going to need to stop substituting these intermediate sounds.

  • In fact, sometimes the sound you're using from your native language

  • isn't exactly the same way we would form the sound in our mouths in English.

  • So it comes out sounding like an intermediate sound.

  • A super common example for speakers of Asian languages is substituting the "l" sound for

  • the "r" sound or the "r" sound for the "l" sound.

  • Both of those sounds are kind of in the same position in your mouth.

  • I'm not going to get into too many details here, but just pay attention when you say

  • the word "really," are you making sure to say "really" like we would in English, putting

  • the "r" inside our mouth, that American "r" and sticking your tongue out to make that

  • "l" sound: really.

  • An example for Spanish speakers is the "v" sound in the word "very."

  • Sometimes people substitute the "b" sound like in berry and instead of saying very,

  • they say berry without putting the "v," putting your teeth on your lip.

  • A lot of people struggle with the "th" sound.

  • Instead of saying "three," they say "tree," or instead of saying "thing," they say "ting."

  • They're substituting a different sound that's close enough in order to

  • get as close to the word as possible.

  • And while this may not affect whether or not somebody can understand you, it doesn't sound

  • like the way a native speaker would say it.

  • A good way to practice these sounds is to look up minimal pairs and practice distinguishing

  • between these two sounds.

  • Of course, there may be more reasons that you're mispronouncing words in English, but

  • I just wanted to give you a few ideas of what to pay attention to so you can get started

  • reducing your accent.

  • So let's review the three reasons you may be mispronouncing words in English.

  • First, you may be making each syllable exactly the same length.

  • Like I said, English is a stress-timed language.

  • That means that one syllable is longer, louder and higher in pitch.

  • In order to create the natural rhythm of English, you're going to need to make sure one syllable

  • is longer.

  • The second reason is that you may be stressing the wrong syllable even if you're aware of

  • word stress and you're starting to include it in your speech.

  • If you're mispronouncing a word, it's not always because you're NOT using stress.

  • It's because you're using stress on the wrong syllable, so you may need to check your stress

  • on words you find difficult to pronounce.

  • Last, you may be mispronouncing a word because you're substituting a related consonant or

  • related sound in your native language.

  • You may need to just practice how to move your mouth through the right shape in order

  • to pronounce the sound the way it is in English.

  • For more tips on how to reduce your accent, please be sure to check out the links in the

  • description below.

  • I've included a playlist that will help you get started with accent reduction in English.

  • Once again, I am Kim from englishwithkim.com.

  • I'm your guide to the essential communication skills you need to sound more natural in English.

  • If you like this video, please give it a thumbs up and share it with a friend.

  • Don't forget to hit subscribe and click the bell for notifications

  • if you want to be notified of my new videos.

  • Have a good one - goodbye!

If you're like most people, you're probably concerned that

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