Hello, my fellow pronunciation nerds! You know that awkward moment when you say a word in English, and the person you’re talking to gives you that look – the one that says they have no idea what you mean, so you try again. Still, no luck! Eventually, you just point at what you mean or switch to an easier word. Sound familiar to you?
Let’s fix that!
The secret is that pronunciation isn’t about sounding “perfect” or completely erasing your identity – it’s about making your English clear, natural, and easy to understand – no matter where you are.
And guess what?
You don’t need to be born in an English-speaking country to do that! With the right techniques and a bit of practice (I can help with both!), you can train your mouth, ears, and brain to pronounce English more smoothly.
Think of this guide as your personal pronunciation coach. We’re going to break down the trickiest sounds, master the rhythm of English, and even steal some secrets from native speakers. Ready to stop repeating yourself and start speaking with confidence?
What is pronunciation?
Before diving into techniques, let’s clarify what pronunciation really is.
Everyone has their own way of speaking, and that’s perfectly fine. However, non-native speakers often have pronunciation patterns influenced by their first language. These patterns can sometimes make English sound less natural or even cause misunderstandings (for example, confusing similar vowel sounds like ‘sit’ and ‘seat’). The goal here is not to eliminate your natural way of speaking but to adjust certain aspects so that your English is clear and you sound confident while speaking.
Train your ears first! Listen like a detective
One of the biggest mistakes learners make is trying to speak before they’ve trained their ears to hear the subtle differences in English sounds.
If you can’t hear the difference between two sounds, how can you expect to pronounce them correctly? For example, many learners mix up ‘ship’ and ‘sheep’ because they don’t have those exact vowel sounds in their native language.
How to train your ears:
- Listen to native speakers every day. Watch TV shows, listen to podcasts, or even eavesdrop on conversations (discreetly, of course!).
- Listen to advanced non-native speakers. Again, watch TV shows and listen to podcasts that also feature non-native English speakers – you can learn so much from them. Another great resource is TED and TEDx. TED speakers train for months before they give their final speech so they’re excellent people to learn from.
- Use minimal pairs. These are word pairs that sound similar but have one small difference (e.g. ‘bit’ vs. ‘beat’, ‘cot’ vs. ‘caught’, and ‘bat’ vs. ‘pat’).
- Slow things down. Try slowing down audio clips and paying close attention to the pronunciation. You can do this on YouTube by changing the playback speed!
The trickiest English sounds – how to fix them
Some English sounds just don’t exist in other languages, which makes them really tricky for non-native speakers. Here are some of the worst offenders:
- The ‘th’ sounds – Many learners say ‘think’ as ‘sink’ or ‘fink’, and ‘this’ as ‘dis’ or ‘zis’. To fix these sounds, place your tongue lightly between your teeth and blow air out. It may feel weird at first, but with practice, you’ll get the hang of it! Here’s a lesson on how to correctly pronounce the two ‘th’ sounds in English.
- Short vs. long vowels – ‘Hit’ and ‘heat’ are different words, but many learners pronounce them the same. Long vowels are held longer, while short vowels are quick and relaxed. To practise the vowel sounds, check out my ultimate guide to pronouncing English vowel sounds.
- The schwa sound /ə/ – This is the most common vowel sound in English, and it appears in words like “banana” (/bəˈnɑː.nə/). It’s weak, unstressed, and super important for sounding natural. Here’s a short lesson to learn how to pronounce the schwa correctly.
👉 Try recording yourself saying these words and comparing them to a speaker whose accent you like. Trust me, hearing yourself makes a huge difference!
Mastering English stress and rhythm – the secret to sounding natural
Even if you pronounce every word perfectly, if your stress and rhythm are off, you’ll still sound unnatural.
English is a stress-timed language, which means that some words and syllables are stronger than others.
For example:
- In PHO-to-graph, we stress the first syllable.
- But in pho-to-GRAPH-ic, the stress moves!
A lot of learners struggle with this because their native language stresses every syllable equally. But in English, we squish unstressed syllables together.
This also happens in sentences. For example, the sentence “she needs to buy some bread” has stress (meaning, more emphasis) on the words “she NEEDS to BUY some BREAD”. The smaller words, like ‘she’, ‘to’ and ‘some’, are all said very quickly and with the weak forms of the words.
How to practise stress and rhythm:
- Clap out the syllables. Try clapping on the stressed syllables in sentences. It feels silly, but it works!
- Mimic native and advanced speakers. Use the shadowing technique (we’ll talk about that next).
- Use tongue twisters. They force you to focus on stress and rhythm. Try this one: “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.” (here are lots of fun tongue twisters for you to practise!)
Shadowing – The best pronunciation exercise (seriously!)
If you’re not already shadowing, you need to start today. It’s one of the fastest ways to improve your pronunciation – and even helps you imitate English accents.
How to shadow:
1. Find a short video clip or podcast (my YouTube videos are designed to help you shadow me, as well as my podcast!).
2. Play one sentence, pause, and repeat it exactly as the speaker says it. Try to copy their pronunciation, stress, and intonation.
3. Keep repeating until you sound almost identical to the speaker.
It’s like karaoke but for pronunciation!
Connected speech – why do native speakers speak so fast?!
Ever feel like native speakers speak too fast? It’s not just speed, they’re actually blending words together using connected speech.
Some examples:
- Linking: “We start at eight” sounds like “we star ta teight”.
- Intrusion: “go on” sounds like “go won”.
- Assimilation: “nice to meet you” sounds like “nice to mee chuu”.
- Reduction: “It’s cold today” sounds like “it’s cole today” (YES! The ‘d’ can be silent in ‘cold’).
Listening to fast, natural speech will help you get used to these patterns. Try slowing down audio at first, then speeding it up as you improve.
Use technology to get instant feedback
Luckily, there are so many amazing resources that can help you improve your pronunciation:
- YouGlish: Type in a word and hear how native and advanced English speakers pronounce it in context.
- Forvo: A pronunciation dictionary with recordings from native speakers, so you can hear different accents.
- Google’s speech-to-text tool: Say a word and see if Google recognises it correctly. If not, adjust your pronunciation!
Get feedback from a qualified English pronunciation teacher
Practising alone is great, but at some point, you need real feedback from a qualified pronunciation speaker. I don’t recommend asking a native speaker to correct you, simply because native speakers don’t learn pronunciation rules – so they can’t explain the rules to you like a qualified pronunciation teacher can.
If you don’t have a teacher, try:
- Language exchange programmes. Talk to English speakers who want to learn your language! You can speak in English for 30 minutes and then switch to the other person’s language for 30 minutes to practise with each other.
- Online coaching. A pronunciation specialist can pinpoint exactly what you need to work on and give you the guidance and feedback to help you correct your mistakes and improve much faster. You can get personalised feedback on your pronunciation from my team of qualified English pronunciation teachers when you join Emma’s Pronunciation Hub!
- Asking friends or colleagues. If you have friends who speak English well, ask them to correct you when you mispronounce something
Be patient and keep practicing
I know it can feel frustrating when you’re not seeing progress right away, but improving your pronunciation takes time. The key is consistent, daily practice; even just 10-15 minutes a day will help!
Set small goals, like focusing on one difficult sound per week. And remember, even native speakers make pronunciation mistakes sometimes!
Your accent is part of who you are, and improving it doesn’t mean losing your identity. The goal is to make your English clearer, easier to understand, and more natural.
By training your ears, practising tricky sounds, mimicking English speakers, and getting real feedback from a pronunciation teacher, you’ll see huge improvements in how you sound.
And if you need extra help, check out my YouTube channel! I’ve got loads of free pronunciation exercises waiting for you!