5 Simple Tips to Improve Your English Pronunciation

Improving your English pronuciation can feel like banging your head against a wall sometimes... especially when you think about stuff like silent letters, weird spelling rules that make no sense, and tricky sounds. It's not impossible though! If you have the right strategies, you can make improvements to your pronunciation, which helps you to sound more natural and communicate more clearly in English.

Today, I want to share 5 pretty simple tips that will help you improve your English pronunciation skills. These techniques will help you be understood more clearly when speaking in English which will mean you have better conversations and boost your confidence!

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1. Learn the International Phonetic Alphabet 

The first thing you need to do is learn the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). It is one of the most powerful tools you can use to pronounce stuff correctly in English. We all know that English spelling is a terrible way of working out how to pronounce things in the correct way, so we are going to need another plan if you want to do it correctly. That is where the IPA comes in.

You can think of the IPA as like the alphabet for pronunciation. Each symbol is connected to a specific sound and they are used to show what sounds you should make to pronounce any word that you might come across in English.

This means guessing what a word should sound like based on crazy spelling rules is a thing of the past!

Why it helps:

• English spelling makes no sense when it comes to pronouncing words correctly. IPA fixes this problem. Looking at you "colonel" (/ˈkɜːr.nəl/)
• Each symbol is connected to a sound and it never changes, unlike the alphabet where the letter can have lots of different ways to pronounce it. 

How to use it:

• Learn the symbols and the sounds they are connected to. This way you can be sure how to make the sounds correctly in English.
• IPA is listed in dictionaries to help you nail the pronunciation of words you are learning in English. 

2. Focus on Syllable Stress

One thing people struggle with when it comes to speaking English is that it is a stress-timed language. This means that not all syllables are equal. Some are pronounced strongly with emphasis and some are weak. This is a bit different to languages like Japanese where each syllable has the same amount of stress.

When it comes to pronunciation, if you put the stress in the wrong place, it is going to sound pretty weird. It can even change the meaning of the word in some cases. Especially words that have only two syllables. Look at these words that can be a verb or a noun...

• Present:
  • Noun: PRE-sent (/ˈprɛz.ənt/)
  • Verb: pre-SENT (/prɪˈzɛnt/)
• Record:
  • Noun: RE-cord (/ˈrɛk.ɔːd/)
  • Verb: re-CORD (/rɪˈkɔːd/)

How to practise syllable stress:

• Look up the corect stress using the IPA in the dictionary.
• Clap, hum, or tap out the stressed syllable in a word.
• Overly stress the stong sound at first to make sure you are doing it correctly

3. Learn to Make the Sounds Properly

English has 44 different sounds that we use (or 45, depending on who you ask) and some of those sounds probably don't exist in your langugage. This means you will find some sounds difficult to make correctly. 

For example, sounds like th, schwa (/ə/), and the r sound can be a bloody nightmare for non-natives to wrap their lips around at first. The sounds that you find difficult will vary depending on your native lanuage and experience, but here are some sounds you can practice to improve your overall pronunciation.

• "th" sound:
  • Voiced: this /ðɪs/
  • Voiceless: think /θɪŋk/
• Schwa (/ə/): 
  • About: /əˈbaʊt/
  • Support: /səˈpɔːt/

How to improve individual sounds:

• Use things like shadowing or my pronunciation power pack to practice individual sounds
• Record yourself speaking and compare it to native speakers.

4. Be Careful With Weak and Strong Forms

Lots of people who learn English don't realise that some words have more than one way of pronouncing them. It kinds depends on what their role in the sentence is. It tends to be words that are function words, which means that are used for grammar, rather than meaning. I'm talking about stuff like to, for, and and.

If you look up these kinds of words in the dictionary, you will find two different pronunciations listed. One is the strong form and the other is the weak form. Learning how to pronounce it both ways as well as when each one should be used will really help you sound more natural when speaking.

Here Are Some Examples:

• To:
  • Weak: /tə/ ("I’m going to /tə/ the shop.")
  • Strong: /tuː/ ("I need you to /tuː/ listen.")
• And:
  • Weak: /ən/ ("Bread and /ən/ butter.")
  • Strong: /ænd/ (I want both fish and /ænd/ chips).

How to practise weak sounds:

• Listen to native speakers and notice how they use weak and strong forms.
• Repeat phrases slowly, then speed up to match natural connected speech.

5. Practice Regularly with Native Input

If you really want to improve your pronunciation, then you are going to need regular, consistent practice... Ideally using native speaker input. Listening to how native speakers make individual sounds, use connected speech, and deal with stress is one of the best ways to pick up these difficult techniques.

This is the best way to learn and use natural pronunciation patterns, and the best part is that using the internet, you can easily find native materials to practice with. Here are some ideas to get you started.

Ideas for stuff to help you practice:

• Shadowing: Listen to native speakers and copy their speech as closely as possible.
• TV Shows and Podcasts: Choose English content that interests you and focus on how words are pronounced.
• Language Partners: Speak with other English speakers who can give you feedback.

Bonus Tip: Give yourself a break!

Improving your pronunciation is not something that will happen overnight. It is going to take a long time and a lot of effort. On this journey, you are going to have ups and downs and that is totally fine. Celebrate the small wins when they come along and remember that even native speakers mess it up too sometimes. 

Final Thoughts

Even though it is difficult, improving your pronunciation is a great way of boosting your confidence and the chances of being understood when you are speaking in English. The five tips in this article are a great place to get started.

If you need a bit of help practicing your pronunciation skills and getting to grips with IPA transcriptions, you should try my Pronunciation Power Pack course. This 7 day email course will send you daily activities and materials to help you get to grip with British English pronunciation! Click the image below to get started!