PRONUNCIATION VIDEO LESSONS

English Vowels: a,e,i,o,u, and sometimes y, w

When "y" or "w" appear at the beginning of a word or syllable, they are NOT vowels

English Consonants: b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, x, z, (and w & y if occurring at the beginning of a word or syllable)

Y and W:

As vowels: boy, cow

As consonants: you, wool

These rules, while generally true, do have exceptions. These rules give your students a place to start when they encounter a word that they do not know how to pronounce.

http://busyteacher.org/21353-7-secret-pronunciation-rules.html

A vowel followed by a single consonant at the end of a word is pronounced as a short vowel.

Pup has cup. Man has ham.

A vowel followed by two consonants at the end of a word is pronounced as a short vowel.

Stops, want, hand, wish, and bark.

If a vowel is the final letter in a word, it is pronounced as a long vowel.

1 syllable: go, pi, lo, be, and he;

Multiple syllable: ago and ego

If an e appears at the end of a word, it is silent. The preceding vowel (separated from the E by one or more consonants) will be pronounced as a long vowel)

Have students underline or cross out the silent e and mark the preceding vowel as long.

Hate, care, note, flute, bite, nice, and ape.

If two vowels appear next to each other in one syllable, the second vowel is silent and the first vowel is pronounced as a long vowel. Say the first vowel and ignore the second.

True, beat, train, leaf, and load.

A consonant blend is two or more letters that are pronounced as one sound in English.

Some blends are clearly two sounds which become one complex sound

(for example bl in black, tr as in atrophy). They often include the letters l, r, or s but not always.

Other “blends” are actually only one English sound which is spelled by using two or more consonants. These sounds include sh (wish), ch (chair), tch (watch) and others.

If one consonant follows a vowel in the middle of a word, it is pronounced as the first sound in the next syllable.

Pa-per, tele-phone, la-bor, lo-cate, pro-tect

(p, ph, b, c, t - are the first sounds in a syllable)

When two consonants follow a vowel in the middle of a word, one consonant is pronounced at the end of the first syllable and the other is pronounced at the beginning of the next vowel.

sub-ject, tal-ly, ab-ject, top-ple, and haz-mat.

5. When 2 consonants are joined together and form one new sound, they are a consonant digraph. They count as one sound and one letter and are never separated. Examples: "ch,sh,th,ph and wh".

6. When a syllable ends in a consonant and has only one vowel, that vowel is short. Examples: "fat, bed, fish, spot, luck".

7. When a syllable ends in a silent "e", the silent "e" is a signal that the vowel in front of it is long. Examples: "make, gene, kite, rope, and use".

9. When a syllable ends in any vowel and is the only vowel, that vowel is usually long. Examples: "pa/per, me, I, o/pen, u/nit, and my".

10. When a vowel is followed by an "r" in the same syllable, that vowel is "r-controlled". It is not long nor short. "R-controlled "er,ir,and ur" often sound the same (like "er"). Examples: "term, sir, fir, fur, far, for, su/gar, or/der".

8. When a syllable has 2 vowels together, the first vowel is usually long and the second is silent.

Examples: "pain, eat, boat, res/cue, say, grow".

NOTE:

Diphthongs don't follow this rule; In a diphthong, the vowels blend together to create a single new sound.

The diphthongs are:

"oi, oy, ou, ow, au, aw, oo" and many others.

http://www.really-learn-english.com/english-pronunciation-lesson-17-dipthongs.html

NAMES

http://www.pronouncenames.com/pronounce/lewes

Practice diphthongs:

[ei], [ai], [au], [oi], [ou]

http://usefulenglish.ru/phonetics/practice-diphthongs

Double consonant rule

There's a SHORT VOWEL before a double consonant.

Short vowel:

planner /ˈplænə(r) , dinner /ˈdɪnə(r)/, supper /ˈsʌpə(r)/, hopping /ˈhɒpɪŋ/

Long vowel:

planer /ˈpleɪnə(r), diner /ˈdaɪnə(r)/ , super,hoping /həʊpɪŋ/

When ga, go, gu exists, then "g" has the /g/ sound.

The bad guy got a gun and put a gag on the gal.

When ca, co, cu exists, then "c" has the /k/ sound.

The con man can put a cane into a cone and a cub into a cube.

When ge, gi, gy exists, then "g" has the /j/ sound. /dʒ/

The gentle gypsy put gel in her hair, then gyrated her hips.

Exceptions: give, gill, get, geyser, girl

When ce, ci, cy exists, then "c" has the /s/ sound.

The city center has a circle.

I will recite the cyclical cycles of circular cells.

'ea' (short e sound); bread, breath, dead, death, head, lead, read, wealth,

'ea' (long e sound); bead, beat, breathe, eat, feat, heat, lead, leak, meat, neat, read, treat, weak, wheat

'ea' (long a sound); break, great, steak

'ew' ( /u:/ ); blew, chew, crew, flew, grew,

Lewes /lu:ɪs/, Louise /lu:ɪs/, Louis /lu:ɪ/

'ew' ( /ju:/ ); knew, few, new, pew, stew, dew, mew,

'oo' (short sound //); book, foot, good, hood, hook, look, nook, rook, soot, took, wood,

'oo' ( /u:/ ); balloon, boot, cartoon, goose, loose, moose, loop, loot, moon, noon, poop, root, stoop, toon, toot,

'oo' (sound ʌ); blood, flood

'oo' (long o sound); boor, floor, door, moor

'ou' ('au' "short" sound); bough, grouse, house, louse, mouse, plough

'ou' ('ou' "long" sound); though

'ou' (sound ʌ); enough, rough, tough

'ow' ('aʊ' "short" sound); brown, cow, how, now, wow

'ow' (/əʊ/ "long" sound); blow, flow, grow, know, low, sow, tow,

-gh

In some words, ‘-gh’ is pronounced like ‘f’, as in laugh.

However, in some words it is silent, as in high.

H

For example, ‘head’.

However, in a few words, the ‘h’ is silent, as in hour, honour, etc.

X

Usually pronounced like in box (the sound is –ks).

However, when it is the first letter of a word, x is pronounced like ‘z’.

xeno·pho·bia /ˌzenəˈfəʊbiə/

Words that came from Greek and have a 'ph' in a single morpheme tend to use the /f/ pronunciation (except some cases like "Stephen" where it's /v/ — voiced instead of unvoiced). However, words that were formed by combining separate morphemes (such as uphill, loophole, haphazard, etc) have a 'ph' that belongs to two morphemes and does not represent an /f/ sound.

ph /f/

philosophy /fəˈlɒsəfi/

Stephen /sti:ven/

haphazard /hæp ˈhæzəd/

hip hop /ˈhɪp hɒp/

Accent Rules

When a word has more than one syllable, one of the syllables is always a little louder than the others. The syllable with the louder stress is the accented syllable. It may seem that the placement of accents in words is often random or accidental, but these are some rules that usually work.

1. Accents are often on the first syllable.

Examples: ba'/sic, pro'/gram.

2. In words that have suffixes or prefixes, the accent is usually on the main root word.

Examples: box'/es, un/tie'.

3. If de-, re-, ex-, in-,po-, pro-, a- is the first syllable in a word, it is usually not accented.

Examples: de/lay', ex/plore'.

4. Two vowel letters together in the last syllable of a word often indicates an accented last syllable.

Examples: com/plain', con/ceal'.

5. When there are two like consonant letters within a word, the syllable before the double consonants is usually accented.

Examples: be/gin'/ner, let'/ter.

6. The accent is usually on the syllable before the suffixes -ion, ity, -ic, -ical, -ian, -ial, or -ious, and on the second syllable before the suffix -ate. Examples: af/fec/ta'/tion, dif/fer/en'/ti/ate.

7. In words of three or more syllables, one of the first two syllables is usually accented. Examples: ac'/ci/dent, de/ter'/mine.

Basic Syllable Rules

1. To find the number of syllables:

---count the vowels in the word,

---subtract any silent vowels, (like the silent "e" at the end of a word or the second vowel when two vowels a together in a syllable)

---subtract one vowel from every diphthong, (diphthongs only count as one vowel sound.)

---the number of vowels sounds left is the same as the number of syllables.

The number of syllables that you hear when you pronounce a word is the same as the number of vowels sounds heard. For example:

The word "came" has 2 vowels, but the "e" is silent, leaving one vowel sound andone syllable.

The word "outside" has 4 vowels, but the "e" is silent and the "ou" is a diphthong which counts as only one sound, so this word has only two vowels sounds and therefore, two syllables.

2. Divide between two middle consonants.

Split up words that have two middle consonants. For example:

hap/pen, bas/ket, let/ter, sup/per, din/ner, and Den/nis. The only exceptions are the consonant digraphs. Never split up consonant digraphs as they really represent only one sound. The exceptions are "th", "sh", "ph", "th", "ch", and "wh".

3. Usually divide before a single middle consonant.

When there is only one syllable, you usually divide in front of it, as in:

"o/pen", "i/tem", "e/vil", and "re/port". The only exceptions are those times when the first syllable has an obvious short sound, as in "cab/in".

4. Divide before the consonant before an "-le" syllable.

When you have a word that has the old-style spelling in which the "-le" sounds like "-el", divide before the consonant before the "-le". For example: "a/ble", "fum/ble", "rub/ble" "mum/ble" and "this/tle". The only exception to this are "ckle" words like "tick/le".

5. Divide off any compound words, prefixes, suffixes and roots which have vowel sounds.

Split off the parts of compound words like "sports/car" and "house/boat". Divide off prefixes such at "un/happy", "pre/paid", or "re/write". Also divide off suffixes as in the words "farm/er", "teach/er", "hope/less" and "care/ful". In the word "stop/ping", the suffix is actually "-ping" because this word follows the rule that when you add "-ing" to a word with one syllable, you double the last consonant and add the "-ing".

http://www.howcast.com/videos/500457-accent-training-terms-vocabulary-accent-training/

AUDIO EXERCISES

http://www.learnersdictionary.com/pronex/pronex.htm

http://www.fonetiks.org/

Pronunciation exercises

http://www.manythings.org/lar/

TH

www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTPfN_Q1G-I&list=PL81BCA0A2CB139CB7

E & I

www.youtube.com/watch?v=advUFEJhc3Y

4 Common Mistakes

www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUH5FahU778

GONNA, HAVETA, WANNA

www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJPdR7Kbl9k

How to understand native speakers' questions in English

DIFFERENT SOUNDS

www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1RPmY3Xkdc

www.youtube.com/watch?v=kur9zAMOkKc

SILENT LETTER

www.youtube.com/watch?v=oN1fP2Ffty4

Some other rules:

http://leonsplanet.com/phono.htm

http://english.glendale.cc.ca.us/phonics.rules.html

The set of rules:

Vowels

Consonants

A lot of exercises for practicing pronunciation and intonation:

http://usefulenglish.ru/phonetics/

SHWA

www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWes7irLOzI

Practice pronunciation

http://www.elementalenglish.com/lessons/

PRONUNCIATION VIDEO LESSONS