English Pronunciation and Language Lessons by ElementalEnglish.com

Practice your intonation -- the musical pattern at the end of your sentence -- going down when asking wh-questions.

Practice the falling intonation pattern in your speech that tells the listener that you are done with a statement.

Practice the three ways of saying the plural "s" ending in English: [s], [z] and [ɪz].

This English pronunciation lesson will practice connecting the [uw] vowel sound to words that follow.

Native English speakers convey meaning in their sentences with pitch -- the ups and downs and the musical notes of their sentences. Learn how to avoid being monotone, and go beyond correct grammar and vocabulary to express yourself.

Connected speech is most clearly heard when we connect a consonant to a vowel. However, sometimes this consonant-vowel linking comes when two words are connected by two vowels. Learn how to connect vowels in this lesson.

Practice connected speech in this lesson with the sentence "Life is like a box of chocolates" to help you speak with more rhythm and musicality, like a native English speaker.

Native Arabic speakers tend to have difficulty in distinguishing the [b] and [p] sounds when speaking English. Practice these sounds (and vowels) in this lesson.

English speakers unconsciously add more musicality and flow to their speech by inserting sounds like [w] and [y] into words.

Thanksgiving is one of the most special days of the year for the American family. It marks the official start of the holiday season in the USA!

You may have noticed that a transformation happens when a word ending in [d] is followed by a word that begins with a [y].

Pronouncing numbers correctly is important in America, a culture that is always thinking about money and time. There is more than one way to say numbers, which may change in different contexts.

This is an English vocabulary lesson: a list (in alphabetical order) of the 50 states that make up the United States of America, plus the District of Columbia, better known as Washington, D.C.

A very simple lesson! Here is a list of how English speakers say the numbers 0 to 100.

Speaking clearly and being understood when speaking English isn't just about pronouncing vowels and consonants correctly, or even using the correct rhythm, stress and connected speech pronunciation rules. Another key to speaking clearly and being understood is pausing between groups of words in your sentences. That means, native English speakers do not speak continuously. In fact, they take tiny pauses (meaning, they don't speak for a fraction of a second) between groups of words. Why Pause? Give the listener time to understand your words. Emphasize one main word in a group of words. (1) Taking a very short pause between groups of words (called "thought groups") gives your listener the opportunity to digest, take in and understand what you have already said, without having to worry about what you are going to say next. Example Compare the pronunciation of the following two sentences. "Why would you go to school when you could work and earn money?" versus "Why would you go to school  /  when you could work  /  and earn money?" The second sentence is much easier to understand--even for a native speaker--because I very slightly paused between thought groups, those groups of words that presented a thought together. This allowed the listener to digest and understand each part of the sentence before going on to the next part of the sentence. Remember, the pause is very short and quick, but very effective. Pausing + Stress Pausing is also necessary to be understood, because when starting a conversation, English speakers unconsciously emphasize the last content word of the thought group. Therefore, the last content word of the thought group will be pronounced with more stress and a higher pitch. Example I didn't just say: "Why would you go to school  /  when you could work  /  and earn money?" (2) In addition to pausing between thought groups, I emphasized the last content words of those thought groups. Here, I add extra stress to three nouns: "school", "work" and "money".   Listen and Repeat "Why would you go to SCHOOL  /  when you could WORK  /  and earn MOney?" Did you hear that I paused and added a bit of extra stress to the last content words of each thought group? Listen and Repeat "Why would you go to SCHOOL  /  when you could WORK  /  and earn MOney?" Remember, in English, it is the speaker's job to be very clear. It is NOT the listener's job to work hard to understand the speech. So, pausing and stressing content words is an important way that English speakers can be clear.   Content words There are 7 categories of content words that you can emphasize in a thought group. Content words are those words that carry the meaning of a sentence. These include: nouns main verbs adjectives adverbs negatives ("not") wh-words ("what") interjections ("wow!") So, to review, when thinking about pausing when speaking English, we do two things: Pause between thought groups, groups of words that create a thought; and Emphasize the last content word in each thought group when starting a conversation.   Note that the rules of emphasis in a thought group will change if you are: contrasting ideas presenting new information correcting an error; or emphasizing agreement. Let's practice pausing between thought groups and emphasizing the last content word when starting a conversation.   Listen and Repeat Notice where I'm pausing and what content words I'm emphasizing. "Excuse me.  /  Where is the bathroom?"  "Now that I see it,  /  I think I prefer it in red." "She hasn't told me,  /  but I think she'll get married soon." "She's pregnant! / And due in October!" "I got a new puppy, but now I need to train her!" "Though Steve Jobs is irreplaceable / I think Apple can succeed without him." [Notice that I deleted the [h] in the "her" and "him."]   Sometimes, in English,