How to Pronounce Any Word in American English

I often get emails from users asking how to pronounce specific words. Today I'm going

to show you three different online resources that will help you figure this out on your

own. First, dictionary.com. Let's use the word 'attain'. The default on dictionary.com

is their own pronunciation guide. But you can see the link here, show IPA, and when

you click it, it brings up the international phonetic alphabet transcription of the word

--- the same pronunciation symbols that my website uses. So you can see here, 'attain'

begins with the unaccented schwa syllable. This little mark means that the next syllable

is stressed. So the stressed syllable begins with the T consonant, has the 'ay' as in 'say'

diphthong, and the N consonant. When you press the speaker icon, you can hear a short audio

clip of a native speaker saying the word. Attain. The next site I want to show

you is the Cambridge Dictionary of American English. So again, we'll look up the word

'attain'. Here you see the IPA transcription of the word. And again, there's a speaker

icon, where you can hear a different native speaker saying the word. Attain. So, in both

of these great resources, you can hear the word pronounced by a native speaker, but you

can also see the International Phonetic Alphabet transcription of the word. And here's a site

called howjsay.com. Again, we'll look at the word 'attain'. Attain. There's no transcription

here, but again you get a third opportunity to hear a different person saying the word.

To hear the word a second time, just move the cursor over the word again. Attain. The

default pronunciation for this site is British English. But for some words they will give

you both British English and American English. For example, on the word 'water'. Water, American,

water. One thing I really like about this site is that you can type multiple words separated

by a semicolon to bring them up in one batch. Then you can move quickly from audio file

to audio file. This will help you if you have multiple words that sound the same to you

--- if you're not quite sure how to differentiate the words. Seen, sing. I encourage you to

take advantage of these wonderful free resources on the web as you work on your pronunciation.

That's it, and thanks so much for using Rachel's English.