How to Pronounce ALL ENGLISH Sounds: American English Lesson

Hi, I'm Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.

Are you ready to practice all the sounds in English?

Let's do it.

Are you ready to exercise your pronunciation muscles?

I hope so, because today we're gonna go through all 44 sounds of English.

There's a little bit of controversy about how many sounds are actually in English, but

let's just stick with the standard 44 and practice together.

This is what I suggest.

I want you to listen to what I'm saying, but also I want you to pay attention to my lips,

my tongue, my teeth, my facial muscles, because I want you to try to imitate that as best

as you can.

Do you think that just listening to my pronunciation is gonna help your pronunciation?

Not really.

You need to speak out loud, so I challenge you to repeat with me and try to speak during

this lesson.

That's gonna be the best way for you to improve.

Are you ready?

Let's go.

Five short vowel sounds.

Short A, a, a, apple, after, a, e, e, every, pen, e, i, i, interest, busy, English.

Do you notice that some of these words don't have an I that makes that short I sound?

Watch out for those words because English isn't always consistent, but the sound "i"

is there.

A, a, October, water, ah.

U, u, under, fun, u.

Let's go into six long vowel sounds.

A, A, make, flavor, A. E, E, feet, evening, E. I, I, lie, night, I. O, O, over, open,

O. U, U, unique, rescue, U. Ooh, ooh, flu, flu, group, ooh.

Let's go into 18 consonant sounds.

Like we saw before with those short vowel sounds, sometimes the consonant sounds are

not represented by the letter that you think.

So, just watch out for that different color over here so that you can see that the sound

is represented by those letters.

B, b, bat, bear, bubbles, b.

C, c, care, kindness, c.

D, d, dad, different, better.

What's happening here with these two Ts?

They're changing to a D sound in American English.

Often when there's a T surrounded by vowels, those Ts will change to Ds.

Let's practice that one more time.

Better, better.

F, F, fan, phone, often, enough, F. G, g, get, guest, egg, g. H, h, hat, happy, who.

J, j, jewelry, giraffe, edge, j.

L, L, life, love, laughter, L. Sometimes you see that motto on some girly signs.

Life, love, laughter.

M, M, map, summer, some, M. N, N, funny, nose, note.

Listen to what happens when I hold my nose and try to say an N. Do you think it's possible?

Why don't you try with me?

It's almost impossible to say an N, so make sure that there's a slightly nasal sound.

Your nose is important to say N, N. P, p, pig, please, flip, p.

R, r, run, carrot, r.

S, s, sun, circle, pace, course, s.

T, t, top, watched.

What about the word sweater?

There is a T, but like we talked about in American English that T is gonna change to

a D, like the word better.

Sweater, not a T. V, v, Vanessa, five, of, V. W, w, went, quick,

why, w.

Y, y, yellow, yes, yay, y. Z, z, zip, scissors, his, z.

Let's go into seven diagraphs.

Ch, ch, touch, chin, ch.

Sh, sh, ship, shape, sh.

Do you know what ship shape means?

It means clean and tidy.

My house is ship shape.

Sh, sh.

Th, th, thin, Thursday, th.

Th, Th, this, that, these, those, th.

Wh, wh, whip, when.

Personally, I don't say this.

This is not commonly used, but it's one of the 44 sounds.

Sometimes some people will pronounce the W and the H when they say when, whip.

This is quite uncommon, but I wanted to include this in case you hear it.

Personally I don't really recommend using it, but you might hear this.

Ng, ng.

Make sure you use your nose.

Ng, ng, sing, bring, going, ng.

Nk, nk, sink, blink, crank, nk.

Now let's go onto three R controlled vowels.

Er, er, bird, turn, her, er.

Ar, ar, park, dark, ar.

Or, or, fork, pork, or.

And finally, let's go onto some special sounds and diphthongs.

Oi, oi, boy, toy.

This is a diphthong, which means it's a vowel that slides into another sound.

We practiced that with the word boy.

Do you see how my lips are changing?

Boy.

Boy.

Great.

We can do that with toy.

Toy.

Ow, ow, owl, ouch, ow.

Oo, oo, cool, pool, oo.

Aw, aw, jaw, haul, aw.

Zh, zh, television, zh.

How did you do?

Did you exercise your pronunciation muscles?

Now I have a question for you.

I want to know in the comments which sound was the most difficult for you.

If you want to take it to the next level, include in your comment a couple words that

use that sound so that you can practice that.

Thank you so much for learning English with me and I'll see you again next Friday for

a new lesson here on my YouTube channel.

Bye.

The next step is to download my free e-book, Five Steps to Becoming a Confident English

Speaker.

You'll learn what you need to do to speak confidently and fluently.

Don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel for more free lessons.

Thanks so much.

Bye.