English Pronunciation | Sound Like a Native English Speaker

There are some key tips to remember throughout this course and as you continue to work on fluency. 

These are:

1. Never speak flatly, like a robot. 

2. Natural English is blended. Words are often not pronounced separately. 

3. You have to be very aware of how native English speakers talk, and how you talk.

4. Recording yourself is a great way to find issues with fluency. 

5. There are rules, but not all of them work. 

6. Relax!

Blending means connecting the ending sound of one word with the beginning sounds of the next. By blending sounds (which all native English speakers do), your sentences can flow more easily and you can sound more natural. One simple kind of blending is for words with common consonants or vowels. When the ending consonant or vowel sound of the first word is the same as the beginning of the second, the two words will generally be glued together when you say them.

When words don't share common consonant or vowel sounds, jumping form one word to the next can make the sentence sound more smooth and natural. In order to do this, you have to rethink the separation of words. In fact, to sound more fluent when speaking, you can jump from one word to the next by speaking the last sound of one word as though it were the first sound of the next.

The 'T' sound is a pretty hard sound and often stops the flow of the sentence and decreases speed. However, there are some different forms of the 'T' which are much softer and easy to use. These sounds are used in specific places, and there are rules about where these forms should go, but it's also important to remember that rules in English don't always work. Rules in English are general guidelines.

Intonation is the way the voice rises and falls in a sentence. Intonation is important because it helps people understand what you mean. If you don't use the right intonation for a question, for example, others may not know that you asked a question (only because of the intonation you used). Intonation can also help to clearly separate the beginnings and endings of sentences, and keep you from sounding like a robot.

Tone is the way the voice rises and falls--the pitch of the voice, especially for individual words. Different words can take on different meanings depending on the tone that is used. Some tones are used to express simple meanings, and sometimes to express more complicated things, like feelings. Tone is connected to culture and may be used differently by different native English speakers, so it's best to simply get the feel for how tone is used in different social situations.

Stress is the focus, the power, that is put on a word when speaking. Stress usually involves speaking the word more loudly and stretching the word out, so that it is pronounced more slowly. In English, we stress words that are important in the sentence and leave less important words unstressed. Stress is also important for keeping our sentences interesting, to keep people from falling asleep when we are speaking. Often, grammar words that aren't key to the whole meaning of the sentence are pushed together and spoken very quickly.

One sentence can have many possible meanings when different words in the sentence are stressed.

Listen to the reading of this short article and then try to read it yourself. Record yourself and keep practicing until you can read it very smoothly.

Tongue twisters are short sentences or poems that are difficult to read because many of the sounds in the words are the same or similar. Tongue twisters are a great way to get used to speaking continuously and making English sounds without thinking about how to make them. Tongue twisters are basically muscle memory exercises. Muscle memory is what your muscles know to do after extended repetition. If you practice speaking quickly, soon you won't have to think about how to make all the sounds you need to make, your mouth will just make them.

Speaking freely, ideally in a conversation with a native English speaker, is the absolute best way to improve fluency. In conversation, you have to be able to think about what you want to say, and then say it. But, sometimes it's hard to think about both what you want to say and how you want to say it. So, to truly improve fluency, you have to practice both thinking and speaking at the same time. You have to get used to talking without any preparation. Do this regularly and a deep discussion with a native English speaker will be easy.

If you want to be a fluent English speaker, you have to practice a lot; you have to speak as much as you can. But, you have to practice in the right way, and to improve the flow and natural sound of your speaking. This is essential if you want to master what we covered in this course: linking words, stress, jumping from word to the next, how to say the 'T' sound correctly, and of course how to put these skills into practice. 

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Feel free to take this course again. Keep working and you'll be totally fluent in no time. Good luck and thank you for taking this course!