Perfect Pronunciation

1.- Sound:
- school /sku:l/
- women /´wɪm.ɪn/
Consonants: /ɡ/,/l/,/t/,/s/
- Two Types of Sounds
Vowels: /a:/,/eɪ/,/I:/, /ʊ/

Use a online English dictionary to learn pronunciation:

Cambridge http://dictionary.cambridge.org/
5x5 technique: Learn the pronunciation of five words per day
Practice each word 5 times
2.- Stress
Word Stress (Syllable Stress)
- school /sku:l/ (1 syllable)
- women /´wɪm.ɪn/ (2 syllables)
- correct /kə ´rekt/ (2 syllables)
- banana /bə´næn .ə/ (3 syllables)
- afternoon /æf. tər´nu:n/ (3 syllables)

If you can stress words correctly, it will show that you have good pronunciation.
Learn word stress from a dictionary
/´wɪm.ɪn/ /´WɪM.ɪn/
/æf. tər´nu:n/ /æf. tər´NU:N/
3.- Tone
Tone (intonation) refers to the way the voice goes up and down when we speak.
When you speak English you might be using the intonation of your language.
To sound natural, you need to learn the tones of English.
English has two tones: rising tone
falling tone

Statement - Falling Intonation Yes /No qyestions - Rising Intonation

- I work as a teacher - Do you like ice cream?

Wh- Questions- Falling Intonation

- What´s your favorite color?

Asking for permission- Falling Intonation

- Would it be OK if I took the day off tomorrow?

Making an offer - Rising Intonation

- Do you want some coffee?

4.- Rhythm
Rhythm is the musical flow of a language.
If you want great pronunciation, you need to copy this rhythm.

“He lives with his wife on a farm in the village”.

“He LIVES with his WIFE on a FARM in the VILLAGE”.
“He ____with his ____on a ____in the ____”.
- Content Words (Function Words): We emphasize (stress) these words.
a.- nouns (Luis, sister, chair, glass etc.) Dad´s at the bank.
b.- verbs (to write, to speak, to go etc.) She went to the store.
c.- adjectives (boring, smart, funny etc.) He took the red car.
d.- adverbs (well, quicky, usually, often, He´ll be here soon
soon etc.)
- Grammar Words: We don´t stress these words instead say quickly and softly.
a.- Pronouns (he, she, it, our etc.)
b.- Prepositions (with, on, in, at, upon, beside etc.) He came with his friends.
c.- Conjuctions (and, but, so, if etc.) I´ll come if you want
d.- Determiners
articles (a,an & the), demostrative pronuns (this,that, tese & those)
Do you have the time?
e.- Auxiliary Verbs
- Primary Auxiliary Verbs (helping verbs) :
Do: do, does , did Have: have, has, had Be: am, is, are, was & were
The wall was painted yesterday. She has given up
You are speaking too.
- Modal Verbs Auxiliary:
Can - could May - might Shall - should Used to
Will - would Ought to - must need – dare
I can go tomorrow.
Three techniques for proper rhythm:
1.- Weak forms: for “Grammar Words”
Strong form Weak form – in a sentence we say
can /kæn/ can /kən/
and /ænd/ and /ənd/
for /fɔ:r/ for /fər/
we can meet tomorrow and discuss arrangements for the conference
/kən/ /ənd/ /fər ðə/
2.- Contractions:
I am I´m /aɪm/
She is She´s /ʃi:z/
I´m trying to call her but she´s not answering her phone
5.- Combinations:
going to /goʊ. ɪŋ tə/ /gə.nə/
want to /wa:n tə/ /wa:.nə/
have to /hæf tə/
should have /ʃʊd əv/ /ʃʊd.ə/
could have /kʊd əv/ /kʊd.ə/
would have /wʊd əv/ /wʊd.ə/
I´m going to visit my parents tomorrow.
/gə.nə/
Do yo want to have lunch with me?
/wa:.nə/
If I had studied more, I would´ve passed the exam.
/wʊd.ə/
The biggest pronunciation mistake is to stress all the words in a sentnces equally.
Learn to stress only the content words and un-stress the gramar words.