15 Aug Dispelling the Myth of Long and Short Vowels
It seems pretty basic. Some vowels are long, some vowels are short. But is this really the case? In the pronunciation classes I teach, my first order of business is to...
08 Aug 3 Limitations of Americans Giving Pronunciation Feedback
I used to get excited when I found out that a student of mine had an American English-speaking spouse. My initial thought (and maybe theirs too) was, “Oh, goody! An...
24 May Tools of the Trade
Meet my best buddy, Mr. Mouth. Creepy? Yes. Useful? Couldn’t possibly live without him. You can probably tell that this mouth is well loved. I didn’t quite realize how ragged he...
22 Mar A Pretty Easy Fix: Tense /i/ at the Ends of Words
I have given little teasers about the /i/ sound in other posts, but today the tense /i/ is the star of the show. Let’s talk about the tense /i/ sound at the...
15 Feb When “-ate” Doesn’t Say “ate”
While the “-ate” ending certainly looks like it should be pronounced the same as the word “ate” (e.g. “I ate a delicious doughnut.”) this is not always the case. There are...
05 Jan Can You or Can’t You?
Ah, the bane of every non-native speaker’s existence! The dreaded “can” and “can’t.” In American English, you need to use contractions in order to sound natural. Unless you are trying...