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...
04 Jan How to Pronounce “January” Correctly
Many of you may be inadvertently leaving out an essential component (or two) in the word “January.” One thing that’s interesting about this word is that almost every one of...