Struggling with English pronunciation? This big guide discusses tricky English sounds such as the terrible “th,” the lazy schwa, and the very confusing “i” and “ee”. (Ship or sheep, you say?) Plus it outlines common mistakes by several language groups. Whether you’re aiming for just being understood or seeking the ultimate near-native sound, these tips will help.

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Pronunciation Matters

Pronunciation is the bridge between knowing a language and being understood when you speak that language. And while pronunciation is a skill that we are built to effortlessly acquire as children, for adults trying to speak a second language, good L2 pronunciation does not come easily.

Even L2 speakers who have an advanced vocabulary and perfect grammar will struggle and encounter frustration when their intended message does not arrive as intended. What did you say? Excuse me? Can you repeat that? 

In business settings, the stakes are even higher. Mispronunciation can make you seem less competent or knowledgeable. That’s not fair, but it‘s a reality. For those who decide to tackle the issue of “better pronunciation,” which we can generally describe as accent reduction, the task is primarily one of creating new habits.   

The simple truth about your English pronunciation is that it’s based on your first language: your L1. As you learn your L2, your L1 programming informs your L2 sound production. So if you are Dutch and you see a TH (a sound that does not exist in Dutch) you’ll substitute it for something you do know. How about a T? Or a D? “And dat’s how it’s done” ;-). If “r”s are trilled in your language, when you read an R, you will, in your mind, trill it. And when you speak it, a trilled “r” will be produced. And if your language does not contain a schwa, you will clearly pronounce all the vowels you see. Except that we don’t do that in English. 🙁 

So the trick is to learn the rules of English pronunciation – what we say, how we say, and what we omit! And then practice this new way of speaking until it becomes a habit. If you do that very well, you might be called a near-native speaker. But don’t worry about that goal – in fact, please don’t lose all your accent! All you have to do is correct the things that are confusing your listeners. Remove the obstacles that keep them from understanding you. So what are some of the most common communication killers?

English Pronunciation Essentials

From vowels to consonants there’s a lot to think about when it comes to pronunciation.  Let’s begin with the schwa.

The Schwa Sound – Your New Best Friend

The schwa (ə) is the most common sound in English. It’s that relaxed “uh” sound in unstressed syllables, like the first syllable of “about” (ə-BOUT) or the second syllable of “sofa” (SO-fə). Mastering the schwa will make your speech sound more natural and fluent.

The schwa is especially important in reducing the stress on less important words in a sentence. For example, in the phrase “I can do it,” the word “can” is often pronounced with a schwa: “I kən do it.”

Practice sentence: “I’m going to the cinema to watch a movie.” (Notice how “to” and “a” are reduced to the schwa sound.)

The Tricky TH-Sounds

English has two “th” sounds that don’t exist in many languages:

• Voiced “th”: Found in words like “this,” “that,” and “breathe.” To produce it, place your tongue between your teeth and vibrate your vocal cords.
• Unvoiced “th”: Found in words like “think,” “thumb,” and “breath.” Use the same tongue position but without vibrating your vocal cords.

These sounds are challenging for many learners because they require a specific tongue placement that might feel unnatural at first. However, with practice, they’ll become second nature.

Practice sentence: “This Thursday, I think I’ll breathe deeply and relax.” (This sentence includes both voiced and unvoiced “th” sounds.)

Master the Vibrated TH Sound

Short and Long Vowel Sounds: Ship or Sheep???

English has both short and long vowel sounds, and distinguishing between them is essential for clear communication. For example:

• Short vowel: “ship” (short “i” sound)
• Long vowel: “sheep” (long “ee” sound)

Mixing these up can lead to misunderstandings. For instance, saying “I saw a ship” instead of “I saw a sheep” could confuse your listener.

Another tricky pair involves the short “oo” sound (as in “book”) and the long “oo” sound (as in “moon”). These words can be especially confusing because they often look similar in spelling but are pronounced differently:

• Short “oo”: “book,” “foot,” “good”
• Long “oo”: “moon,” “food,” “school”

Practice sentences: 

“The book is on the moon, and the food is in the school.” (This sentence contrasts short and long “oo” sounds.)

“The sheep is on the ship, eating chips.” (This sentence contrasts short and long vowels.)

“I beat the drum a bit before I left.” (This sentence contrasts “beat” and “bit.”)

Pro Tip: If you’re struggling with the “i” sound in words like “ship”, “bit” and “sit”, try replacing the “i” with a schwa.

Word Endings

When adding “-ed” to regular verbs (e.g., “edit” → “edited” or “watch” → “watched”), the pronunciation changes based on the final sound of the verb. Similarly, the pronunciation of “-s” or “-es” in plurals depends on the final sound of the noun. This is just a summary, so check out our post all about pronouncing word endings for more!

Pronouncing -ed Endings

Pronounce as “t”
When the verb ends in a voiceless sound: P, K, F, S, SH, CH, TH.

help → “helpt”
watch → “watcht”

Pronounce as “d”
When the verb ends in a voiced sound: B, G, V, Z, J, M, N, L, R, and vowels.

play → “playd”
call → “calld”

Pronounce as “əd” (extra syllable)
When the verb ends in T or D, an extra syllable is added.

want → “wantəd”
need → “needəd”

Pronounce Plural “s” endings

Pronounce as “s”
When the noun ends in a voiceless sound: P, K, F, TH (as in “thick”), SH.

cats → “cats”
books → “books”
cliffs → “cliffs”

Pronounce as “z”
When the noun ends in a voiced sound: B, D, V, TH (as in “this”), M, N, L, R, and vowels.

dogs → “dogz”
pens → “penz”

Pronounce as “əz” (extra syllable)
When a noun ends in S, Z, SH, CH, X, or J, the plural adds an extra syllable.

boxes → “boxəz”
judges → “judgəz”

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British vs. American English Pronunciation

English learners often notice that British and American English sound quite different. While both are correct, here are three general differences to keep in mind:

Vowel sounds: In British English, some vowels sound longer or more rounded. For example, the word “bath” is pronounced more like “bah-th” in British English, while in American English, it sounds like “ba-th” (with a shorter “a” sound, like in “cat”).

R sounds: In both British and American English, initial “r”s are pronounced clearly, in the same way.  However, the two diverge when we consider mid and final position “r”s. In American English, the “r” is pronounced clearly in all words, like in “car” or “hard.” In British English, the “r” is often silent unless it’s followed by a vowel. For example, “car” might sound more like “cah.”  Note that the technical term for the expression of “r”s in English is “rhoticity“.

T sounds: In both British and American English initial “t” sounds are pronounced clearly and in the same manner. For example, “Ted and Tina have time for tea”. In American English, however, the middle “t” sound in words like “butter” will generally sound like “d” meaning that “butter” will sound like “budder”.  So in British English we say “Betty Botter bought a bit of butter”, while in American we say “Beddy Bodder boughda bidda budder.”

Note that in Standard Southern British English all “t”s are clearly pronounced regardless of position.  However, mid position “t”s in certain British English dialects such as Cockney are often dropped altogether, so that a “bottle of water” is pronounced as, “bo-’l a wa-ah”. This phenomenon, known as the glottal stop (ʔ), happens when airflow is interrupted in the vocal tract.

While the two dialects certainly have their differences, they actually have a lot in common.  If your goal is to speak with a particular accent, then these differences must be observed.  However, if your goal is simply to sound better in English, we suggest that you don’t worry too much about it.  Just accept that your English may sound rather international, combining elements of both British and American English.

Common Pronunciation Mistakes by Language Group

The first step to correcting your mistakes is identifying them. Here are just a few examples of common English pronunciation mistakes made by speakers of different languages.  

Dutch Speakers

1. “V” and “w” sounds: Dutch speakers often confuse “v” and “w.” For example, “very” might sound like “wery.”
2. “Th” sounds: Dutch speakers often replace “th” with “d” or “t” (e.g., “this” becomes “dis”).
3. Short and long vowels: Words like “ship” and “sheep” can sound similar.
4. The “a” sound: The “a” sound in “man” sounds like “men”, “pan” sounds like “pen” and “bat” sounds like “bet”.
   Explore more tips for Dutch Speakers
5. Lack of flow: Words may sound a bit clipped without good word connections, also called an “underlying hum.”

Spanish Speakers

1. V and B sounds: Spanish speakers often pronounce “v” and “b” the same way, so “very” might sound like “berry.”
2. Silent letters: Words like “island” or “hour” can be tricky because Spanish doesn’t have silent letters.
3. Word endings: Adding an extra vowel sound at the end of words (e.g., “stop” becomes “stop-uh”).
4. No schwa: Spanish is a phonetic language, so there is no schwa.  Every vowel is its own sound.
5. Stress and rhythm: Spanish is syllable-timed, so English stress patterns can feel unnatural and therefore intonation may be somewhat flat.
6. “Th” sounds: While European (or Castilian) Spanish uses the “th” sounds, Spanish dialects outside of Spain do not, so this could be a challenge for South American speakers.
7. The “r” sound: In Spanish “r” is a consonant, meaning the tongue touches the occipital ridge, whereas in English the “r” does not touch.

French Speakers

1. “H” sounds: French speakers often drop the “h” sound, so “house” might sound like “ouse.”
2. Short and long vowels: Words like “ship” and “sheep” can sound similar.  The vowel sounds in “book”, “look” and “cook” may be confused with “boot”, “shoot” and “moon”.  The “a” sound in “man” may sound more like the schwa sound in “love”.
3. “th” sounds: Like Dutch speakers, French speakers often replace “th” with “z” or “s” (e.g., “this” becomes “zis”).
4. Stress and rhythm: Like Spanish, French is syllable-timed, so English stress patterns can feel unnatural and therefore intonation may be somewhat flat.

Japanese Speakers

1. “R” and “l” sounds: Japanese speakers often struggle to distinguish between “r” and “l,” so “light” might sound like “right.”  Because there is no “l” sound in Japanese, “l”s may be pronounced as “r”.  While some students may have figured out the “l” sound, it may still be confused with “r” in spoken English.
2. Consonant clusters: Words like “spring” or “street” can be difficult because Japanese doesn’t have many consonant clusters.
3. Vowel sounds: Japanese has fewer vowel sounds, so English vowels like “ship” and “sheep” can be hard to differentiate.  The schwa is typically overpronounced based on spelling, for example, pronouncing the “o” in “love” as in the word “of”.  
4. “R” and “d”: The Japanese “r” may sound like a “d” due to tongue tapping.
5. “Th” sounds: As Japanese has no “th” sounds, these can be difficult to pronounce.
6. “A” sounds: The “a” as in “cat” does not exist in Japanese and can therefore be challenging to pronounce.

Korean Speakers

1. “F” and “p” sounds: Korean speakers often replace “f” with “p,” so “fan” might sound like “pan.”
2. “V” and “b” sounds: Like Spanish speakers, Koreans may pronounce “v” as “b.”
3. Word endings: Korean speakers may drop final consonants, so “cat” might sound like “ca.”
4. “L” and “r”: Korean does not have an “l” or “r” sound, but rather something in-between.
5. “Th” sounds: Like Japanese, Korean has no “th” sound, so this is challenging to produce.
6. “A” sounds: In Korean, as in Japanese, there is no “a” as in “cat”.
7. Vowel sounds: The schwa is often overpronounced, and long and short vowel sounds (“ship” and “sheep”) are difficult to distinguish.
8. “R” and “d”: As with Japanese speakers, tongue tapping on the “r” sound makes it sound like “d”

Slavic Language Speakers (e.g., Russian, Polish, Czech)

1. “Th” sounds: Slavic languages don’t have “th” sounds, so speakers often replace them with “z,” “s,” “d,” or “t” (e.g., “this” becomes “zis” or “dis”).
2. Vowel reduction: Slavic languages often pronounce all vowels clearly, so reducing unstressed vowels (like the schwa) in English can be challenging.
3. Consonant clusters: Slavic speakers may add extra vowels to break up English consonant clusters (e.g., “spring” might sound like “suh-pring”).
4. Intonation: Russian intonation typically begins at the middle of a sentence, then descends from there.  Thus, Russians can sound rather downbeat in English.
5. “A” sounds: The “a” in “cat” doesn’t exist.
6. “O” sounds: “Hop” sounds like “hope”, and “clock” sounds like “cloak”

Pronunciation, Intonation and Connected Speech

Intonation: The Music of English

Intonation refers to the rise and fall of your voice when speaking. It’s what makes English sound lively and engaging. For example:

• Rising intonation: Used in yes/no questions (e.g., “Are you coming?”).
• Rising-falling intonation: Used in WH-questions, or open-ended questions (e.g., “Where are you GO-ing?”, or “How are you DO-ing?”)
• Falling: Used for statements. (“I was thinking of going to the movies.”)

Note that statements may rise to signal an incomplete thought, as in, “I was thinking of going to the mo-VIES… but it looks like it’s going to rain.”

Intonation and Parts of Speech

English relies on intonation to carry meaning. Important verbs and nouns will often get the most stress.  For example, “You ATE my CHOCOLATE!”

Word Stress: The Key to Natural Rhythm

English is a stress-timed language, which means certain syllables in a word or sentence are emphasized more than others. For example:

• In the word “COFFee”, the first syllable is stressed.
• In “comPUter”, the second syllable is stressed.

Getting word stress right is crucial because incorrect stress can confuse listeners. For instance, stressing the wrong syllable in “record” can change its meaning:

• REcord (noun): a vinyl disc or a documented account.
• reCORD (verb): to capture audio or video.

Practice sentence: “I need to record a record of the meeting.” (Notice how the stress changes the meaning of the word “record.”)

How do we stress syllables in English?  The syllable sounds longer, louder or higher in pitch.

Connected Speech: How Words Flow Together

Native speakers often link words together, which can make English sound fast and hard to follow. Here are some common features of connected speech:

• Linking: When the final sound of one word connects to the initial sound of the next (e.g., “go on” sounds like “go-won”).
• Elision: When sounds are dropped (e.g., “friendship” might sound like “frenship”).
• Assimilation: When sounds change to become more like neighboring sounds (e.g., “input” might sound like “imput”).

Practice sentence: “Can you go on and open the door?” (Notice how “go on” and “and open” are linked together.)

Pro Tip: Don’t allow any spaces to happen between your words, except when you’re choosing to pause.

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Great Advice for Everyone

1. Slow Down
   Speaking too quickly can lead to unclear pronunciation. Slowing down allows you to focus on each sound, syllable, and word. This is especially important for non-native speakers, as it gives you time to form sounds correctly and ensures your listener understands you. Practice speaking at a comfortable pace, prioritizing clarity over speed.
   
2. Use the Power of the Pause
   Pausing between phrases or sentences helps with pronunciation and rhythm. It gives you time to breathe, think, and emphasize key words. For example, instead of rushing through, say: “I need to go… to the store.” Pauses also make your speech sound more natural and confident.
   
3. Embrace the Schwa
   The schwa (ə) is the most common vowel sound in English, found in unstressed syllables. It sounds like a quick, relaxed “uh.” For example, in about (ə-‘bout) or sofa (so-fə), the schwa replaces a clear vowel sound. Learning to use the schwa will make your speech more natural and fluent, as native speakers often reduce unstressed vowels to this sound.
   
4. Maintain an Underlying Hum with Word Liaisons
   In connected speech, words often blend together. For example, “What are you doing?” might sound like “Whaddaya doin’?” Maintaining an “underlying hum” means keeping your voice flowing smoothly between words, especially when vowels and consonants connect. Practice linking sounds, such as in “go on” (sounds like “go-won”) or “pick it up” (sounds like “pick-it-up”).
   
5. Understand the Rules for Rhoticity
   Rhoticity refers to whether the “r” sound is pronounced in certain words. In American English, the “r” is always pronounced (e.g., car, hard). In British English, the “r” is often silent unless followed by a vowel (e.g., car → “cah,” but car engine → “car engine”). Understanding rhoticity helps you adapt your pronunciation to the variety of English you’re learning.
   
6. The Magic E
   The silent “e” at the end of a word changes the preceding vowel from short to long. For example:
   
   • hat → hate
   • bit → bite
   • hop → hope

Pro Tips for Better Pronunciation

1. Shadow native speakers: Find a podcast, series, or audiobook you enjoy and repeat what you hear, matching the speaker’s rhythm and intonation. Use the pause button to create mini lessons!
2. Record yourself: Listening to your own voice can help you identify areas for improvement.
3. Practice minimal pairs: Focus on words that differ by only one sound (e.g., “bat” vs. “bet” or “ship” vs. “sheep”).
4. Use pronunciation apps: Tools like The English Center’s Language Lab App can help you hear and practice correct pronunciations.
5. Work with an English Center pronunciation trainer.
6. Use a pronunciation book such as “Ship or Sheep“.

Practice Makes Perfect

Remember, even native English speakers have different accents. The goal isn’t to sound exactly like a native speaker but to be clearly understood. Keep practicing, stay confident, and most importantly – don’t be afraid to make mistakes!

Want to Practice More?

At The English Center, we specialize in helping learners like you improve their pronunciation. Whether you’re preparing for a presentation, an interview, or just want to sound more natural, we’ve got you covered. Book a session today and take your English to the next level!

“Ultimate Pronunciation Guide” by A Roberts & Brenda de Jong-Pauley MA, Director, The English Center, 2025

You might also enjoy reading our article, “30 English Pronunciation Tips”

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