Conflicting English Alphabet sounds

A guide to some tricky sounds in English

Pronunciation Conflict

• For most of English learners, it is always concerning to sound natural when speaking to native speakers. Many ask themselves the reason why it is so difficult to speak English without an accent, which comes from the influence of your native language.

• In truth, the first step to speak a new language should always be learning individual pronunciation of the basic sounds to be able to eliminate the first language influence.

B vs. V • One of the most common phonetic

mistakes we encountered is the confusion between the B and V sounds.

• In American English there is a distinct difference in the fact that the /b/ is an abrupt sound, while the /v/ is a friction, or vibrating sound.

• Mispronunciation may cause a disruption in the flow of conversation. Mispronounced words may change the meaning of a word of distort the message.

/b/ ≠ /v/

Voice – Boys

Vote – Boat

Vase – Base

Vein – Bane

Valet – Ballet

Van – Ban

Vet – Bet

Ch vs. Sho These two letters create confusion to

many as to whether the “CH” sound is either a /ch/ sound as in “Children” or an /sh/ sound as in “Show”.

o Why is this happening? The reason may be that the letter C in different languages has two phonetic sounds, /s/ and /k/.

o This may account for why the C is often mistaken with the S sound in /ch/ thus resulting in the mispronunciation.

/ch/ ≠ /sh/

Chair – Share

Cheat –

Sheet

Chip – Ship

Batch – Bash

Catch – Cash

Ditch – Dish

Witch – Wish

E vs. I• These next two letters are

notorious for causing a slew of phonetic mispronunciations because the letter “E“in English is called /ee/ and in other languages the letter “I” is also called /ee/ .

• The fact that both the letter “E” and “I” are vowel sounds and the amount of words in which these two letters appear are countless results in constant mispronunciations and an apparent accent to the end listener.

/i:/ ≠ /I/

Feet – Fit

Eat – It

Keen - King

Sit - Seat

Heat – Hit

Feast – Fist

Sleep – Slip

Sheep - Ship

The Letter H

• The next letter in question is our friend the letter H. In some Alphabets it makes no sound at all, while in English it usually has the distinct aspiration sound of /ha/.

• In standard American English the H sound in grammatical words is generally NOT pronounced when it follows a consonant in the middle of a sentence: “Please get him a paper.”

• However, the H sound is pronounced when the word is stressed: “Officer, that’s him.”

• Hotel• Speak• Small

• Adhere• Human• Helium

H is silent in some words of Romance origin:

• Initially in heir, honest, honour, hour; for American English usually also herb, and sometimes homage.

• For some speakers, also in an initial unstressed syllable, as "an historic occasion"; to retain the "an" and pronounce the H may be considered affected.

The TH• The TH sound both voiced and voiceless

uses different mechanics to be produced and with different phonetic symbols.

• When it is voiced the TH sound is represented with /ð/ as in the word mother. To produce this sound the vocal chords must vibrate.

• The other sound of TH is the voiceless sound, represented with /θ/ and is generated by placing the tongue between the teeth, as we do with the Spanish Z in words like: zapato, arroz.

o Mispronunciation conflicts when the “H” piece is assumed as soundless.o “They” becomes “Day”, “That” becomes

“Dat”

/θ/ ≠ /t/

Fourth – Fort

Math – Mat

Both – Boat

Eighth – Ate

Tenth – Tent

/ð/ ≠ /θ/

Father - Both

Mother - Earth

Other - North

Than - Nothing

That - South

The J vs. Y• The English phonetic sound of the

letter J is usually associated with the Spanish sound of the letter Y. Examples:

▫ “Yellow” becomes “Jello”, “Year” is “Jear”

▫ The letter J in Spanish represents the sound of the previously mentioned letter H in English which again in Spanish is silent.

• Oddly enough via phonetic observation, the bilingual Spanish speaker does not usually change the J sound in a word for an English H, instead they use the English J sound for both English words with J and Y.

/j/ ≠ /Y/

John – Young

Major –

Mayor

Jam - Yam

Pager - Payer

Jack – Yak

Gel - Yell

The Letters S and Z

/z/ ≠ /s/

BUZZ

LAZY

ZOOM

ZONE

BLAZE

GIZMO

SIZZLES

SHOWBIZ

BAPTIZED

• The other confusion that tend to occur is with the mispronunciation of the letter Z pronounced as S.

• This happens because the Z sound has been left unused in many Spanish speaking countries, remaining only in some academic levels and in Spain where even the letter C produces the Z sound as well.

• This causes that English learners pronounce words incorrectly.

▫ “Zero” becomes “Sero”. “Brazil” becomes “Brasil”

Th

an

ks a

nd

keep

this

in

min

d:

Exploring your potential and taking advantage of the present effort depends mostly on your decision of achieving the dream of being a proficient speaker, but it also takes hard work and commitment.

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