Speak English clearly

Good morning and happy New Year!

Welcome to your first English Breakfast of 2025. Grab a coffee and a piece of panettone if there’s still some left (…not the case for me unfortunately) and let’s make it a good one.

New Years

I’m not a big fan of New Year’s resolutions (= buoni propositi per il nuovo anno). They never usually last longer than a couple of weeks. But the beginning of a new year is a great time to reflect on your goals. If improving your English is one of yours, let’s not put it off any longer (= rimandare), keep reading and listening to this newsletter to improve your pronunciation today.

Click here to listen to this newsletter 🎧️

Today’s edition is called Powerful English Pronunciation because today we’re going to learn the hardest sounds in English language! Click the link above to listen to this episode so you can hear my pronunciation.

Sounds 

When you learn a new word, it’s always a good idea to check how it’s pronounced because there are lots of words in English that can’t be read out phonetically, meaning the way they’re spelt doesn’t help you with the pronunciation…at all. Think about words like though, cough and thorough, to name just a few.

There are also lots of sounds you need to know if you want to speak English clearly.

So, let’s have a look at some common sounds that English learners often find difficult.

What the th?

In English we have two different th sounds, and neither of them is easy. Sorry!

For the first one, you need put your tongue between your teeth and blow air out. This is what’s called the unvoiced th sound. You need it to pronounce words like:

Thanks

Birthday

Think

Earth 

Everything

Ethiopia

etc. 

Now, for the second th sound, put your tongue between your teeth again, but this time try to make the vowel sound “UUURRR” to push air out. 

Go on, I know it feels strange and embarrassing, but if you’re on a train or in public right now, I promise it’s a great way to make sure no-one wants to sit next to you. This is the voiced th sound you need for words like:

The

They

Those

This

Weather

Mother

Rather

Etc.

You can make a note of the unvoiced or “silent” th sound with this symbol Th🔕.

For the voiced th, you can use this symbol Th🎵.

So, if you wanted the remember the pronunciation of thanks or this, you can make a note of the pronunciation the following way:

Thanks - /Th🔕anks/

This -  /Th🎵is/

S or S 

There’re also two different S sounds in English, and the difference is quite similar to the th sounds we’ve just seen. 

We’ve got the snake S and the mosquito S.

In words like so, sun, boss and office, there’s an unvoiced S sound. Air comes out of your mouth, but your throat doesn’t vibrate. To help you remember, it’s like the sound a snake makes.

In words like rose, his, clothes and was, the S sound is voiced, like the sound of an annoying mosquito buzzing around your room when you’re trying to sleep. If you hold you hand to your throat, you can feel it vibrate.

Why not use the symbols S🐍  and S💤 to help you remember the pronunciation?

Can you pronounce the following sentence? 

/Does💤 he want ice🐍  with his💤 s🐍oda?/

The king of English sounds

Are you ready to learn the most common sound in the English language? It’s so important it has it’s own name; the schwa sound, but don’t ask me why, because it doesn’t sound anything like that. 

Instead, it’s a very relaxed, short sound. “Uh.”  We often hear it in unstressed syllables. For example, even in the word "banana," the first and last "a" are schwas. 

It sounds like this: "buh-NAH-nuh." 

It’s important because it helps make speech smoother and quicker. Just look at how many examples of schwa there are in this short, simple sentence.

I’m a worker in an old company that’s been around for many years.

/I’m (uh) work(uh) in (uh)n old comp(uh)ny th(uh)ts been (uh)round f(uh) many years/

Stomachache 

This next sound is the same as the schwa sound but followed by an r, and it’s a lot like the sound you might make if you had a nasty stomachache. 

Early, birthday, turn, learn, concern, firm, Thursday

Isn’t English a beautiful language. 

You could use the symbol 🤢 to remember this sound.

/I have to get up 🤢ly tomorrow to get to w🤢k by seven th🤢ty/

Silent L

I know. It’s hard to imagine why some words have letters that aren’t even pronounced, I can only apologise for my confusing language, but one common victim of this is the letter L.

Let’s see some examples:

Talk

Walk

Would

Could

Should

Salmon

Calm

Half

Use the symbol L🔕 to make a note of this pronunciation e.g /tal🔕k/ /shoul🔕d/ etc.

Stop accidentally swearing!

When you misprounce words in English, you might say something you didn’t expect. The difference between these next two sounds is a common cause of trouble for English learners who mix them up, and the result has the potential to be quite embarrassing! 

If you’ve ever felt a moment of panic before saying the words beach or sheet, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about, but either way, let’s make sure you know how to avoid this tricky pronunciation when you speak English.

We’re talking about difference between the i and the ee (sometimes also written ea) sounds in the following words.

Sheep - Ship

Sleep - Slip

Least - List 

Peach - Pitch 

Heal - Hill

etc. 

There are loads of them. The fancy name for these kinds of words, that are pronounced almost identically apart from one sound, is minimal pairs, so if you’re curious to know more, you’ll find a long list of these online.

However, there are a small group of these words that often cause some really embarrassing mistakes. Here they are:

Sheet - Shit*

Beach - Bitch*

Peace/Piece - Piss*

* If you didn’t know already, these words are “swear words” which means they’re offensive, so use them with caution. If you don’t know them, look them up, it’s important to know what you’re saying.

It’s easy to avoid this mistake, though. If you don’t want to say anything offensive, just smile.

Seriously, the difference between the i sound in bitch and the ee sound in beach is what I like to call the sad i and the smiley e, and I use these symbols with my students i 🙁 and e 😁 

/On hot days, I love going to the be😁ch/

/You take the red pi🙁ll - you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes/ (watch a film called The Matrix if you’ve never heard that quote before!)

I’ll never forget the time I wanted to make some notes during a lesson and one of my students suddenly asked me, “Do you need a shit?” when really they wanted to ask if I needed a piece of paper.

Imagine my surprise!

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Ciao for now,

Dan

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