Follow this guide below to discover the most difficult parts of English pronunciation and how to practice them for perfect pronunciation.

Th

Many ESL learners have problems pronouncing the Anglo-Saxon ‘th’ sound. There are two types of ‘th’; voiced and voiceless.

Voiced ‘th’

The voiced ‘th’ is pronounced with a ‘tha’ sound at the front of your mouth. The tongue does not meet the teeth like the voiceless ‘th’.

Voiced ‘th’ words include:

That, than, the, their, then, there’s, they, they’d, they’ll, they’ve, this, those, themselves, therefore

Mother, other, bother, brother, breathing, clothing, father, feather, gathering, lather, rather, soothing, weather, worthy, brotherly, together

Speaking practice

Try some of these tongue twisters to practice.

• They’d rather those other clothes belonged to my brother.
• There’s their mother, gathering feathers with their father.
• Therefore they’d rather go together.

Voiceless ‘th’

The voiceless ‘th’is pronouncing with a lisped ‘thee’ sound by placing your tongue against your teeth.

Words pronounced with a voiceless ‘th’ include:

Thank, thick, thief, thin, think, thing, three, thousand, Thursday, thirty-eight, thunderstorm.

Athlete, author, nothing, toothache, wealthy, everything, worthwhile, anything.

Bath, earth, teeth, cloth, north, myth, mouth, youth, faith, underneath.

Speaking practice

Try these tongue twisters to see how they are different from a voiced ‘th’ word, such as ‘they’ or ‘those.’

• He thanked the wealthy author on Thursday for the third time.
• The athlete ran three thousand metres to the north.
• It is a myth that when you are thirty-three you have lost your youth.

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Or and er sounds

You may not realise it, but the ‘or’ syllable in a word such as ‘world’ is actually pronounced with an ‘er’ to make /werld/.

Attorney /atterni/

World /werld/

Work /werk/

Worker /werker/

Worse /werz/

Worth /werth/

Word /werd/

Worship /wership/

Worm /werm/

Al and or sounds

Conversely the ‘al’ in words such as ‘talk’ is actually pronounced ‘or’ /tork/.

Chalk /chork/

Stalk /stork/

Talk /tork/

Walk /w-ork/

Warm /worm/

Kn

As you know when a ‘k’ comes before an ‘n’ then it is silent. These words include:

Knapsack /nap-sac/

Knee /nee/

Kneel /niel/

Knife /nife/

Knit /nit/

Knight /nite/

Knock /nock/

Knuckle /nuck-l/

Knot /not/

Know /no/

Ch

Most ‘ch’ words are pronounced with the proper ‘cha’ sound such as ‘chair’ or ‘china.’ However, there are a few words where the ‘ch’ is actually pronounced ‘k’. These words include:

Ache (i.e. toothache) /ake/

Character /kar-act-a/

Charisma /kar-is-ma/

Chemist /k-emist/

Chemistry /k-emistry/

Chemical /k-emical/

Chemotherapy /kemo-the-ra-py/

Choir /k-why-er/

Christian /k-rist-ian/

Christianity /k-ris-ti-an-iti/

Christmas /k-rist-mas/

Cuit

‘Cuit’ is actually pronounced ‘kit’ in English. There are only two main words with have this structure. These are:

Circuit /ser-kit/

Biscuit /bis-kit/

Ough

‘Ough’ is pronounced ‘uf’ or ‘off’. For example, ‘tough’ /tuf/. These words include:

Tough /tuf/

Cough /coff/

Enough /en-uf/

Rough /ruf/

Laugh /larf/

Silent ‘b’

Debt /det/

Subtle /sut-il/

Comb /com/

Lamb /lam/

Climb /clim/

Numb /num/

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Other difficult to pronounce words

Anxiety /an-zi-et-ti/

Author /or-tha/

Clothes /clothz/

Depot /dep-o/

Flour /flower/

Heir /air/

Hierarchy /hi-ra-key/

Inherent /in-hair-ant/

Island /ireland/ (like the country)

Imagine /im-ag-in/

Image /im-age/

Literature /lit-ra-cha/

Mayor /may-er/

Mortgage /mor-gaeg/

Muscle /mus-il/

Patient /pay-shant/

Produce /pro-dus/

Product /pro-dukt/

Receipt /res-eat/

Recipe /res-i-pee/

Sword /sord/

Thought /thort/

Thorough /tha-ra-ow/

Taught /tort/ (past of ‘to teach’)/

Weigh /way/

Weight /wait/

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Past regular verb pronunciation rules

It is common to hear a student pronounce ‘worked’ /work-id/ instead of the natural pronunciation of /work-t/. They are doing this because they don’t understand pronunciation rules.

The ‘ed’ sound in regular verbs in simple past, changes depending on the sound of the last constant.

The rules

‘T’ sound: If the root verb ends with a ‘k’, ‘p’ or ‘h’, the past tense of the verb is pronounced with a ‘t’ sound. For example, ‘worked’, ‘stopped’ and ‘laughed’ are pronounced /workt/, /stopt/ and /laught/.

‘Id’ sound: If the verb ends in either ‘t’ or ‘d’, the past is pronounced with an ‘id’ sound. For example, ‘wanted’ and ‘decided’ are pronounced /wantid/ and /decided/.

‘D’ sound: For all other verbs the past is pronounced with a ‘d’ sound, omitting the ‘e.’ For example ‘stressed’, ‘rained’, ‘closed’ are actually pronounced /stress’d/, /rain’d/ and /clos’d/.

Common verbs to practice

Verbs which end with K, P and H: To work, to talk, to walk, to look, to like, to ask, to pick up, to cook, to park, to check, to escape, to jump, to stop, to hop, to help, to watch, to laugh, to push, to finish, to reach, to wash.

Verbs which end with T and D: To decide, to depend, to defend, to avoid, to divide, to include, to add, to attend, to create, to count, to taste, to hate, to want, to cheat, to last, to visit, to rent, to paint, to act, to contact, to invite, to print, to rent, to start, to treat, to wait, to waste.

Other verbs (a selection): to answer, to deliver, to call, to believe, to travel, to kiss, to stress, to travel, to listen, to arrive, to change, to play, to show, to study, to try, to use, to save, to pull, to move, to explain, to carry, to agree.

What words do you have difficulty pronouncing? Tell us in the comments below.