Archive for November 8th, 2024

English language spelling versus English pronunciation

Friday, November 8th, 2024
English spelling or orthography (or to be more precise letters) often does not reflect English pronunciation in the same way as it does in many other languages, which may be very confusing for ESL (English as a Second Language) students.
One example is the word: ‘April’.
It is pronounced /ˈeɪprəl/.
The letter ‘a’ is pronounced /ei/ and is louder than other sounds, then it is followed by 3 consonant sounds pronounced one after another without any vowel sounds pronounced in between.
3 or more consonant sounds pronounced one after another in English linguistics is referred to as
‘a constant cluster’.
There are many words with constant sound clusters in English language.
What’s more, the three constant sounds are also pronounced in a different way than in most languages:
/p/ is voiceless (we just use the air, no voice), the sound is followed by a puff of air similar to the English /h/ sound (or the microphone sound, lol)
In most languages /p/ is voiced.
/r/ is totally different than in most languages.
(we roll our tongue without touching the gum ridge)
This sound can be the biggest challenge in this word, which is the main reason why many students hear /o/ sound from their language, which is incorrect.
/l/ at the end of words is pronounced longer in English than the beginning or middle /l/
Please think about the way you say: ‘like’ and ‘small’ in English, maybe there is a reason why there is double letter ‘l’ at the end of ‘small’ but surprisingly there is no double letter’ l’ at the end of the word ‘April’!
Another great example of a word with actually 4 consecutive consonant sounds is the word:
‘comfortable’
pronounced: /ˈkʌmftəbəl/ ,
please think it’s like:
/ˈkamftbl/ in your language, it’s just that letter ‘o’ is pronounced like a short and rhythmic letter’a’ in your language.
Hope this helps and you like my explanation guys!
I was trying to make it as easy to understand as possible! ????
Good luck practicing! ????
Greg 
If you would like to learn more, please join our English Pronunciation class at our English language school in Ottawa! :)