“How long will it take me to get an American accent?” It is one of the first questions my students ask. The short answer: anywhere from three months to a lifetime. That range sounds unhelpful, I know. But it depends on a few things you can
The letter H can be tricky in American English. It does not follow tidy rules. Sometimes it is strong, sometimes it is weak, and sometimes it is not pronounced at all. That is why, with H, I want you to rely on your listening skills. Strong,
In a live coaching session, a student told me she had a problem with two words: warm and worm. She was right to ask. These two are very close to each other, and they trip up many English learners. Warm and worm are a minimal pair:
Many of my students have a strong R at the beginning of a word, like red or right, and clear R blends, like brown or great. Then the R after a vowel gets loose. Farm starts to sound like “foam.” Dark sounds like “dock.” That R
Learning English is really hard. Learning to pronounce it clearly can feel even harder, but it does not have to be. When you know the most common error patterns for your native language, it becomes much easier to know exactly what to work on. Here is
“Did you say can or can’t?” If you have heard this question, you are not alone. One of my students told me that when he says I can and I can’t, people sometimes cannot hear which one he meant. This is such a common problem that
Have you ever listened to a speaker who made everything sound easy to follow? Chances are they were chunking. Chunking is a simple way to organize your speech so your listener can stay with you, and it ties together several skills you may already know: linking,
Many of my students tell me the same thing: “I have lived here for ten years. Why do people still ask me to repeat myself?” It is a frustrating feeling, and it comes from a very common belief. So let me share a myth and a
Have you ever heard an American say “innernet” instead of internet? Or noticed that winter and winner can sound almost the same? You are not imagining it. This is one of the most common patterns in American English: the silent T after N. Once you can
“Standard English” sounds like one official version of the language. It is not. There is no single English that every country agrees on. So is standard English American or British? The honest answer is: both. Each country has its own standard, and which one counts as
