Accent or Dialect?
"Accent" and "dialect" are words that are often confused. I decided to discover the difference--and this is what I learned. Language: A...
The Tip of the Iceberg
What is the difference between "J," "CH,'"? How about between "V," "F," and "B"? Your tongue doesn’t do much when you are pronouncing...
We've Got Rhythm
In English, just like different syllables are stressed in words, different words are stressed in sentences. As a result, English has a...
What is that sound? Schwa?
The "schwa" sound [ə] is actually the most common vowel sound–in every dialect of English. Vowel sounds make a word louder or softer, and...
The influential H
The letter H is one of the most commonly-used letters in the English language--and one of the most controversial. In fact, there has been...
Voiced vs. unvoiced sounds
How can you make two different sounds when your tongue is in the same position in your mouth for both of them? There are quite a few...
Silent letters
Silent letters are not pronounced in words, but they make a big difference to the meaning and sometimes the way the word is pronounced....
Pronouncing Plurals
Why is the letter "s" pronounced differently in different plural words? English speakers like to say the most they can in the shortest...
What's the deal with "the"?
"The" is one of the most common words in the English language--and it is also many times mispronounced by English learners. There are two...
Oh, nough!
Many, many words end in "...ough," and there are 6-10 possible ways to pronounce those words: sometimes they sound like a vowel, or a...
