News about American “oo” and British “yoo” that you never knew

This is the second blog post in a multi-part series on the subject of differences between British and American English. For more information on this topic, also see parts 1, 3, and 4 of the series: 1. British versus American “a” 3. The “oo” sound: American versus British pronunciation 4. Words Pronounced Differently in British vs. American …

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British versus American “a”

This is the first blog post in a multi-part series on the subject of differences between British and American English. For more information on this topic, also see parts 2-4 of the series: 2. News About American “oo” and British “you” That You Never Knew 3. The “oo” sound: American versus British pronunciation 4. Words Pronounced Differently in …

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Dropped Syllables

A “dropped” syllable is a syllable in the middle of a word that is not pronounced. The unpronounced syllable can even be a single vowel sound in the middle of a word, for example pronouncing “every” as “EV-ree”. The technical term for this phenomenon is “syncope”. When are syllables not pronounced in words? The short …

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An Exceedingly Exciting, Exact Guide to Pronouncing “Ex”

The English language has many subtleties that can lead to confusion. This includes letter combinations that may be pronounced differently in different contexts. For example, many words in English begin with two simple letters: “ex”. This is just one letter combination, but it has two very different pronunciations. Let’s work together to see why this …

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5 Myths about why you have an accent

As an accent reduction instructor living in NYC (the city with the largest foreign-born population in the USA), I’m constantly surprised at how many myths surround accents. This article will give the truth behind the myths of why people have a foreign accent when speaking American English.