How to learn

English
pronunciation
1.
Learn the sounds
of English
English uses different sounds
than other languages. For
example, the first sound in the word
thin and the first sound in the word
away are never spoken in many
languages.
So you have to know all the
English sounds. You also have
to practice your pronunciation
— listen to English words and
sentences, and try to repeat
the English sounds as well as
you can.
2.
Learn the
pronunciation of
English words
Reading an English word does
not tell you how it is
pronounced.
This means that, generally, you
have to learn the pronunciation of
every word that you use.
How can you learn the
pronunciation of an English word?
You can look it up in a dictionary
and read about how it is
pronounced. Dictionaries tell you
about pronunciation through a
special system called "
phonetic transcription".
Phonetic transcription is written in
a phonetic alphabet. The most
popular phonetic alphabet is the
International Phonetic Alphabet
(IPA). Antimoon has also created
the ASCII Phonetic Alphabet, which
is suitable for typing on a
computer.
3.
Choose American
or British
pronunciation
(or both)
Different kinds of English
have different pronunciation.
For example, the pronunciation
(the accent) in British English is
different from the pronunciation
in American English.
You have a choice between British English
and American English, because these are
the most important kinds of English in the
world. Which one should you choose?
Probably the kind that you like the most.
Whether you choose British or American
pronunciation, people will understand you
wherever you go. Of course, you don't
have to decide: you can learn to speak
both kinds of English.
4.
Learn about both
American and
British
pronunciation
Even if you choose to speak one
kind of English, you should
learn about both kinds. Let's
suppose you want to speak pure
British English. You don't want to
have an American accent at all.
Should you pay attention to the
American pronunciations in your
dictionary? We believe you
should.
You may want to speak British
English, but you will hear some
American English, too. You may go
see an American movie, visit the
United States, have an American
teacher, etc. You may want to
speak only British English, but you
need to understand both British
and American English.
Also, consider what happens if you
(a student of British English) hear
a new English word from an
American? You may learn the
American pronunciation of the
word. And you may start using
that pronunciation in your own
speech. So your British English will
no longer be pure.
For example, if you hear the word nuke on
American TV, it will be pronounced [nu:k].
If, all your life, you have been reading only
British phonetic transcriptions, you will not
know that many words which have the
sound [ju:] in British English, have [u:] in
American English. So you will probably
learn that nuke is pronounced [nu:k]. But
if you learn it like this, you will make your
pronunciation "wrong", because a Briton
would pronounce the word [nju:k].
Of course, the same advice is
true if you're learning
American English. In such a
case, you should be
interested in both British and
American pronunciations, too.