What is pronunciation?

*pronunciation (noun) “What is the correct pronunciation of your

name, this word, …?”
*pronounce (verb) “How do you pronounce your name, this word, …”

The English alphabet has 26 letters (21 consonants and 5 vowels), but there are 41
sounds in English. We will use the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) in this class to
learn the sounds of English.

 The sounds of English (24 consonant and 17 vowel sounds)

 Word stress
 Sentence stress
 Intonation

Sounds: 21 consonants and 5 vowels, but many more sounds.

For example, there are two “th” sounds -
voiceless (soft) /ɵ/ “theater” and voiced (hard) /ð/ “the”

There is more than one sound for a vowel letter.

For example, “hate,” “father,” “have,” “any,” “saw”
/ei/ /a/ /ae/ /ɛ/ /ɔ/

Word Stress: A syllable contains a vowel sound. Every word in English has
one stressed syllable.
One syllable - go Two syllables - about Three syllables - benefit
Four syllables - beneficial etc …

Sentence Stress: We are taking an English class.

Intonation: Are you hungry? (voice goes up)

Do you want coffee or tea? (voice goes up, then down)