English Pronunciation for Farsi Speakers

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Areas of Difficulty for Farsi Speakers      

Consonants:
I.   /w/ vs. /v/
Distinguish between /w/ and /v/ in the following minimal pairs:

Wane         wail                 west                 wend               wine
Vein          veil                  vest                  vend                vine

II. /th/ and / / 
Pronounce these words carefully:

Breath/breathe       bath/bathe        cloth/clothe      
Now try this tongue twister:
Those three thieves threw thirteen things in the thicket of thorn trees.   

III. /r/ 
Practice English /r/ in different word positions, and avoid pronouncing it as a trill.

Rumble      wrangle           restitution        result       rack         rash
Scaring      leering             luring               purring     peering    sneering
Scar           star                  fire                   banter      gander     smuggler 

IV. Initial Consonant Clusters
Pronounce the following initial consonant clusters without inserting a vowel before or between them:

Plight         slice     fright   pleasant           spill     stale     plaintiff
Splash       straw   scrod   sprinkle           spade   growl   gloat   
Snail          snow   sniper  scathing           sneak   smelt    smile    flight

Vowels:             
I.   /I/ vs. /i:/
Make the distinction between the short and long vowels in the following minimal pairs:

Hit             fit         sit        fill        live      sill       pill       skit
Heal           feet      seat      feel      leave    seal      peel      skeet 

II.   /e/ vs. /ei/

Distinguish between the short and long vowels in the following minimal pairs:

Met            red       led       fed       wed     set        fret       bet
Mate          raid      laid      fade     wade    sate      freight  bait 

III.   /U/ vs. /u:/

Practice pronouncing the short and long vowels in the following word pairs:

Full            pull                  foot                  should             book
                              Fool           pool                 food                 shoot               boot

IV.  /e/ vs. /@/ 

Practice distinguishing between the short vowel and the diphthong in the following pairs:

Met            set        fed       led       wed     fret       med     net
Mat            sat        fad       lad       wad     frat       mad     gnat                

V.  /^/ vs. /a:/

Make the distinction between the short and long vowels in the following minimal pairs:

                              curd           heard   curt      burn     hurt      bird      nerd     clerk   

                              card           hard     cart      barn     heart    bard     nard     Clark  

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