English Pronunciation for Greek Speakers

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Areas of Difficulty for Greek Speakers

Consonants:

I.              /p/, /t/, and /k/ in word initial position

Aspirate the initial sounds in these words:

Point          pencil               panic                penalty             penury
Tactic         trace                 track                tension             treachery
Cancer       cancel              courage            cougar             classic

II.            /b/, /d/, /g/, /v/, /TH/, /z/, and /Z/ in word final position

Pay special attention to the final sound in the following words as you pronounce them.  Do not devoice the final sound.

Slab           crab     grab     grub     scrub   flab      snub    strobe  globe
Sled           fled      grad     stud     scrod   crud     flood    mud     breed
Brag          drag     flag      snug    smug   slug     log       slog     clog
Glove        cave     five      strive   cleave  sleeve  rave     brave   slave
Breathe      teethe   clothe   filth      stealth  blithe   lathe     with     scathe
Graze         amaze  blaze    sneeze  breeze  sleaze   braise   browse crows
Beige                     mirage             garage                          barrage

III.         /s/ vs. /S/

Make the distinction between /s/ and /S/ using the following minimal pairs:

Sill/shill                 sign/shine        simmer/shimmer          sue/shoe
Sealed/shield         brass/brash      same/shame                 single/shingle

Now try this tongue twister:

She sells seashells by the seashore.

IV.          /dZ/

This sound does not exist in Greek.  Greek speakers of English, therefore, pronounce the voiceless version of this fricative.  Pronounce this sound in the following words carefully.

Japan         jury                  German           Judaism           Germane         
Merger      forgery            sergeant           bulging            major
Judge         grudge             smudge            nudge              budge  dodge

V.            /Z/ 

This sound does not exist in Greek.  Please do not substitute /z/ for this sound as you pronounce the following words:

Beige         mirage             garage  barrage            vision  pleasure     

VI.          /tS/

This sound does not exist in Greek.  Please do not substitute /ts/ for this sound as you pronounce the following words:

Church                  children           charity             chain                chide
Searching              creature            matching          touching          catcher
search                    birch                perch               scratch             snatch

VII.       Nasal insertion

Practice pronouncing /b/, /d/, and /g/ without inserting a nasal consonant before them.  The following word pairs show the difference between non-nasal and nasal /b/, /d/, and /g/.

Bubble       bumble
Gabble       gamble
Rubble       rumble
Rabble       ramble
Fodder       fonder
Louder       launder
Juggle        jungle
Straggle     strangle
Rag            rang 

VIII.     /p/, /t/, and /k/ following nasals

Practice the following word pairs, and pay special attention to the /p/, /t/, and /k/ occurring after the nasal consonants and to their voiced counterpart in the second word.
            
            Rumple      rumble             simple              symbol
            Renter        render              center               sender
            Ankle        angle                sickle               single                                 
           

IX.          /s/ vs. /z/

Pronounce the /s/ preceding /m/, /n/, and /l/ in the following words.  Do not substitute /z/ for /s/ at the beginning of the word.
Smile         small                smell                smelt                smoldering
Snide         snake               snow               snail                 sneak
Slide          slither              slang                slouch              slumber 

X.            /r/

Practice the 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  

XI.          /h/

Pronounce /h/ in word initial position without any friction in the mouth.
Horse        horrific            humble            hierarchy         hearsay

XII.       Final Consonant Clusters

Since Greek doesn’t have any final consonant clusters, Greek speakers of English tend to insert a vowel between them in word final position.

Practice these final consonant clusters without inserting a vowel between them.

Worked     washed             touched            kissed              fixed
Judged       bridged            surged             merged            smudged
Filed          skilled              field                 yield                wield
  
Vowels: 
I. /I/ vs. /i:/
Make the distinction between the short and long vowels in the following minimal pairs:

Fill             hill       sit        fit         live      mitt      skit      sill
Feel           heal      seat      feet      leave    meet     skeet    seal

II. /e/ vs. /ei/
Practice pronouncing the short and long vowels in the following minimal pairs:

Met            led       let        fed       med     wet      get       hell      
Mate          laid      late       fade     made    weight gate      hail 

III. /U/ vs. /u:/
Distinguish between the short and long vowels in the following word pairs:
                              
                              Full            pull                  should             book                foot
                              Fool           pool                 shoot               boot                 food

IV. / / vs. / /
Practice pronouncing the low vowels in the following word pairs:
                  
                 Bud           hut       cut       rut        mutt     mutter              flutter 
                             Bad            hat       cat        rat        mat      matter              flatter 

V. / / vs. /a:/
Distinguish between the low vowels in the following minimal pairs:

                  Curt           curd                 hurt      stir       dirt       pert      bird

                  Cart           card                 heart    star      dart      part      bard                                        

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