English Pronunciation for Italian Speakers

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Areas of Difficulty for Italian Speakers

Consonants

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

Practice aspirating these consonants in word initial position as follows:

Paper         point                painting           persecute         prosecute
Talk           tainted              temple              temptation        tranquil
Carry         carriage            curse                cartoon            chronicle          

II.  /th/ and /dh/

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.  /h/

Pronounce the following pairs of words. Make sure you pronounce the /h/ in the second word.

Eel/heal                  ail/hail              owl/howl         and/hand          

IV.  /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  

V.   /sh/, /zh/, and /dz/

Pronounce the following words to contrast these sounds:

Wish          masher             bash                 shoot               brash  
Measure    allusion            mirage             garage              barrage
Wedge       smudge            badge               jute                  merge 

VI.  /s/ vs. /z/ in initial consonant clusters

Pronounce the /s/ in the /sm/, /sl/ and /sn/ consonant clusters carefully:

smile          smoke              smite                smudge            smear
slide           slate                 slander             slight               sling
snide          snake               snow               snicker             snag                 

VII.       Word-final consonants

Pronounce the following words without inserting a vowel after the final sound:

Big            brag     bid       bad      glad     snag     wag     bring    glide

Vowels:
I. /I/ vs. /i:/          
Practice pronouncing the following minimal pairs:

Hit/heat      fit/feet              sit/seat             fill/feel             live/leave

II. /e/ vs. /ei/
Make the distinction between the short and long vowels in the following minimal pairs:

met/mate    red/raid            led/laid             fed/fade           wed/wade

III. /U/ vs. /u:/
Practice pronouncing the short and long vowels in the following word pairs:
full/fool     foot/food         should/shoot                book/boot  

IV. /ae/, /^/, / /
Practice distinguishing between these sounds:

Hat            hut                   hot
Cat             cut                   cot

Pat             putt                  pot

Comments

  1. GOA Speakers1:37 AM

    Thanks for sharing such beautiful information with us. I hope you will share some more information about Youth Young Adult Speakers. Please keep sharing.

    ReplyDelete

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