English Pronunciation for Polish Speakers

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Areas of Difficulty for Polish 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.  /b/, /d/, /g/, /v/, /TH/, /z/, /Z/ and /dZ/ 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

                              Surge         merge  judge   smudge            fudge   bridge  grudge dirge                           

III.   /w/ vs. /v/

Distinguish between /w/ and /v/ in the following minimal pairs:

Wane         wail                 west                 wend               wine

Vein          veil                  vest                  vend                vine

IV.  /th/ and /dh/

Pronounce the following minimal pairs carefully:

Breath/breathe       bath/bathe        cloth/clothe     
                              
                              Now try this tongue twister:

Those three thieves threw thirteen things in the thicket of thorn trees.

V.  /ng/ in word final position

Pronounce English /N/ without inserting a final /k/ or /n/ after it.

Thing         sing     sling    fling     string   spring  sprang thong  
                              Bring         sting    strong  ring      furlong            sprung stung
                                   
                              Now pronounce the following pairs of words carefully.
                              Sink           sing                                         thin      thing
                              Think         thing                                        sin       sing
                              Brink         bring                                        pan      pang
                              Mink         Ming                                       fan       fang
                              Flunk         flung                                        run       rung

VI.  /l/ vs. /w/

Practice pronouncing the final dark /l/ in the following words:

Mole          foal      coal      fail       scale    fill        skill     mill     

Now distinguish between the following pairs of words:

Mow         mole                                        bow     bowl
Go             gold                                         ode      old
Owe          old                                           sew      soul                            
                              Foe            fold                                          row      roll                 

VII. /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 

Vowels:

I. /I/ vs. /i:/

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

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

II. /e/ vs. /ei/

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

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

III.  /U/ vs. /u:/

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

full/fool     foot/food         should/shoot                book/boot

IV. /e/ vs. /ae/
Make the distinction between the short vowel and the diphthong in the following minimal pairs:

met/mat      set/sat              fed/fad             led/lad              wed/wad

V. /^/ vs. /a:/
Distinguish between the short and long vowels in the following minimal pairs:

                               curd/card    heard/hard    curt/cart    burn/barn     hurt/heart
          


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