English Pronunciation for Finnish Speakers

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Areas of Difficulty for Finnish 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/, / /, /z/, and / / 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.         /g/ and /k/ in word final position

Practice pronouncing the following minimal pairs.  Pay special attention to the final sound in each word.

Pig/pick     wig/wick         Stag/stack        plug/pluck       mug/muck
Brig/brick  flag/flack         lag/lack            rig/Rick           slag/slack        

IV.          /b/ and /p/ in word final position

Pronounce the /b/ and /p/ tokens in the following words clearly.  Be sure not to devoice the word final /b/ tokens.

Lab/lap      crab/crap          mob/mop         rib/rip              tab/tap
Nab/nap     hob/hop           cub/cup            nib/nip             lip/lib

V.            /d/ and /t/ in word final position

Pronounce the /d/ and /t/ tokens in the following minimal pairs.  Do not devoice the word final /d/ tokens.

                               Lid/lit         slide/slight       ride/right          plead/pleat       mood/moot
                               Brad/brat   Fred/fret          made/mate       hide/height       vend/vent

VI.          /v/ and /f/ in word final position

Pronounce the /v/ and /t/ tokens in the following minimal pairs.  Do not devoice the word final /v/ tokens.

                                Leave/leaf              reeve/reef         live/life save/safe         
                                Rive/rife                grieve/grief      strive/strife      halve/half

VII.       /tS/ and /dZ/ in word initial position

Distinguish between the two sounds in the following word pairs.

                                Chain/Jane             choice/Joyce    chill/Jill            chug/jug
                                Choke/joke            cheap/Jeep       chump/jump    chunk/junk

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

Breath/breathe       bath/bathe        cloth/clothe     
Now try this tongue twister:
Those three thugs think that they threw those things there.

IX.   /s/ vs. /z/

Since Finnish does not have /z/, Finnish speakers of English devoice it in English and pronounce it as /s/.  Practice contrasting /s/ and /z/ using the following minimal pairs:

Sue/zoo     seal/zeal           sink/zinc          sip/zip              sing/zing
Bus/buzz   muscle/muzzle             brace/braise                 grace/graze
Sap/zap      mace/maize                  rice/rise                        race/raise

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

Sill             saw      seat      see       sue       brass    crass    lease    mess
Shill           Shaw   sheet    she       shoe     brash   crash    leash    mesh

Now try this tongue twister:
She sells seashells by the seashore.

Vowels:

I.   /^/

Finnish speakers of English tend to lengthen this vowel.  Practice pronouncing the following words without lengthening the vowel in the first syllable:

Publish      public              nurture             culture             submit
Hermit       custom             custodian         vulture             surfing

II.  /I/ vs. /i:/

Practice pronouncing the following minimal pairs, making a distinction between the short and long vowel:

                              Hit             fit         sit        fill        live      hill       pill     

                        Heat           feet      seat      feel      leave    heal      peel      keen           

III. /e/ vs. /ei/

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


Met            red       led       fed       wed     let        set        fret 
Mate          raid      laid      fade     wade    late       sate      freight

 IV.          /U/ vs. /u:/

IV. /U/ vs. /u:/

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

full/fool     foot/food         should/shoot                book/boot        
                  
In addition to the above short (lax) and long (tense) vowels, these vowels are also difficult for Finnish speakers:

V. /e/ vs. / / 
Distinguish between the short vowel and the diphthong in the following minimal pairs

Met            set        fed       led       wed     net       fret       blend
Mat            sat        fad       lad       wad     gnat     frat       bland

VI. / / vs. /a:/
Make the distinction between the mid vowel and the long vowel 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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