Are you looking for practice exercises to improve your English pronunciation?
If yes, you’ve come to the right place.
This page contains pronunciation exercises organized into 5 chapters:
- Chapter 1: The Main Sounds of English
- Chapter 2: Stress and Intonation
- Chapter 3: Word Connections
- Chapter 4: Reduced Sounds
- Chapter 5: Common Pronunciation Mistakes
How to Practice the Exercises
Improving your English pronunciation is hard. But you can make it easier by focusing on only one pronunciation skill at a time.
That’s why the exercises are organized into five chapters. Focus on one chapter at a time so you don’t feel overwhelmed.
There are a lot of exercises on this page. If you don’t have time to practice them all, focus on the ones that address your pronunciation problems.
Bonus: Want to speak English well but don't have a practice partner? There's still a way! I show you exactly how in my English speaking course.
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Chapter 1: The Main Sounds of English
In this chapter, you’ll find exercises to help you pronounce every main sound in English correctly.
English has a lot of words that sound similar (heel vs. hill, sell vs. sale, pool vs. pull). It’s important to pronounce them correctly.
In many of the exercises, you’ll be practicing two similar sounds at the same time. This is an effective way to practice English pronunciation.
The Vowel Sounds
English has about 15 main vowel sounds. If your native language has fewer vowel sounds, you probably speak English using only the sounds that are present in your native language.
As a result, you might pronounce two different words the same way because you can’t hear the differences between them. So, let’s do some practice to fix that.
/i/ (heat) and /I/ (hit)
- E & I (Ronnie@EngVid)
- “heel” or “hill”? (Lisa Mojsin@AccurateEnglish)
- Sit /i/ vs Seat /i:/ (Molly@ShawEnglish)
/eɪ/ (late) and /ɛ/ (let)
/ɛ/ (bed) and /æ/ (bad)
- EH [ɛ] vs. AA [æ] Vowels (Rachel’s English)
- Bad /æ/ vs Bed /e/ (Molly@ShawEnglish)
- A & E – Man vs. Men (Alex@EngVid)
/æ/ (hat) and /ɑ/ (hot)
/ɑ/ (calm) and /ɘ/ (come)
/æ/ (bat) and /ɘ (but)
/ɔ/ (want) and /oʊ/ (won’t)
- “WON’T” and “WANT” pronunciation/difference (Coach Shane)
- Want vs Won’t (American English n’ culture with Philochko)
- Poke /əʊ/ vs Pork /or/ (Molly@ShawEnglish)
- Law vs Low (American English n’ culture with Philochko)
/ʊ/ (full) and /u/ (fool)
- u (uh/oo) (Ronnie@EngVid)
- How to say POOL and PULL (Tarle Speech and Language Services)
- FULL vs FOOL: Pronunciation difference (Coach Shane)
/ɑ/ (lock) VS. /ɘ/ (luck) VS. /ʊ/ (look)
/ɘr/ (heard) and /ɑ/ (hard)
- Far /ar/ vs Fur /ur/ (Molly@ShawEnglish)
- How to pronounce “Hard” and “Heard” (Tarle Speech and Language Services)
- How to say STAR and STIR (Tarle Speech and Language Services)
/ɘr/ (work) and /ɔ/ (walk)
/aɪ/ (time, nine, dry, etc.)
/aʊ/ (south, house, cow, etc.)
/ɔɪ/ (oil, choice, voice, etc.)
The Consonant Sounds
Let’s practice the consonants sounds, which are just as important as the vowel sounds.
When do you an exercise, it’s helpful to pay attention to the mouth movements of the presenter.
/t/ (cotton, better, etc.)
- American T sound (Lisa Mojsin@AccurateEnglish)
- Mastering the American “T” sound! (American English n’ culture with Philochko)
- Silent T: often, listen, castle… (Emma@EngVid)
Understanding voiced and unvoiced consonants
- voiced and unvoiced consonants (LearnAmericanEnglishOnline)
- HAVE vs HALF pronunciation (Coach Shane)
- Final voiced consonants (Lynn Bo@Accent Master)
/s/ (Sue) and /z/ (zoo)
- English: How to Pronounce S and Z consonant (Rachel’s English)
- How to pronounce words ending in S (Emma@EngVid)
- S or Z (Britlish – Linguaspectrum)
- S or Z – Ice or Eyes (iswearenglish)
- Confused Words – ADVICE & ADVISE (Rebecca@EngVid)
Stop Consonants
/h/ (horse, hot, etc)
/dʒ/ (drawer, education, schedule, etc)
- Why is there a “J” sound in the DR of “DRAWER”? (Coach Shane)
- Pronunciation – DU – education, schedule, individual, procedure… (Emma@EngVid)
/dʒ/ (job) and /tʃ/ (chop)
- How do you pronounce “j” and “ch” as in “job” and “chop”? (Coach Shane)
- How to Pronounce CH [ʧ] and JJ [ʤ] Sounds (Rachel’s English)
Words Ending in –ed
/θ/ (this, think, thank, etc)
/θ/ (thin) and /s/ (sin)
/θ/ (they) and /d/ (day)
/l/ (light) and /r/ (right)
- Cool Tongue twisters for the R and L sound! (American English n’ culture with Philochko)
- L and R – Part 1 (Teacher Melanie)
- L and R – Part 2 – Exercises (Teacher Melanie)
- Light /l/ vs Right /r/ (Molly@ShawEnglish)
/l/ and /n/
/v/ (van) and /b/ (ban)
/b/ (bee) and /p/ (pee)
/p/ (pan) and /f/ (fan)
/v/ (verse) and /w/ (worse)
/j/ (jet) and /y/ (yet)
/j/ (budge) and /z/ (buzz)
/ʃ/ (ship) and /tʃ/ (chip)
/n/ (thin) and /ŋ/ (thing)
Consonant Clusters
- How to Pronounce the TR Consonant Cluster (Rachel’s English)
- How to Pronounce the SHR Consonant Cluster (Rachel’s English)
- S Consonant Clusters (Rachel’s English)
- “rl” (pearl) pronunciation (Coach Shane)
- “thr” (three/through) pronunciation (Coach Shane)
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Chapter 2: Stress and Intonation
When we say someone has a strong accent, it means they speak English with incorrect stress and intonation patterns, making them difficult to understand.
So, if you want others to understand your spoken English, practice the exercises in this chapter carefully.
Syllable Stress
A syllable is the smallest unit of pronunciation. (The word “water” has two syllables. The word “inferno” has three.)
Stressing the wrong syllable in a word can cause misunderstandings because people think you are saying a different word.
- 2-Syllable Words Stress (Rachel’s English)
- Word Stress and Three Syllable Words (Rachel’s English)
- Difference in stress between nouns and verbs (Jade@EngVid)
Word Stress
Native speakers always stress certain words within sentences.
If you learn to stress the right words your speech will have a natural rhythm similar to that of native speakers.
- How does stress change the meaning of a sentence? (Adam@EngVid)
- Word Stress: content Words (Rachel’s English)
- Word Stress and Verbs (Rachel’s English)
Intonation
Intonation is like the melody of a song.
When you listen to native speakers, you can hear their speech rise and fall in pitch. Some syllables are high in pitch. Some are low.
Intonation is important because it tells the listener whether you’re finished talking or whether you have more to say; whether you’re asking a question or making a statement.
- Rising and Falling Intonation (English Pronunciation Roadmap)
- Questions vs. Statements (Rachel’s English)
- Questions and Intonation: Up or Down? (Rachel’s English)
Chapter 3: Word Connections
This chapter will help you sound more like a native speaker. You’ll practice “linking words” together so that your speech flows better and sounds more natural.
Contractions
- How to Pronounce Contractions (Rachel’s English)
- How to Pronounce N’T Contractions (Rachel’s English)
Word Linking
- Linking: Consonant to Vowel (Rachel’s English)
- Linking Consonant to Consonant (Rachel’s English)
- Linking: Vowel to Vowel (Rachel’s English)
Chapter 4: Reduced Sounds
When speaking, native speakers don’t pronounce every syllable clearly. Instead, they “reduce” certain sounds, making it easier to speak.
- Reduction: the word FOR (Rachel’s English)
- How to Pronounce the Word OR (Rachel’s English)
- How to Reduce ‘THAT’ (Rachel’s English)
- How to Pronounce the Word ‘TO’ (Rachel’s English)
- How to Pronounce ‘to the’ in a Sentence (Rachel’s English)
- Reduction: the word AT (Rachel’s English)
Chapter 5: Common Pronunciation Mistakes
A few bonus exercises for you to practice.
- How to Pronounce Can vs. Can’t (Rachel’s English)
- How to pronounce words ending in S (Emma@EngVid)
- How to Pronounce -ed verb endings (Rachel’s English)
- words ending with X, T, CK (Ronnie@EngVid)
- How to pronounce PEANUTS (not penis) (Tarle Speech and Language Services)
Other Ways to Practice Your English Pronunciation
Using the lessons on this page is one way to improve your pronunciation and accent.
But there are two more methods you can use:
- Practice the Parrot technique. (Imitate native speakers.)
- Do an accent inspection. (Compare your accent with the native accent.)
If you combine all three methods together, the results will be amazing!
So if you want to learn more, check out my article on how to improve your English pronunciation. You’ll learn a complete process for sounding like a native.
