Many people who study English and whose native language is Spanish report having pronunciation problems and errors as a central obstacle when speaking English Do you want to know what they are?
Keep reading Funtalk will tell you!
What are common pronunciation errors in English?
Before discussing the most common pronunciation errors in English, it is very important to emphasize that there is no perfect way to pronounce in English, nor is there a perfect accent.
In the end, just as in Spanish we have different accents depending on the regions, it is exactly the same with English.
What should be our main concern is to be able to speak and communicate in English with as many people as possible.
Having said this, let’s discuss the most common mistakes in order to learn to pronounce English correctly.
Vowels
It may be obvious to some people, but in English there are more vowel sounds than vowels. This can cause quite a few problems when it comes to pronouncing English well.
The main thing is to know what vowel sounds there are, in general it is considered that there are 12 in British English and 14 in American English.
Something that can be very convenient to improve this type of errors is simply to listen to videos of how they pronounce.
Consonants and consonant clusters
Spanish speakers may find it difficult to distinguish
may find it difficult to distinguish the b from the v asó as ch from sh (words like very or berry/ chair /share).
This type of error is similar to that of vowels and again the most recommended is listen and practice until you become familiar with the phonology of the language.
Connected speech
When speaking in English, sounds are not always pronounced in the same syllable in which they are written.
This is because the final consonants are sometimes moved to the syllable of the next word, to facilitate pronunciation.
It is best to familiarize yourself with these language patterns and get used to them naturally.
Accent on words
In Spanish we have a set of rules to know where an accent falls and to be able to know where the stressed syllable is.
In English this is not the case.
Knowing how to pronounce a word goes through a process of listening to how it is pronounced, i.e. it comes in an all-in-one package: you learn a word in English you must learn its pronunciation, meaning and accompanying prepositions.
Accentual rhythm
English is a language that has an accentual rhythm, which means that it gives more time to stressed syllables and less time to unstressed syllables.
This results in a greater emphasis when communicating.
In most cases the literal meaning of a sentence will not change because it does not have the correct accentual rhythm.
However, information is lost by not emphasizing the tone in which it is said (angry, happy, serious, etc).
That’s all!
We hope you liked it and found it enjoyable to read.
Be patient when learning how to pronounce correctly in English, everything takes time!
Now that you know some of the most common mistakes, there is only one thing left to do: Practice!