How To Pronounce Acai
General Word Structure The word acai is made up of three syllables when pronounced by American English speakers. We can segment them like this: a-ca-i The word comes to English from the Portuguese word açaí , which originated from the Tupi-Guarani word asaí . First Syllable The first syllable…
How To Pronounce Bruschetta
is a type of Italian appetizer. Although it's become more common to refer to a tomato-based topping as bruschetta, bruschetta consists of roasted bread with olive oil and garlic, perhaps with an additional savory item such as tomatoes. Let's take a look at how to pronounce this word. Syllable…
How To Pronounce Bug
The word only has one syllable. The first sound in the word is , a voiced bilabial stop. This sound is created by having your vocal cords vibrate while bringing your two lips together in order to completely stop the airflow. The second sound in the word is vowel , which can be described as a…
How To Pronounce Cache
There is one syllable in the word cache, /kaʃ/. The first sound is , a voiceless velar stop. Make this sound by bringing the back of your tongue up until it touches the top of your mouth, while making sure your vocal cords are not vibrating. Additionally, if is made at the beginning of a word…
How To Pronounce Chipotle
Chipotle is a name of a type of smoke-dried jalapeño pepper and also the name of a popular chain of restaurants. But, how do you say it? Let's take a look at the pronunciation of this word. Syllable Overview The spelling for can be segmented like this: chi-pot-le The IPA for this word is:…
How To Pronounce Charcuterie
The word refers to different types of processed meats. Often times charcuterie may be presented on a board, with the meats paired alongside other delicious foods like cheeses and fruits. But how is this word pronounced in American English? Let's take a look. Syllable Structure There are four…
Guide to Consonants
A consonant is a sound that is created by using some part of our vocal tract to interfere with airflow. When we interfere with the airflow in this way, we create a unique sound. In American English there are several different consonants. We can divide consonants by place, manner, and voicing…
How To Pronounce Colonel
Basic Word Structure The IPA transcription for this word is ˈkɜrnəl. There are two syllables in . First Syllable kɜr The first sound in the first syllable is , which is a voiceless velar stop.This means that we make this sound with our vocal cords held apart and not vibrating, while raising the…
How To Pronounce Develop, Developer, and Development
Are you a developer? Are you pronouncing the word developer the way people who grew up in the U.S. do? If not, they might have a hard time understanding what it is you do for a living. This is a very common word that is often pronounced by foreigners in a way Americans aren't familiar with hearing…
How To Pronounce Meme
How To Pronounce Meme Memes have taken over the Internet. On the Internet, the term meme generally means something along the lines of some sort of media, like an image or a video, that is shared and spread widely. While people are often more or less familiar with the idea of a meme, how to pronounce…
How To Pronounce Other
The word has two syllables. The IPA for this word is ˈʌðər. We can divide the syllables in into a first syllable of /ʌ/ and a second syllable of /ðər/. First syllable /ʌ/ There is only one sound in the first syllable, the vowel. The vowel can be described as a low-mid back unrounded lax…
How To Pronounce Quinoa
Quinoa's popularity in the United States, and worldwide, has really taken off, but pronouncing it is a mystery to many. Are there three syllables, or two? Which syllable gets the most emphasis? Let's take a look at the pronunciation of this word. Overview There are two syllables in . We could…
How To Pronounce Salmon
Syllable Structure We can segment the spelled word like this: sal-mon The IPA for this word is: ˈsæmən Let's take a look at each syllables in . First Syllable sæ The first sound in this syllable is , the voiceless alveolar fricative. You can make it by raising your tongue near your alveolar ridge…
How Indian Speakers Can Pronounce T and D More Like Americans
People who grew up speaking American English tend to pronounce the sounds "t" and "d" differently than the way speakers from India do. The way Indian speakers often say these consonants is one of the things that make accents from India very distinctive to the American ear. Both speakers of American…
How To Pronounce Words With Suffixes
There are some words that have been created by adding an additional portion to the end of them. These additional parts at the end are called suffixes. They can't stand alone, but adding them to the word changes the meaning and sometimes also which syllable in the word is stressed. In this post we…
How To Pronounce Turmeric
How To Pronounce Turmeric While has been known and used as both cooking and medicine for thousands of years, knowledge of its many benefits has been spreading like wildfire and more people than ever, particularly in the West, are eager to add it to their diet to enjoy its many benefits. But, how…
How To Pronounce V and W
Americans think that Indians say "v" instead of "w", and many native Hindi speakers don't hear the difference. What's going on? V and W Confusion The reason for this confusion is that American English and Hindi have different phonemic inventories -- both languages use different sounds. Many times…
How To Pronounce Wednesday
Hindi speakers often have a way of pronouncing the word Wednesday that sounds very distinctive to American English speakers. Native speakers of Hindi often say this word with an extra syllable, and this word contains many of the sounds that American English speakers notice are pronounced very…
How To Pronounce Engineer
The word engineer is frequently pronounced by native Hindi speakers in a way that is very different than how native American English (AE) speakers pronounce it. Engineer is derived from combining the noun engine with the suffix -eer . When AE speakers pronounce words that have two syllables…
How Pronunciation Works
Pronunciation is a mysterious process to many of us. We hear people who have different accents, but it is sometimes hard to pinpoint the things about their speech that make them sound so different. There are many people who manage to speak and write a language at a high or even fluent level, but who…
How To Pronounce Pronounce and Pronunciation
Since this blog focuses on pronunciation, and the way that native Hindi speakers say "pronounce" and "pronunciation" is often noticeably different than native speakers of American English, I figured it'd be a good idea to go over the pronunciation of these words. Let's start with the verb form…
How To Pronounce Schwa, The Most Common Vowel in English
Are you using the most common vowel in English? If you didn't grow up with English as your mother tongue, it's highly possible that you aren't using it enough, or even at all. Which vowel is it? The vowel! Schwa? What's that? A schwa is a type of vowel, it kind of sounds like "uh". Linguists…
Intro to Understanding Syllable Stress in American English
Syllable Timed vs Stress Timed Languages Hindi is a syllable timed language, as are most languages spoken in the Indian subcontinent. This means that syllables take up the same amount of time to say. As a result, Indian English tends to be more syllable timed. American English, and most English…
Top 6 Vowel Changes You Should Use to Sound More American
Native speakers of Hindi often pronounce words using different vowels sounds than native speakers of American English. This can make it harder for Americans to figure out what they are saying, and may even lead to them confusing what they said with another word, just because of the vowel sound. If…
How To Pronounce Technology
General Word Structure The word technology is made up of four syllables when pronounced by both Hindi speakers as well as by American English speakers. We can segment them like this: tech-no-lo-gy The word technology is a combination of techno, from the Greek tekhno, meaning skill, and the…
Ultimate Guide to Vowels
What is a vowel? A vowel is a sound that we make by vibrating our vocal cords and changing the shapes of our mouth, jaw, and tongue, while not interrupting the flow of air. This is different than consonants, which are formed by interfering with the flow of air in order to make a consonant sound…