English
English has 26 letters and about 44 sounds. These courses teach you to read those sounds aloud, then to greet someone and hold a first conversation.
- 1English alphabet and pronunciationEnglish has 26 letters but about 44 sounds, so one letter can say many things. Eight units cover letter names, vowel sounds, silent e and vowel teams, letter pairs like sh and th, hard sounds such as r, l, f and v, word stress, sentence rhythm, and word endings.8 Units
- 2English greetingsHello and goodbye, greetings for the time of day, how are you and what to answer, names and titles, meeting someone new, where you are from, please, thank you and sorry. Eight units end with a full first conversation.8 Units
Where English spelling stops helping
English spelling gives a reader fewer clues than many languages. Five vowel letters have to cover about 20 vowel sounds in a British count, so one letter can be read several ways and the same sound can be spelled several ways. That is why this subject starts with sound before conversation. English alphabet and pronunciation comes first, and English greetings follows. Both courses use an American voice in the recordings, and the guide under each line is written in IPA, the symbols used by learner dictionaries such as Cambridge and Merriam-Webster.
Eight units from letter names to word endings
The first unit separates letter names from letter sounds: names are for spelling a word aloud, including your own email address, where @ is read as at. Z is zee in the US and zed in the UK. Short vowels follow, with minimal pairs such as ship and sheep. The silent e unit turns cap into cape and hop into hope, and lists words to learn by sight, like have, give and love. Letter pairs come next, including the two sounds of th: think starts with only air, this starts with voice.
Unit 5 takes the sounds that need a mirror: r and l, f and p, v and b, and z, which is s with voice. Coffee and copy differ by one sound. The last three units move from single sounds to whole words and sentences. Every word has one strong syllable, so REcord is a noun and reCORD a verb. In a sentence, content words stay strong and words like to, and and can shrink; can't never does. Endings carry grammar: cats ends in s, dogs in z, and buses adds a syllable.
The lines of a first meeting
The greetings course has eight units. Hello works with anyone, hi with most people, hey with friends. Good night is a goodbye, not a hello. How are you? is often part of the greeting, and the expected answer is short: Fine, thanks. And you? Titles go with the family name, so Ms Brown and not Ms Emma, and Ms is the safe choice for a woman. What do you do? asks about your job or studies, not your plans for today. In British English, cheers can mean thank you or goodbye.
The final unit puts about 15 short lines together in five steps: greet, give names, ask, react and close. It also gives the lines for when you get lost, such as Sorry, could you say that again?
Practise out loud and in writing
Each unit has a shadowing recording: play a line, then speak with it at the same speed. Practice notes give a physical check, such as a hand under the chin for cat and cut, or fingers on the throat to hear whether a final sound is voiced. Flashcards hold new words, a dictation asks you to type what you hear, and each quiz explains its answers. Prepare your own lines as you go: your name and how to spell it, where you are from and what you do.
Questions about this subject
Why do 26 English letters represent more than 26 sounds?
Letters and speech sounds are different units, and English reuses letters and combines them to write a larger sound inventory. The standard British chart used here has twenty-four consonant sounds and twenty vowel sounds, while American English differs slightly. Learning letter names therefore helps with spelling aloud but does not tell you every pronunciation of those letters in words. Script and sounds
What is a minimal pair in English pronunciation?
It is a pair of words differing in just one sound, such as ship and sheep or bat and bet. The change can make the listener hear a different word rather than merely a different accent. Practising the pair side by side helps you compare the vowel and notice how your mouth must change between the two pronunciations. Script and sounds
How does silent e change an English word?
In the common vowel-consonant-e pattern, the final e is unspoken but changes the preceding vowel to its letter-name sound. Cap and cape, or hop and hope, illustrate the contrast. This is a useful phonics pattern rather than an exceptionless law: have, give, love, come and some keep other vowel sounds and must be learned separately. Script and sounds
Why do unstressed English vowels often sound like uh?
Many unstressed syllables reduce their vowel to schwa, written /ə/, instead of keeping a fully clear letter-related sound. The first syllable of about and the syllables around stressed NA in banana show this reduction. Word stress is therefore part of pronunciation, not just extra loudness added after all the written vowels have been pronounced equally. Script and sounds
Why is to pronounced differently inside an English sentence?
Many short grammar words have a strong form for emphasis and a weak form in ordinary speech. To can be /tuː/ alone but /tə/ in I want to go, just as and can weaken in fish and chips. Listening only for the full dictionary-like form can make these words seem absent when they are actually pronounced quickly and weakly. Script and sounds