The English Circle - English Language Tutoring

02/01/2024

Accent Modification - Stress Within a Word

What do we mean by stress? Stressed syllables are louder, longer, and pronounced at a slightly higher pitch. English has three main levels of stress: strong stress (primary stress); light stress (secondary stress); unstressed. The difference between stressed syllables and unstressed syllables is greater in English than in most other languages.

The correct placement of stress in a word plays an important role in being clearly understood by a listener. This is because listeners depend on the stressed syllables to help them process meaning. When stress is misplaced, the cues that help listeners decode meaning are missing. As a result, communication may be impeded. Knowing where to stress and reduce syllables is important for clear pronunciation. Therefore, stress is a key component of our accent modification course.

For more details on this, please visit our website at www.theenglishcircle.com and check out our BLOG section.

The English Circle offers 1-on-1 ESL English tutoring and customized learning - both ONLINE worldwide and In-Person sessions (Toronto).

01/16/2024

Having trouble pronouncing the W sound? The /w/ sound is particularly difficult for Hindi, Punjabi, Marathi, and Malayalam speakers. Indian speakers tend to substitute a sound similar to /v/ for /w/. This happens because the upper front teeth touch the lower lip. When pronouncing the /w/ sound, your upper front teeth must not touch your lower lip. For more tips on pronouncing the /w/ sound, read the blog post here:

The w sound is particularly difficult for Hindi, Punjabi, Marathi, and Malayalam speakers. Accent modification: the /w/ sound

03/05/2022

Are you having difficulty pronouncing the /r/ sound?

There are two ways to produce the /r/ sound: the bunched /r/ position and the retroflex /r/ position.

Here is a guide to help you produce the /r/ sound.

1. To produce the bunched /r/ sound, pull your whole tongue back and up and tense the muscles at the back of your tongue. Your tongue gets really wide. Near the back of your tongue, pull the lateral edges of your tongue up to touch the insides of your upper back molars. Make sure your tongue is high and back in the mouth! The muscles at the back of the tongue are very tense for this sound. If the back part of your tongue is not high, back, and tense, you will not produce the sound properly. Make sure that the tip of your tongue doesn't touch the alveolar ridge.

2. Retroflex /r/ is produced in the same way that it is for bunched /r/, with the exception that for retroflex /r/, the tip of our tongue curls back slightly.