Master English Pronunciation: Daily Practice Tips

If you’ve been practicing English pronunciation but have had no results so far, that doesn’t mean you should quit. Most people believe there’s only one way to practice pronunciation, and they keep using a single approach all the time—but the results achieved that way are always limited.

There’s a complex process behind building strong pronunciation skills, and you must use and combine different approaches to make your speech flow. But no worries—there are some proven methods to achieving flawless articulation, and I’ll break down the process for you.

Assessment before English pronunciation practice

You might feel uncomfortable starting with this, but it is necessary to record yourself reading some article or book passage in English. Then, make a recording of yourself talking about anything at all—but without preparation or a written script.

Listen to both types of recordings, and you’ll instantly notice any awkwardness in your overall tone or the way you pronounce certain words. If you have trouble with individual words, just check how they should be pronounced (Forvo is a great tool for that) and practice those particular expressions. But if there are some system flaws in your pronunciation, keep reading, as that’s what this article is all about.

If you aim for perfect pronunciation, self-assessment is not enough. You’d need feedback from native speakers to acknowledge the current state of your accent and pronunciation truly. In ideal circumstances, you would have someone to listen to you and help you improve. But even under not-so-ideal circumstances, there are plenty of online solutions, from the JudgeMyAccent subreddit to one-on-one tuition on LiveXP.

Uploading a sample of your speech and having a whole Reddit community judge your pronunciation is free, and it is a good solution—you’d get feedback from multiple people, and each of them would have a new aspect to highlight. But how comfortable you are with letting the entire internet hear you speak imperfect English? If your accent is particularly inspiring, you might become viral on TikTok or worse.

Exposing your weaknesses is sometimes worth the risk, but you don’t have to do that if you don’t feel like it. There’s a more elegant (and discreet) way to have someone assess your English articulation. Go to our main page and choose a language tutor with the particular accent you’d like to emulate. They’ll provide both feedback and training—and while you may never become famous for your current funny pronunciation, you’ll certainly get rid of it forever.

How to practice pronunciation in English

The practice starts with phonetic training, which is practicing individual sounds as they appear in so-called minimal pairs (like pat and bat, for example).

Once you reach the sentence level, you must also practice the rhythm and stress patterns. Consider the sentence, “Emma knows how to train aggressive dog breeds.” The meaning changes depending on the speaker’s selection to highlight the verb “knows” (“Emma KNOWS how to train aggressive dog breeds.”), “train” (“Emma knows how to TRAIN aggressive dog breeds.”), or the syntagm “aggressive dog breeds” (“Emma knows how to train AGGRESSIVE DOG BREEDS.”)

If you need help finding examples and practice on your own, one of our tutors will gladly guide you through the process and provide much-needed support along the way.

Exercises to improve pronunciation

Speech shadowing is one of my favorite components of pronunciation training. It can be pretty fun and useful, depending on the content you choose. It is super easy to find podcasts or videos featuring native speakers as they talk about various subjects. Also, this is something you can do without help from a tutor.

To begin, choose the content (the more diverse, the better) and listen to it. After each sentence, press pause and repeat what you heard while doing your best to mimic the minutiae of the original pronunciation. Pay particular attention to “hard” words (some of them are listed at the end of this article, and if you’d like to hear how they are pronounced, you can check them on Forvo, too). Repeat until you get tired. Once you do, switch to another kind of listening material (instead of news reports, you can listen to a funny movie or series), but don’t change the routine.

You can also do it with your English tutor on LiveXP. While “shadowing” following your tutor, you will also receive an explanation of how to move your lips and mouth to pronounce the words correctly. Plus, you receive immediate feedback, which allows you to apply changes and develop constantly.

Daily routine in English pronunciation practice

Speaking of routine, it goes without saying that learning any aspect of a language needs to be practiced regularly, day after day. If you can, schedule 30-minute sessions on LiveXP focusing specifically on pronunciation every day. Morning works best for many as vocal cords are fresh, but any part of the day is fine if your mornings are packed with work and other activities.

A typical session starts with reading something aloud for a couple of minutes. Then, spend at least ten minutes doing speech shadowing. After that, devote some time to focus on certain expressions that you find hard to pronounce. Practice one set of such expressions for a week, then switch to something else.

If you’re into singing, you can incorporate it into your daily pronunciation training as well. Make a selection of slow-tempo, lyric-rich songs you like, use a lyrics website to follow along, and enjoy singing them. Gradually, you’ll be able to expand your repertoire to include some faster songs.

Whatever you do, make sure to take notes of everything and write down any problematic expressions and anything else you observe during your session.

Advanced English pronunciation practice

Once you reach a certain level, you’ll notice that progress is not as fast as it used to be. That is a clear sign that you need help to continue. You can practice reading aloud and speech shadowing for ages—and become very good at it—but still sound funny in a real-life situation. To get over that, you need to talk, and not only to yourself.

On an advanced level, daily pronunciation practice should include conversation. Instead of reading scripts, you need to talk to a real person. Even if, like myself, you prefer studying alone, this is a moment to consider getting a tutor. Otherwise, you’ll get stuck.

With a tutor, you can engage in conversations on all kinds of topics and get the opportunity to expand your vocabulary along the way. You’ll get instant feedback, and you’ll know exactly what to practice during your solo sessions—so they will become more effective, too.

To get the most out of your conversation with a tutor, you can record them and take notes. This part is particularly convenient on LiveXP thanks to its advanced progress-tracking features and the possibility to take notes within the app. Your tutor can make their own notes, too, and use them to help you further elevate your skills.

Hone your pronunciation in a specific accent

If your goal is not simply to refine your pronunciation but also to adopt a particular accent, you’ll see that the available material may be scarce. Finding content for speech shadowing may be harder, and you may even have to change your tutor, even though the one you’ve been working with so far is generally great. For instance, if you’re an actor preparing for the role of an oil magnate from Texas, working with a tutor from Edinburgh or Liverpool will not get you any closer to your goal—and it can even be counterproductive. But no worries, on LiveXP, you can easily switch from one tutor to another at no additional cost and with no hassle at all. In addition, you can choose a tutor from a specific country to gain the accent you need.

For those who simply need to learn how to speak proper English, it is a good idea to immerse in content spoken in as many accents as possible. You can dedicate one week to practicing General American, the next one to Southern American, then the New York City variant, and then switch to BBC English, and so on.

English pronunciation practice for the brave

There’s a way to practice English pronunciation that many swear by, although it is a bit intimidating: public speaking. Just get into a situation where you must give a speech and do your best to make it great. Write it yourself, and then practice pronouncing new words that appear.

Focus on your speech’s emotional, professional, or any other applicable aspects and deliver your message effectively. Highlight the critical parts of the speech, and show your passion for the topic with an appropriate rhythm and tempo. Spend as many hours as needed practicing the delivery of that speech.

The feedback will be immediate—you’ll see it on your audience’s faces. You can also ask the people who listened to describe their impressions. Ask about their overall impressions without even mentioning that pronunciation is your weakest point. Who knows, they may not even notice any issues at all. Such a prospect is worth the time and effort. Don’t you think so?

English pronunciation practice words

It goes without saying that all words should be pronounced well, but some expressions are harder to articulate. That’s either because they are robust and filled with consonants or because their correct pronunciation is counterintuitive and doesn’t make sense even though you know all the general English pronunciation rules. Yes, I’m talking about the infamous “exceptions.”

Here are some examples of words that non-native speakers often mispronounce, followed by how they should be pronounced. I’d suggest taking some time to practice these, as many appear pretty often, and you should know how to say them right.

1. Comfortable – Often pronounced as “com-for-ta-ble” instead of “cumf-ter-bul.”
2. Vegetable – Sometimes pronounced as “veg-e-ta-ble” instead of “vej-tuh-bul.”
3. February – The first “r” is often skipped, leading to “Feb-u-ary” instead of “Feb-roo-ary.”
4. Wednesday – Often pronounced as “Wed-nes-day” instead of “Wenz-day.”
5. Almond – The “l” is silent, but it’s sometimes pronounced.
6. Athlete – Occasionally pronounced as “ath-a-lete” instead of “ath-leet.”
7. Espresso – Mispronounced as “ex-presso.”
8. Jewelry – Often pronounced as “jew-el-er-y” instead of “jool-ry.”
9. Library – Mispronounced as “li-berry” instead of “li-brary.”
10. Often – The “t” can be silent, but many people pronounce it, leading to variations.
11. Recipe – Sometimes mispronounced as “re-sipe” instead of “rec-i-pee.”
12. Suite – Should be pronounced like “sweet” but can be mispronounced as “suit-e.”
13. Mischievous – Often mispronounced as “mis-chee-vee-ous” instead of “mis-chuh-vus.”
14. Nuclear – Mispronounced as “nu-ku-lar” instead of “new-klee-ur.”
15. Specific – Sometimes pronounced as “pa-cific” or “s-pacific.”
16. Tour – Should be pronounced more like “toor” but often gets pronounced as “tour” (rhyming with “sour”).
17. Pronunciation – Ironically, it’s often mispronounced as “pro-noun-ciation.”
18. Colonel – Most would expect “co-lo-nel,” but it’s pronounced as “ker-nel.”
19. Island – The “s” is silent, making it sound like “eye-land” not “is-land.”
20. Salmon – Often expected to be “sal-mon,” but the “l” is silent: “sam-un.”
21. Choir – It looks like “ch-oir," but it’s pronounced as “kwy-er.”
22. Cough – It can be expected as “co-ugh” (coff) instead of “kawf.”
23. Though – This word could be thought of as “tho-ugh” but is pronounced “tho.”
24. Bologna – Looks like “bo-lo-gna” but is pronounced as “buh-lonee.”
25. Worcestershire – This is a particularly tricky one. It may look like “wor-ces-ter-shire,” but it’s typically pronounced “wuss-ter-sheer” or “woos-ter-shear.”
26. Leicester – Though it appears as “lei-ces-ter,” it’s pronounced “les-ter.”
27. Thames – It seems like it should be “thay-mes,” but it’s “temz.”
28. Quay – Looks like “qu-ay” but is pronounced as “key.”
29. Aisle – The “a” is silent, so it’s not “ay-sle” but “ile.”
30. Hyperbole – It might be read as “hyper-bole,” but it’s “hy-per-buh-lee.”
31. Subtle – The “b” is silent, so it’s “sut-tle,” not “sub-tle.”
32. Depot – Often thought to be “de-pot,” but it can be pronounced as “dee-poh.”
33. Cache – Might be considered as “cash-ay,” but it’s “cash.”
34. Gif – There’s an ongoing debate, but it’s officially pronounced “jif” (like the brand of peanut butter), though many say “gif” with a hard “g.”
35. Sew – Looks like it should be pronounced “sew” (to rhyme with “mew”), but it’s pronounced “so.”
36. Hors d’oeuvres – It might seem like “hors d-oh-evres,” but it’s “orderves.”
37. Draught – Appears as “dra-ught,” but it’s pronounced “draft.”
38. Plough – Could be thought of as “plo-ugh,” but it’s “plow.”
39. Liaison – The combination of letters may suggest “li-a-son,” but it’s “lee-ay-zon.”
40. Phlegm – The “ph” typically sounds like “f,” leading one to think “phl-egm.” However, it’s “flem.”
41. Pint – Looks like “pin-t,” but it’s “pynt.”
42. Sword – Appears it might be “s-word,” but the “w” is silent: “sord.”
43. One – Based on its spelling, you might think “o-ne,” but it’s “wun.”
44. Etiquette – Might seem like “eti-quette,” but it’s “et-i-kit.”
45. Facade – Without familiarity, it might be “fa-cade,” but it’s “fuh-sahd.”
46. Champagne – Could be considered “champ-agne,” but it’s “sham-pain.”
47. Yacht – Appears as “yach-t,” but it’s pronounced “yot.”
48. Herb – In American English, the “h” is silent, so it’s not “her-b” but “erb.” (However, British English often pronounces the “h.”)
49. Faux – Looks like it could be “fax” or “fow,” but it’s “fo.”
50. Bouquet – While it appears as “bou-quet,” it’s pronounced as “boo-kay.”

These words, along with many others in the English language, can be quite tricky and often lead to mispronunciations, especially for those learning the language.

If you’re feeling adventurous

Tongue twisters can be challenging even for native speakers, but give them a try. Here are some you have probably never read before.

1. A dapper dog dashed past a darting cat, dodging a rattling rat on a drizzling mat.
   (This should be pronounced as: A dap-per dog dashed past a dart-ing kat, dodg-ing a rat-tling rat on a driz-zling mat.)
2. Bees buzzed by briskly, while ants advanced, all avidly aiming at apricots to enhance.
   (Correct pronunciation: Bees buzd by brisk-lee, while ants ad-vanced, all avid-lee aim-ing at ap-ri-cots to en-hance.)
3. A bleary, weary bear beneath his winter lair, pondered if to pair his hunger with the brisk cold air.
   (The right way to say it: A bleer-ee, weer-ee bear be-neath his win-ter lair, pon-dered if to pair his hun-ger with the brisk cold air.)

I hope you enjoyed those, but even if they are too hard—no worries at all! They are here just for fun; they’ll never need you in real life. Just stick to the routine outlined above, keep practicing, and you’ll soon be able to pronounce anything without any effort. And if you ever get stuck, let one of our friendly tutors give you a helping hand.