How to improve your English pronunciation: advanced techniques

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Pronouncing English well is about more than just knowing the right words; it's about sounding natural and confident. If you've already mastered the basics, but feel like you need to take your pronunciation to the next level, this article is for you.


Our teachers have shared with us some advanced techniques to improve south africa phone number list English pronunciation so you can finally sound like a true native speaker .

Ready to leave that annoying accent behind? Let's get to it!

1. The art of intonation: how to sound more natural
Intonation in English is key to sounding more natural.

Often students focus on pronouncing words correctly but forget how the sentence sounds as a whole.

Imagine you are asking a question in English, such as: “Are you coming to the party?” The intonation should rise at the end of the sentence to indicate that it is a question. But if you say it with a flat intonation, you might sound bored or even confuse your interlocutor.

A good practice to improve your intonation in English is to listen to native speakers and repeat not only the words, but also the melody of their sentences.

Use resources like podcasts, audiobooks, or even TV shows and try to imitate not only what they say, but how they say it. This will help you better understand intonation and improve your fluency.

2. The importance of connected speech
Words are often strung together in rapid speech. This can make the language sound like one long stream of sounds, with no clear pauses between words.

For example, a phrase like “What do you want to do?” often sounds more like “Whaddya wanna do?” in casual conversation. To improve your pronunciation, it is essential to practice these connected speech in English .

You can start by practicing common phrases using connected speech .

A useful technique is to use the “repetition and shadow” method. Listen to a native speaker and try to repeat exactly what they say at the same time, mimicking the word links and speed of speech. Over time, it will come more naturally to you and allow you to sound more fluent.

3. Using minimal pairs to perfect difficult sounds
Minimal pairs in English are something like pairs of words that differ in only one sound, such as “ ship” and “sheep ,” whose “i” is pronounced more elongated.

Practicing with these pairs can help you identify and produce sounds that are especially difficult for non-native speakers.

In Spanish, for example, we don't distinguish between certain vowel sounds as much as we do in English. Spending time practicing with minimal pairs can help you hone your ear and pronunciation.