Thread: Mastering general American pronunciation step by step

Hello. I acquired a course on general American pronunciation and I just thought I could put up my voice recordings here for you to judge as I work my way through the course.
But I don't intend to load you down with my stuff. I'm just going to upload short recordings that you listen to on-line without having to download them and give invaluable feedback on my pronunciation.

Okay, I've completed two of the course lessons so far and they were about EE's as in seat and AI's as in great vowels. I pronounced them on its own first then as a part of some words.

Enjoy

click on this to listen to my AI's

click on this to listen to my EE's

Thank you in advance!

I've enjoyed. It was awful.

AIs sound like Russian "Эй"s, and in the words Beat, Bean you softened the B-s like in Russian, don't do this.

Originally Posted by Medved

AIs sound like Russian "Эй"s, and in the words Beat, Bean you softened the B-s like in Russian, don't do this.

Thanks for the reply but I'm more concerned on the quality of topic vowels than other sounds surrounding them. One thing at a time

Originally Posted by Medved

AIs sound like Russian "Эй"s

Well i think iCake meant "eɪ"/"Ay" and not "Ai" (His examples say so)

So Igor, i tried to compare your "Ays" with this video's "Ays" [--> American Accent Training - Part 02 | Vowel sound AY | Free English Lesson ( ESL) - YouTube ] and i think you're pronouncing it all good except that (i think) it would be even better if you try to make it a bit softer.

I'm more concerned on the quality of topic vowels

iCake I'm talking about your first recording, about the diphtong you're saying there.

That video is weird, they have a guy with a British English accent narrating a video about American English accents?????


Scott

Originally Posted by MISSFOXYSWEETCHERRY

Well i think iCake meant "eɪ"/"Ay" and not "Ai" (His examples say so)

So Igor, i tried to compare your "Ays" with this video's "Ays" [--> American Accent Training - Part 02 | Vowel sound AY | Free English Lesson ( ESL) - YouTube ] and i think you're pronouncing it all good except that (i think) it would be even better if you try to make it a bit softer.

I appreciate all the replies, point taken!

Still it would be nice to hear a native Enlish speaker opinion

My American English ears heard your 'A' and 'E' and think they are great. Some of the words with 'E' were hard to understand the first listening.

Scott

Originally Posted by iCake

Hello. I acquired a course on general American pronunciation and I just thought I could put up my voice recordings here for you to judge as I work my way through the course.
But I don't intend to load you down with my stuff. I'm just going to upload short recordings that you listen to on-line without having to download them and give invaluable feedback on my pronunciation.

Okay, I've completed two of the course lessons so far and they were about EE's as in seat and AI's as in great vowels. I pronounced them on its own first then as a part of some words.

Enjoy

click on this to listen to my AI's

click on this to listen to my EE's

Thank you in advance!

Originally Posted by fortheether

That video is weird, they have a guy with a British English accent narrating a video about American English accents?????


Scott

Really??? XD i can't stop laughing!!! How's that possible?
I thought this must be some kind of heavy American accent)))

At first I debated whether it was an Australian or British accent, when he pronounced the word 'chapter' that settled it for British accent.

Originally Posted by MISSFOXYSWEETCHERRY

Really??? XD i can't stop laughing!!! How's that possible?
I thought this must be some kind of heavy American accent)))

Hello, I've trained two vowels today, which are strong [a:] as in father and strong [o:] as in warm. Please, native American English speakers listen to two recordings below and give me feedback on my pronunciation of these vowels. It's crucial to me, because if there is no feedback I won't know whether I need to move on to another lessons or to work more on the current vowels. As I did with the previous vowels I pronounced these new two vowels on their own first then as a part of some words.

Listen to my [a:]. You won't need to download anything
Listen to my [o:]. You won't need to download anything

The vowels themselves are fine. Are you stressing the vowels in the words on purpose? If not, they are too strong.

Scott

Originally Posted by iCake

Hello, I've trained two vowels today, which are strong [a:] as in father and strong [o:] as in warm. Please, native American English speakers listen to two recordings below and give me feedback on my pronunciation of these vowels. It's crucial to me, because if there is no feedback I won't know whether I need to move on to another lessons or to work more on the current vowels. As I did with the previous vowels I pronounced these new two vowels on their own first then as a part of some words.

Listen to my [a:]. You won't need to download anything
Listen to my [o:]. You won't need to download anything

Originally Posted by fortheether

The vowels themselves are fine. Are you stressing the vowels in the words on purpose? If not, they are too strong.

Scott

Thanks! Yeah, I kind of did that on purporse, because I didn't want to mess the whole thing up By the way is it anywhere near a native like sounding?

Icake,
If there's any words you'd like me to record just type them up.


Scott

Can you rerecord the words but don't stress the vowels so much?

Originally Posted by iCake

Thanks! Yeah, I kind of did that on purporse, because I didn't want to mess the whole thing up By the way is it anywhere near a native like sounding?

Originally Posted by fortheether

Can you rerecord the words but don't stress the vowels so much?

Here you go

[a:] words, not that stressed

[o:] words, not that stressed

The 'a' sounds are too long. If you want to list the words, I'll record them.


Scott

Originally Posted by iCake

Here you go

[a:] words, not that stressed

[o:] words, not that stressed

iCake to learn the Eh sound look at how they pronounce the "Oh Man" phrase and try to copy it.
How I Met Your Mother - Hurley says Oh Man! - YouTube

Originally Posted by iCake

Here you go

[a:] words, not that stressed

[o:] words, not that stressed

Originally Posted by fortheether

The 'a' sounds are too long. If you want to list the words, I'll record them.


Scott

Are car father box.

Warm form torn bore/boar.

Am I hearing them right? If those are the words, then you are very very close.

The pronunciations sound quite good! Some of the r sounds are a little hard, first set.
There are some artifacts of the recording process that interfere with the sounds. Mic too close?