Pronunciation Studio

Modern British (SSBE/GB) English is normally categorised as having 44 distinct sounds so most IPA charts have 44 phonemes to represent them.

When we speak English, we actually use more sounds because there are frequent sound variations (allophones) and weak vowels in connected speech.

In this video I explore 5 of the weird English sounds that native speakers often don't realise they are making!

It can help to break accents into 4 parts: vowels, consonants, stress and tone.

Do you change vowel in THE before a vowel sound?

The function words TO and THE tend to change in connected speech if a vowel follows them (tə/tu, ðə/ði).

But increasingly young English speakers are not changing the words and using a glottal stop instead. How does it sound to you?

/iː/ is generally categorised as a long close front monophthong in British English, but the reality is more nuanced.

Does an Estuary English accent exist?

Ejective sounds are made by pushing air out of the mouth that is trapped above the glottis. They are sometimes heard in final /p,t,k/ in SSBE/GB English.

Do you use them?

For the record, I actually love all of these places!

'Standard' British English has changed significantly over the last 50 years.

The accent known as RP (Received Pronunciation) has given way to the newer SSBE (Standard Southern British English) and in the process, some of the sounds have disappeared.

In this video, I explore 5 sounds that used to be a feature of RP, but are no longer heard in SSBE.

Are you more monophthongal or diphthongal on /iː/?