Mastering The American Accent

Lisa Mojsin, M.A.
Director, Accurate English, Inc. Los Angeles, CA

Acknowledgments
This book is dedicated to my accent reduction students who came to the United States from all parts of the globe. Their drive to excel, passion for learning, amazing work ethic, and belief in the American dream have inspired me to write this book. In the words of Henry David Thoreau, “Go confidently in thedirection of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.” Thanks to all of the supportive and extremely professional people at Barron’s: Dimitry Popow, my editor; Wayne Barr for seeking me out to write this book; and Veronica Douglas for her support. I am enormously grateful to Lou Savage, “The Voice.” His is the beautiful male voice on the recordings. He was also responsible for all of theexpert audio engineering and audio editing. Thank you, Lou, for being such a perfectionist with the sound and insisting on fixing the audio “mistakes” I couldn’t hear anyway. I am also grateful for the contributions of Maryam Meghan, Jack Cumming, Katarina Matolek, Mauricio Sanchez, Sabrina Stoll, Sonya Kahn, Jennie Lo, Yvette Basica, Marc Basica, and Laura Tien.

© Copyright 2009 by Barron’sEducational Series, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means without the written permission of the copyright owner. Address all inquiries to: Barron’s Educational Series, Inc. 250 Wireless Boulevard Hauppauge, NY 11788 www.barronseduc.com ISBN-13: 978-0-7641-4185-0 (book only) ISBN-10: 0-7641-4185-6 (book only) ISBN-13:978-0-7641-9582-2 (book & CD package) ISBN-10: 0-7641-9582-4 (book & CD package) Library of Congress Control Number 2008938576 Printed in the United States of America 987654321

Contents
Introduction vi Chapter 1: The Vowel Sounds 1
Main Vowel Sounds of American English 1 Production of Vowels 2 /i/ as in meet 3 /I/ as in sit 3 /eɪ/ as in take 5 /ɛ/ as in get 6 /ae/ as in fat 7 /ɑ/ as in father 8 /ɘ/ asin fun 9 /ɔ/as in saw 10 /oʊ/ as in boat 12 /ʊ/ as in good 13 /u/ as in too 13 /ɘr/ as in bird 15 /aɪ/ as in time 15 /aʊ/ as in house 16 /ɔɪ/ as in boy 17

Chapter 2: Vowels in Detail 18
Review of /I/ and /i/ Sounds 18 Review of /ɛ/ and /æ/ Sounds 19 Review of /ɘ/, /ɑ/, /ɔ/, and /ou/ Sounds 20 The Problematic o 21 The American /ɔ/ Sound 23 Review of /ɛ/, /æ/, /ɑ/, /ɔ/, /ɘ/, and /oʊ/ 25 Reviewof /ʊ/ and /u/ Sounds 25 Comparing /u/ and /yu/ 26 Review of the /ɘr/ Sound 27 Vowels Followed by the /r/ Sound 27

Chapter 3: Consonants 29
Forming American Consonants 29 Voiceless and Voiced Consonants 30 Vowel Length and Voiced and Voiceless Consonants 31 Stops and Continuants 33

Chapter 4: Problematic Consonants 34
The Various t Sounds of American English 34 The “Fast d” Sound 38 The/tʃr/ Sound: tr 39 The /dʒr/ Sound: dr 39 The /dʒ/ Sound: du and d + y 40 The /tʃ/ Sound: tu and t + y 40
iii

Words Ending in -ed 41 The th Sound 44 The American /r/ 48 The American /l/ 50 Understanding /l/ Versus /r/ 52 The /v/ Sound 54 Understanding /b/ Versus /v/ 55 The /w/ Sound 56 Understanding /v/ Versus /w/ 58 The /s/ and /z/ Sounds 59 The /ŋg/ Sound: Pronouncing ng 62 Consonant Clusters63

Chapter 5: Syllable Stress 66
Stressed and Reduced Vowels 66 Dangers of Stressing the Wrong Syllable 68 General Rules for Stress Placement 69 Two-Syllable Words 69 Noun and Verb Pairs 70 Words Ending in -tion and -ate 71 -ate Endings of Verbs and Nouns 71 More Stressed Suffixes 72 Rules for Prefixes 72 Syllable Stress Changes 74 Reduced Vowels for Review 76

Chapter 6: Word Stress 78Compound Nouns 78 Proper Stress with Adjectives 80 Phrasal Verbs 81 Noun Forms of Phrasal Verbs 82 Abbreviations and Numbers 83 Names of Places and People 83 Word Stress Within a Sentence 84 Lengthening the Main Vowel in Stressed Words 84 Which Words Should I Stress? 85 Content Words 85 Content Words in Detail: Verbs 86 Stress Nouns but Not Pronouns 87 Content Words in Detail: Adjectives 87...