AccentHelp Blog

Strut Vowel in American and British Accents

This UH sound often causes some confusion between American and British speakers, and can be a challenge for ESL English speakers to sound clear to ...

Nurse Vowel for American and British Accents

Jim Johnson takes you through the challenge of how the "NURSE" vowel + R sound happens for many Americans, and how to shift your thought when dropp...

Trap & Bath [æ] Vowel Changes for Various ESL Accents

The [æ] vowel sound, as in trap doesn't exist for many ESL (English as a Second Language) speakers, so they will tend to shift to a more familiar v...

Two Vowel Shifts in Almost All ESL Accents

In addition to sharing useful information about shifts to the /ɪ/ and /ʊ/ sounds, I use an example word that fills me with regret and joy. I love t...

Aspiration on Plosive Consonants

Jim gets into how plosive consonants can have varying degrees of aspiration (explosion) and how to note those with the phonetic alphabet. You can n...

IPA Symbols for the R Sound

Jim gives an overview of the phonetic symbols that represent the various R sounds that occur in accents from around the world. Here's a transcript ...

[ɪ] to [i] Before [ŋ] and [ɚ]

--- otherwise known as KIT to FLEECE before NG and R In many parts of the US, the [ɪ] sound, as in kit, shifts upwards in the mouth towards [i], as...

Merry Mary Marry Pronunciation Map Accents

Merry, Mary, and Marry

Most Americans will say merry, Mary, and marry the same, but in some parts of the US - especially the northeast - and in many other countries, they...

Rhotic vs Non-Rhotic Accents

One major subdivision of accents/dialects is whether they are rhotic or non-rhotic: do they drop their R's or not? When the R's drop after vowels (...

Broad vs Narrow Transcription of R

I had a question from someone about why they see different symbols for the R sound even though people are talking about the same one... The symbo...

Front Vowel Lowering in Northern Irish Accents

The front vowels in Northern Irish accents tend to lower, having a cascading effect on the one that typically occurs below. When one vowel moves, i...

Nasalizing Vowels

There are three nasal consonants that are common for English speakers, but often we carry over that nasality into vowels, especially the vowels t...

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