Boston vs New York City Accents
There are a number of distinctions between vowel sounds between a Boston accent and a New York City accent. One of them really stands out: This i... Read more
Strut Vowel in American and British Accents
The "strut" sound, as in the words up, supper, and love, is quite different in the US than it tends to be in the UK. Americans tend to make it very... Read more
Hell's Corner IPA: [ɑ] [ɒ] [ɔ] Vowels
Jim leads you through a REALLY important vowel distinction that is helpful to know more about for almost ALL accents! These are the Palm/Father, Lo... Read more
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... Read more
British Isles Accent Map
British Isles Accent Map When people talk about a ‘British accent’, they tend to be thinking of the upper class Received Pronunciation accent. But ... Read more
Linking R
Most non-rhotic speakers - which is a term for people who "drop the R sound" after a vowel - bring that R sound back if that word goes into a vowel... Read more
"I Need to Learn a British Accent"
I get enough inquiries from people who ask about learning a British accent, that it seems to be important to clarify that this is too broad of a st... Read more
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... Read more
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... Read more
Russian Accent Intonation
AccentHelp coach Jim Johnson leads you through some techniques for learning the intonation for a Russian accent when speaking English. It's always... Read more