So, English has 44 sounds (plus a few regional or cultural extras like the 'glottal stop'). The letter a can sound like the vowel in bay, bar, bat, hair or mount ain. A paper dictionary also tells you how to say the words, using the International Phonetic Alphabet:Įnglish has 24 consonant sounds, and 20 vowel sounds including the schwa. If you use the same one all the time - your own personal paper dictionary - it soon becomes a friend. Find a good dictionary (not too big for your level, not too small). However, I strongly recommend that my students work with a paper dictionary, not an online or electronic dictionary. It's big, it's friendly and you can listen to both the British and American pronunciations. I like this one: The Oxford Learner's Dictionary. And I still don't know how to say diplodocus, furlough, gyves, dehiscent, slough or trow, because I've never heard anybody say them.Īn online dictionary will tell you. I knew what they meant, but not how to say them (see below). I got awry and misled wrong myself when I was 13 or 14 years old. If the word is bolt or deck, it's easy you read it, you say it.īut what if it's basic, bear, plough, awry or misled? You could say basic as baysik or bazzik bear could be like beer or air plough could be like cow, duff, or, oh, moo or thorough awry could be ori or a-rye misled could be mizld or miss-led. How do you say a word that you've read but never heard?
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