By Jennie Parker

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Ready for the answers? The following words contain the /tʃ/ sound: chair, cello, situation, catch, and cappuccino. How’d you do?  In this month’s blog, we’re going to look at how to form the /tʃ/ sound correctly, and then we’ll look at phonics rules to help you predict which words contain the sound.
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First, to form the sound correctly, it may be helpful to think of it as a combination between /t/ and the SH (/ʃ/) sounds. In other words, stop the air flow, as in “t,” and then go into an SH sound. To do so, pucker your lips – as in “duck face” – and place the tip of your tongue on the roof of your mouth behind your front teeth. Use your tongue placement to stop air flow, and then release it. It’s important to stop the air flow before releasing it; if you don’t do so, you will be producing the SH sound, not the CH sound.
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Try the following minimal pair list: Listen
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​/tʃ/ CH                              ​/ʃ/ SH
chip                                    ship      
cheap                                sheep
chair                                  share
choose                              shoes
March                               marsh
watch                                wash
witch                                 wish
crutch                                crush
watcher                            washer
latching                             lashing

​Another sound that CH is similar to is /dʒ/ or the J sound, as in jam and jump. Tongue and lip placement are the same for both sounds; the difference is that CH is a voiceless sound, which means your vocal chords are not vibrating, and J is a voiced sound, which means they are. Another key difference between the two is that vowels preceding CH are shorter than the vowels preceding J. 
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Let’s try the following minimal pair list: Listen
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​/tʃ/ CH          /dʒ/ J
rich                  ridge    
H                      age
search           surge
March           Marge
batch             badge
perch             purge

Okay, so you can make the CH sound. But how can you recognize it?  Of all the CH sounds found in English, roughly three-fourths of them are spelled with “ch” or “tch,” and one-fourth are spelled with “tu.” Only 1% appear as “c” or “cc.”

Most of the time, when you see “ch,” it is pronounced /tʃ/, as in which and much. However, the “ch” in words derived from Greek are pronounced /k/, as in chemistry and school, and the “ch” in words derived from French are pronounced like SH, as in Chicago and champagne.

With regard to “tu,” you’ll hear the true /t/ sound at the beginning of a word (e.g., Tuesday), after "s" (e.g., student), or at the start of a stressed syllable (e.g., return). However, in most other instances, you'll hear the CH sound (e.g., situation, adventure, culture, virtual).

Finally, the “c” or “cc” followed by an “e” or an “i” in words derived from Italian are pronounced CH as in cello and concerto. Otherwise, “c” is usually pronounced as /k/, as in cake or /s/, as in slice, and “cc” is usually pronounced /k/, as in acclaim.

You may not always know from where a word is derived, and that’s okay. English is a giant mess of borrowed words, and even native speakers don’t always know how a word is pronounced unless they’ve heard it before. See The Labyrinth of English Spelling and Pronunciation for more on how English spelling and pronunciation evolved as it did. 

Please let me know in the comments whether this blog was helpful. I’d also love to hear your questions about other sounds or aspects of English – they could be a future blog post! For live, face-to-face assistance with /tʃ/ and other sounds, please see our Lunch Break: Pronunciation Workshop schedule and our private coaching services.

by Jennie Parker

Was it difficult? If so, let’s work on tongue and lip placement when making the American /r/ sound. Then we’ll take a look at the vowel sounds that precede “r.”

First, your tongue should be high in the mouth and pulled back with the sides of your tongue touching the inside of your back molars. To help with this positioning, make the /i/ sound, as in "seed" or "be." Notice the contact your tongue makes with your mouth. Hold the /i/ sound, and then slide your tongue back, along the inside of your upper teeth. The /i/ sound will change to /r/. Do this a few times, and /i/ + /r/ will start to sound like "ear."

​Second, there should be no trilling or rolling of the tongue, as in the Spanish “rr” sound. In other words, you should feel no vibration of the tongue. Focus on keeping the tongue steady.  Say the following words, focusing on the placement of your tongue:          red          art          car          ready          artist          barber

​Next, your lips should be puckered – not quite a kiss – more like “duck face.”

If you are more accustomed to British English, you may be softening or omitting the /r/ at the end of a syllable. In British English, when “r” comes after a vowel in the same syllable (as in star, herd, hornet), the /r/ is omitted. However, in American English, the “r” is always pronounced. Words ending in “r,” for example, should leave you with “duck face.”

Another tricky aspect of the American “r” is the vowel that comes before it. As you know, the pronunciation of vowels in English is tricky; while there are only five vowels, there are approximately 14 vowel sounds. However, when a vowel comes before an “r,” its sound is somewhat distorted; we call these “r-colored vowels.” In American English, there are only four sounds that a vowel + r make, but many different spellings, as the chart below illustrates. Practice these words, keeping in mind that each row reflects the same sound. And note that words like "ear" are formed /iɚ/ but sometimes represented as a fifth r-colored vowel.

Please let me know in the comments whether this blog was helpful. And also let me know if you’re having trouble with other sounds; they could be a future blog post! For live in-person assistance with /r/ and other sounds, please see our Lunch Break: Pronunciation Workshop schedule and our private training services.

By Jennie Parker

​So, just how important are rhythm and intonational patterns to the intelligibility of English? In today’s literature on the subject, linguists are divided. Some claim that suprasegmental elements of speech (that is, features of speech that extend beyond individual sounds, such as word stress, rhythm, and intonation) are more important than the correct articulation of consonants and vowels. Others, however, claim that segmentals – these consonant and vowel sounds - are most important.  A third, more holistic perspective, and one that I embrace, is emerging. It suggests that the debate between suprasegmentals and segmentals is perpetuating a false dichotomy; the interaction between the two affects intelligibility, and they cannot always be separated.

​The first perspective points to studies that suggest that suprasegmentals, or prosody, play the most vital role in the overall intelligibility of speech. For example, English rhythm and intonation patterns provide information about what is important to a speaker’s message. Use of correct rhythm and intonation patterns is correlated with better intelligibility, higher proficiency ratings by native speakers, and better listener comprehension and recall. In contrast, nonnative rhythm and intonation patterns, including misplaced focus or stressing all words in an utterance equally, may elicit negative evaluations of the speaker and make sentence processing more difficult for the listener.

In contrast, other studies suggest that the correct articulation of phonemes has a larger impact on intelligibility than suprasegmentals. This may be especially true with regard to interactions between nonnative speakers of English. Because there are more nonnative speakers of English in the world than native speakers, some argue that more studies should assess the intelligibility of the speech of nonnative speakers speaking to other nonnative speakers (most studies involve nonnative speakers speaking to native speakers). Some studies suggest that when nonnative speakers employ correct elements of prosody, nonnative listeners actually have a more difficult time understanding what is said.

I tend to agree with a third, emerging perspective, however. In my experience, the interaction between segmental and suprasegmental elements of speech affect intelligibility, and sometimes, the two cannot be separated. For example, for native speakers of Mandarin and Japanese, a common communication problem in English is the insertion of a vowel sound between consonants in consonant clusters or after consonant clusters. So, while the vowel insertion is of a segmental nature, it involves syllables and word stress, as well. Thus, it is important for pronunciation instruction to address both segmental and suprasegmental elements. Furthermore, because language transfer issues differ depending on a learner’s first language, it is imperative for language educators to be able to shift instruction to address elements of speech that are most significantly impacting intelligibility for individual learners.

So what does all of this mean for the English language learner? It's important to address both segmentals (i.e., consonant and vowel production), as well as suprasegmentals (including word stress, rhythm, and intonation) in your English language instruction. An effective language instructor will research or have experience with common transfer issues from your first language and be able to assess your own speech for what is interfering most significantly with intelligibility. He or she will then help you to address those issues first in controlled language exercises and then in spontaneous speech.

One of the most pervasive pronunciation problems in English is the distinction between /i/, as in "sheep," and /ɪ/, as in "ship." Your first language will influence whether you can easily hear and articulate the distinction between these two vowel sounds. This distinction is very clear to native English speakers, and many words lose their intended meaning if the wrong sound is substituted.  The following list of minimal pairs gives you an idea of why it is so important to pronounce these vowels correctly (and it also provides good listening practice):

The /i/ phoneme is an example of a tense vowel.  When articulating tense vowels, the muscles in your lips and tongue should be tense, or tight. To make the /i/ sound, open your mouth slightly, and move your tongue high towards the roof of your mouth and forward towards your front teeth (but not touching your teeth). The sides of your tongue should be pressing the roof of your mouth.  We particularly like the Sounds American channel for phoneme practice.  I've posted the /i/ video below.

/ɪ/, however, is a lax vowel. The muscles in your lips and tongue should be relaxed.  To make the /ɪ/ sound, open your mouth slightly, and move your tongue high towards the roof of your mouth and forward.  Your tongue should be relaxed and not touching your teeth or the roof of your mouth. The Sounds American video is below:

Spelling in English can be tricky. The /i/ sound is most often spelled with a "y," as in pretty, lady, and kitty.  The /ɪ/ is most often spelled with an "i," as in brick, middle, and lid.  Please see our Sound Chart for a more complete list of spellings.