I sometimes hear nonnative speakers of English with excellent levels of grammar and vocabulary still struggling with word stress. This is because some languages have fixed word stress, which makes pronunciation of words predictable. But in English this is not the case. That is, some words have their primary stress on the first syllable, while […]
Confusing English pronunciation: L vs. W
During my last trip to Bulgaria, I had a conversation with a person who was helping me with some paperwork. At one point, answering one of my questions, he told me that I could find more details about the topic we were discussing “on wine.” Although this sounded odd to me, I immediately knew that […]
Devoicing final consonants
How to sound clear in English
Last week I had a great conversation with a Bulgarian friend who shared with me that sometimes native speakers didn’t understand what she was saying. One time, for example, she asked someone “Where is Andy?” and she couldn’t understand why the woman she was talking to was so confused. When I told her that the […]
Your English, my English: the global lingua franca
When I worked for a tech startup in Silicon Valley several years ago, one day my coworker, a native English speaker, turned to our new French employee, Zack, and asked: “zacker zakry?” Zack had just arrived from France the previous week and wasn’t used to the American accent yet. He turned to me with a […]
Bias against foreign accent and how to handle it
Embarrassed due to a mispronounced word?
Not long ago, one of my students shared with me a funny, but slightly embarrassing story regarding mispronunciation. She wanted to thank the technician who was fixing something in her house. But instead of “thank you for your patience,” what came out of her mouth was “thank you for your passion.” The guy looked perplexed […]
