The following is a total reproduction of what I stumbled upon the online Merriam-Webster Learner's Dictionary site. I'm neither the creator nor rightful owner of it! I decided to share the exercises with EC members after I found that they would be very useful to those who are serious about improving their pronunciation, especially some problematic pairs of the vowel sounds and consonant sounds alike! It would be to your advantage to do these exercises. Happy learning!.
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Practice makes perfect! There are 15 complete sessions designed to help you practice and perfect your English pronunciations. [Click on the respective Exercise from the list of each SESSION to open it!]
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SESSION 1:
Exercise 1: [f] vs. [v] (fear vs. veer)
Exercise 2: syllable stress
Exercise 3: forth/fourth, ascent/assent
Exercise 4: [oʊ] vs. [ɑ] (bold vs. bald)
Exercise 5: sentence practice
Exercise 1: [ʌ] vs. [ʊ] (luck vs. look)
Exercise 2: syllable stress
Exercise 3: [i:z] vs. [i:s] (please, piece)
Exercise 4: metal/mettle, pedal/peddle
Exercise 5: sentence practice
Exercise 1: [b] vs. [p] .(back .vs. pack)
Exercise 2: [i:t] vs. [ɛt] (sweet vs. sweat)
Exercise 3: [ʤ] vs. [ʧ] (fudge vs. much)
Exercise 4: won/one, whine/wine
Exercise 5: sentence practice
Exercise 1: [ɚ] as in "word"
Exercise 2: kernel/colonel, principle/-pal
Exercise 3: syllable stress
Exercise 4: [n̩] as in "kitten"
Exercise 5: sentence practice
Exercise 1: syllable stress
Exercise 2: [ʌ] vs. [u:] (suffer vs. super)
Exercise 3: see/sea, not/knot
Exercise 4: [r] vs. [l] (arrow vs. follow)
Exercise 5: sentence practice
Exercise 1: [ʃ] vs. [tʃ] (ship vs. chip )
Exercise 2: sundae/Sunday, meat/meet
Exercise 3: syllable stress
Exercise 4: [ɪ] vs. [i] (chip vs. cheap)
Exercise 5: sentence practice
Exercise 1: [oʊ] vs. [aʊ] (grown vs. town)
Exercise 2: blue/blew, alter/altar
Exercise 3: syllable stress
Exercise 4: sentence practice
SESSION 8:
Exercise 1: [ʌ] vs. [u:] (discuss vs. accuse)
Exercise 2: syllable stress
Exercise 3: ad/add, warn/worn
Exercise 4: [i:] as in "please"
Exercise 5: sentence practice
SESSION 9:
Exercise 1: [r] vs. [l] (royal vs. loyal)
Exercise 2: syllable stress
Exercise 3: [d] vs. [t] (spend vs. spent)
Exercise 4: horse/hoarse, heard/herd
Exercise 5: sentence practice
SESSION 10:
Exercise 1: [ʃ] vs. [ʒ] (fashion vs. vision)
Exercise 2: week/weak, sale/sail
Exercise 3: [oɪ] as in "coin"
Exercise 4: syllable stress
Exercise 5: sentence practice
SESSION 11:
Exercise 1: [ajɚ] as in fire
Exercise 2: loan/lone, higher/hire
Exercise 3: syllable stress
Exercise 4: rhymes with -ought
Exercise 5: sentence practice
SESSION 12:
Exercise 1: [v] vs. [w] (vine vs. wine)
Exercise 2: piece/peace, role/roll
Exercise 3: [s] vs. [k] (city vs. country)
Exercise 4: syllable stress
Exercise 5: sentence practice
SESSION 13:
Exercise 1: rhymes with -ine
Exercise 2: syllable stress
Exercise 3: silent h (hour vs. heat)
Exercise 4: tale/tail, hear/here
Exercise 5: sentence practice
SESSION 14:
Exercise 1: [g] vs. [k] (log vs. lock)
Exercise 2: syllable stress
Exercise 3: rhymes with -ear
Exercise 4: steel/steal vs. would/wood
Exercise 5: sentence practice
SESSION 15:
Exercise 1: [u:] as in true
Exercise 2: syllable stress
Exercise 3: [gr] vs. [kr] (great vs. crate)
Exercise 4: son/sun, been/bin
Exercise 5: sentence practice
Here’s a suggestion!
When you have completed Exercise 1 of Session 1, leave a note here giving the date that you completed that exercise. Do the same for the subsequent exercises. This will motivate you to finish all the study sessions. Let me see how many of you are serious about your pronunciation! [ I'd like to recommend you to do one exercise a day! ]
~* GS *~
December 28th. 2012
Don't forget to click on the ’Like’ 'button if you find the exercises are useful!
Comments
Hi, Selma!
I could understand the thing that is in your mind right now! These dictionaries will easily confuse a non-native speaker with their confusing usage of phonetic symbols.
Please take my point! It’s better for you to stick to one pronunciation, either British or American, and only rely on one dictionary as your reference. The more dictionaries, from different publishers, you use the more headache they’ll bring! “Which pronunciation should I practise?” you may ask! Well… the choice is yours!
I’m sure you’re aware that my preferred pronunciation is RP, standard British pronunciation! The perfect dictionary to check this accent is either Oxford or Cambridge. They both use the very same IPA symbols for their phonetic transcriptions.
Note: I wonder whether you still remember what I told Mayumi last year! She was facing the same dilemma then! My reply to her is HERE. It’s dated January 25, 2012.
Hello Gabriel,
When studying phonemes, I am being very confused about which tool or way should be adopted ? I cannot make a desicion, as you can see below, I am missing the main idea while following the instructions, because they all have different explanations.
Please help me Gabriel,? Especially, [ /a/ or /a:/ or /ɔː/ ] as in Bald,
Variations depend on both accent and dictionaries, :((((
Isn't there a practical way to cover English language ? May be a good study map you would like to advise us to see the essential subject by eliminating the differences, in other saying, Where should be stop not to be fascinated with ? (I hope to make it clear )
Exercise 4: [oʊ] vs. [ɑ] (bold vs. bald)
in Merriam Webster exercise;
( [ɑ] as in bald) haul, bought, call, paul, = a: (!)
[oʊ] as in bold boat, hold, phone
but in the Oxford dictionary
Bald : /bɔːld (br, ame same)
Bold : /bəʊld(br)/~~ /boʊld(ame)/
Thank you & Regards,
Hi again,
Today, I've finished Session 2.
And Gabriel, I found my answer in Oxford Dictionary / pronunciation guide coincidentally :)
I've still had some open questions but it doesn't matter at this stage, I am happy to get over without wasting your time :)
I'm gonna be around here,
bye for now
Hi Gabriel,
May I apply your knowledge?
I think, Vowels are more complicated than consonant, please give me a clue about the differences between au as in hour, (ou, as in bold, eu), and why some American phonetic sources didn't use ou, eu at all, while just using au or aw... for example
in Oxford Dictionary;
əʊ = Bold / British
oʊ = Bold / American
ɑʊ = hour / British & American same.
I'm okey so far so good,
So, why I couldn't see neither oʊ nor əʊ in Uiowa in American English.?
Another something is related with the word of hour.
Merriam Webster uses hour
/ˈawɚ/ phoneme, however oxford dictionary uses /ˈaʊər/.
Good Morning,
I've completed Session 3,
but it must be life long learning, in spite of making practice it seems that I have nothing :))
Hi Dear Gabriel and the rest of the members,
I don't want you to think that I am not interested in these exercises, just making myself organized to be more effective such as, writing all sounds and some academic explanations on the piece of paper to put them in a handy box,
by the way, I am getting help from Gabriel's phonemes blog and virtual classroom as well as oxford dictionaries, Thanks Gabriel, if you could gather all pronunciation subjects together at the one place, I would appreciate it. But I think that it seems impossible,
I wish everyone my warm regards,
Happy learning,
Selma,
Session 1, exercise 3 - completed by 30 December, 2012.
Oh my god, I've already completed Session 1,
I can't wait until after the new year :))
in fact that I have been already working with Merriam Webster for gaining new words - I'd preferred Oxford to study issues of pronunciation-, but I like its method which seemed very easy and quick,
Thanks for setting the ball rolling Gabriel, it was always great pleasure to follow you :))
God Bless,
This lavender is for you,
Hello Gabriel, I'm so glad to do these full of benefit exercises .. It's a perfect idea to learn more about pronunciation by doing these exercises. So, I will start doing them soon.
Hello Gabriel and
Marik, Anele, Scarlet, Hala, Rasejsh, HaNguyen and Deepa,
Nice to see you guys, you are so quick or I am late again :))
Gabriel became phenomenon in EC, that is a highlight of the year !
see you in 2013 to make practice seriously :)
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