 In this lesson you'll learn why pronunciation is important, you'll practice some difficult words, and I'll also give you an important tip on how to speak more like a native. Consider this. If you are a beginner and you have a small vocabulary, but you have great pronunciation, then you can communicate simply but successfully. On the other hand, if you have advanced grammar and vocabulary but your pronunciation is bad, then other people won't understand a single word you say. That's why good pronunciation is essential for speaking fluent English. Improving your pronunciation also increases your confidence because you know that whenever you speak, other people will understand you. The key to improving your pronunciation in English is lots of repetition and practice. Just like physical exercise makes your body stronger, pronunciation practice trains your mouth to speak English correctly. Let's practice right now. Here are some words with similar sounds, which are difficult for many English learners to pronounce. Listen to each word and repeat it. Ice Eyes Right Light Free Three They Day For more practice, you can click the links to pronunciation lessons under the video, but I want to finish this lesson with a tip for speaking English like a native. You probably already know that individual English words have stress. For example, the word English has the stress on the first syllable, ing. The word improve has the stress on the second syllable, prove. In natural spoken English, complete sentences also have stress. Let me show you an example. Listen to this sentence and try to identify the strong words. On Saturday, he went to a dance party on the beach with a few friends. The stress is on the words Saturday, went, dance, party, beach, and friends. On Saturday, he went to a dance party on the beach with a few friends. This is the general rule for strong and weak words in English sentences. Strong words include nouns, main verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and negatives, like don't, didn't, can't, won't, and never. Weak words include pronouns, forms of the verb to be, prepositions, articles, auxiliary verbs, and conjunctions. One way to think of it is that the strong words have the main content or message of the sentence, and the weak words are usually linking or helping words. Every time you speak English, emphasize the strong important words. This will make the rhythm of your spoken English sound more natural, and you'll be speaking English more like a native speaker. Your action item for today is to take one of the additional pronunciation lessons in the links under this video. If you have time, take them all.