 Common English pronunciation mistakes from espressoenglish.net English pronunciation is challenging. There are many exceptions, and a number of words are not pronounced the way their spelling would suggest. Today, I'll teach you the correct ways to say common words that English learners often mispronounce. Let's start with these. One woman Two or more women In the singular form, the first syllable sounds like w, w, woman. In the plural form, you can see that the spelling only changes a little bit. The A changes to an E. But the difference in pronunciation is actually in the first syllable. Women Repeat after me. One woman Two women Students also have some difficulty distinguishing between the vowel sounds in the singular form, man, and the plural form. Men Listen to the difference and try to repeat it. Ah Eh Man Men Let's do a little more practice with this pair of sounds. Listen and repeat. Sat Set Past Pest Bag Beg Another bit of tricky pronunciation is with the word child, singular, and children, plural. The vowel sound of the I changes. The I in child is like the I sound in while and smile, child. But the I sound in children is like the ill sound in fill and pill. Children Repeat again after me. One child Two children A similar thing happens with the verb right and the past participle, written. The I in right is like in the words night and bite. Right But the I in written is like in the words sit and bit. Written Right Written Another common mistake that English learners tend to make involves the oo sound. The word good is not like food. There are two different sounds there. Good has the uh sound and food has the oo sound. Listen to me and repeat. Uh Oo Good Food Good food. It's the same with the words pull and pool. Pull Pool Other words that have this uh sound in good and pull are stood, could, push, cook. Here's another one where the spelling is similar but the pronunciation is different. The words please and the past participle or adjective pleased have the e sound. The same as in the words see, read and keep. Please Pleased But the words pleasant and pleasure have the uh sound as in the words get, best and read. Pleasant Pleasure Something similar happens with the word court. The o-u-r in court is pronounced or, same as in the words for, sport and poor. Court But in the words courtesy and courteous, that same o-u-r has an er sound as in the words earn, hurt and curtain. Courtesy Courteous This er sound is also present in the words word, work and worst. Don't pronounce the o like an o, don't say ward or something like that. If it's difficult, try closing your eyes and repeating after me. Word rhymes with bird. Work rhymes with perk. And worst rhymes with first. Some students tend to drop the h in words like house, husband, herd, history and human. The h sound is very soft, but it should be present, so don't say house, husband, herd and so on. Listen to me and repeat. House Husband Heard History Human The h is silent in the words hour, honor and air. Two more sounds that students often mix up are the i sound in fit and the e sound in feet. The first three words are pronounced fit, hip, live. And the next three words are pronounced feet, heap, leave. Mixing up the words live and leave is especially common, so make sure you can make the difference between the i sound and the e sound. Two more sounds that are quite similar are the sh sound in ship and the ch sound in chip. What's the difference between them? Well, the ch sound is just shorter and more explosive. Try practicing by listening and repeating after me. Ship Share Sheet Chip Chair Cheat You can get feedback on your pronunciation and accent if you take my pronunciation and shadowing courses. These courses have exercises to help you practice and improve your pronunciation. These courses both include an evaluation, so at the end of the course you can send me a recording of your speaking file, correct any errors, give you tips for clearer pronunciation, and help you improve your accent. Click on the link in the video for more information.