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pronunciation

For each sound, I’ve included audio examples and practice phrases. Unless otherwise indicated, practice phrases are excerpted from Lexical Sets for Actors by Eric Armstrong under a creative commons license.

VOWELS

Words like BATH/TRAP/THOUGHT/LOT           [  a ]

This vowel is realized as a front, unrounded open vowel.

00:00 / 00:14

PRACTICE: bath, trap, clasp, cat, have, capital, college, lot, cloth, bought, thought

Words like STRUT                  [ ʊ ]

This vowel is realized as a near close, near back vowel with slight lip trumpeting.

00:00 / 00:12

PRACTICE: strut, cup, mother, budge, love, study

  1. Fun in the sun.

  2. Percussionists love the drums.

  3. An unlovable fussbudget.

Words like GOOSE           [ ʊ̟ ]

This vowel as realized as a close, central vowel with some lip rounding. The tongue is more advanced and forward in the vocal tract as you target this vowel.

00:00 / 00:21

PRACTICE: goose, two, school, youth, lose, cool

  1. Who knew?

  2. Who do you think you are?

  3. An interview at the movie studio.

Words like MOUTH       [ ɜʊ ]

This vowel is realized as a diphthong which glides from an unrounded, open-mid central vowel to a near close, near back vowel. 

00:00 / 00:20

PRACTICE: mouth, about, cow, house, loud, town

  1. Get out of town!

  2. They found out about us!

  3. She founded the Scouting movement.

Words like PRICE         [ ɐɪ ]    

This vowel is realized as an unrounded, fairly open central vowel that glides to a near front vowel for the second vowel in the diphthong. 

00:00 / 00:16

PRACTICE: price, height, mine, child, kind, tight

  1. The spice of life.

  2. The Siamese cat had five lives left, not nine.

  3. We invited an exciting playwright to speak.

Words like GOAT         [ 0 ]    

The realization of this vowel is a rounded, back, close-mid vowel. Lip rounding will help you achieve this. 

00:00 / 00:17

PRACTICE: goat, roam, joke, clothes, home, clothe

  1. Don't put the mouse in the one small bath.

  2. The goat loves to dance out in the wood and water.

  3. The daughter on the boat clapped and shook the hand of the loud monk.

Words like FACE         [ e ]    

Vowels in the FACE set target to a single vowel, an unrounded, front, close-mid vowel. The slightly pinned lip corners will help you target this sound. 

00:00 / 00:08

PRACTICE: face, place, lady, station, mane, vague

  1. I used a safety-pin to tighten the waist of my bathing suit.

  2. What’s the name of the angel in that painting?

  3. David Rose explained that he didn’t have much to his name.

Words like CHOICE         [ əɪ ]    

This diphthong is realized as a schwa scoops up into a near front, near close vowel. 

00:00 / 00:11

PRACTICE: choice, moist, boy, oil, toy, annoint

  1. An Android exploit.

  2. The Reuters reporter loitered by the convoy.

  3. The poisonous snake coiled around the coypu.

CONSONANTS

R Sounds

You can either retract the tongue or retroflex it to target the strong rhoticity in this accent.

PRACTICE:

red, rules, Ralph, running, reach, rope, rage, wrong; 

bring, approximately, growth, trying, drives, strong; 

around, arranged, corrupt, derived, surround, terrain; 

near, square, start, north, force, nurse, letter; 

cure, tour, moral, hurry, merry, Mary, marry; 

fir, dirt, bird, fern, heard, search, nurse, fur, hurt 

VOICED AND UNVOICED /TH/ IN INITIAL POSITIONS

  • VOICED /TH/ = [ d ] these

  • UNVOICED /TH/ = [ t ] things

-ING ENDINGS

These are often reduced to an /n/ sound

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