

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.
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.
PRACTICE: strut, cup, mother, budge, love, study
-
Fun in the sun.
-
Percussionists love the drums.
-
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.
PRACTICE: goose, two, school, youth, lose, cool
-
Who knew?
-
Who do you think you are?
-
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.
PRACTICE: mouth, about, cow, house, loud, town
-
Get out of town!
-
They found out about us!
-
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.
PRACTICE: price, height, mine, child, kind, tight
-
The spice of life.
-
The Siamese cat had five lives left, not nine.
-
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.
PRACTICE: goat, roam, joke, clothes, home, clothe
-
Don't put the mouse in the one small bath.
-
The goat loves to dance out in the wood and water.
-
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.
PRACTICE: face, place, lady, station, mane, vague
-
I used a safety-pin to tighten the waist of my bathing suit.
-
What’s the name of the angel in that painting?
-
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.
PRACTICE: choice, moist, boy, oil, toy, annoint
-
An Android exploit.
-
The Reuters reporter loitered by the convoy.
-
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