Common Errors

ERROR 1: The difficulty of pronouncing the letter “r” [ɹ] in English, because Spanish is very different from English. 

                                             

WHY THIS ERROR OCCURS: The R sound is one of the most difficult to pronounce in English. Many students find this sound very challenging to learn because it is so different from how it sounds in their native language.  The English [ɹ] sound is unusual because it requires the tongue to be in a "retroflexed" (curved back) or "retracted" (pushed all the way back) position in the mouth. Some words that have this sound are:

Red, Rain, and Rapid. Most English beginners tend to mispronounce this sound because they replace it with the sound used for the letter "r" in Spanish, such as the words “pero” or “perro”. 

Native English speakers usually pronounce the R sound no matter where it is in a word. But in some dialects, the R sound is dropped (silent) in certain words. The problem is more about the English accent. As we know that  English has a  more silent  [r],  but the student pronounced the sound of [r] more clearly.

Exercises

Instructions: In this exercise, each student repeats out loud one sentence three times (the R [ɹ] sounds are bold). Make sure to put the tongue in the Correct position, look at the picture.

1. Do not cry!
2. 
   The teacher is very boring.
3. Mother, you are a star.
4. Tie the rope around the bar.
5. I am sorry I broke the mirror in the store.
6. My father has a red race car.
7. Write a letter to your brother.
8. How are you?
9. The ring is on the wrong finger.
10. The dog is running around me.

Instructions: In this exercise choose another classmate. Then read aloud the Following Dialogue using Student Q and Student A. Make sure you pronounce the “r” sound in each word well. Make sure to put the tongue in the correct position.

Oral reading

Q. What’s wrong?

A. Nothing. Just rehearsing my lines.

Q. What for? Are you performing in a play?

A. It’s called “The Grapes of Wrath.”

Q. Never heard of it.

A. Really? It’s the most popular play around.

Q. Are you memorizing or just trying to remember?

A. I’m trying to concentrate.

A. Sorry.

ERROR 2: The problem arises when pronouncing words that begin with "s" followed by another consonant, for example, snow, ski, spinning, slow, etc. And is that, to facilitate pronunciation, Hispanics naturally tend to add an "e" at the beginning of the word. We say [esnou] (snow); [eski] (ski); [espiining] (spinning); and we do not even forgive proper names [uol estriit] (Wall Street); [shäron estoun] (Sharon Stone); [meryl estriip] (Meryl Streep). That's wrong, wrong, wrong.

                                                  

WHY THIS ERROR OCCURS: One of the most common pronunciation mistakes in English is the sound of the "s" [s] at the beginning of a word. Generally, beginners tend to pronounce it by adding the sound of the letter "e" at the beginning, which is incorrect. For example, special, stress, and smart.

You have to understand the place and manner of articulation of these two consonant sounds. Let’s take one by one. This is the sound during the articulation of which blade of the tongue comes against the alveolar/teeth ridge in such a way so as to leave a very narrow gap for the air to escape with audible friction. This consonant is an alveolar fricative sound. Here are some words with this sound:

Word-initially         Word-medially                 Word- finally

Soft, Sow, Sink       Icy, Astray, Person            Cease, Face, Class

                              

Exercises

Instructions: Listen to how the teacher pronounced tongue twister. Be sure to note the sounds or words that might be challenging for you, and how many times you will pronounce /s/. Repeat this exercise several times a day. You can try creating your own tongue twisters, too!

TONGUE TWISTERS

Sally Swim saw Sadie Slee Slowly, sadly swinging.

“She seems sorrowful, “said she. So she started singing.

Sadie smiled, soon swiftly swung; Sitting straight, steered swiftly. “See,” said Sally,  “something sung Scatters sunshine swiftly!”

Words:

1. Slee
2. Smiled
3. She
4. Slowly
5. Swinging
6. Started
7. Straight
8. Steered
9. Swiftly
10. Scatters

Snake Exercise  

Instructions: The secret is to practice lengthening the pronunciation of the phoneme [s]. Instead of trying to say just [ski], say [sssssssss-ki]. Everyone can say [sssssss], even snakes, and you have to imitate them. Start the words by exaggerating the phoneme [s] and later you can shorten it little by little. It is that easy. If you do that, it is impossible for you to mispronounce it. But be careful not to say [esssssssss], because then you don't solve anything! Just  [sssssssss].

Practice the voiceless S sound by saying these words:

1. Ssssssssssssss start
2. Ssssssssssssss stop
3. Ssssssssssssss scream
4. Ssssssssssssss student
5. Ssssssssssssss spirit
6. Ssssssssssssss school
7. Ssssssssssssss snake
8. Ssssssssssssss scream
9. Ssssssssssssss  sleep
10. Ssssssssssssss special

Instructions: Individually you are going to start connecting the words with "s" repeating them several times until your mistakes are less and less. Then, begins to match two different words and pronounce them repeatedly.

Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop…

Speak, speak, speak, speak…

Stay, stay, stay, stay, stay…

Sky, sky, sky, sky, sky, sky …

Slow, slow, slow, slow, slow…

It is also very useful to join two different words:

Stay stand stay stand stay stand stay stand…

Stop snake stop snake stop snake stop snake… 

Speak slow speak slow speak slow speak slow…

Spend speech spend speech spend speech…

Smile smell smile smell smile smell smile smell…

ERROR 3: The mispronunciation of the letter H in English, because commonly

people who are new to learning the English language pronounce it as a sound

of letter “j” in Spanish.

WHY THIS ERROR OCCURS: The H in Spanish is silent. When used as the first letter in words like hadas, hasta, o haber, the H is treated as if it's not there. becomes useful is when it is used after a C, to pronounce the words with CH in Spanish. The closest sound to the H that English- speaking and Spanish-speaking people have is represented by a different letter: jota, or the Spanish J. But the H in English is not as hardened as the Spanish J. The sound of the H would sound close to what you would do with a sigh, a breath, or when you've cupped your hands on a very icy, windy day. Meanwhile, the Spanish J involves what experts would call a velar fricative, which means that the sound is much louder, like combining a hard K and an H for example. In short, it is merely a louder sound from the H. The problem that can confuse many is that when pronouncing the H in English IF IS MADE SILENTLY in some British dialects. This phenomenon is commonly known as: "the loss of H". For example, a sentence likes "Have you seen her" would sound like "Ave-you-seen-‘er?".

 Exercises

Instructions: Look at the pictures and then pronounce each of the words that begin with the letter “H”, try to do it as if you were throwing your breath in a mirror.

                                    

                                

Instructions: You must divide into groups of 4, 2 of the members must choose 10 animals from those given below, after choosing them, they will dramatize the animal they chose and their other 2 companions must guess it and pronounce it in the correct way.

                                  

                               

ERROR 4: Confusing the sounds of the phonemes /-d/ /-ed/ and /-t/ in the past tense of regular verbs. If the students achieve to know the correct rules, it will be easier to know and to have a correct pronunciation without problems.

WHY THIS ERROR OCCURS: This is a common mistake that occurs because students think that all verbs ending in -ed are pronounced the same way. However, in English, there are rules that indicate the correct pronunciation of each verb taking into account the phonemes / -d / / -ed / and / -t /. The rules are:

ü  We say / t / after voiceless consonant sounds.

ü  We say / d / after voiced consonant sounds.

ü  We say / id / after the following sounds: / t / and / d /.

Also, the mother language influences the pronunciation of students because the sound/id / is pronounced correctly by most of them due to the similarity of the combination of consonant-vowel-consonant sound, which is usually in their mother tongue.

Exercises

Instructions: Read the following verbs and write them in the correct box according to its pronunciation and pronounce them out loud several times.

1. Worked
2. 
   Cooked
3. Walked
4. Liked
5. Started
6. Loved
7. Waited
8.  Wanted
9. Hated
10. Ended

	/d/ sound	/id/ sound	/t/ sound
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10

Instructions: Read the following passage aloud, using the correct pronunciation for “ed” endings. Write (T) for a “t” sound, (ID) for an “id” sound, and (D) for a “d” sound in the space provided.  Make sure you pronounce the Words well.

The bear jumped ( ) out of its cage and into the crowd. She must have realized ( ) that this was her best chance to escape. The bear’s trainer looked () as though he were about to faint from the terror of it all; it seemed ( ) like his worst nightmare come true. He scrambled ( ) to his feet and started ( ) waving his hands and shouting to get the bear’s attention. She stopped ( ) her wild rampage only for a moment at the sound of her trainer’s pleas. She quickly turned ( ) back to the crowd and resumed ( ) knocking people to the floor. The trainer suddenly had an idea. He reached ( ) into his pocket and pulled ( ) from it a large chocolate-covered ( ) treat – a known favorite of the bear. He shouted ( ) the bear's name once more and she turned ( ) to face him. She saw the treat and ran in a full gallop towards him. He threw the treat into the cage and the bear followed ( ). He locked ( ) the door behind her and fell to the floor in relief. Apparently, the bear valued ( ) food more than freedom.