English Pronunciation Lessons Online Free

So, you’re looking for the best English Pronunciation Lessons online free.

Today, we’ll give you:

• great English pronunciation lessons free so you can start improving right now. 
• top tips for getting the most from English Pronunciation Lessons

I’ve been creating English Pronunciation Lessons for over 15 years now. This means I have a really good idea of the challenges that learners face and the best way to overcome them. 

English pronunciation lessons help learners of English pronounce English words. Lessons often cover how to pronounce English vowel sounds, consonant sounds and the stresses and rhythms of English. Lessons can also cover using a good rate (speed) of speaking, volume of speaking and general mouth movements for clear English. 

English Pronunciation Lessons help people from non-English speaking backgrounds speak clearer English that is easily understood by listeners. Many ESL (English-second-language) speakers take English Pronunciation Lessons because they want to feel more confident when they speak English. 

Find out what the best English pronunciation lessons should cover, so you can use your time most efficiently. We’re all busy and you don’t want to waste your time on training that isn’t suited to your needs. 

Ok, so here are a few of our best English Pronunciation Lessons free to get you started. 

English Pronunciation Lessons To Improve English Vowels. 

Revise All The English Vowel Sounds

Start with this lesson on revising all the English Vowel sounds. Many people aren’t clear on the fact that English has 20 different vowel sounds. And there are 3 types of vowels – short vowels, long vowels and double vowels.

As you go through this video lesson and cover each vowel, focus on getting the length of the vowel correct. It’s important you start to get long vowels and double vowels right, otherwise words like ‘not’, ‘note’ and ‘nought’ will all sound the same. 

Pay attention to the mouth position. English has quite a few vowels that require quite an open mouth position. Many non-native speakers make these vowels too closed and this makes them sound unclear. Are you opening and moving your mouth enough for clear English? Make sure you’re not mumbling. 

  Click the link below to listen to each vowel in words and
  record yourself practicing each vowel.   

Improve Your Diphthong Vowel /oʊ/ In ‘won’t’ – Check You’re Not Saying ‘want’

7 out of 10 of the ESL (English as a second language) speakers I work with pronounce ‘won’t’ like ‘want’.  This is confusing for listeners! This next English Pronunciation lesson video will help you check and correct how you are pronouncing the diphthong vowel /oʊ/in the word ‘won’t’. 

‘won’t ‘ should have the double (diphthong) vowel /oʊ/. Many non-native English speakers don’t pronounce the double vowel /oʊ/ correctly, they pronounce it as a single vowel instead of a double vowel. This results in it sounding more like ‘want’. Start correcting it today. 

   Click to record your pronunciation of ‘won’t’ and ‘want’.   

English Pronunciation Lessons To Improve Word Stress & Rhythm

Do you feel like your English is sometimes flat and not engaging? Do you sometimes not know which syllable is stressed in a word? These are common problems facing many learners of English. Improve your words stress with these two English pronunciation lessons on word stress. Listen carefully to the up and down of the speaker’s voice.

Words like – politics, political, politician – look similar but the word stress changes. 

Practice making excellent word stress in the words “establish, specific, stable, politics, political, politician’ with this English Pronunciation lesson online.

Record your speech to improve English word stress and rhythm in many important words.  For most non-native speakers of English, the emphasis and rhythm of English words is very challenging and is a key area they should improve for better, clearer spoken English. Better word stress and emphasis in English makes your English clear and engaging to listeners. 

Use the voice recorder to record good word stress.

Listen to and correct the word stress in these words ‘capable, capacity, initiate, initiative and entrepreneur. This English Pronunciation lesson online will help you correct key vowel sounds in these words, linking between sounds and of course, use better stress and rhythm.   

Use the voice recorder to record good word stress.

English Pronunciation Lessons To Revise Consonant Sounds 

As a non- native English speaker it’s likely that there will be some English consonant sounds that are challenging for you to pronounce. Sounds such as ‘th’ are difficult for most non-native English speakers. 

The sound /v/ as in ‘very’ and ‘avoid’ is mispronounced by many non-native English speakers. Many speakers of Mandarin, Japanese, Spanish, Indian languages, Russian, Farsi, Sinhala, Bengali mispronounce /v/ in words. Many of them have never realised they are doing it! 

Pronouncing consonant sounds at the ends of English words is challenging for many speakers of Mandarin, Thai, Vietnamese, Cantonese, Burmese, Malaysian English and Singaporean English. Clear word endings are really important for English. It’s how we tell one word from another and also it’s essential for good grammar, such as past tense endings and plural endings. Speakers of these languages also find pronouncing more than one consonant sound in a row challenging. These are called consonant clusters – see more on Consonant Clusters Examples & Practice. 

As you go through this English pronunciation lesson online on consonants, pay attention to the mouth position – feel each consonant sound. Be sure to visit this page English Consonant Practice, to practice English consonants in words, record your voice and compare to a native speaker.  

          Click to practice each consonant sounds in words.

           Listen to audio and record your own. 

Three Features That The Best English Pronunciation Lessons Have

There are so many pronunciation lessons out there. How do you sort the quality from the cr*p? 

Here are 3 things to check for. 

Your English Pronunciation lessons should be: 

1. created by someone who is an expert. 

2. accessible anytime, anywhere

3. clear training that gives you LOTS of active practice

 When you are taking English pronunciation lessons you need to think about what will help you achieve maximum improvement and benefit. 

Let’s look at these areas in more detail. Questions you need to ask yourself are:

1. Is the teacher providing these English pronunciation lessons an expert?

You should be able to see the teachers qualifications. You will want that person to be a Speech and Language Therapist or an ESL tutor with qualifications who has specialised in English pronunciation training. 

The best idea is to contact them to have a chat about your English pronunciation lesson goals. What are you hoping to achieve? You’ll be able to ask them what experience they have working with speakers of your language background and get some helpful feedback. 

Also, check out their website, online reviews and youtube channel. These will all give you a good idea of how reputable they are.  

Quality providers have years of experience and training expertise and as a result they have a strong understanding of priority areas, what works and the best way to achieve successful outcomes. 

If you would like to speak to Georgie about Speech Active training, you can call her on +61 411 295 828. Check out Speech Active reviews  and Speech Active Youtube channel. 

2. Can I access these lessons anytime, anywhere? 

Flexibility is key. You need practice that will allow you to engage in your learning and practice as often as possible. In other words, the more your practice, the more you will improve. 

Busy professionals need a course to fit around their busy schedule. After working for years with professionals, if their course isn’t easy to access – they won’t do as much practice and therefore this means poorer outcomes.

Most of our clients complete their online training in between meetings or before work in the morning – whenever suits them. They use the audio practice files while they are travelling from A to B or at the gym for example. 

This means that they are engaging regularly in their lessons and this keeps them moving forward – building their awareness and control.  

3. What daily active practice will be provided? 

You need clear, easy to follow training that gives you lots of opportunity to actively practice your new sounds and ways of speaking. 

Video lessons are fantastic for providing clear instruction on the positioning required and visual cues on word stress and sentence stress. Online video lessons are also great because students can revise difficult areas as often as they like. 

I often meet people who have done pronunciation courses in the past and not successfully changed and improved their English speaking. This is usually because they have not done the regular practice.

Changing the way we speak is a little like changing the way we walk. We are changing something that is so automatic to not automatic and this takes repetition and practice. Using new sounds and new ways of speaking are often quite effortful at first but with quality training and guidance these new skills will become natural and automatic.

So remember, a quality course should give you loads of listen and repeat video and audio to support your practice for each area that you need to improve. 

FAQS For People Looking For English Pronunciation Lessons. 

Do I Need English Pronunciation Lessons?

There are two main reasons why people take English Pronunciation Lessons. 

1] They find that people sometimes don’t understand their English. 

2] They want to sound more like a native English speaker. 

Most people decide to take English pronunciation lessons if they find that other people don’t understand their English easily. People might ask them to repeat or they may get the feeling people struggle to understand them. 

Many people have focused on writing and reading English in their home countries. They lack confidence with speaking and pronunciation because they haven’t had a lot of practice and experience. 

If people aren’t understanding your English easily, then we do recommend you work to improve this. Usually, people with unclear English find that it holds them back at work. Most employers are looking for strong communication skills.  They find that having to repeat themselves is frustrating and results in a lack of confidence with their spoken English. 

When they improve their clarity and pronunciation skills they find their communication and speaking confidence at work really improves, and this means that they work more effectively. 

Some people take English pronunciation lessons to sound more like a native English speaker. Often they have lived in an English speaking country for a long time and they feel like a local, so they want to sound more local too. 

English Pronunciation Lessons for these people often involves more subtle changes, such as improving the English weak vowel schwa, linking in English and improving word stress and sentence stress. It involves reducing their accent so they sound more like a native speaker. 

To help identify what your goals will be. Have a think about how your pronunciation is affecting your daily interactions in your personal and professional life. Is your pronunciation and spoken English holding you back?

Why Is English pronunciation So Hard?

Yes, it’s true – English pronunciation is really challenging for many non-native speakers. 

Why? It’s because English is not a phonetic language. This means that the spelling and pronunciation are very variable. 

English spelling doesn’t tell us exactly how to pronounce words. For example, the letters ‘ough’ can be pronounced in 9 different ways. Wow! See ways to pronounce ‘ough’.

Practice words like ‘threat’ and ‘suite’ with these English Pronunciation Poems that highlight how changeable English spelling and pronunciation are. 

Where Can I Find More English Pronunciation Lessons Free

If you’re looking for more English pronunciation lessons online free then I recommend you sign up to our 5 day free English Pronunciation Online Course. 

You’ll be provided with more free English pronunciation lessons online to improve your pronunciation of vowels, English word stress, weak vowel schwa, over 50 commonly mispronounced words and more.     

You’ll love this free course and it’s a fantastic way to kick start your pronunciation improvement. 

Find Out More About Speech Active’s Full English Pronunciation Courses

To fully master English Pronunciation and learn most effectively, you’ll need more quality guided practise.

Are you looking for more English pronunciation lessons to correct all your English pronunciation? 

Speech Active has full 6 month pronunciation courses that are tailored specifically for speakers of your first language. Speakers of different languages have very different training needs. For example, a speaker of Mandarin has different areas they need to correct to a speaker of Russian, Indian English or Spanish.

A Speech Active Course will help you systematically correct the vowels and consonants that you need to improve and master the rhythm and stress of English. You’ll also improve your listening skills, vocabulary, understanding of important expressions and improve your conversation skills for social and professional interactions. 

Check out our English Pronunciation Course for speakers of your first language. 

Other people searching for English Pronunciation lessons have found our courses extremely helpful. They achieve their goal of clearer, better sounding English. Most importantly they gain better English speaking confidence with our English pronunciation lessons.

You can read comments from other students about our full Speech Active English Pronunciation Lessons at ProductReview – Speech Active. 

Do you have questions about your English pronunciation?  Would like to discuss our English Pronunciation Lessons or our full courses? If so, please contact us. You can message us using our chat widget on this page anytime.  

We have many more tips, video and articles on our English Pronunciation blog if you’re looking for more free English Pronunciation Lessons online to  build your speaking English skills. 

Have more questions? Check out our English Pronunciation FAQS page. 

Have an awesome day and keep up the excellent work on improving your English speaking skills. 

Remember – every minute you spend on this really helps. It all adds up. 

: )

Enjoy your day. 

Georgie and the Speech Active Team.