English Pronunciation Exercises

PRONUNCIATION EXERCISE: Sound, stress, intonation 1. "I take it you already know Of tough and bough and cough and dough? Others may stumble but not you Or hiccough, thorough laugh and through? Well done: And now you wish perhaps To learn of these familiar traps: Beware of heard a dreadful word That looks like beard and sounds like bird. And dead: It's said like bed, not bead, For goodness' sake, don't call it deed! Watch out for meat and great and threat, They rhyme with suite and straight and debt. 2. A moth is not a moth in mother Nor both in bother, broth in brother. And here is not a match for there Nor dear and fear for bear and pear And then there's does and rose and lose, Just look them up; and goose and choose. And cork and work and hard and ward And font and front and word and sword. And do and go and thwart and part – Come, come, I've hardly made a start! A dreadful language? Man alive, I'd mastered it when I was five!"