Say It Right!
Hi! I am Jesús Betancourt. I am a former business reporter, tax auditor, CPA, law enforcement officer, and computer programmer who now works as an English and Business Studies instructor. I have graduate degrees in Education (Teaching English as a Second Language – University of Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico) and Business Administration (MBA – Fordham University, New York. I built this site to help English teachers provide American English pronunciation instruction to ESL learners. Learners from other countries throughout the world where Spanish is the dominant language can also avail themselves of these resources to learn American English pronunciation. I want to acknowledge the technical support and encouragement my graduate advisor Dr. Kevin Carroll provided me in building this site. Of course, all errors and omissions are entirely mine.
American English Vowels
| Long Vowels | Short Vowels | Other Vowels |
| long a / eɪ / (cake, bait, day) | short a / æ / (cat, apple, badge) | aw sound / ɔ / (off, boss, law) |
| long e / i: / (even, seat, we) | short e / ɛ / / e / (red, pen, friend) | ow sound / ɑʊ / (out, cloud, now) |
| long i / aɪ / (eye, bite, buy) | short i / ɪ / (it, sit, ship) | oi sound / ɔɪ / (oil, voice, boy) |
| long o / oʊ / (go, boat, though) | short o / ɑ: / / ɒ / (got, want, box) | oo sound / u: / (do, food, blue) |
| long u / yu / (use, future, few) | short u / ʌ / (up, sun, come) / ə / (ago, parent, sofa) | other u / ʊ / (put, book, could) |
| er sound stressed / ɝ / / ɜr / or /ɜɹ/ (bird, turn, work) | er sound unstressed / ɚ/ / ər / or / əɹ / (mother, never, nature) | ar sound /ɑɹ / (car, heart, star) |
| or sound / ɔr/ (door, four, sword) | air sound / ɛr / (air, parent, chair) | ir sound / ɪr / (hear, dear, zero) |
Consonants
| Fricatives | ||
| / θ / (unvoiced) (think, birthday, worth) | / ð / (voiced) (this, either, though). | / ʒ / (voiced) (vision, mesure, massage) |
| / f / (few, phone, laugh) | / s / (sun, place, dress) | / ʃ / (show, chef, option) |
| / v / (voiced) (view, five, never) | / h / (home, who, perhaps) | / z / (voiced) (zoo, music, exam) |
| Affricatives | ||
| / tʃ / (voiced) (church, nature, catch) | / dʒ / (voiced) (job, gym, soldier) | |
| Stop Sounds | ||
| / p / (pie, cup, paper) | / t / (toy, time, cat) | / k / (key, can, queen) |
| / b / (voiced) (boy, cab, baby) | / d / (voiced) (dog, bird, dad) | / g / (voiced) (good, dog, egg) |
| Nasal Sounds | ||
| / m / (voiced) (map, smile, room) | / n / (voiced) (nine, open, nice) | / ŋ / (voiced) (thing, sing, uncle) |
| Approximants | ||
| / r / / ɹ / (voiced) (run, tree, break) | / l / (voiced) (love, slow ) light L (feel, Google) dark L | / j / (voiced) (yes, year, fury) |
| / t̬ / (voiced) (water, city, butter) | / ʔ / (button, cotton, certain) | / w / (way, quick, one) |