It is not a secret that native speakers of the English language can usually identify “non-native” speakers when they hear a few words spoken by them.

This is usually because W is often pronounced as V so ‘we’ is often pronounced as ‘ve’

[v] - [w], [s] - [θ], [z] - [ð], [f] - [θ], [w] - [ð], [t] - [θ], [d ] - [ð]. Hence the constant confusion between: thing - sing - think - sink, three - free, this - with, what - that, first - thirst, Zen - then, as well as said earlier the universal replacement of English [w] with Russian “V” - “vot” instead of “what”, or on the contrary, the use of sound [w] where there should be [v] - “wodka” instead of “vodka”, “newer” instead of “never”, ‘ower" instead of “over”, etc.

English is a stress-timed language: the time it takes to say a sentence depends on the number of stressed syllables – not the total number of syllables – and those that are not stressed are said very quickly.

Try saying the sentences:

‘Peter is in London again’.

Each one should take the same amount of time to say since they all have the same number of stressed syllables (2 ‘Peter’ ‘London’ ‘again).

Now you’ve had some practice, how about making up your own sentence? Think about which words or sounds you want to improve and try writing your own English, tongue twister. You might also find it useful to record yourself reading the sentence and then play it back to listen to what you need to improve your performance.

Here is a tongue twister:

“There was young man from Crewe

whose mates were incredibly few.

So, he tried to make friends

with some sheep, pigs and hens,

and ended up falling in love with a ewe”.

For more help on how we can improve your ability to speak authentic English use the contact us and book your free session.