How to say it

If English is not your native language you may have encountered some words or phrases that you did not know how to pronounce correctly. How would you pronounce zealously or eligibility for instance if you never heard the words before?

Even in the English language family words are pronounced different depending on the region of the speaker. A Scott often pronounces words different than someone from San Francisco for instance.

If you want to get an impression how a speaker from the United States would pronounce a word you should visit the How J Say website. The site has a list of over 50000 English words and phrases that have been recorded and can be listened to right on the website. You can either type in a word that you want pronounced or browse the complete list of words and phrases available.

To hear the word just move your mouse over it and you will hear someone pronounce it for you. This is really helpful for non-native speakers. You have to raise the volume a little bit because some of the words are hard to hear. Could be my setup or the fact that you can't record more than 50000 words at the same volume and tone.

What are the most difficult words in English? Let me know please. What I like most about the service is that you do not get a computer voice that is pronouncing the word for you but a real human being that is doing that. This means that it is usually better to understand and therefore easier to learn than listening to and understanding a computerized voice.

The loading times are a bit on the bad side of things as it takes a second or two before a word that you have selected is pronounced by the service. Android and iPhone apps have been made available as well which may be very helpful if you are visiting the US and want to be prepared as you can simply fire up the application to help you pronounce words you read for the first time in your life.

Advertisement