Native speakers of Czech are blessed with having a pretty understandable accent in English. I rarely have trouble understanding Czechs even when their accent is strong. Celebrate!
Still and all, there are a few predictable pronunciation difficulties that native Czech speakers make. If you are aiming to improve your clarity in English, this article is for you.
What do you have to do to improve your pronunciation?
Learn the common mistakes listed below.
Identify which ones you make.
Practice, preferably with a good teacher, practice and practice some more.
Learning the accent of a foreign language is like learning a musical instrument. Just learning the theory isn't going to be enough. You need to learn the theory AND figure out your mistakes, correct them, then practice, practice, and practice some more. You need to develop muscle memory, the way the sound is made by your mouth, tongue, teeth and throat, and you need to practice those sounds until it is effortless.
But first, the learning.
Common pronunciation mistakes Czech speaker make:
Primary Stress
Czech always places a word’s primary stress on the first syllable. Always! Primary stress is the syllable in a word that is pronounced LOUDER, loooooonger, and higher. The Czech word sedm is pronounced SED-m. In English the primary stress can be on any syllable and it is not marked in any way. Thank you, English!
Look at the following examples:
Seven SEV-n /ˈsɛv n/
Intelligent in-TELL-uh-gnt /ɪnˈtɛl ɪ dʒnt/
Hotel ho-TEL /hoʊˈtɛl/
This is especially fun:
Photograph FOW-tuh-graf /ˈfəʊ tə ɡrɑːf/
Photography fuh-TAH-gruh-fie /fəˈtɒ ɡrə fi/
Photographer fuh-TAH-gra-fr /fəˈtɒ ɡrə fə/
There is no way to know where the stress goes and you just need to memorize them. Every time you learn a new multi-syllable words, even two syllable words, mark the stress and practice the pronunciation.
Learn more:
Sentence Stress
English also has weak and strong forms of entire words.
Look at this sentence:
It’s his book.
In this example, It, is, and his are not important words. The important word is book, and that is pronounced fully. Content words are the words in a sentence that carry meaning and they are stressed--pronounced LOUDER, loooonger, and higher. It, is, and his condense and reduce. They are function words, the articles, pronouns, auxiliary verbs, and other words that show grammar. When words are reduced, the vowels often turn into schwas /ə/, and some consonants can even disappear.
Reduce the H in his:
It’s ’əs book.
Reduce the HI in his
It’s ’s book.
Reduce the I in It's and the HI in his:
'ts ’s book.
Vowels
Czech only has five vowels while English has between fifteen and twenty depending upon who you ask. For Czechs, this causes the most problems with /æ/ in bat and/ɛ/ in bet. Here is where a good teacher can be particularly important because a sound that you don't have in your language you might not even hear! When a sound doesn't exist in your own language, you often substitute a sound that is close, a sister vowel sound--in the case of /æ/, it's often substituted with ɒ, the sound in on. This makes bat sound the same as bought. You may not even realize that you are doing it. There are tons of videos out there on these sounds. Start listening to them.
The full list of vowel practice:
A
E
I:
O:
U:
The schwa /ə/ and /ʌ/
The /ə/ sound is the most common sound in English and because English is not spelled phonetically it can be spelled with any vowel. It is in most of the unaccented syllables of multi-syllable words. In single syllable words such as pull, it is the /ʌ/ sound which is simply a /ə/ that is stressed.
The best way for Czech speakers to imagine a schwa is to omit the vowel completely. For example, in the word pull, the middle vowel /ʌ/ is often substituted with the sister sound /uː/ as in pool. It is easiest for Czech speakers simply to imagine it being pronounced PL, and to lengthen the L a bit.
Learn More:
TH /θ/ and /ð/
TH /θ/ and /ð/ do not exist in Czech, nor in many languages, and English learners from all over the world hate this sound. Fortunately, it is a pretty easy sound to learn how to say, unlike the dreaded Czech /ř/ which I cannot say to save my life.
To make this sound, you need to stick your tongue out. Place it lightly on the bottom of your top teeth (you can lightly bite it if that’s easier) and blow air through it like you would for a /v/.
Learn More:
V and W
The V and W give students from many countries in north, central, and east Europe the fits. They cannot say one or the other, or they confuse them. Many Czech speakers cannot even hear the difference between the two sounds.
The ž and ř sound the same to me, too. I feel your pain!
The best way to learn the difference is just to look at the spelling of the word and put your mouth in the correct position. If you do that, the correct sound will come out.
The V is almost always pronounced as /v/, so if you see a V, put your bottom lip on your top teeth to say this sound.
The W and WH are usually pronounced as /w/. To pronounce /w/, put your lips in a kissing pucker. If you put your mouth in the correct position, you will get it right!
Learn More:
Silent Letters
Unlike Czech, English is not phonetic and there are many silent letters. This is often due to the history of the language—pronunciation has changed over the years but the spelling has not. There are a few patterns, but once again, you just have to learn them. Sorry!
Learn More:
R
The /r/ in English is unique. Czech usually rolls its Rs as does Spanish and Scots. The /r/ in English is said in the mouth, not in the throat (as in German or French) and the tongue doesn’t touch anything. Look at my links below to get more details.
Learn More:
-ING
-ing at the end of a word often is pronounced with a K: meetingk. This can cause confusion in word pairs such as thing/think and sing/sink.
Hard and soft G
When do you pronounce the G hard /g/ or soft /dʒ/?
G is pronounced hard /g/ in words before an A, U, or O such as gas, gather, goblet, goddess, gum, gutter.
It is pronounced soft /dʒ/ before E, I, and Y such as gel, general, giant, ginger, gypsy, gyrate.
And then there’s girl /ɡəːl/. Sorry. English.
/s/ and /z/
Czech speakers often pronounce the S as /s/ and the Z as /z/ as is written, but alas, English is not phonetic. Often the S is pronounced /z/, but not always. A /z/ is always pronounced /z/. Click on the link below for more details.
Learn More:
Y
The [j] sound is spelled with a Y in English and a J in Czech, leading to confusion. Also, the Y at the end of a word, as in community or really, it is pronounced /i/ as in see. Many Czech speakers soften this tense sound into more of a /ɪ/ as in hit.
Learn More:
One last note:
Like learning a musical instrument, you can "know" the facts, but you need to practice in order to improve. Everyone brings the phonetic pronunciation, stress patterns, intonations, and rhythm of their own language into the languages they learn. In order to improve your English pronunciation, you need to break those old habits and learn new ones. This just takes time.
Listen to native speakers (movies, TV, music…), hear the new sounds (a teacher can really help), and finally, practice, practice, practice.
If your brain knows something, you need to keep your brain engaged in order to produce it. If your MOUTH knows it, it becomes effortless. This is when your language reaches a new level.
I offer:
Conversation Groups
Online English Lessons
Pronunciation Workshops
Check out my FREE pronunciation pages and subscribe to my newsletter below.
Write me a question you have about English and I will try to answer it.
Check these out, too:
#PronunciationMistakes #PrimaryStress #MultiSyllableWords #PronunciationInEnglish #PronounceEnglishClearly #ClarityInEnglish #HowToPronounce #SyllableStress #HowToPronounceRefuse #PronunciationForCzechs #NativeCzechSpeakers #CommonMistakesCzechSpeakersMake #CommonPronunciationMistakesCzechSpeakersMake
Comments