Welcome to the Club, pal.

That is what makes English so frustrating, there is no consistancy.

And what about “slider” words?

Watching and Washing. Some people cannot make the distinctive pronounciation between the two, creating more confusion

I can’t help you but I’m sure there are some rules about that somewhere. However I have heard that the English language is one of the hardest to learn beacuse of that reason.

I know from teaching my son to read that the only way you really learn how to pronounce a word correctly is to just “learn” it. For example I tell him that it’s pronounced Record and not reecord (couldn’t put the line above the e) and that’s how we learn.

Sorry…not much help here.

Good on you. Unfortunately English is one of the most infuriating languages to learn as there are many words which look the same but sound entirely different.

There are some rules which should help you a lot but also lots of exceptions to the rules. Contact your local TAFE college as the adult literacy and numeracy departments can usually help – either with a course you can take or maybe a hand-out booklet.

Not really… English is famous for weird spellings and differing pronounciations, because it was originally a Germanic language, blended with French, and then it absorbed many Latin, Greek, and other words from other languages. One thing that will help is a study of etymology (word origins). If you can recognize which words are Anglo-Saxon (Germanic), French, Latin, Greek, etc. you will have a better idea of how to pronounce them. There are even many English words with Arabic origins – such as alcohol, alegbra, assassin, cipher, and syrup.

Keep a pronounciation dictionary handy, and you will just learn how certain words are pronounced as you use them more. Some words have different pronounciations when the mean different things – “ree-CORD” means to make a note of something for future reference, but “REH-cerd” is the note itself. “ruh-PORT” is a document detailing some subject of interest, but “REE-port” is the echo of a loud sound (such as a firearm)… it’s just experience. Good luck!

Since the English language is made up of several other languages, it is very difficult to come up with precise 100% rules.

Some are easy to remember, like ” ‘I’ before ‘E’ except after ‘C’ or when sounded like ‘A’ as in neighbor and weigh.”

Many of these rules just don’t apply, but a very good way to learn to speak English, is to view English language television, especially soap operas.

The reason I say “soap operas” is because, in these shows they use very basic English, speak slowly and usually very clearly.

Another way to learn to pronounce English words correctly is to surround yourself with English speaking people.

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The shortest word with the 5 vowels in alphabetical order is AERIOUS (7 letters), which means “airy.” The OED2 shows one use of this word with this spelling in 1657. different words with the 5 vowels occurring as quickly as each and in alphabetical order are: ABSTEINOUS, ABSTEMIOUS, ABSTENIOUS, ABSTENTIOUS, ACERIFLORUM, ACERIFLORUS, ACHEILOUS, ACHEIROUS, ACLEISTOUS, ADECTICOUS which isn’t in the OED2 in spite of the undeniable fact that which cyber web pages reveal is an adjective which describes a pupa with non-sensible mandibles, ADVENTIOUS, AFFECTIOUS, ALEIKOUM, ALPESTRIOUS, ANEMIOUS, ANNELIDOUS, ARSENIOUS, ARTERIOSUM, ARTERIOSUS, ARTERIOUS, AVENIOUS, BACTERIOUS, CAESIOUS, CAMELIOUS, CARNELIOUS, FACETIOUS, FRACEDINOUS, GAREISOUN, GRAVEDINOUS, MAJESTIOUS, MATERIOUS, PARECIOUS, PLACENTIOUS, TRAGEDIOUS [Philip Bennett, Stuart Kidd, Paul Browning]. The longest word with the 5 vowels in alphabetical order is PHRAGELLIORHYNCHUS (a protozoan) [Susan Thorpe].

Sorry I don’t think there is…..just listen and speak, asking for correction as you go along…..I’m just glad I haven’t got to learn English as an adult!

There is a very good website which helps with every nuance of grammar and I list it below, for interest.

That is one of the big problems with English.

(One of the worst is the group -ough which has a lot of different pronunciations:

cough

tough

though

through

thought

bough

rough

hiccough

and others

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ough_%28combination%29 )

A,E,I,O,U are vowels.(in my dictionary Y is a vowel to)

There’s not a word without these letters in the dictionary

(except cry,why etc. which this is where the Y kicks in)

Here are some websites to get you started:

http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&endeca=1&isbn=0194328155&itm=6

http://aruljohn.com/voice.pl

http://www.yourdictionary.com/library/mispron.html