Shadowing Practice: Speak English Clearly: TOP 10 Pronunciation Problems - Learn English Speaking with Video

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And today we are going to look at some words people have difficulty pronouncing, but they're actually quite easy to do.

So the words we're going to look at today are answer,

island, bought, Wednesday, honest, angry,

hungry, clothes, February, and climb.

And we might look at a couple bonus words after.

So let's get to it and learn how to actually pronounce these words.

Here is a word that it's so easy to mispronounce.

The word is answer.

Answer is a very, very common English word.

We use it in everyday English.

So why do people make a mistake with this word?

Well, it's because of the spelling.

The W here tricks people.

people see the w

and they pronounce it like answer oh i answered the question

well the w is actually silent you do not pronounce the w so the correct pronunciation is very simple

an sir what is the answer so just forget the w and then you'll be able to pronounce this correctly answer.

So let's practice this in some sentences.

So repeat after me.

Let's answer the question.

And notice I'm saying the first part louder.

Let's answer the question.

So I'm putting more stress on the first part of this answer.

What's your answer?

Teachers love to ask these types of questions.

What's the answer?

So you can repeat after me.

Answer.

What's the answer?

And we also use this when we're talking about telephones.

So when the telephone is ringing, you might ask somebody to answer the phone.

So you see, it's a very easy pronunciation.

As long as you remember, don't pronounce the W.

The next word that is very hard for people to pronounce is the word bought.

So bought is a very common word in English.

It's the past tense of the word by.

So if I'm talking about now, I use by.

But if I'm talking about the past, like last week, last month, last year, I would use bought.

Now the reason people have trouble with this word is again because of the weird spelling.

This gh confuses people a lot.

So the ugh, people see that and they try to pronounce it.

This is actually silent.

So you do not have to pronounce the u, the g, or the h.

Ignore that.

So sometimes I've heard students say bought, you know, I bought it.

And the mistake they're making is they're trying to pronounce these silent sounds.

You don't have to pronounce them.

Just think of the word bought, B-O-T.

So this is not the spelling, but this is how we pronounce it.

If you can say the word robot, bought, it's the same pronunciation.

So let's practice this word.

I bought the book.

I bought the book. Who bought that?

Who bought that?

And she bought a cat.

She bought a cat.

So, when you're practicing pronunciation of words, it's always good to say the word on its own, but then to try it in a sentence, because when you say a word in a sentence,

it can be a little bit more difficult to say it, so it's good practice.

So, very simple tip.

Just don't pronounce the UGH.

Just say bought.

I've had many students who have made a mistake with this word.

The word is island.

Island.

So what do some students say by mistake?

Well, I commonly hear Iceland or Island.

Island, Iceland.

The issue many learners have with this word is that they pronounce the S.

This S is silent.

You do not need to pronounce the S in island.

So if you if we remove the S, the pronunciation is more like island, the island.

So you can say island, island, depending on your accent.

The most important thing is to get rid of the S pronunciation.

So let's do this together let's say some sentences.

I want to travel to an island.

Notice there's no s sound.

I want to travel to an island.

It's a beautiful island.

Toronto Island is a great place for biking.

So I'm from Toronto.

Toronto has an island.

It has a few islands and it's the islands of Toronto are great places for nature, picnics, and biking.

The next word that many people have trouble pronouncing is the word honest.

So honest is difficult because of this h.

The h is silent.

We do not pronounce the h.

So instead we actually say honest.

So get rid of the h and you can pronounce this word correctly. So, listen carefully.

I honestly believe this.

What I hear a lot of people say is honestly.

They have that H sound, but you do not need an H sound when you say the word honest.

The H is silent.

We do not say the H.

He is honest.

Honest.

That's my honest answer.

So, try to say this word, and it might be hard because a lot of people really, really want to say the H.

They really want to say honestly speaking, but no, no H.

Just start with the O.

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Honest.

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The next two words learners often make mistakes with,

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and sometimes they confuse the pronunciation because these words sound somewhat similar.

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The words are angry and hungry.

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So what are some of the mistakes I hear people make with these words?

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Well sometimes with angry which means to be mad sometimes people will add an h sound so they'll say hungry,

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hungry, I'm so hungry right now.

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So there is a word in English hangry which means hangry

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or it means angry plus hungry when you're mad because you're hungry.

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But we won't talk about that one today.

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For now, we're just going to focus on angry, meaning mad, and hungry, meaning you want to eat.

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So as i mentioned people sometimes add an h to angry

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and then with the word hungry they sometimes forget the h there's also a difference in the vowel sounds here

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so listen carefully angry notice my mouth really gets big angry and hungry So,

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let's practice the correct pronunciation.

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Oh, I made a mistake here.

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I angry.

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What did I forget?

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I'm. So, angry.

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There's no H.

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Angry.

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And if you really have a hard time saying angry, and you notice you make mistakes with this a lot.

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An alternative is just don't use it.

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Use the word mad.

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Mad is easier to pronounce and it has the same meaning.

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I'm so mad.

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I'm so angry.

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Mad is easier to pronounce.

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Now for the word hungry, you really need that sound, that H sound.

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So there should be a lot of air at the beginning of this word, hungry.

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So, the main thing here, remember to pronounce the H.

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Honest, there's no H sound.

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Hungry, there is an H sound.

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So, let's practice these words.

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I'm angry.

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He's angry.

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Are you hungry?

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I'm hungry.

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The next word is, this one actually is a little bit more challenging.

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The word is close.

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So this is a hard word to pronounce because of the th and there's a z sound at the end.

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So the spelling is a little bit different than the actual pronunciation

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because again the s sounds like a zed or a z

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if you're in the u.s

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so what i often hear people do is they break up the word

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and they say clothes clothes clothes i like your clothes those

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so that's one mistake i hear so it's one syllable and again there's a z at the end clothes.

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I like to do this trick because I think that it can actually help your pronunciation.

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So you start at the top with a K sound.

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Clothes.

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And I'm even going to get rid of this H.

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The clothes.

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I think that can help you with your pronunciation for this word. Where are the clothes?

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Did you put the clothes in the bag?

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I like your clothes.

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So again, this is a hard word, but it's possible to do, especially if you remember that there is a Zed at the end.

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So the next word is a very important word because it's one of the days of the week.

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The word is Wednesday.

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It's also the name of a character in the Addams family.

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So Wednesday, it's a common mistake learners might make.

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They might actually pronounce it as Wednesday.

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So they might give it three syllables Wednesday instead of two Wednesday.

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So the reason this is hard is because of this D.

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A lot of people want to say the D wed Wednesday but you don't have to say the D.

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You can just say without the d, Wednesday.

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Wednesday.

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So try that Wednesday.

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I work on Wednesday.

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I'm busy on Wednesday.

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It's Wednesday.

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So again, very simple.

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Once you know to get rid to the D.

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It's a very easy word to pronounce.

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The next word is also important because it's one of the months in the year and it is the word February.

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February is difficult.

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Many people make mistakes because of this R.

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They'll say February, but the R is silent.

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You do not need to say the R, so instead you can pronounce it Feb-bu-ay-ry.

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February.

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Forget the R.

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February is a cold month, so again I am not pronouncing the R.

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Feb-bu-ay-ry.

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Her birthday is in February.

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So once you know you don't need to pronounce the R, this word becomes a lot easier to pronounce.

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The last word I want to teach you is the word climb.

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So we use climb a lot because we climb the stairs.

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People like to go climbing like mountain climbing or there's different ways to use this word.

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A common mistake is that people might pronounce the b at the end.

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The b is silent so this is actually a very easy word to pronounce as long as you remember no b.

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So you can pronounce it climb i climbed the sea

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and tower i climbed a tower in uh paris i climbed the eiffel tower uh

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so that's how you would use that

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so again here's the word without the b that's how you

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pronounce it climb this can be still a little bit difficult

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because the cl together can be hard for some people learning English.

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So if you're having trouble with the CL, slow it down and just start with a c-c-l, climb.

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Sometimes just going slow can help with the pronunciation.

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So let's look at some sentences.

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I like climbing.

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She climbs mountains.

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I get tired climbing the stairs.

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So again, with the B, you just don't pronounce it, and when you remove the B,

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you'll see that this is actually quite an easy word to pronounce.

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Now, there are some other words that are like the word climb, where they end with an MB.

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So numb is an example, and dumb is an example.

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So, again, just don't pronounce the B for these words.

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Numb, dumb, climb.

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When you see M-B together, the B is usually silent.

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So, we've covered some different words that are actually quite easy to pronounce as long as you realize which sounds are silent.

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So, I hope that you've learned something today, and I hope that you try to use these correct pronunciations in your everyday English.

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We use these words a lot, so this can be really helpful for improving your conversation.

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So thank you so much for watching today.

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It's always good to practice what you learned.

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So you can visit us at www.engvid.com and there take a quiz on the words we covered today.

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And also don't forget to subscribe to my channel.

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We have a lot of other videos on pronunciation and other different English topics.

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So thanks so much for watching and until next time, take care.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This A2 speaking lesson is built on the video “Speak English Clearly: TOP 10 Pronunciation Problems”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: word, pronounce, island, hungry, angry. This video has 216 sentences and 1987 words to shadow. The speech runs for 15:14. The speaker talks at a steady 130 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 83% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
pronounce verb	/pɹəˈnaʊns/	To declare formally, officially or ceremoniously.
climb verb	/ˈklaɪ̯m/	To traverse a slope or contour, either upwards (ascending) or downwards (descending).
hungry adjective	/ˈhʌŋ.ɡɹi/	Affected by hunger; having the physical need for food.
pronunciation noun	/pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/	The formal or informal way in which a word is made to sound when spoken.
cloth noun	/klɒθ/	A fabric, usually made of woven, knitted, or felted fibres or filaments, such as used in dressing, decorating, cleaning or other practical use. Sometimes…
silent adjective	/ˈsaɪ̯lənt/	Free from sound or noise; absolutely still; perfectly quiet.
spelling noun	/ˈspɛl.ɪŋ/	The act, practice, ability, or subject of forming words with letters, or of reading the letters of words; orthography.
trick noun	/ˈtɹɪk/	Something designed to fool, dupe, outsmart, mislead or swindle.
everyday adjective	/ˈɛvɹiˌdeɪ/	Appropriate for ordinary use, rather than for special occasions.
carefully adverb	/ˈkɛɹf(ə)li/	With care; attentively, circumspectly.
telephone noun	/ˈtɛləˌfoʊn/	A telecommunication device which converts data or sounds (usually speech) into electrical signals which are then transmitted to enable two or more people to…
correctly adverb	/kəˈɹɛk(t).li/	In a correct manner.
stairs noun	/ˈstɛɹz/	A contiguous set of steps connecting two floors.
confuse verb	/kənˈfjuːz/	to puzzle, perplex, baffle, bewilder (somebody); to afflict by being complicated, contradictory, or otherwise difficult to understand
numb adjective	/nʌm/	Physically unable to feel, not having the power of sensation.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Meaning
break up verb	To break or separate into pieces.

Sentences worth repeating

Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:

You don't have to pronounce them.
What did I forget?
Did you put the clothes in the bag?
It's always good to practice what you learned.

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	I've heard · I've had · we've covered
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	students who have · angry which means · hangry which means
Possibility with “might / may” might/may + verb — something that is possible but not certain	might look · might ask · might be
Present continuous am/is/are + -ing — something happening right now or around now	I'm saying · I'm putting · we're talking

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 42 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, don't, you're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

Long words — get the stress right: pronunciation /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/, difficulty /ˈdɪfɪkəlti/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like pronounce, climb, hungry.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: Speak English Clearly: TOP 10 Pronunciation Problems - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

Key vocabulary in this video

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Sentences worth repeating

Grammar in this video

Pronunciation to watch

How to practise with this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?