Minimal Pair Practice
If you know which particular sounds you have difficulty with, trying to repeat words and phrases containing those words can be a useful way of working on your pronunciation, though it takes much longer than this to really make the sort of impact you want.
You may like to have a go at repeating the following pairs of words on your own. Remember, the two words should sound different from each other. Try recording yourself and see if you can hear a difference between the pairs. If you are unsure of the pronunciation of these, you can check the phonetic transcription in a dictionary. The list is adapted from http://esl.about.com/library/lessons/blminimal.htm
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click to listen to Column 1 Download |
click to listen to Column 2 Download |
click to listen to Column 3 Download |
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awning – earning azure – assure bed – bad beg – bug beige – bays better – butter blessed – blast boot – boat boot – butt but – boot call – curl care – chair catch – cash caught – curt chute – shut cod – card commended–commanded consort – concert curse – coarse deft – daft dug – dog |
empire – umpire export – expert fair – fear fled – flood form – firm fur – fear goon – gun hell – hull jest – just know – now lawn – learn leak – lick leather – lather left – laughed lest – last lit – light look – luck many – money mood – mud net – nut noon – none noon – nun pawed – purred
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pay – bay pest – passed read – lead read – red ready – ruddy saw – sought shorts – shirts sing – sang sock – suck soon – son soot – suit spoon – spun steady - study super - supper thirst - first vest - vast walk - work whistle - thistle whom - hum why - way wreath - wreathe zoo - sue |