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Transcript:

Hi everyone! I’m Georgiana; founder of SpeakEnglishPod.com. My mission is to help YOU speak English fluently.

• Today I’ll focus on the pronunciation of some words which my students often mispronounce.
• Later, you’ll practice your English speaking with a funny mini-story.

I’ve noticed that you love my pronunciation episodes, so I’ve selected nine more popular words that most students mispronounce.

I’ll start by telling you the correct pronunciation, and then I’ll use each word in a sentence.

• Captain

A captain is someone who leads or has authority over others. In American English, we pronounce it like this: “kap-tuh n”

Example:
“He was the captain of the ship, and the sailors had to obey him.”

• Cousin

A cousin also called “first cousin”, or “full cousin” is the son or daughter of an uncle or aunt. Let me say it again, and you can repeat after me: “kuhz-uh n”
Example:
“My cousin and I always used to get in trouble when we were kids.”

• Island

Another word on my list is the island. I must have listened to my students mispronounce this word thousands of times. And yeah… We never pronounce the consonant S. We say “ahy-luh nd” and never “is-land”

Example:

“Every time I have a fight with my sister, I feel like fleeing to a deserted island.”

• Situation

Many people find this word difficult to pronounce because it’s not easy to guess the pronunciation based on the way it’s written.  This is the proper way to pronounce it: “sich-oo-ey-shuh n”

Example:

“This tense situation is becoming increasingly difficult to bear.”

(END OF THE EXTRACT).

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Resources:

• Audio mp3 (right-click to save the audio)
• FULL TEXT PDF (right click to save the TEXT)

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