© Paul Smit 2006-2020
This is a typical problem for Thai, Lao, Vietnamese, Cantonese and speakers of some other South East Asian languages.
Some languages do not have final consonant endings or these finals are reduced sounds. As a result, learners either greatly reduce or do not produce final consonants in English, resulting in pronunciation which is very difficult for others to understand.
Why is this important?
You will notice in the activity below that words such as line/light and sign/sight will sound the same if you drop the final sounds. This will make it difficult for people to understand you. Learning to pronounce these pairs correctly will help your speaking, and awareness of the different sounds will help your listening.
Exercise 1: Contrasting the sounds
- Listen to the word pairs, focusing on the word endings.
- Then repeat, again focusing on saying the word pairs correctly.
| Final dropped | Full word | Added sound | |
| sick | six | + /s/ | |
| thin | think | + /k/ | |
| were | work | + /k/ | |
| were | word | + /d/ | |
| Lao | loud | + /d/ | |
| allow | aloud | + /d/ | |
| lie | line | + /n/ | |
| lie | light | + /t/ | |
| goal | gold | + /d/ | |
| sigh | sight | + /t/ | |
| sigh | sign | + /n/ | |
| why | wide | + /d/ | |
| why | white | + /t/ | |
| may | made | + /d/ | |
| may | mate | + /t/ | |
| a bow | about | + /t/ | |
| saw | sort | + /t/ |
Exercise 2: Listening and distinguishing the sounds
This will help you learn to distinguish the two sounds.
- Listen to the recording.
- Choose the word you hear.
- You can listen as many times as you want.
- Click the blue > arrow on the bottom right to move to the next question.
Exercise 3: Tongue twister
- Repeat the following tongue twister.
- Focus on saying the short words and then on adding the ending to the long word as in lie/line.
- Repeat again, trying to say the tongue twister faster and faster.
Six sick wide white horses in a line take a bow
What’s it about, what’s it about?
“Should I allow, should I allow?” he said aloud
What’s it about, what’s it about?
Six sick wide white horses in a line take a bow
It’s no lie, it’s no lie.
Exercise 4: Minimal quads 1
- Listen to the four words in the list.
- Take note of the added sounds on the end.
- Listen to recording A and identify which word it is.
Exercise 5: Minimal quads 2
- Listen to the four words in the list.
- Take note of the added sounds on the end.
- Listen to recording A and identify which word it is.
Exercise 6: Minimal quads 3
- Listen to the four words in the list.
- Take note of the added sounds on the end.
- Listen to recording A and identify which word it is.
© Paul Smit 2006-2020