{"id":269,"date":"2016-08-05T14:54:24","date_gmt":"2016-08-05T14:54:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/englishteacherjames.com\/?p=269"},"modified":"2016-08-20T14:53:49","modified_gmt":"2016-08-20T14:53:49","slug":"how-to-pronounce-friend-any-said","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/englishteacherjames.com\/wordpress\/2016\/08\/05\/how-to-pronounce-friend-any-said\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Pronounce Friend Any Said"},"content":{"rendered":"

HOW TO PRONOUNCE FRIEND ANY SAID<\/h1>\n

A lot of my students have problems pronouncing \u2018frie<\/strong>nd\u2019. Even when I tell them the correct pronunciation they still make the mistake of pronouncing the \u2018i\u2019 and the \u2018e\u2019 se<\/strong>parately. They have been saying frie<\/strong>nd like that for so long that they can\u2019t lose it and don\u2019t manage to say \/frend\/. Esse<\/strong>ntially the \/e\/ is not a difficult sound to make. Howe<\/strong>ver, we are not just looking at how to pronounce frie<\/strong>nd a<\/strong>ny sai<\/strong>d but other ways of spe<\/strong>lling the \/e\/ sound.<\/p>\n

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THE SPELLING OF \/e\/ CAN LEAD TO A LOT OF CONFUSION: SAY SAYS SAID<\/h2>\n

You might also find it difficult to change the way you pronounce \u2018says\u2019 and \u2018said\u2019. You probably use these words all the time and fall into the trap of pronouncing them \/se\u026az\/ and \/se\u026ad\/. They are quite simply \/sez\/ and \/sed\/. Of course \u2018say\u2019 is pronounced \/se\u026a\/ and this is a source of confusion. Some of my students don\u2019t believe me when I break this news to them, even though I am a native English pronunciation Teacher<\/a>.<\/p>\n

FURTHER ISSUES WITH \u2018ea\u2019<\/h2>\n

You should watch out for words we spe<\/strong>ll\u00a0\u2018ea\u2019 because we also use these two le<\/strong>tters in different vowel sounds and diphthongs. So take \u2018sprea<\/strong>d\u2019 \u2018hea<\/strong>d\u2019 and \u2018dea<\/strong>d\u2019 as exce<\/strong>ptions [\/spred\/ \/hed\/ \/ded\/]. Even more confusingly we pronounce\u00a0the verb to \u2018read\u2019 as \/ri:d\/. Whereas the past simple, which we also spe<\/strong>ll\u00a0\u2018rea<\/strong>d\u2019,\u00a0we\u00a0pronounce \/red\/. This is something most particular and we say it the same way as the colour \u2018re<\/strong>d\u2019. The<\/strong>n we say \/ri:d\u026a\u014b\/ for \u2018reading\u2019 unle<\/strong>ss you are talking about the town \u2018Rea<\/strong>ding\u2019 \/red\u026a\u014b\/.<\/p>\n

Overall, \u2018e\u2019 is by far the most common spe<\/strong>lling of \/e\/. You should consider all the other le<\/strong>tters or combinations of le<\/strong>tters I’ve included\u00a0in the infographic below as exce<\/strong>ptions.<\/p>\n

WHAT ABOUT \u2018ei\u2019?<\/h2>\n

Also note that I when I made the infographic I overlooked another me<\/strong>ntion: that of the \u2018ei\u2019 as in \u2018lei<\/strong>sure\u2019 \/le\u0292\u0259\/. The only other time I can think that we pronounce\u00a0\u2018ei\u2019 as \/e\/ is in Lei<\/strong>cester \/lest\u0259\/. This problematic looking place-name\u00a0is a city in the East Midlands of England. You may have been to Lei<\/strong>cester Square in London but now a lot of people are familiar with the football club Lei<\/strong>cester City as they are the English league champions. It should be sai<\/strong>d that Lei<\/strong>cester is more of a rugby union town though.<\/p>\n

\"How<\/a>

How To Pronounce Friend Any Said or Different Ways of Spelling the \/e\/ sound<\/p><\/div>\n

\"How<\/a>

English Pronunciation Quiz: Which Word Has a Different Vowel Sound – women, entry or help?<\/p><\/div>\n