Improving pronunciation
Part of improving your speaking skills is working on your pronunciation, in general, or with regard to specific issues you may experience.
General tips
Short vowels
Speakers of Dutch are usually bothered by the sounds /i/ (tip), /Ʌ/ (but), /ᴂ/ (bash) and /e/ (bet).
Long vowels
In English, long vowels tend to be just a little bit longer than you expect them to be. The simplest advice: exaggerate.
'Th'
The 'th' sound in English can be a difficult one to pronounce, particularly when you know that there is a voiced and unvoiced version.
Liaison
In British and American English, unlike, for example, Dutch and German, words are ‘glued together’: this is called liason or connected speech. The websites below will explain the phenomenon and show you a number of ways to realize liason. You can train yourself by finding a text to read, placing two fingers over your vocal chords, and focusing on the constant vibration that you should feel.
Final devoicing
In Dutch, the final sound of words ending in /b/, /d/, /g/ and /v/ is changed to /p/, /t/, /k/ and /f/ , respectively.
The name Rob is pronounced /rop/, for example. In Dutch, we sleep in a /bet/ , not in a bed. In English, however, being able to make the distinction is very important