Online English Dictionaries - Something more about English Dictionaries

Online English Dictionaries 

English Language Dictionaries for learning English Pronunciation 

English is a language that lays a greater and stronger emphasis on pronunciation. English is a Phonetic language. There is a specific way assigned to pronounce all 26 alphabet. The phonetic system of English is an air-based mechanism. In countries where English is not the native language pronunciation varies and there is a strong mother tongue influence felt on the language. The letters are improperly pronounced or uttered and this creates confusion while understanding the language.

There are three things that you need to consider while developing pronunciation skills:

(1) Accent Reduction (2) Intonation (3) Stress

Accent reduction: Two types of accent reduction training is focused upon these days. One is the utterance of English alphabet in such a way as it becomes easier for the native-speakers enable what’s being said. This type of training usually helps people working in call centers or anywhere where there is a lot of interaction between peoples of different nations.  The other type of accent training is for people that want to read properly from a given script. This kind of training however will not help much during spontaneous interactive communication.  

Intonation: Intonation is the variation of pitch during speech processes. Intonation helps in uttering a sentence properly rather than focusing on the individual words or letters of a sentence. Generally ‘Intonation’ is categorized into 4 broad headings:

(1) Rising intonation means the pitch rises in time (2) Falling intonation means that the pitch falls in time (3) Dipping intonation is rise and fall of pitch and (4) Peaking intonation is fall and rise of pitch

The uses of intonation could be many for example intonation could be used for providing:

Information / Grammar / Elocution / Attitude /Text and Index

Stress: Stress is emphasis laid upon certain specific parts of a word called syllables. When stress is laid upon words in a sentence it is called word stress. When stress is laid upon a specific sentence it is called sentence stress. Rhythm and meter in English language originate because of stress. Following a specific pattern of stress creates beauty in sentence usage. This generates rhythm and extensively used by poets to come up with eternal poetry.

Correct and proper pronunciation and enunciation is very important these days. Pronunciation is using the proper phonetic rules for uttering a specific word. Enunciation is taking care of all the sounds of the words while speaking. Such a thing will improve the quality of your speech and make you speak precise and effective English.