American Accent Training for Japanese Speakers

Welcome to online practice.  If your native language is Japanese, the table below lists pronunciation issues you are likely to face when speaking American English.  You will have your own individual variation, but the sounds listed here encompass the majority of patterns Japanese speakers usually bring to speaking English.  You can use your individual assessment and training plan to determine the priority targets for you.  Subscribe to the full site for audio and video recordings to practice these and other sounds and patterns to improve your American English pronunication.  (Don't have an assessment?  You can purchase one in the store or consider 1:1 accent training.)

sound

b

t

d


g

v


th (as in “think”)


th (as in “those”)


z


j



n


ng



l


r




consonant clusters (more than one consonant sound together)


/ɪ/ "vowel ɪ"
as in "it"

/e/ "vowel ay" as in "ate"

/ɛ/ "vowel eh" as in "get"

/æ/ "vowel a" as in "at"

/a/ "vowel ah" as in "hot"

/ʊ/ "vowel U"
as in "wood"

/au/ "diphthong ow" as in "now"

/ʌ,ə/ "vowel schwa" as in "but"

error pattern

can sound like p or v at the ends of words

can be left off the ends of words

can sound like t or be left off the ends of words

can sound like k at the ends of words

can sound like b at the start of words
can sound like f or b at the ends of words

can sound like s at the start of words
can sound like s at the ends of words

can sound like d or z at the start of words
can sound like voiceless th or z at the  ends of words

can sound like j at the start of words
can sound like s at the ends of words

can sound like zh at the start of words
can sound like ch or zh at the ends of words

can sound like ng or be left off the ends of words

can have an extra g sound at the ends of words
can sound like n at the ends of words

can sound like r or d at the start of words
can be left off the ends of words

can sound like l or be rolled at the start of words
can sound like vowel U or vowel schwa in the middle or at the ends of words

can have sounds left off or have the same errors listed above at the ends of words
can have r/l confusion at the start of words




can sound like vowel ee


can sound like vowel eh


can sound like vowel ay


can sound like vowel ah


can sound like vowel o


can sound like vowel oo


can sound like vowel ah or vowel o



can be pronounced like the written letter rather than the American “uh” sound

Example

robe sounds like rope or rove

boat sounds like bow

code sounds like coat
made sounds like may

pig sounds like pick

very sounds like berry
leave sounds like leaf or leeb

thing sounds like sing
with sounds like wiss

those sounds like dose or zose
breathe sounds like breeth or breeze

zero sounds like jero
buzz sounds like bus

just sounds like zhust
ridge sounds like rich or rizh


thin sounds like thing
moon sounds like moo

thing sounds like thingg
sung sounds like sun


life sounds like rife or dife
goal sounds like go

read sounds like lead
bird sounds like bud
paper sounds like papuh


lived sounds like live, 
want sounds like wan
words sounds like word
fresh sounds like flesh
bliss sounds like briss



it sounds like eat


wait sounds like wet


get sounds like gate


cat sounds like cot


not sounds like note


look sounds like Luke


how sounds like hah or ho



banana sounds like “bah-nah-nah” rather than “buh-nah-nuh”