Baggio
Learning Article : 7 English Pronunciation Pitfalls For Chinese Speakers

Discuss the Article : 7 English Pronunciation Pitfalls For Chinese Speakers

<a href='/article/491/7-english-pronunciation-pitfalls-for-chinese-speakers' target='_blank'>7 English Pronunciation Pitfalls For Chinese Speakers</a>

Why do Chinese speakers have difficulty pronouncing certain words in English? Today, we explore seven common errors native Chinese speakers make when conversing in the English language.

Jul 20, 2015 12:00 AM
Comments · 24
5

Chinese ain't a language. You mean Mandarin I guess. For Cantonese the problems will be totally different.

 

This said, Mandarin speaker can manage often a very good US accent. Cantonese speaker need a to work a little bit harder ;-)

July 20, 2015
3
About the th sounds, there are two different sounds, but you're mixing them up as one.
For example the th sound in "the" and "throne" are transcribed <em style="color: rgb(55, 55, 55);">ðe </em>and <em style="color: rgb(55, 55, 55);">θroʊn </em>respectively.



October 11, 2019
3
I m aware this is an old thread but just wanted to say that an “n” sound is still a nasal sound. It’s an alveolar nasal and it carries nasal resonance. As you say the tongue blade articulates against the alveolar ridge, the voicing is still from the larynx but the velum is lowered to create nasal resonance and block off oral resonance. The example you give eg. As in Monday ... it’s still a nasal production required :) . I m noticing this is not always present in word final position in Chinese speaking English learners
July 18, 2019
3
Look, I don't really know about the difficulties that a chinese student may run into while learning English, but there's simply no way that learning British English is easier than learning American English. The sounds are way more elaborate, they never pronounce the "r" and also the "t" when it's in the middle of a word. Plus understanding the average british speaker is a pain in the neck. Like I'm way more comfortable speaking with someone from Mississippi than with someone from Liverpool, or worse Manchester. And I think this is pretty objective.
July 23, 2018
2

@kraut9 I'm not quite sure I completely agree - pronunciation of English words are often quite challenging for native Mandarin speakers, and I've seen many who have spent years abroad but who are still prone to these pitfalls. 

 

@Amanda 谢谢你阅读我的文章!我觉得你的见解比我要深,你可以在这个基础上围绕发音这个题目再写一篇文章 - 相信读者受益匪浅!:)

 

@Adrian I agree - for French speakers it seems that unless a deliberate effort is made, the "th" defaults to a "z" - giving it a distinctly French taste (interestingly enough I find it more charming this way lol). I wasn't aware of the Irish side of the equation though - it's interesting to know! Thanks for sharing ;)

 

@Helen The earlier one learns a language, the easier it seems for one to adopt a native accent. It's considerably more difficult to adopt an accent later (not impossible though), because of habits, dominant language, among other factors, in my opinion.

July 26, 2015
Show more