There have been a lot of discussions about pronunciation on this recently. There's another discussion going on right now (which for some reason I can't find) where both English native speakers and learners have been uploading recordings. The idea is so that people can compare different English accents, and so English learners can upload their own recordings and get feedback.
I'm doing something similar - I've written out a bunch of words that have similar pronunciations, have the same pronunciation only in some accents, or word pairs that are commonly mixed up by English learners.
http://vocaroo.com is a useful website where you can upload recordings without any registration.
I've uploaded my recordings onto Soundcloud instead of Vocaroo because it is much quicker to upload multiple files and allows me to share all my recordings with a single link.
All of my recordings can be found here: https://soundcloud.com/user-680684195/sets/english-pronunciation
For each recording, feel free to upload your own recordings, whether . It would also be helpful if you wrote out how many words in the recording you pronounce the same way (or if they rhyme).
Marry - Merry - Mary:
All three are different for me.
Can (as in "to be able to") - Can (as in a can of soft drink):
I pronounce these differently.
Do - Day - Die - Dee (the letter) - Doe - Dare - Door
Hid - Had - Head - Hired - Hoard - Whored - Herd - Heard
I pronounce "whored" and "hoard" the same way. The same goes for "herd" and "heard".
Planet - Plan it:
I pronounce these differently.
Buy - Pie - Vye - Why:
This one's mainly aimed at English learners who struggle to distinguish "b", "p", "v" and/or "w".
Man - Main - Mine - Moan - Mean - Mourne
Cut - Cot - Caught - Cart - Kit - Kite - Kate - Coat:
I pronounce all these differently. In different accents, "u", "o", "aw" and "ah" have merged together in different combinations - that's what I want to hear.
Flower - Flour - Flyer
I pronounce "flower" and "flour" the same way.
Bath - Ask - Laugh - Aunt - Graph - Glass - Can't - Ant - Can - Dance - Branch - Chant - Chance
This tests for the trap-bath split. I pronounce everything up til "can't" with an "ah" sound, and after that I pronounce everything with an "a" sound.
Salary - Celery:
I pronounce these differently, although apparently people in Melbourne say them the same way.
Pan - Pin - Pen - Pan - Pine - Pain - Pawn - Porn:
I pronounce "pawn" and "porn" the same way. Otherwise I pronounce everything else differently. Apparently "pin" and "pen" sound the same in some accents.
Bin - Bean - Been - Bun - Barn - Ban:
I pronounce "been" and "bean" the same way. Americans would pronounce "been" and "bin" the same way I believe.
Hiss - House - Horse - Hoarse
I pronounce "horse" and "hoarse" the same way.
Mandarin (language) - Mandarin (fruit):
I pronounce these the same way. I've heard a lot of Americans put emphasis in a different spot for one/both of these.
Nectarine:
I've uploaded two pronunciations. The second one is how most older Australians pronounce it, although not many people my age say it that way. As far as I'm aware the second pronunciation is exclusive to Australia.
Garage:
Schedule:
I pronounce this with a "k" sound, although older generations pronounce it the British way (with a "sh" sound) here.
Water:
How you pronounce "water" can tell a lot about your accent - different accents pronounce the "a", "t", and "er" in different ways.
Live - Leave:
A lot of English learners mix these up.
Data:
I pronounce this the British way.
Where - Wear - We're:
I pronounce all three of these the same way.
Nut - Not - Knot - Nought - Knit - Night - Knight:
I pronounce "not" and "knot" the same way, as well as "night" and "knight". I don't pronounce any of the other words the same way. I understand some American accents pronounce "nut" and "not" the same way, and others pronounce "not" and "nought" the same way.
Fewer - Newer - Cure - Tour:
All of these rhyme with each other for me. I believe "tour" is pronounced differently outside of Australia, and I think "cure" is pronounced differently in northern England.
Band - Banned:
I read online that the bad-lad split exists in some British accents, where they pronounce these two words differently. My accent has the bad-lad split, but I pronounce these two words the same way!
Her - Sur - Fur - Were:
These all rhyme to me.
