People learning English as a second language frequently have problems pronouncing words in English – not because they’re new to the language, really, but because English has so many different letter combinations that lead to the same sound. Worse, there are many letter combinations that are the same, but lead to different sounds. If you’re used to getting visual clues from words about how they’re pronounced, this will be very confusing and difficult to learn. Perhaps if you never needed to speak English, but only had to read and write it, this wouldn’t be so much of a problem, but with spoken English, proper pronunciation is very important. Not only will mispronouncing words lead to errors in communication, you’ll also give the people you’re speaking to a bad impression of your vocabulary skills, and even of your intelligence and overall professional capability.

One of the best ways to overcome these pronunciation issues is simply to research non-rhyming word pairs and practice saying them out loud. This will help you become familiar with the common ways letter combinations are used in different sounds, and as you learn more words, you’ll start to automatically flag any potential problems. We’ve located twenty pairs of words that look like they should rhyme, but don’t. How many of these can you accurately pronounce?

golf / wolf
youth / mouth
wallet / pallet
full / dull
lager / wager
beard / heard
bleak / steak
wind / mind
ninth / plinth
blood / food
load / broad
towed / vowed
mover / clover
timber / climber
worm / storm
shoes / does
eight / height
work / cork
verdict / indict
gone / alone

Read this post for some tips on how to perfect your pronunciation.