Dusklight  +  458582 Sun, 30 Dec 07 06:04 PM Like the word 'first', 'last', 'point', etc. I often find myself leaving the last 'accent' out, so it becomes 'firs', 'las', 'poin'. How important is it to pronunce every single letter in a word. It's difficult when you're trying to talk fast. Dusklight Joined on Mon, Aug 27 2007 New Member 47 Accents

	Anatbs  +  458653 Sun, 30 Dec 07 11:28 PM I do not think that the question you should be asking yourself is "how important it is", but "am i going to be understood by others"? I recommend you do your best in practicing pronunciation and listening to native speakers of English. You can use Television as well - It has a tremendous effect (and I am talking from experience). Anatbs Joined on Tue, Dec 25 2007 New Member 27 It is better to try everthing in life and find them empty, than to try nothing and leave your life a blank (Charlotte Bronte) Accents, Pronunciation

	Nef  +  458675 Mon, 31 Dec 07 02:26 AM I agree with Anatbs. I think that leaving out the last part of a word makes someone much harder to understand. One reason for this is that there are words that are spelled almost the same way but have very different meanings. A listener may have to try to guess which word the speaker wanted to say. Here are a few examples: firs - trees of a certain type first - before others sin/sink sea/seal crow/crown bee/beer fee/feel for/fort/forth so/sot pan/pant pea/peal due/duel kin/kind bin/bind real/realm pin/pint Nef Joined on Sun, Jan 1 2006 California, USA Regular Member 638 Accents

	CalifJim  +  458724 Mon, 31 Dec 07 05:39 AM How important is it to pronunce every single letter in a word. Provided the letter isn't silent, it's very important to pronounce every letter. CJ CalifJim Joined on Mon, Aug 2 2004 California Veteran Member 22,426 "There are no facts, only interpretations" - Nietzsche Accents

	Dusklight  +  458733 Mon, 31 Dec 07 07:07 AM Thanks for the replies! Others understand me really well, so I don't have to worry about that. It just sounds better if I pronunce every single letter. "I'm the first to arrive." instead of "I'm the firs to arrive.". I'm not leaving out important last sounds that can confuse the meaning of my sentence. Like in "Look at that rock.", I wouldn't say "Look at that roc." Do native speakers pronunce every single letter and talk in a normal speed?  Dusklight Accents

	Anduy  +  458795 Mon, 31 Dec 07 02:16 PM Dear Dusklight, Consider your sentence "I'm the first to arrive", it doesn't matter if you pronouce the word first like firs, because you will pronounce the sound /t/ of the word to. This is called "prepare and link (according to my book)." If the final consonant sound of a word has the same pronunciation as the initial consonant sound of the word following (or the only difference between them is voiced or unvoiced), you only pronounce the second sound. Some examples: - help pack - stick close - this zone - dark gray - sit down Hope that helps Anduy Joined on Tue, Nov 6 2007 Junior Member 60 Accents, Difference Between, Consonants, Pronunciation

	Kooyeen  +  459321 Wed, 02 Jan 08 12:55 AM  Anduy wrote: you only pronounce the second sound. Some examples: - help pack - stick close - this zone - dark gray - sit down Hi, that's not true, I believe. I don't say this zone like it's thi zone or the zone. Sit down is close to si down (no T), but it's not really the same. On the other hand, I can't pronounce Help pack and Hell pack differently. Can anybody distinguish them? Describing certain features of English is very difficult sometimes. And then not everyone talks the same way... I hear weird accents and features all the time. So don't leave anything out completely. You often won't hear certain consonants fully voiced, yeah, but it's not the same as leaving them out. The mouth and the tongue move anyway. I know final consonants are sometimes left out in Ebonics, though. So you don't have a right hand, but a rah han. And what do you got in yo rah han? You got fingas Ok, I'm not good at Ebonics, but that's how it sound to me. It sound... sounds. But I'm sure some consonants are left out in some final clusters, it's one of the features of Ebonics. So don't leave out anything unless you want to learn Ebonics Kooyeen Joined on Thu, Dec 22 2005 Italy Senior Member 4,971 Parental Advisory / Explicit Posts Accents, Consonants