English Pronunciation Lab

Hard & Soft · Silent Letters · Weak Sounds · Audio on every word

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The rule: C and G go hard (/k/ /g/) before a, o, u — and soft (/s/ /dʒ/) before e, i, y. This came from French and Latin influence on English.

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Hard vs Soft C & G

Letter C

Hard /k/ before a, o, u

Soft /s/ before e, i, y

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Letter G

Hard /g/ before a, o, u

Soft /dʒ/ before e, i, y

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✨

Magic E — Short vs Long Vowels

A silent final e stretches the vowel before it

Short vowel (no magic e)

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Long vowel (with magic e)

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CH · TH · OO — Tricky Pairs

CH — three possible sounds

/tʃ/ English chat, cheese, lunch

/ʃ/ French chef, machine

/k/ Greek chorus, character

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TH — voiced vs voiceless

Voiceless /θ/ think, bath — no throat vibration

Voiced /ð/ this, mother — throat vibrates

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OO — long vs short

Long /uː/ moon, food, school

Short /ʊ/ good, book, foot

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Select a letter card below

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Why silent letters? Pronunciation changed over 500 years but spelling stayed frozen. Knight once sounded every letter. Doubt kept its Latin b from dubitare.

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12 silent letters — tap to explore

Hear each word in context

🎯

Stress-timed rhythm: English compresses unstressed syllables into a short, soft /ə/ (schwa). This is why native speakers sound fast — they shorten the grammar words, not the meaning words.

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Strong vs weak forms

Press ▶ on any row to hear the full sentence with natural weak pronunciation

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Schwa /ə/ in disguise

The same soft /ə/ can be spelled a, e, i, o, u, er — press ▶ to hear

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Lesson 3: English Pronunciation Lab

Passage Text