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Learning English: Pronunciation

Sometimes I find a new English word in a blog post or an ebook where I don't know how to pronounce it properly. I don't have a native speaker at hand that I can ask right away, so I use the Internet to find out the correct pronunciation.

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First of all I'm using Leo.org as my favorite German/English online dictionary. Leo also offers translations in French, Spanish, Italian, Chinese and Russian. If your language is not on the list, you can use Google to find other good online dictionaries that will work in your language (and BTW Google also offers word translations in many languages).

If I put the word into the Leo dictionary I not only get the German translation but I also get a small speaker symbol along with the English word:

If I click on it, I get a popup overlay window that offers me an audio player element:

That's coming from Leo's own sound library. If you want to hear more, there are links to the Macmillan Dictionary for british, and Merriam Webster for american pronunciation.

If you go to Macmillan, you will see this:

It's again a speaker symbol (this time it's red) and if you click it you can hear the word in finest British accent.

The Merriam Webster dictionary is very similar but they open a separate popup window. So if it don't work for you, consider to turn off your popup-blocker in the browser just for this website:

07/05/2010 14:54:41, von Marian , 248 words, 680 views   Categories: quick tips

1 comment

Comments, Pingbacks:

Comment from: Learn English [Visitor] · http://www.english-for-free.superko.com/

This article look very good. thanks for it

11/30/2011 @ 23:38

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