Two sound systems, side by side
If you speak another language at home, you already know a second sound system well. The useful question is not "what is wrong with my English?" but "where do the two systems draw their lines differently?"
Tiếng Việt · Vietnamese
- Tone changes the word. Northern Vietnamese has six tones: ma (ghost), má (cheek; "mother" in the South), mà (but), mả (tomb), mã (horse), mạ (rice seedling). English uses pitch for questions and emphasis, never to tell words apart.
- Endings are simple. A Vietnamese syllable ends in at most one consonant, so English clusters like the end of "desks" or "texts" are a new pattern to practise.
हिन्दी · Hindi
- Aspiration changes the word. पल "pal" is a moment; फल "phal" is a fruit. English also puffs air after p, t and k at the start of a stressed syllable ("pin"), but the puff never changes the word — so English speakers do not hear it.
- Two kinds of t and d. Hindi has dental t (tongue on the teeth) and retroflex ṭ (tongue curled back). English t and d sit between the two, on the ridge behind the teeth.
Español · Spanish
- Five vowels. Spanish has five vowel sounds; the English teaching count has twenty. Pairs like ship/sheep and full/fool use a contrast Spanish does not need, so they take direct practice.
- b and v are one sound. In Spanish, b and v spell the same sound. In English they are different phonemes that can change a word: "ban" and "van".