Written by Maria Fernandez

Getting rid of bad pronunciation habits is fairly easy if you use the right technique. Whether you're mispronouncing the vowels, the 'v' or the 'z', the silent 'u' or 'h', or all of them, the secret is to listen to words with those sounds said by native speakers, and to repeat them often. So, what's the right technique?

Here it is:

Let's say the sound you're mispronouncing regularly is the silent 'h', especially in words that look similar in English and Spanish. Go to the course lessons and choose the pronunciation movie that focuses on that letter. In this case it's Lesson 6.

In Lesson 6 go to Mistakes, page 2, and listen to the words listed there. Here are four examples. Click on them to hear them said by native speakers:

hotel hospital horizontal horrible

Once you've listened to the words listed in the movie a few times, repeat them out loud. Notice how the 'h' in all of them is totally silent.

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