Word
lists.
Practise a whole set end to end, rather than one word at a time. Looking for a single word? Browse the word index or the A–Z.
A list is a drill; a guide is an explanation. A list page — say the commonly mispronounced words list — is the words themselves, with a Play button that speaks the whole set in your accent. The matching guide, why these words trip people up, explains the pattern behind them. Most people want the guide first and the list every day after.
Your list
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Practice lists
103 themed sets, each on its own page with a Play button that speaks every word in your chosen accent.
Silent letters
Words where K is written but never spoken. Hear all ten silent-K words said aloud in your accent.
Show the 15 words
Climb, thumb, debt, doubt: words with a B you never say. Listen and copy the correct pronunciation.
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Walk, calm, half, should: the L is written but not spoken. Practise these common silent-L words.
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Castle, listen, often, ballet: words where the T stays silent. Hear each one spoken clearly.
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Hour, honest, ghost, rhythm: an H on the page that never reaches your mouth. Practise all fifteen.
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Write, wrong, sword, answer: the W is invisible in speech. Hear these silent-W words pronounced.
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Psychology, pneumonia, receipt: the P stays quiet. Practise these Greek-derived silent-P words.
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Sign, design, gnome, champagne: the G disappears before N. Hear the correct pronunciation of each.
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Autumn, column, hymn: an N that vanishes after M at the end of a word. Practise these MN endings.
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Wednesday, handkerchief, handsome: the D drops out in normal speech. Hear how they really sound.
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Scissors, muscle, science: the C is written but silent. Practise these tricky SC and CK spellings.
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Island, aisle, debris, Illinois: words hiding a silent S. Hear each one said the right way.
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Guess, guitar, tongue, biscuit: a U that only exists to protect the G. Practise these spellings.
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A silent final E that changes the vowel before it: hat to hate, kit to kite. Hear the difference.
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Light, laugh, ghost, high: GH is silent, F, or hard G. Hear which each word takes.
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Accent differences
Bird, work, learn, turn: five spellings, one vowel. Hear the central ER sound in every accent.
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Water, better, city: Americans tap the T like a quick D. Compare US and UK on every word.
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Car, hard, farmer: Americans pronounce the R, the British do not. Hear both versions side by side.
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Bath, dance, can't: short flat A in America, long ah in southern England. Hear the split.
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Tomato, either, vase, herb: same spelling, different vowels across the Atlantic. Hear them both.
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Tuesday, new, duke: Brits say a Y sound the Americans drop. Hear nyoo versus noo.
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Adult, garage, ballet, cafe: the stressed syllable moves between accents. Hear where it lands.
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Necessary, laboratory, secretary: Americans keep a full syllable that the British swallow.
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Aluminium, speciality, oriented: the spelling differs, so the syllable count does too. Hear both.
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Day, mate, price, no: the vowels that make Australian English instantly recognisable. Hear them.
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Hot, dog, caught, thought: the O vowels split three ways across accents. Hear each version.
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Button, water, bottle: many speakers swap the T for a catch in the throat. Hear where it happens.
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In British English the R comes back when a vowel follows. Hear far versus far away.
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About, house, price, write: the vowel lifts before voiceless consonants. Hear the famous shift.
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Vowel sounds
The /eɪ/ sound in day, rain and eight, spelled six different ways. Train your ear to all of them.
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The long ee sound in see, meat and field. Hear the tense vowel across all its spellings.
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The relaxed short i in sit, big and busy. The single hardest vowel for most learners to place.
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The most common sound in English, hiding in every unstressed syllable. Learn to hear the schwa.
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Ship or sheep, full or fool, pull or pool. Hear the tense and lax vowel pairs side by side.
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Vowels that glide from one sound to another: boy, house, coin, near. Hear all eight diphthongs.
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The flat short a in cat, bad and hand. A vowel that does not exist in most other languages.
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The gliding O in go, boat and know. Hear how the vowel moves rather than staying still.
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Book or boot? The same OO spelling covers two different vowels. Learn which word takes which.
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Cat and cut, bed and bad, cop and cup. One vowel apart, completely different words.
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Consonant sounds
The buzzing TH in this, that and mother. Feel your vocal cords vibrate on every one of these.
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The soft breathy TH in think, three and mouth. No vocal cord buzz, just airflow over the tongue.
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Rice or lice, right or light. Hear the R and L contrast that trips up many learners, pair by pair.
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Vest or west, vine or wine. Practise the lip position that separates English V from W.
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Sip or zip, price or prize. The only difference is voicing, and it changes the word completely.
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Ship or chip, share or chair. One flows, one starts with a tiny stop. Hear the pairs contrasted.
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The single nasal sound in sing, long and thinking. Not an N plus a G. Hear where the G disappears.
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Heart, hungry, behind: the breathy H that many languages drop. Practise keeping it audible.
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The heavy L at the end of full, milk and people. A different sound from the L in the word light.
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Strength, twelfths, sixths: dense consonant runs with no vowel to help. Hear them said cleanly.
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Pin or bin, pat or bat. English P has a puff of air that B does not. Hear the pairs contrasted.
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Giant, judge, general: when G sounds like J. Learn the rule and hear it applied.
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What, where, who, whole: the WH spelling covers three different sounds. Hear which is which.
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Words that must not lose their ending: cold, hand, act, felt. Practise finishing every consonant.
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Sixths, strengths, twelfths, world: short words that are far harder than they look.
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Think and sink, thin and tin, van and ban. Consonant contrasts that change the word entirely.
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Minimal pairs
Affect and effect, desert and dessert, accept and except. Similar words, different sounds.
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Thirteen or thirty? Fifteen or fifty? The stress is the only clue. Hear the pairs contrasted.
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Stress
Chocolate, comfortable, vegetable: fewer syllables than the spelling suggests. Hear the real count.
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Nation, education, question: the -tion ending and where the stress always falls. Hear the rule.
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Decision, mission, television: -sion is sometimes ZH, sometimes SH. Learn which is which.
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Greenhouse or green house? Compound nouns stress the first word. Hear where the emphasis lands.
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REcord or reCORD? Same spelling, stress moves with the part of speech. Hear both versions.
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Separate the adjective, separate the verb: -ate changes vowel by word class. Hear both forms.
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Photograph, photography, photographic: the stress moves every time. Hear the whole family.
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To, of, and, for, can: function words that shrink to a schwa in real speech. Hear both forms.
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Word endings
Walked, played, wanted: -ed has three sounds, T, D and ID. Learn which verb takes which.
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Cats, dogs, buses: the plural S has three sounds. Hear when it is S, Z or IZ.
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Though, through, tough, cough, bough: one spelling, seven sounds. English at its worst.
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Comfortable, incredible, vegetable: both endings reduce to the same weak sound. Hear it.
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Difficult words
Quinoa, gnocchi, bruschetta, acai: menu words that trip everyone up. Hear each one correctly.
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Anaesthesia, ophthalmologist, angina: essential medical vocabulary said clearly and correctly.
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Subpoena, plaintiff, voir dire, tort: courtroom vocabulary with unpredictable pronunciation.
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Cache, GIF, Linux, tuple, SQL: developer vocabulary that even engineers argue about.
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Leicester, Worcester, Edinburgh: British place names that look nothing like they sound.
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Arkansas, Illinois, Worcester, Puyallup: American place names with surprise pronunciations.
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Antidisestablishmentarianism and friends. Break the giants into syllables and say them properly.
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Words that trip up confident intermediate learners: clothes, sixth, thorough, February.
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Words that separate advanced learners from native speakers: paradigm, epitome, hyperbole.
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The words almost everyone says wrong: espresso, sherbet, mischievous, prerogative.
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Rural, squirrel, anemone, sixth: the words native speakers themselves stumble over.
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Lead, read, tear, wind, bow: one spelling, two pronunciations and two meanings. Hear both.
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Rendezvous, croissant, entrepreneur, faux pas: French words English kept and half-anglicised.
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Siobhan, Niamh, Xavier, Joaquin: first names from Irish, Spanish and French sources.
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Homophones
There, their and they're; write and right. Different spellings, identical sound. Hear the matches.
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Loanwords
Nike, Adidas, Hyundai, Porsche: the official way to say the brands everyone gets wrong.
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Turquoise, beige, fuchsia, mauve: colour names borrowed from French with tricky vowels.
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Lacrosse, peloton, judo, pommel: sporting vocabulary with borrowed and irregular sounds.
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Bruschetta, gnocchi, cappuccino, maestro: Italian words and the CH and GN rules English ignores.
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Jalapeno, tortilla, quesadilla, guerrilla: Spanish words and the LL and J rules behind them.
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Exam English
Hypothesis, criteria, methodology: the high-frequency academic words every student must say.
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High-frequency IELTS speaking vocabulary where mispronunciation costs you band score points.
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Academic vocabulary from the TOEFL lecture and speaking sections, said clearly and correctly.
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Everyday English
Entrepreneur, niche, liaison, quarterly: office vocabulary you need to say with confidence.
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Itinerary, concierge, lounge, queue: airport and hotel vocabulary said the right way.
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Chameleon, hyena, koala, giraffe: animal vocabulary with unexpected stress and vowels.
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Chauffeur, psychiatrist, colonel, sommelier: occupation names you need for introductions.
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Meteorologist, drought, hurricane, chinook: weather vocabulary with awkward vowels.
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The most common everyday English words, pronounced slowly and clearly for absolute beginners.
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Simple, fun words for young learners: animals, colours and everyday objects, said clearly.
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Actually, probably, definitely, whatever: the filler and softener words of real conversation.
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Words you need at a doctor's appointment: symptoms, prescriptions and appointments.
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Agenda, deadline, colleague, schedule: the vocabulary of every meeting, said correctly.
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Don't, won't, they'd, shouldn't: contracted forms and how they actually sound at speed.
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Starter lists
Commonly mispronounced
Words learners most often get wrong
Silent letters
Letters that are written but not spoken
Stress shifts meaning
Same spelling, stress changes the word
-ed endings
The three ways -ed is pronounced: /t/, /d/, /ɪd/