Do you have problems communicating when you speak English in work and social situations? Here are three more accent reduction strategies you can apply to improve your American English pronunciation and communicate with confidence.

Accent Reduction Strategy 4-Pronounce the Past Tense "ed" Correctly

In American English the past tense "ed" has three different sounds. These sounds are; /d/ as in the word loved, /ed/ as in the word wanted, and /t/ as in the word stopped.

Correct pronunciation of these grammatical endings is extremely important if you want to improve your English pronunciation. If you pronounce the "ed" incorrectly your speech will have an accent and it may even mark you as uneducated. Most pronunciation books will teach you the rules for the correct pronunciation of "ed".

Accent Reduction Strategy 5-Pronounce Plural and Possessive "s" Correctly

Like the past tense "ed", the plural and possessive "s" has three sounds in American English. These sounds are; /es/ as in the word churches, /s/ as in the word cats and /z/ as in the word loves. In order to improve your American accent you must learn the rules for pronouncing these word endings correctly. English learners often fail to pronounce word final "s" at all. This is both a grammatical and pronunciation mistake and it will contribute to your foreign accent.

Accent Reduction Strategy 6-Learn to Use Sentence Stress Correctly

Unlike many other languages, English is a stress timed language. That means that the content and focus words in a sentence are pronounced with strong stress and the function words are reduced. Let's look at an example with this sentence.

SUSan is coming to DIN'ner.

SUSan is a content word so it receives a lot of stress. DIN'ner is the focus word so it receives the most stress. The other words in the sentence are function words so they are reduced in spoken English.

Understanding which types of words in a sentence receive stress is of crucial importance to the rhythm of spoken English. Your American English pronunciation will greatly improve if you use sentence stress correctly!

If you are serious about improving your American English pronunciation there are many excellent resources available to help you. Go to this page for a complete review of the most popular American English Pronunciation http://pronunciation.confidentvoice.com/ books and software. Check out this website to learn about Accent Reduction Courses http://accentreductionclassroom.com/ that you can take to improve your American English pronunciation and reduce your accent.