Can any native English speaker listen to my recording and tell if I am pronouncing the words correctly?
This is the link of my recording:
The transcript is here: Login - LingQ
You are completely understandable! I only have a couple of suggestions. Both i’s in diligently should sound like the i in rich (which you said perfectly). You also put an odd stress in the word contradictory (you said contradictORY when usually it is said more evenly). Other than those small points, you sound great. Keep it up!
Also, your link for the transcript should be the one with /buy at the end, but it doesn’t matter since native speakers won’t need it 
Thank you so much for your answer!! I am going to start working in “Diligently and Contradictory” pronunciations.
Hi!!
I did another recording and I would like to ask the same question I asked before: “Can any native English speaker listen to my recording and tell if I am pronouncing the words correctly?”
This is the link of my recording: - YouTube
The transcript is here: Login - LingQ
rodrigo, just a quick technical hint, get yourself a youtube account (it’s free), and upload your recordings there. It’s easy and people will be able to stream your audio without having to download. It’s even better because you can include your transcript as a background image for people to view while the audio plays. Beleza? : )
It’s a really good idea, thank you!!
You’re doing well! You spoke for seven minutes, but I could only find a few things that you might want to change. Here are some notes for individual words:
non-native You say “no native”
unique You say eunuch (a much different word)
careful You say “careeful”
emphasis You say emphasize (that’s the verb)
enrich You say “in reach”
mastering You say “massering”
Some other words to look at:
valuable
digest
cultural
inevitably
quality
intermediate
strength
frequency
Also, sometimes you substitute a d sound for a th sound. Some native speakers do this on some words, but usually only on a few common words.
Good job!
Thank so much for these tips. I would never notice that without your help!!!
I think it sounds pretty good. As a fellow Portuguese speaker, the advice I can give you is that our biggest issues with English pronunciation is that the vowel sounds are nowhere near as strong as in Portuguese. So we have to tone them down, and bring the consonants up a bit, and make sure to get rid of the nasal sounds.
Thank you so much for the suggestions!!
I am going to start working in my intonation, but first I would like to know how I can get rid of nasal sounds.
Pay attention to your n’s and m’s, try touching the tip of your tongue to the back of your upper teeth for final n’s and pressing your lips together for final m’s. In Portuguese we tend to pronounce these consonantal sounds without contact from upper and lower lip. Compare how Brazilians pronounce the word ‘tem’ and how English speakers pronounce the words ‘gym’ and ‘ten’.
Another interesting exercise is to get a recording made by a native speaker (any of the lessons here at lingq will do), and try to make your own recording of the same text, and then compare them. This is why people who have a good ear for music do better with accents, because they’re able to notice the differences better.
Ok! I will practice it. And in the next recording I will try to speak with intonation and without nasal sounds.
Don’t worry too much, though, you’re doing better than the vast majority of English-speaking Brazilians.
Thank you!!
I do notice that some English accents have more nasalization than others, but I think it’s a good rule of thumb for Portuguese speakers to try to avoid them, at least at first.
Pretty good. A bit too long, though. Two minutes would have been more encouraging for those with limited time to listen and comment.
The few mistakes I noticed were a wrong stress here and there (vocAbulary, cOmplex, submIt) and the following:
Accumulate is pronounced with a soft ‘u’ - /əˈkyumyəˌleɪt/
The ‘ow’ in ‘knowledge’ is pronounced like the ‘o’ in ‘knot’. The same happens to the ‘al’ in ‘talking’.
The ‘e’ in ‘varied’ shouldn’t be pronounced and the same goes for the ‘t’ in ‘listening’ (lissening).
‘This’ has always a final ‘s’ sound, never ‘z’, no matter what comes next. ‘This way’, not ‘thiz way’.
The first time you said ‘phrases’, you pronounced it correctly, with a ‘z’ sound (phrazes).
‘Business’ is pronounced ‘bizness’.
Good job.
Thank you for helping me!! Next time I will do a small recording.