IELTS Pronunciation Guidelines

IELTS Pronunciation is often left unnoticed by the candidates reducing the band score. IELTS Pronunciation is very important to get a high score in IELTS Speaking. Pronunciation accounts for 25% of the total IELTS Speaking score in the IELTS test. Candidates are graded on 4 different attributes in the IELTS Speaking test. The attributes are:

1. IELTS Vocabulary (25%)
2. Grammar (25%)
3. Fluency and Coherence (25%)
4. Pronunciation (25%)

Candidates need to keep in mind that while speaking, pronunciation is the most important part. This can affect the fluency of the speech. IELTS Pronunciation is considered as difficult to learn by the students. The candidates need to go through the IELTS Pronunciation practice. They should know how to practice so that they can excel in the IELTS test.

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IELTS Pronunciation Attributes 

There are few IELTS exam pronunciation features that the candidates need to follow. These will help the students and will serve as IELTS Pronunciation guide. Everyone has a difficulty to sound the right way. IELTS Pronunciation guide will help candidates overcome this. This article focuses on the accuracy and variety of pronunciation features. Candidates must note that IELTS Pronunciation practice will help them reach the targeted IELTS Speaking score. The most important features to get a high score are:

Individual Sounds or Phonemes 

These are the elements of words that we pronounce. There are 44 types of sounds in the English language that a candidate needs to know. This includes 20 vowel sounds and 24 consonant sounds.

In order to get a high score, a candidate must master all the individual sounds.

• Pronounced vowels, as in man – men, ship – sheep.
• Diphthongs, when two vowels are said together to produce one sound, for instance post – paste, sure – sour.
• Consonants, for instance pin – ping, van – fan.

Candidates should make sure that two words which are similar in writing do not sound similar. If the difference cannot be heard by the examiner, the score will automatically decrease. Students must make sure that the sounds are accurate and do not create any confusion. They should learn how to answer the IELTS Speaking test. IELTS pronunciation practice at home by referring to various IELTS pronunciation guides available online will help the students.

IELTS Pronunciation Word Stress

A crucial part of IELTS Pronunciation is knowing how to pronounce. Every word in the English language is made of syllabus. Some are pronounced with more stress than others. This might sound silly but these silly things decrease the IELTS Speaking Band Score.

• Stress is the emphasis placed on a syllable in a word or in a sentence.
• Word stress is when one syllable stands out from the rest as it is pronounced more loudly and clearly than the other. .

It is very important for the candidates to understand the syllables and which syllable to stress on. If the word has more than one syllable, the stress should be on one syllable and not both. This is called word stress. For instance, the word important is pronounced as imPORtant and not IMportant. The syllables that are stressed are marked in bold. Few more examples where more than one syllable is present are:

1. Present - PRESent
2. Export - EXport
3. China - CHIna
4. Table - TAble

Accuracy in stressing the syllables is important to get a high band score. If you don’t stress the right syllable, you may be confusing the person listening to you. There are words where syllables are stressed depending where it is used. For example:

Word : Present, Syllables: 2 (Pres-ent)

Stressing on different syllables will change the usage of the same word. .

• PRESent – Noun
• preSENT – verb

IELTS pronunciation practice will help the candidates with word stress and fluency. Practicing these at home by referring to various IELTS pronunciation audio will do the job.

Sentence Stress in IELTS 

In this section, candidates must give stress to some words in a sentence, while others are quickly spoken. Some words are emphasized more than others. This stress on different words in a sentence can change the meaning and what a listener is looking for in a sentence. Candidates must focus on IELTS word pronunciation. There are two types of words in a sentence:

• Content words - Words that carry meaning in a sentence
• Function words - Words that carry no meaning. They are not as important as content words and are usually used for grammatical rules.

To show how stress of different words works in a sentence, we can take an example:

Sentence: I said she might consider a new car.

1. We stress on the word New - I said she might consider a new car

Meaning: She is considering not any car but NEW car

2. We stress on the word might - I said she might consider a new car

Meaning: There is a possibility that she is considering a new car

3. We stress on the word car - I said she might consider a new car

Meaning: She is considering nothing else but a car

One sentence can answer different questions based on the words that the candidates will stress on. One example of such scenario is as follows:

Sentence: I lost all my money at the casino

1. We stress on the word all - I lost all my money at the casino

Question: How much money did I lose?
Answer: All my money

2. We stress on the word my - I lost all my money at the casino

Question: Whose money did you lose?
Answer: My money

3. We stress on the word casino - I lost all my money at the casino

Question: Where did you lose the money?
Answer: At the casino

If the candidates practice which words to stress on, they will be able to speak more fluently. This will also portray the exact meaning to the examiner.

Shifting Stress in IELTS Word Pronunciation 

Shifting the stress can sometimes change the meaning of a sentence. Candidates should focus on what words they are stressing in IELTS speaking. This will help the students score higher in the IELTS exam pronunciation department.

Example: I didn’t say we should kill him

1. Stress on didn’t

This means that the person is trying to say that the person did not kill him.

2. Stress on kill

This means that I did not say we should kill him. It might mean that I said some other verb like ‘beat’, ‘kiss’ or ‘hug’, just not ‘kill’

This proves that stressing on different words changes the meaning of the sentence. IELTS word pronunciation practice will help the candidates understand stress in a sentence. They can find many online IELTS pronunciation guide pdf that they can refer to.

Intonations in IELTS Exam Pronunciation 

Intonation is the way the pitch of the voice of a person rises and falls while speaking. It is considered to be a natural phenomenon for native English speakers. The tone of the voice is used to justify the right meaning of the word. Intonations are the most complex grammatical feature of IELTS Pronunciation guide. The use of Intonations can convey various feelings like enthusiasm, indifference, boredom, irritation and others. Intonation is used to convey the speaker’s mood and to support the meaning.

A change in intonation can vary the meaning though the speaker might say the same words. Candidates make the biggest mistakes in not using intonations at all while speaking. Candidates can improve their pronunciation by listening to native speakers. Watching English movies will increase IELTS Vocabulary for speaking. TV shows, podcasts or lectures will help the candidates understand Intonations. Here are a few examples that justify different meanings with the change in Intonations.

1. A student is late for class and the teacher says “It's okay, please take a seat.”

If the teacher says this with a falling tone, it means that they are unhappy. If the teacher says this with a rising tone, it means that they are happy.

2. Someone says “Well, that’s great”

If this is said with a rising tone, it means that the person is happy. However, if it is said with a falling tone, it means just the opposite “that is terrible”. The person is saying that sarcastically.

The majority of the pronunciation is done with the mouth. Sometimes thinking with mind before pronouncing is also required. Candidates should learn to focus on emotions, syllables and words stress while speaking. They can take classes from a teacher which will also help them. With everything being online, they can use IELTS Exam pronunciation apps which will help them get a higher IELTS band score.