Encouraging correct pronunciation can be the bane of the English teacher’s life with slang phrases and affected accents taking their toll on the correct pronunciation of words in the English language.

Most commonly the letter ‘H’ is dropped from the start of words and words are cut short such as ‘going’ pronounced as ‘goin’.

Affected accents picked up by children replicating their idols can also change the pronunciation of words such as ‘ask’ become ‘acts’ and can even combine words such as ‘do you’ becoming ‘dya’.

The issue with this is that in a formal situation such as an interview or a client meeting the way that you speak including your pronunciation of your words can say a lot about you and allows people to make a quick assessment on things such as your level of intelligence and your attitude towards others.

Where possible correct pronunciation should be taught from an early age to prevent words being hardwired into the brain incorrectly, there are lots of helpful techniques that a teacher or speech therapist should be able to show you to teach children how to correctly pronounce words using their tongue in the correct place.