Last week I was in a queue at the Tube station and the guy in front of me was trying to buy a ticket to Southwark, but he was getting increasingly flustered.  The problem was, he kept saying “South-wark” and the customer assistant had no idea which station he was asking for:  “I don’t where that is, mate.” 

How do you pronounce Southwark?

Students often say that pronunciation is one of the most difficult language aspects to learn and improve; the complex relationship between sound and spelling in English can be particularly frustrating. 

In addition to studying the technical details of pronunciation (such as how to articulate each sound, where to place stress and how to link words together), using rhymes can be a fun way to help you develop your pronunciation and achieve natural-sounding rhythm and intonation. 

Here are 3 types of rhyme that you might want to use in your own practice:

The SGI Social Programme is probably the best way to learn English (when you are not in class) because you can chat in a relaxed atmosphere with your friends, but you also have 1 or 2 SGI teachers there to give you a hand with your English speaking. And it's for free!!!

Last night, we had the SGI Annual Pub Quiz, which is always great fun for students and teachers.

English is one of the easiest languages in the world in which you can improve from beginner level to having an understandable conversation relatively quickly.

For example, trying to learn German (with lots of grammar rules), Polish (with even more grammar rules) or Mandarin takes a LOT of hard work at the start of the language-learning journey. With English, after 1 or 2 lessons, you can have a basic conversation about your family, interests or say what you like and don’t like.

How British are you? Do you have the British politeness? Are you an English gentlemen? Find out in our British quiz with questions that no Brit would get wrong.

Copy the native English speakers in these videos with subtitles to speak English quickly. Copy 1 sentence until your English pronunciation is quicker & clearer.

We can make predictions about things that we think will have happened by a certain point in the future using future perfect grammar. Pronounce contractions correctly with our free mp3 guide. Kate will definitely have had her baby by this time next week.

Video of British native-speaker English teacher giving example sentences of English pronunciation. Use intonation to improve sentence stress & be clearly understood.

A meaning of a word can be completely changed by wrong pronunciation and that's why a lot of English humour is based on mispronunciation. If you pronounce a word incorrectly it can change the meaning into something which is incredibly funny or just the way you say it may be quite amusing.     There are many words in English which are commonly mispronounced.

Practise your English pronunciation for free by copying the sentences & recording your voice here. An SGI English teacher will reply & give you advice to help you improve your English accent.

Soften your English accent by practising pronunciation of problematic sounds. Accent Training exercises on 'Th' sound with free mp3 of native speaker

Lots of English words that are difficult to pronounce because of their strange spelling patterns...with a video of a native speaking English teacher trying to say all the words correctly

There are 3 different ways to say -ed endings. The news about David Beckham's new baby gives us lots of chance to practise saying -ed.

Barney talks about the key elements of English pronunciation and how you improve your pronunciation

A chance to hear past simple –ed pronunciation through the story of how the British tricked the Germans in WWII