These are common patterns for speakers of Arabic, not rules: everyone is different, and many speakers have no trouble with some of these sounds. Press 🔊 to hear each word. Turn on the speaking check to test yourself.
“p” and “b” (park, bark)
What often happens: Arabic has no p, so park can sound like bark and pea like bee.
How to make it: Both close your lips. p has a strong puff of air and no voice: hold a tissue in front of your mouth and it should move. b is softer and voiced, and the tissue barely moves.
Practice sentence: Please put the paper back in the brown bag.
“v” and “f” (van, fan)
What often happens: Arabic has no v, so very can sound like ferry and van like fan.
How to make it: Both use top teeth on your bottom lip. f is just air; v adds your voice. Put your hand on your throat: you should feel it buzz for v but not for f.
Practice sentence: Five very famous visitors arrived from overseas.
“e” and “i” (bed, bid)
What often happens: Arabic has fewer vowels, so bed and bid, or pen and pin, can sound alike.
How to make it: e (bed, pen): mouth half open. i (bid, pin): mouth almost closed, with a small smile. Many words change meaning, so keep them distinct.
Practice sentence: Ben will send the bill to the bank this week.
Consonant groups (street, school)
What often happens: An extra vowel is often added in consonant groups: istreet, chil-di-ren.
How to make it: English often has two or three consonants together: street, school, spring, texts. Don't add a vowel before or between them (not i-school or se-treet). Start with the s sound directly: sss-chool.
Practice sentence: Students study at school in the spring.
“ch” and “sh” (chair, share)
What often happens: Speakers of some Arabic dialects mix ch and sh: chair and share, watch and wash.
How to make it: ch starts with a short stop, like t + sh: t-sh. sh is a smooth flow of air with no stop. Say chip by holding your tongue up first, then release it.
Practice sentence: Choose a cheap chair from the shop near the church.
“a” and “e” (bad, bed)
What often happens: bad and bed, or man and men, can sound alike.
How to make it: a (bad, man): open your mouth wide, with your jaw down. e (bed, men): your mouth is only half open. Put a finger on your chin: it should drop further for bad.
Practice sentence: That man had a bad headache, so he went to bed.
Your accent is fine
The aim is to be clear, not to sound Australian or British. PTE scores pronunciation on how easily most English speakers understand you, and says regional accents are fine. IELTS uses a pronunciation criterion in the speaking test that looks at clarity, stress and intonation, not accent. Fixing the few sounds that change the meaning of words makes the biggest difference.
Stress and rhythm
- Stress one syllable per word: PHOtograph, phoTOGraphy, photoGRAPHic. Check new words in a dictionary that shows stress.
- Stress the important words in a sentence (nouns, main verbs, numbers) and say small words (a, the, of, to) lightly.
- Pause at commas and full stops, not in the middle of a phrase. This matters in PTE Read Aloud.
How to practise (10 minutes a day)
- Pick one sound a day. Listen to the pairs and repeat each word 5 times.
- Say the practice sentence slowly, then at normal speed.
- Record yourself with our speaking recorder and listen back.
- Use the sound in real tasks: Read Aloud, or your IELTS speaking practice.
Unofficial practice. We wrote these questions to match the official PTE Academic task types and timings. They are not real exam questions, and points shown are practice feedback, not a PTE score. For an official estimate, use Pearson's scored practice tests.