These are common patterns for speakers of Vietnamese, 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.
Final consonants (rice, right, ride)
What often happens: Final consonants are often dropped or not released, so rice, right, ride and rise can all sound similar.
How to make it: English words often end in a consonant, and it carries meaning. Finish every word: release the last sound clearly, especially t, d, s, z, k. Practise slowly first, then at normal speed.
Practice sentence: I'd like a light bite at night, not a big meal.
Word endings: -s and -ed
What often happens: Plural -s and past -ed endings are often left out, which affects both clarity and grammar scores.
How to make it: Endings carry grammar: works, played, students. Leaving them out can cost marks in Read Aloud, Repeat Sentence and Write from Dictation. -ed sounds like t (walked), d (played) or id (wanted).
Practice sentence: She worked late and walked home, then called her parents.
Consonant groups (street, school)
What often happens: Consonant groups like str, sp and -sts are hard: street, spring, tests.
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.
“th” (think, this)
What often happens: th often becomes t, d or s: three → tree, then → den.
How to make it: Put the tip of your tongue lightly between your teeth and blow air out. For think, three, month there's no voice; for this, that, mother, add your voice (a buzz). Don't touch the roof of your mouth, or it becomes t or d.
Practice sentence: I think the three of them thanked their mother on Thursday.
“sh” and “s” (ship, sip)
What often happens: sh and s can merge: sheet and seat, shoe and sue.
How to make it: s: smile slightly, with the tongue tip behind your top teeth. sh: push your lips forward and round them, and pull your tongue back a little: shhh, like asking someone to be quiet.
Practice sentence: She sells fresh fish and shellfish at the shop.
“p” and “b” (park, bark)
What often happens: Vietnamese rarely starts words with p, so park can sound like bark.
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.
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.