Author

[Allie]

Which letter of the English language do the Chinese have the most trouble pronouncing?

[Soup]

Here's a list of pronunication problems for Chinese speakers of English: English pronunciation practice for Chinese speakers

One of the most common pronunciation errors is the diagraph th, as in voiced the, voiceless think, but mispronouncing <th> as [z]e (the) and [s]ink (think) doesn't generally cause confusion in meaning.

What Chinese speakers of English have "the most trouble" with is knowing where to stress a word, a phrase, a sentence.

[Anglika]

Apparently my grandfather always caused great mirth in the household when ordering his shaving water in the mornings by saying "Make the hot water run up the stairs".

He was notoriously tone deaf.

[Allie]

Soup, You surprised me. I thought it was (L) or (R). Could you write a short sentence for me with their pronunciation? Thanks, Allie

[Allie]

That is very funny. A nice way to remember your grandfather.

By the way, I finished my Novel. I have a lot of editing to do. If it gets published, I will send you a copy.

[Anglika]

That's a kind thought - thank you!

[Soup]

Originally Posted by Allie

Soup, You surprised me. I thought it was (L) or (R). Could you write a short sentence for me with their pronunciation? Thanks, Allie

Mandarin Chinese (the language I work with) has both /l/ and /r/.

The Chinese /r/ is a liquid, like English's /r/.
The Chinese /l/ is a fricative, different from English's /l/, which is a liquid.

Chinese speakers known that English /l/ (a liquid) and Chinese /l/ (a fricative) sound different. They will tell you that! The problem is in learning to pronounce a new sound, a liquid /l/. The closest liquid in Chinese is /r/, but Chinese speakers know that Chinese /r/ and English /l/ are different. They need to know how to differentiate fricative /l/ from liquid /l/, and they can start practising how to do that by pronouncing /l/ as a fricative and as a liquid.

Famous tongue twister for /r/ v. /l/; Laurie likes rice and Rory likes lice. (Rory is a frog)

[Allie]

Way to go. I rove that. Thanks.