Preface

Many English words, when we write them in accord with standard usage, present two vowels in sequence, one right next to the other (like in: MAIN, LEARN, BOOK, etc). For the purpose of this book, we will call this sequence of two (or even three or four) vowels in the printed form of a word a vowel combination .

In the English language, there are many possible vowel combinations , and each vowel combination may be pronounced in different ways.

The main objective of this book is to make the process of learning the pronunciation of these words easier for students of English as a Second Language.

How do we achieve this end? If we see in one list all the words of English that show the same vowel combination , and this vowel combination is pronounced alike for all of them, the process of learning the pronunciation of these words becomes very easy.

This process is repeated throughout the book for all possible vowel combinations. All different pronunciations for each vowel combination are considered.

To enhance learning, the book is accompanied by an audio file.

Aside from the lists of words that carry a vowel combination , many other lists are provided, as well as important tips and rules to help students learn the correct pronunciation of the more than 10,000 words included in this work.

A second objective of this book is to indicate clearly which words of every list are of more common use.

This book best serves the needs of intermediate and advanced students of English as a second language, but it may even be used by beginners, especially if well trained advice is at hand. Native speakers of English may very well be interested in and benefit from this work as well.

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Preface