English pronunciation-the position of the tongue

>>It's not difficult for British people to pronounce - but saying f instead of th is a feature of certain British accents. They can say it correctly when they want to!
I've never heard a British person saying 'I tink', although a lot of Irish people pronounce th as somewhere between t and th.<<

The sound you are describing Irish people as using is [t_d] (no, not aspirated), which I will myself use for word-initial /T/ at times, especially in the cluster /Tr/ but sometimes for word-initial /T/ by itself as well. On another note, on occasions I will hear non-AAVE speakers here (who clearly are from this area, if Kenosha counts as "this area" in the case of my mom) use /f/ for /T/, even though such is more common for AAVE speakers here.

and where do you english people put your tounge when you pronounce 'L' and 'R' in the word 'holborn', 'L' in 'salmon' or all the 'R'-s at the and of the words? Don't tell me you just leave them out, if i do that it's not even close to what you sound.

thank you.

>> and where do you english people put your tounge when you pronounce 'L' and 'R' in the word 'holborn', 'L' in 'salmon' or all the 'R'-s at the and of the words? Don't tell me you just leave them out, if i do that it's not even close to what you sound. <<

I leave out the "l" in salmon. It is simply [s{m@n].

Liz! You are my last hope! i have just listened to your voice sample and it seems to me you achieved the impossible; the pronunciation of "R" with a british-english accent. I am asking your advice as a fellow Hungarian, so you now what's natural for me and how exactly my, for example, "böööd" (bird) sounds. Where do you put your tongue?

Zador,
in most British dialects (more precisely, in non-rhotic dialects) R-s are not pronounced in certain positions, i.e. when the R is followed by another consonant or by a pause (word final postion). The vowel in "bird" is a half-open, central, unrounded, usually long vowel, and occurs typically in stressed syllables.

This vowel doesn't exist in Hungarian, however, there is a similar one: if you are hesitating or looking for another word, you probably use this sound (öööö or something like that). This is basically the same as the English "er". "Ö/Ő" sounds are the nearest substitute for the "bird"-sound (sorry, I don't have an IPA font installed), but "ö/ő" are lip-rounded, as opposed to their English counterpart.

So, try to produce a hesitating "öööö" sound without lip-rounding. (Most people pronounce this hesitating sound - at least to Hungarian ears - somewhat lazily, without lip-rounding. I know it's quite hard to do consciously, but it works.

Jó éjszakát! :-))

How do you position your tongue to pronounce the English-American S?

hi to all im taking the subject speech and oral communication hehehe...