The illogical English phonology. Don't worry ! There's solution : ten guidelines to improve your English pronunciation

Some people say that English pronunciation is hard to learn. But is this true ? What is the idea behind this ? 

The problem is that English graphemes (letters) and phonemes (sound) do not always correspond. To explain this difficulty, I include now a picture / poem that perfectly illustrates this problem.

Image taken from : https://www.pinterest.com/pin/146859637820802127/

What is the problem, then ? First of all, English has some pairs of words that look very similar but are pronounced differently. These words are known as minimal pairs. Let's have a look at some examples : 

- Beach [bi:ʧ ] vs. bitch [bɪʧ]. The look like similar but the first word has a longer sound than the second one. This can be extended to the minimal pairs : sheep - ship; eat -it; steel/steal - still; feel-fill; sheet -shit; green - grin; 

- Cap [kɶp] vs. cup [k˄p] : The first sound is halfway between [a] and [e], while the second one is pronounced with the tongue in upright position. This can be extended to other minimal pairs like: hat vs. hut; cat vs. cut; crash vs. crush; up vs. app... This is one of the most difficult distinctions Spanish speakers of English must face. 

- Van [vɶn] vs. ban [bɶn] : The first sound is labiodental and the second one is bilabial. This distinction creates minimal pairs : best vs. vest; vanish vs. banish; vote vs. boat; bat vs. vat....

From : http://testyyettrying.blogspot.com.es/2012/03/initial-l-minimal-pairs-free-speech.html

Secondly, English has different words which are pronounced in the same way, that is, homophones. Some example of homophones are : 

From : https://www.tes.com/lessons/q6ql8enDiAQGWw/copy-of-homophones 

a) Son and sun [s˄n]
b) one and won [w˄n]
c) eight and ate [eɪt]
d) break and brake [breɪk]
e) buy, bye and by [baɪ]

10 guidelines to improve your English pronunciation

How can we establish some phonetic rules, but here you have some tips that may help you :
1) The letters <ee> are always pronounced [i:]: This is clear in cheese, jeep, meet, see...
2) The letters <all> are pronounced with a long [o] [ɔ :]: How else would you pronounce tall, fall, small, wall, all, mall, call, hall, stall....? 
3) The letters <ce>, <ci> and <cy> are pronounced [s], as in cent, celebrate, peace, city, cycle, citron...
4) The letters <sce> and <sci> are pronounced [s], as in scent, descent, science,...
5) The letters <ge>, <gi>, <gy> or <j+vowel> are pronounced [ʤ] (very similar to the Spanish <y>), as seen in Germany, page, gym, gin, John, just,...
6) The letters <au> or <aw> are pronounced [o] (sometimes long, sometimes short), as in sausage, Australia, saw, pause, cause, because, ...
7) The letters <er>, <ir> and <ur> are pronounced with the same sound [3:] (similar to a long [e]), for instance, term, first, turn, urn, virgin...
8) The endings in -ture are pronounced [ʧə] ("cha") as in picture, nature, culture, vulture, architecture, texture,...
9) The ending -ew is pronounced [ju:], for instance in Jew, few, grew, blew, mew, stew,...
10) The letters <oo> are usually pronounced with a [u] sound (be it short or long), as obvious in fool, cool, too, mood, good, hood, boom,  ...

What do you think of my rules ? Do you still consider that English is difficult to pronounce. Maybe. As I said before, that is one of the things that makes this language unique and wonderful, don't you agree ? 

P.S. If you are more interested in this, have a look at my post about the similar or dissimilar pronunciation of some pairs of words.