What is Minimal pairs?
Minimal pairs are two words differing by exactly one sound — ship/sheep, bat/pat. They isolate the sound contrasts a language cares about, which is why they're the classic tool for training both your ear and your pronunciation on distinctions your first language ignores.
Every language pair has its famous battlegrounds: Japanese learners of English fight r/l (rice/lice); English learners of Spanish fight pero/perro; French learners meet dessus/dessous, and Korean's plain/tense/aspirated consonants give everyone a workout.
The training works both directions: hearing drills (which word was it?) tune perception, and speaking drills tune production — and perception usually has to come first, since you can't reliably produce a contrast you can't hear.
What it means for your speaking
Minimal pairs are where 'close enough' pronunciation gets exposed: order 'perro' and receive a dog. A conversation partner that flags which of the pair you actually said is the fastest way to close the gap.
Practise out loud — 30 seconds a day →