Speech in 20 month old boy

[Gargula]

Hello,
My 20 month old boy has just started getting the hang of a few words (he probably has around 30-40), but his pronounciation (sp?) is pretty dreadful, and it's only really me that can understand what he means. I was wondering if this is quite common at the beginning of speech, and when it will start improving?
Also, he seems to miss the ends of words quite a bit. So "bug" is "buh", and "bus" is "buh" as well - that kind of thing.
I wouldn't worry normally as at least he's trying to communicate, but I just seems to be surrounded by little girls (often younger than him) who have perfect pronounciation - and I know you shouldn't compare!
What are other people's experiences?
Gargula

If he says 'buh' repeat back to him with the correct version 'yes, that's right, a bug'. He's not even 2 yet so don't worry about him.

ds is still like that at 2.9years. DD(5.8years) often has to translate for me!!

My 20 month old boy is the same - he has a fair few words, but often misses the end of them. We also often have to guess what he is saying to us - he will repeat the word until we guess the right one, and often I am the only one who will get it right. We often have words that are different that sound the same too - at the moment, "am" could be ham, fan or home. We tend to just repeat the correct version to him, like CybilLiberty suggested, and he is getting better (grapes used to sound like bitch - although I have no idea why - it was most embarrassing in Sainsburys when he shouted it at full volume! Water currently sounds like wodka!)

Thanks for the replies. Glad he isn't the only one! I'll keep repeating the "right" pronounciation and hopefully it'll get better.
LOL at EralC's LO's pronounciation of "grapes". My boy has an interesting way of pronouncing "fan", sounds more like "afamba" for some reason!

Sounds fine and normal to me

Yup! Sounds normal!

According to a paediatrician my friend saw, girls often talk quicker than boys too.

as a nursery worker that sounds perfectly normal, def don't compare him to any other children as they all develop differently and what usually happens in one area they are usually quite advanced and others not to so much, or they develop all areas quite equally, Or i can make you feel really good, and let you know that some two year olds i look after are not even at your ds level and say nothing, at nursery, and i even have a three year old who speaks lots of babble with only a few understandable words

?A wise little owl sat on an oak; The more he saw the less he spoke; The less he spoke the more he heard; Why aren't we like that wise little bird!?

Well there must be something wrong with my girl then as she is pretty much the same as the OP describes. It is a bit annoying when people say girls do things quicker and mine isn't. She has a rapidly expanding vocabulary with some word coming out perfectly first time and some have been wrong for months. We never get more than one word at a time though.

DD was like that, Allegro. She turned out fine (didn't need speech therapy, good at literacy, etc.)