In this American English pronunciation video, we're going to go over the pronunciation of
the word 'download'.
This week's Word of the Week is 'download'. Thanks so much to the fan who suggested it.
This is a two-syllable word with stress on the first syllable. DA-da, download. So the
first syllable will be longer than the second. DA-da, download.
We begin with the D consonant sound. Teeth are together, and the front, flat part of
the tongue is at the roof of the mouth, and I'm voicing it, dd, dd. Next we have the
OW as in NOW diphthong. The main issue my students have with this sound is that they
don't drop their jaw enough for the first half of this diphthong. Do-, you really
do need to drop it. Dow-. The lips will circle in for the second half of the
diphthong, do-. So the jaw will come up, and the tongue will lift to the roof of the mouth
for the N. The front part of the tongue should be flat and wide when it goes to the
roof of the mouth. Some people will make it more narrow and make it stiff, put some
tension in it. That will probably make it sound somewhat more like an NG. So make sure it's
flat and relaxed, nn, all the way forward in the mouth. To transition from the N to
the L, push the tip of the tongue against the back of the front top teeth. This will
engage the tip, instead of the top flat part of the tongue, which will make it sound more
like the L. Next is the OH diphthong. Because we're in an unstressed syllable, the
jaw will drop a little less for this first sound of the diphthong than it would have
in a stressed syllable, -lo-, -lo-. The lips will then round in for the second half
of the diphthong. Downloa-dd. And we end with a D. Most native speakers
won't release the D, download, dd, dd, but will just make it a stop, download. So,
they'll bring the tongue up into position and stop the air in their throat. Download,
download. Since it's unstressed, we may take some of the energy out of the voice here,
-load, -load, -load. Download. So, it won't sound the same way 'load' would in a sentence,
where it would be stressed. "That's a heavy load", load, load.
Download, -load, -load.
Load, -load. We've got to make it unstressed. Download. Download.
I'll download that later.
Here it is in slow motion.
If there's a word you find difficult to pronounce, suggest it in the comments.
That's it, and thanks so much for using Rachel's English.