Hi everyone, if you read the title of this video (or tried) you may be thinking
"Didn't she already make a video about English tongue twisters?"
This is one of the most frustrating sentences in the English language for learners
but today I'll show you how to master it. If nothing else, it's a good party trick!
If you haven't seen my tongue twisters video yet or you want to make sure you never miss
a new video, subscribe to our YouTube channel and turn on your notifications.
In today's video, I'll be breaking down this fun English sentence, explaining what each word means
and giving you tips on how to pronounce all of those words that look so much alike.
So let's jump right in!
English can be weird. It can be understood through tough, thorough thought, though.
First of all, what does this sentence mean? Basically you could translate it to:
English can be weird, but you can understand it if you think long and hard about it.
If you look at the spelling you'll notice that there's that same combination of
four little letters in all of these words: O-U-G-H.
But they make four totally different sounds. And triple whammy, this sentence also
features both different th sounds and some silent letters.
English pronunciation might be the bane of your existence right now and I would not blame you!
But stick with me. I'm going to walk you through it. One interesting thing about this sentence is that
your mouth opens wider as you go. So we start with the most closed sound of the 4 and make our way to the most open
which you can see on our vowel chart right here. Picture this as your mouth
and this is where each sound comes from: through, tough, thorough, thought.
Ooh, uh, oh, aw.
So let's start with the first word, through. Through. This is a common word in English
so you'll definitely need to know how to pronounce it. Luckily it's also sometimes
written t-h-r-u, like in "drive-thru" where you can get food without leaving your car.
This is a much more intuitive spelling. As you might know, creating a mental image
is a great memory trick. I'm picturing a big flashing neon sign above my favorite
fast food restaurant. If you can associate some movement, like flashing
and an emotion, like how satisfying it feels to take the first bite of a yummy burger
the memory will be even stronger. You'll also need to know which th sound
to use for this word. In this case it's the unvoiced one, which means that
you don't vibrate your vocal cords. Instead, your tongue starts in between your teeth
and you push air through them. Then your tongue slides back through your teeth
into your mouth. Th. Th. Through.
Go ahead and try that. By the way, we have two great video hacks about how to
pronounce the two th sounds in English. I dropped the links in the video description.
The next two words, tough (tough) and thorough (thorough)
are much less common in everyday vocabulary than the other three
so I won't go into too much detail about them, but if you're an advanced learner
feel free to work on these words. Try to come up with your own memory tricks
like the ones I just explained. Next, thought. Thought.
This is a noun, the act of thinking, but it's also the irregular past tense conjugation
of the verb think. You'll probably use this one quite a bit so it's definitely worth learning.
As for the ough sound, it's the widest open vowel: ah, almost like a yawn.
Thinking takes a lot of energy, so if you thought too much you might be tired and...
It also rhymes with bought and fought, so if you know either of those words you
could try to remember it that way. The th sound in this word is the same as the
previous one we talked about. Th.
And last but not least, though. Though. This is another word that you probably won't
be able to avoid for very long since it's used pretty frequently. The trick to this one
is that the second half of the word is totally silent - ugh. And that's probably what
you're thinking about English pronunciation right now. For this one you'll also need
the voiced th sound. Th. Th.
So start in the same position as the last one with your tongue in between your teeth
but instead of pushing air through your teeth, you're going to vibrate. Th. Though.
Now it's time to put it all together. It may take some practice, but breaking the
sentence down into parts can make it easier. First, work on mastering each
individual word. Then start with two-word combinations: through tough.
Repeat that until you've got it down, then add the next word: through tough thorough.
And so on. It's definitely possible to learn all of these sounds, but as you can tell
English pronunciation isn't a walk in the park. To learn more about English
pronunciation, and to improve your speaking skills, sign up for our
Speak English with Confidence MasterClass. And if you ever forget
these hacks, you can always use a pronunciation dictionary like Forvo or
the International Phonetic Alphabet to help you out. Take care and I'll see you next time!
If you learned something new from this video, give it a thumbs up.
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