In this lesson we're going to talk about some of the most commonly mispronounced words by
English Learners. This video is put into four different levels, with a final level at the end,
so technically, five. Five... five levels. With a monster of a word, or phrase I should say, at the
end to really really test to see if you make these typical pronunciation mistakes in English. Level
one starts with some typically mispronounced everyday words, then it goes up to level two,
a little bit trickier, level three, level four, where there are some very difficult words in
there. And then, as I said, the boss round at the end. So what I'm going to do is put a word down
here on the screen. I'll leave it there for a few seconds for you to think about how you pronounce
that word, and then I will say it after, and hopefully you get it correct. Keep track of
your score and how you are doing and then when you finish the video tell me in the comments how
you did with this test. So let's start with level one. Our first word how would you pronounce this?
Biscuit, biscuit. So if you said biscuit, biscuit. How about this word?
Of you said come-for-table... there are two ways to say this word:
comfortable, with four syllables, comfortable. Or comfortable, with three syllables.Tthis way
is typically more common, comfortable, so comfortable or comfortable. Number three.
Chocolate, two syllables. Choc-late.
Not choco-late, cho-co-la-te. Chcolate.
Two syllables in English, and that second syllable is an ut,
it's a schwa. Chocolate. Now we're moving on to level two, how about this word?
That D is silent, so if you say Wed-nes-day.
Wednesday, Wednesday. So it's quite common to mispronounce this with three syllables wed-ned-day
and pronounce the D but it's actually two syllables wedz-day, Wednesday. How about this one?
Height, height. This one tends to get confused with hate. That's a completely
different word. So if you ask someone "what's your hate?" it's not going to make much sense,
but "what's your height?" will make perfect sense. So watch for those vowel sounds:
height and the other word, hate. Number six, how would you pronounce this one?
If you would pronounce that S and say IS-land. Mm mm. Silent S.
Island, island. So that second one isn't lAnd, it's not strong, it's a schwa. Land,
lAnd, strong vowel, land, very weak. Island. If you do say i-lAND,
it just gives you a bit more of an accent, but you will be perfectly understandable,
don't worry. So if you can't do the schwa, it's not the end of the world but don't pronounce the S
it is 100% silent. Level three, what do you think about this one? How would you pronounce this word?
Sixth. So like a snake, stick your tongue out between your teeth.
Sixth, sixth. Now in rapid speech you might hear native English speakers just
saying "six" for example "I live on the six floor" instead of "I live on the sixth floor",
it's really like spitting as I say that it's really hard to say. I live on the sixth floor.
So they may cut that th and just say !I live on the six floor" and if you say quick enough,
then it's so much easier to say. Cut that th. Word number eight.
Months. So what you can do with this, similar to sixth, is cut the th. So some natives when they're
speaking quite quickly, they may say "mons". I'm staying there for four months, for example. I'm
staying there for four months. I'm staying there for four months. So cut that th, it's a lot easier
in rapid speech so feel free to do that as well. But if you're just saying the word in isolation,
same with sixth, it's not really good to cut those sounds. It might confuse some people,
it's only understandable if you have it in context. So you can cut the sounds in context,
but on their own I wouldn't advise cutting sounds. Number nine, what do you think about this word?
Don't try and focus on that W too much.Don't try and say je-wel-ree.
There are two ways to say this jewelery. Or what most native speakers do is again we
cut that syllable and we say jewellry, jewellry; This one is by far the easiest way to say it,
so feel free to use this way and it's probably the one you will hear the most. So jewellry or
jewellry. Level four! We're on to the hardest ones now the commonly mispronounced ones
but also the most difficult to pronounce words. How would you pronounce this word?
Rural. That R doesn't just appear in there once, but it appears in this word twice, making it quite
tricky. And that Dark L at the end can also cause problems for some speakers of certain
languages. So let's just focus on that /r/ for a moment, I do have a full video all about how to
pronounce the /r/ and I have a nice little trick for you involving peanut butter if you want to go
and check that out. You don't need peanut butter but you can just imagine you're eating it, right?
However, if you can't do that English /r/ and you do say rural it's not the end of the world,
you will be understood, please don't worry. However, if you want to do that /r/, divide
the word into two syllables rua, mind the vowel, rua, rul rul. Now that L at the end
is what's called a Dark L. This appears after vowel sounds either at the end of words or if
there's a consonant sound coming after it. So this one we don't release it, so I don't say rural-a.
I keep the tongue up. I'll link a video all about the Light and the Dark l in the card above and the
description so you can practice that a little bit more. So one final time, this word rural,
rural. How about this word?
If you said Edin-burg... nope. Edinburgh, Edinburgh. Or, you've guessed it, you can
cut a syllable and you can say Edinburgh, so Ed-in-bu-rgh, four syllables. Edinburgh. Or three
syllables, Ed-in-burgh. Edinburgh. The next word, we're nearly at the end. Be careful with this one.
If you say that 'CH as 'ch'... it's a /k/. Chaos,
chaos. So watch for that CH it is a /k/ in this word and those vowels, ei o. Chaos.
L.ucky number word 13, how would you pronounce this one? This is the final
one from level four before we move on to the big boss./
Squirrel squirrel. The best thing to do is not to look at the spelling of this. Instead,
divided into two different syllables so we have skwi, skwi like "squid", okay? Skwi, rul.
Squirrel. So again we've got that Dark L, squirrel. If you release that L and you say
squirrel-a it sounds like you're using a kind of comparative form or you're saying "squirreler",
which I don't know if that word exists, I will have to have a look when editing this video,
but it creates a different word. So try not to release your tongue, squirrel, keep it held up.
So don't look at the spelling. Now if you go to the UK, you will, for sure see lots of squirrels
in parks, so it's a good word to know. Now are you ready for the big boss? The big one of this video.
How would you pronounce this one? And yes I want both parts, please. How would you pronounce this?
Worcestershire sauce. The key is not to look at the spelling, I'll be honest, I don't even know
how to spell this word, I've always got to rely on a spell check. So we have Worcestershire.
Worcestershire. Then the second word not SAUS, sauce. Just one vowel sound there,
source. Worcestershire sauce. So if you want to put some Worcestershire sauce on
your cheese on toast, now you know how to say it. Now there were 14 words and phrases
in total here so tell me in the comments, how many did you get correct? And which one was
the most difficult for you to pronounce? Let me know in the comments. The hardest
one for me to spell is Worcestershire sauce, but the hardest one to pronounce
is definitely rural. Probably also sixth and months a month in rapid speech. On their own
they're not too bad but in a sentence, if you say this is the sixth month I have lived here,
it's quite hard to say. So I hope you enjoyed this video. I will see you in the next lesson! Bye bye!