Hey all, welcome back to English School Online. The channel that helps you to speak English
clearly so that you're easily understood and helps you feel confident when you speak the language.
In this English Pronunciation tutorial, I'm going to give you very very useful training on two
sounds that are commonly confused when people try to pronounce the /ɜ/ sound, as in 'bed.'
So I do a lot of one-on-one work with clients and when people try to say the /ɜ/ sound,
there are two sounds that people get it confused with again and again and
again. So what we're gonna do is we're going to look at the /ɜ/ sound itself,
the two sounds that people tend to confuse it with, and then I'm going to give you some
really really useful examples and exercises to go away with and train yourself. So,
let's dive in and get started right away. So the /ɜ/ sound, first of all, it comes from
the front of our mouth. If we look at the /ɜ/ sound on a vowel chart it's right there at the
front of the mouth. The mouth is 3/4 open. So to put that into perspective: /ɜ/
It's not shut like /ɪ/. It's /ɜ/.
It's not fully open like that. 3/4 of the way: /ɜ/.
The first sound that people tend to get it confused with is the /æ/ sound. The /æ/ sound,
if we compare the two we've got 'bed' and 'bad,' is very similar. It comes from a
very similar position in the mouth, it comes from the front of the mouth,
and the only real difference between these two sounds is that /æ/ is slightly more open than /ɜ/.
So let me show you what I mean;
/ɜ/
Look how my lips are:
/ɜ/ For /æ/
We go /ɜ/ /æ/
/ɜ/ /æ/
Follow along with me as I do this, okay.
/ɜ/ /æ/
Now the important point is this, people don't struggle with the two sounds when
they're on their own. It's when the sound is in words and surrounded by other letters
on either side that it starts to get confusing. So let's just have a look,
let's start with 'bed' and 'bad,' okay. Repeat after me:
'bed' 'bad'
Make sure for /æ/, as in 'bad,' you really feel your
mouth opening that little bit more. Let's just try it with another sound
at the end of the word, 'T' instead of 'D,' so
'bet' 'bat'
Practice it until it feels comfortable. Let's now look at it with the 'G' sound at the end, okay.
'Bank' bag'
These three consonant endings 'T,' 'D' and 'G,' are going to be really really useful for getting
started in making sure that you don't make this mistake. What we'll now do is we'll move on
to the other sound that I frequently hear people confusing the /ɜ/ sound with. That sound is /​ʌ​/.
So we've got /ɜ/ and /​ʌ​/.
Now the key point to mention with /​ʌ​/ is this,
it comes from the same height in your mouth as the /ɜ/ sound, okay.
So unlike /æ/ where your mouth opens more to make it correct, for /​ʌ​/ your mouth is more
or less in the same height. But the difference here, and what makes these two different sounds,
is that /ɜ/ is right at the front of your mouth and /​ʌ​/ is at the back
of your mouth. To put this into perspective let me just make it sideways on, okay. So:
/ɜ/, /​ʌ​/.
You should be able to see a difference as I make the two sounds. Again,
you might find that making the two sounds on their own like this is easy. If it is,
great that's really good. Most people do find this part of the exercise easy,
it's the second part where again I hear subtle mistakes, so let's go with 'beg' and 'bug,' okay.
'Beg,' 'bug.'
When I do this, I can really feel the sound coming from a different position in my mouth, okay.
You should be listening out for subtle differences
if it sounds like 'beg,' 'bug,' okay. It's probably gonna be a bit uncomfortable,
so what we need to do is slow it down and get it right. So let's go again:
'Beg,' 'bug.'
It's really going to help to practice putting this in sentences. Because one of the main
difficulties that people have once they've then got the word correct is then when they put it
into sentences and then they try to speed up, that's when it really gets quite hard to tell
the difference whether we're saying /ɜ/ or /​ʌ​/, okay. So let's practice by saying this:
'I brought a net.'
'I brought a nut.'
'I brought a net.' 'I brought a nut.'
Especially in your tongue, you should feel your tongue going back in your mouth when you make
the two sounds here. So let me now give you an example of these three sounds in a set of
words where the whole word is exactly the same apart from these three different sounds, okay.
Minimal pairs and we've got three examples here,
so we're looking at 'met' 'Matt' and 'mutt' okay, repeat after me
'Met,' 'Matt,' 'mutt.'
In a different order:
'Mutt,' 'met,' 'Matt.'
One more time 'mutt,' 'met,' 'Matt,' okay.
So to summarize and bring all of this together, the /ɜː/ sound on its own is an easy sound to make,
so is the /æ/ sound, and for most people so is the /​ʌ​/ sound. Some people have difficulties with it,
but after a little bit of training, the right training, they find it easy to pronounce.
Where I hear people having difficulty with it is when they put the sound into words,
and ultimately words into sentences. So I really really recommend if you've not been
following along with me through this exercise then do just that. Go back through the exercise,
follow along with me, make sure that you're putting your mouth into the correct positions,
and then start to experiment yourself putting the /e/ sound and words into sentences and then
record yourself and listen back to yourself so you can critique yourself and make sure that you're
saying /ɜ/ and not /æ/ and not /​ʌ​/, okay. I really really recommend that once you've done that,
then you watch this video here which is going to dive into the subject in a bit more detail
and look at a couple of other elements. And make sure to thumbs up if you like the video,
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