In this American English pronunciation video,
we're going to go over the pronunciation
of the word ‘opportunity’.
This week’s word of the week is ‘opportunity’.
It’s a five syllable word
with secondary stress on the first syllable
and primary stress on the third syllable.
Da-da-DA-da-da, opportunity.
It begins with the AH as in FATHER vowel.
You do need a little bit
of a jaw drop for that.
Ah, ah, Op-, then the lips will come together
to make the P sound. Op-, -por-, -por-.
Next we have the schwa R sound.
The R will take over the schwa so don’t worry
about making that a separate sound.
Op-, -por-, -por-. So the tongue
will pull back and up for that R sound.
Op-, -por-, -por-, -por-
and now we have the stressed syllable,
it begins with a T and since this is
a stressed syllable it will be a true T.
Op-, -por-, -tu-, -tu-.
So to make the T the tongue goes to the
roof of the mouth and the teeth will close.
Op-, -por-, -tu-.
We’ll stop the air just a little bit and then
let it escape when we part the teeth
going into the next sound.
In this case the OO as in BOO vowel.
Notice how much your lips
need to round for that.
Tu, tu. Op-, -por-, -tu-. Opportunity.
Next we have the N consonant sound,
so the tongue will go to the
roof of the mouth again.
Tun, n, n. This time for the n. Opportunity.
Then we have the IH as in SIT vowel.
And now we have a T
this comes between two vowels.
It’s not beginning a stressed syllable,
so is a flap T.
Opportunity. Ni-ty, ni-ty, ni-ty.
So the tongue will come down for the IH vowel
back up to the roof of the mouth,
quickly for the flap T then down again
for the EE as in SHE vowel.
Opportunity. Opportunity.
This is a great ‘opportunity’.
That’s it your “word of the week”.
If there is a word you would like to suggest
for the “word of the week”
put it in the comments below.
That’s it, and thanks so much for using
Rachel’s English.