Hi everyone Jennifer from Tarle speech with your pronunciation question of the week!
We have two words today:
hotter which is a comparative adjective saying that something is higher in temperature and
harder another comparative adjective meaning something is more solid
So we're doing a little sound comparison here. These words are confusing because
of these short oh and this r vowel that we actually pronounce as r.
So let's start with the easy sound in these words the h sound.
To do that you're just going to open your mouth, everything is relaxed, and air is just going to
move out of your mouth. Now let's go to that der at the end. This is the flap t. We are going to
pronounce this t as a d because it is between a vowel and an er sound. So in those situations we
can pronounce that letter t as a fast d sound or the flap t sound. And to do this think of it as
a super fast d sound. The tip of your tongue is touching almost your front teeth. It's on
that little piece of skin that kind of starts the roof of your mouth. Then you're going to add that
er. To do this think about square tense lips the tip of your tongue is either pointing down or
flipped back and the back of your tongue is pulled high up the tip of your tongue is not moving.
Now let's look at the vowels. We have that short open oh sound for this sound think of having your
mouth open very wide in a wide oval shape. When your mouth is in that shape the tip of your tongue
can get very low in the front of your mouth in the bottom of your mouth and the back of your tongue
will be pulled high up oh
oh
ho der
hotter hotter hotter hotter
Now let's look at that r vowel and the word harder. We are going to need to think about
moving from that oh to that er you really have to think about this. Because if you don't think
about it enough you're going to make that r too short and it's going to sound like it isn't
there. So again we're going to start with the oh your mouth is really wide open tongue tip is low
back of the tongue is pulled high up. Okay. Your tongue is going to stay really high in
the back. You are going to then close your mouth more to that square tense lip shape for that er.
When you do this again, some people flip their tongue back. Other people keep the tip of the
tongue down. Doesn't matter what you do just choose which works for you for that
er part of this vowel. Again this is two parts of a vowel that's going to make one new vowel. So we
don't want a break in between those sounds we want just nice smooth movement from that
oh to the er are
are are
Think about holding that er for just a little extra second to really
make sure it's there and let's add that h har der
harder harder harder
Let's try them all together hotter hotter hotter
harder harder harder hotter harder
Now here's a quick tip. This is difficult and if it's difficult for you take it slow.
Go slowly at first and then get faster and faster. And it's always okay to keep going slow
if you need to. Especially if it's on a word here or there because then you will
be understood. And it's all about being clear, not being perfect as you all know.
So let's try them one more time.
hotter hotter hotter harder harder harder
Give it a try I know people are going to notice the difference. If you found this helpful please
share us with your friends and give us a like. If you need help,
check out our products on google play and itunes and all of our class options at Tarle speech.
Thanks everyone have a great weekend!