In this American English pronunciation video, we're going to go over the pronunciation of
the word 'family'.
This week's Word of the Week is 'family'. 'Family' may be pronounced with three syllables,
but more commonly you'll hear it with two. Family, family. it begins with the F consonant
sound, so the bottom lip will come up and touch the bottom of the top front teeth. Ff,
ff, fa-. Then we have the AA as in BAT vowel. It's followed by the M consonant, and whenever
the AA vowel is followed by an M consonant, actually by any nasal consonant, it's not
quite a pure AA vowel. The back part of the tongue will relax, and we'll get an uh-like
sound. Fa-, fa-, fam-, family. The second syllable, unstressed, has the L consonant
sound, ll, ll, tongue tip here, and the EE as in SHE vowel. So, the tongue tip will come
down, the corners of the lips will pull wide a bit, -ly, -ly. Family, family. I have family
in town.
That's it, your Word of the Week. Try it out yourself. Make up a sentence with the
word, record it, and post it as a video response to this video on YouTube. I can't wait to
watch it.
That's it, and thanks so much for using Rachel's English.