today you're going to study some really
hard to pronounce words in American
English words with ours and ELLs we'll
talk about why these words are tricky go
over regularly and clearly and practice
lots of other similar words together
the sounds R and L are difficult for
most non-native speakers when they incur
in words on their own so when they occur
in this same word it can be very
challenging for Japanese speakers and
others it's common to mix up or switch
the R and L sounds so the word class
might be pronounced crass or crass more
of an R sound by accident in this video
we'll be working on finding more clarity
for these sounds to do this we'll be
focusing on multi-syllable words that
include both R and L sounds for in-depth
descriptions of these sounds you can
visit the specific sound videos I'll
link to some of these important videos
at the end of this video but let's start
by going over the basic differences in
the mouth movements for light L dark L
and our sounds first let's talk about 2
L sounds light and dark the light L is
used when the L is beginning a word like
light or love or for an L in the middle
of a word when it starts a syllable like
believe or delight for the light L the
tongue tip lifts and touches the roof of
the mouth just behind the teeth oh-oh
I've also noticed some native speakers
make it like this all all where the
tongue tip is pushing up on the bottom
of the top front teeth the dark L is
used when the L ends a word like feel or
mail also in the middle of a word if it
comes after the vowel or diphthong in
the syllable like billing billing or
taller taller the dark L can be made
with just the back part of the tongue
pulling back and pressing down a little
bit oh-oh-oh
you don't need to lift your tongue tip
up to make this dark sound and in fact
native speakers don't lift their tongue
tip except in a few cases when students
lift the tongue tip in the dark l it
tends to destroy the dark sound and it
ends up sounding more like a light L
instead when people focus on the tip
they forget the back oh oh and for a
dark L we want that dark sound made with
the back of the tongue now for the R
sound
the position is completely different
it's not made at the front or the back
but the middle o o light L o dark L or R
the front part of the tongue lifts and
pulls back a little bit but the middle
part of the tongue might make contact
with the roof of the mouth in the middle
ah ah okay we've taken a look at the
specific way we make light l dark l and
r as you've heard and seen each of these
sounds has a very distinct mouth
position we'll have to really think
about these positions as we work on
these tough words with ours and ELLs
it's a great idea to stop on the AR to
stop on the L hold out the sound and
check your mouth position let's analyze
two words that have both R and L in
detail
let's do regularly it starts with R as
in bed and G so tongue tip is pulled
backing up to start her lips are flared
then jaw drop tongue tip goes down ray
reg you back of the tongue lifts for the
G touches the soft palate reg yeah then
we have Y consonant schwa reg you for
the G the back of the tongue is lifted
touching the soft palate for the Y you
move your tongue forward along the roof
of the mouth reg you then bring your
tongue down for the schwa reg yeah reg
yeah now an L it's in the middle of the
word does it come before or after the
vowel in the syllable it comes before it
begins the third syllable so it's a
light L tongue tip up reg yeah let's try
that again just holding out R + L drag
[Laughter]
you
we still have one more our and one more
L from the light L the tongue pulls
right back into the our roller roller
don't try to make a vowel in there the
schwa is absorbed by the R let's
practice that transition by holding out
l and r or now we have an L again and
it's at the beginning of the syllable
again so it's a light L so the tongue
tip comes back up for the light L pull
it pulls back for the R and goes right
back up you don't have to move your jaw
very much
just move the tongue rural rural Laurel
Laurel and finally the tongue tip comes
back down for a quick unstressed e Li Li
Li Li okay let's do this whole word
holding out our ours and our else you
regularly now let's do the whole word in
slow motion a few times you regularly
regularly how does it feel is it any
easier for you to do this having slowed
it down and broken it down if not break
it up into parts
keep going slowly practice just
individual sounds then go back and do
the word holding out those tricky sounds
another amazing technique that works
well after you've really studied the
position is just to use pure repetition
in my academy I call it the play it say
it method you hear something you say it
out loud you hear it again
you say it again and you don't think too
much about position you definitely don't
correct yourself if you hear it's not
right you just play it again and say it
again always moving forward as you
listen and repeat over and over
something amazing happens you start to
become an amazing imitator and your
mouth makes subtle adjustments that
makes you sound more native I've seen
this happen over and over with students
I'll watch the muse play it say it and I
don't even tell them what to fix they
figure it out by repetition and in the
end they sound amazing try this with me
now I'm going to say the word ten times
in a row each time I'll take a break
that's just long enough for you to
repeat you're not focusing on what to do
here you're focusing on what you hear
and repeating it back exactly okay here
we go
repeat out loud regularly regularly
regularly regularly regularly regularly
you did it if you want go back and play
this part of the video again to get ten
more times of hearing it and repeating
it back exactly like you hear I couldn't
hear you but I bet after the tenth time
you were sounding pretty good can you
imagine if you did this every day with
your most challenging words for one or
two weeks those wouldn't be your most
challenging words anymore you'd have to
come up with a new list and finally the
word clearly both ELLs are light ELLs
because they come before the vowel in
this syllable so make the K by lifting
the back of the tongue then as you
release it lift your tongue tip Cole
Cole Chloe
then the
tongue tip comes down for the eval
cle-cle and now our our tongue tip pulls
back and up ear ear clear now let's hold
out the L and our Coulier now all we
have to do is add the L Y ending tongue
tip comes up again for the light L holy
temples down for the EE vowel clearly
clearly clearly we'll do it again
holding out all ours and ELLs Coulier
and now slowly a few times clearly
notice the shape of stress this is a
stressed word so we want the voice to go
up and then curve back down and we can
hear that even more clearly when we do
the word in slow motion we're clearly
clearly play it say it ten times in a
row
ready clearly clearly clearly clearly
clearly clearly clearly clearly clearly
clearly now we're going to look at many
words with ours and else that students
find really tricky like rarely and
culturally all do each word ten times
it's the play it say it method repeat
out loud with me don't stop to correct
mistakes don't think too much about what
you're doing let your body make it
by focusing only on repeating back just
exactly what you hear
this method is amazing let's start
culturally ten times culturally
culturally culturally culturally
temporarily ten times temporarily
temporarily temporarily temporarily
temporarily temporarily temporarily this
only works if you're repeating out loud
so if you're watching this video by now
I hope you are still repeating out loud
popularly 10 times popularly popularly
popularly popularly popularly popularly
orderly ten times orderly orderly
orderly orderly orderly orderly orderly
orderly orderly orderly now nearly
nearly nearly
nearly nearly nearly nearly nearly
nearly nearly nearly rarely ten times
rarely rarely rarely rarely rarely
rarely rarely rarely rarely rarely there
are a lot more words you could practice
with I'm gonna suggest that you go to
for vote calm find a native speaker that
you like and use the play it say it
method yourself you play it on the
audiophile and you say it out loud
play it say it back and forth over and
over will do one more word together
rural ten times out loud say it with me
rural rural rural rural rural rural
rural rural rural rural you've learned
in this video how to break down
difficult words and sounds and put whole
words back together now you can take
long intimidating words and make them
sound really natural with just a little
bit of practice let's link now to those
videos I told you about I have videos
that contrast R and L a great place to
start if these to confuse you then I
have a video on L and a video on are
these go over the exact position of
these sounds with illustrations be sure
to check them out that's it and thanks
so much for using Rachel's English
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