Hi. I'm Rebecca from engVid. I am so excited to do this lesson today, because I know that
when you make this one small correction in your pronunciation, you are going to correct maybe
hundreds or literally thousands of possible errors that you might be making right now or that you
might have made in the future. But once you watch this video, and understand the small change that
you need to make, you will be able to correct all of those errors. And that's an important
thing to be able to do, when one small change affects a lot. Okay? So, let's get started.
What is this lesson about? This lesson is about the word "or" or the sound of "or" when it's used
in a word. So, what happens is that most of the time students say it correctly when "or" is at
the beginning of a word, but a lot of English learners make mistakes when "or" appears in
the middle of a phrase, and definitely when it appears at the end of a word. Lots and lots of
mistakes are made in the pronunciation, here. So, what we are going to do is we are going
to go step-by-step to see what happens to this sound at the beginning, in the middle, and at the
end of a word or phrase. Okay? Let's begin. So, when "or" or the letters "or" appear at the
beginning or by themselves, then "or" stays like "or". The word "or", which you know by itself,
that's how you pronounce it. There is no change; it is stressed, it is strong. Okay?
Let's look at some words with "or". The word "or" by itself is pronounced "or". Also: "organize",
"ornament", "orphan", "organic", "orchard". Okay? What did you hear,
here? That "or" sounds like "or", right? So, so far you're saying: "Okay. What's the big
deal?" The big deal is over here, so make sure you keep watching. Okay? All right.
Let's look at some examples. Number one: "That's an order!" You can read it with me,
you can repeat it after me; whatever you like. The more you participate, the more you will master
what you need to learn. Number two: "It's an oral exam." Okay? Not written; oral. Number three:
"This table is very ordinary." Okay? Again, "or" being pronunciation like "or". Number four:
"She works for a large organization." Organization. Good. And number five:
"The orchestra was amazing!" All right? So, we saw that whether it was in a word by
itself, whether we were saying the word by itself, or whether the word appeared
in a sentence - the sound of "or" and the pronunciation of "or" remained the same;
it remained like "or". Now we're getting to the good stuff. Let's see what happens when we find
the word "or" in the middle of a phrase. Okay, now we come to what happens when the
word "or" appears in the middle of a phrase. Now, when you are speaking, you don't have to do this,
but you do have to know that native speakers will do this, so this part will help you to
understand them better. If you don't want to speak like this, don't speak like this. This,
you already do; this is to help you to understand better; and this last part is going to be very,
very important to correct some of the things that you say. So, hang in there for the last
part. Okay? But let's do this part now. So, what happens when "or" is used in the
middle of a phrase? Then "or" is basically a function word, and function words are shortened
or reduced. So, they're not only shortened or reduced; they're also linked usually to a word
that becomes before and sometimes to the word that comes after. All right? So, let's see how
this works. So, we would say, for example... Here, I've just written some phrases first;
and then later, here, we'll see how it works in a sentence. Okay? Ready? Here we go.
"Lunch or dinner". Okay? So, we don't say: "Lunch or dinner". When we're just speaking in regular
conversation, this "or" would be connected to the word before, and it will sound like "er". So,
the "or" now sounds like "er". "or" - "er". "Lunch 'er dinner". Okay? "Soup or salad",
"rain or shine", "seven or eight". Okay? Do you see how the "or" now sounds like "er"? Okay?
Let's continue: "Would you like tea or coffee? "Tea 'er coffee". Okay? Now,
if you're not used to it, you might wonder what people are saying. But when you understand that
the word "or" gets reduced, gets shortened, gets linked to a word before or a word after, it will
help you to understand what people are offering you. Right? Okay. They're not offering you tears;
they're offering you tea or coffee. Tea or coffee. Tea 'er coffee. Again, you don't have to speak
like this, but you do need to understand. Next, number two: "Should I turn left or right?
Left 'er right". Okay? If you like, you can repeat it, but you don't have to speak like that.
Number three: "Am I right or wrong? Right er wrong". Okay? Again,
you see what's in red is what is linked. Now, let's look what happens... look at
what happens when it's linked to the word after, which happens sometimes. Number four:
"Shall we talk now or later?" Okay? So, now, the "or" got connected to the word
after it, and that's okay; that happens, too. Number five: "You can call or send me an email."
Okay? So, that is also possible - that it could be linked to the word before or the word after. And
now you're going to come to the most exciting part where you're going to change your pronunciation
of a whole lot of words-maybe hundreds and thousands of words-and counting these expressions,
there's probably thousands. Let's look at what happens when "or" appears at the end of a word.
Okay, so now we come to the most critical part - the part where many students make a mistake in the
pronunciation of "or", and that is at the end of a word. What happens is your eyes deceive you. Your
eyes see "or", and you want to say "or", but in fact, again, in a word, when it comes at the end
of a word, you need to say "er" and not "or". So, you need to say not the sound "or", but the sound
"er". Repeat after me: "er", "er", "er". Now we sound a little bit robotic, but it won't sound
like that once we actually say it in a word. So, what happens when "or" appears at the end of a
word? It becomes reduced, shortened, and we don't stress it as much as when we were saying it at the
beginning of a word. Okay? So, what I want you to do is to imagine that all these words down here,
which in fact end in "or" sound exactly like all these words in this line, which end in
"er". Because, usually, when you see "er" at the end of a word, like: "dancer" or "teacher",
you don't have a problem pronouncing it. Right? You say it correctly because you
see "er" and you say the sound "er". So what you need to do is to take that same principle,
and apply it to all of these words; even though your eyes will see "or", your brain and your
mouth has to be trained to say the "er" sound, and not the "or" sound. Okay? So, do it with me.
First we'll practice and get our mouths to remember the sound of "er". Okay? Ready? Say
it after me or with me. "Dancer", "teacher", "baker", "farmer", "waiter". Okay? In all
of those words, of course they were spelt with "er" and they had the sound "er".
Now all of these words are going to be spelt with "or", but you're still going to say,
what? You're still going to say "er". Okay? Here we go. "Actor", "doctor", "tailor",
"author", "mayor". Okay? Those are people. Now let's look at some things-okay?-or ideas,
or other words. "Factor", you know there is some very popular show called Fear
Factor - I hope you're saying "Facter" and not "Factor". Okay? "Factor", "color", "terror",
"honor", "error". Okay? Don't make an error when you're pronouncing the word "error". Don't say:
"error"; say "errer", "er", "er". Okay? Let's keep going. These were shorter words
with two syllables, but the same principle applies even if we have longer words,
like here with three syllables. Ready? Here we go: "Professor", "visitor", "bachelor",
"survivor". Another popular show, right? Okay. Also some more things: "monitor", "reactor"-like
a nuclear reactor-"behavior", "equator". What's the equator? The equator is an imaginary line that
goes around the Earth, and divides it between the Northern and Southern Hemisphere. Okay.
Now let's look at some longer words, okay? "Ambassador", "supervisor",
"terminator". Okay? A lot of people have seen that movie. Okay. "Elevator",
"refrigerator", "calculator". Okay? Excellent.
Thank you for sticking with me in this lesson, because if you did make this mistake,
then you have just corrected something very major. Okay? You've corrected so many,
many words that you could possibly say in your English-speaking life. All right?
So, now, after this what can you do? Go to our website: www.engvid.com, and there,
you can also watch hundreds of other English lessons for free on pronunciation, or grammar,
or vocabulary, or writing, and all kinds of other things. Okay? Also, if you haven't already,
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save you years and years of English study. Okay? Thanks very much for watching. Bye for now.