"What's new?" Has anyone ever said that to you before? And you don't understand what
they've said to you? "What's new?" New York. New Jersey. No, "what's new?" is another way
of saying, "Hello. How are you?"
And my name's Ronnie. Today, I'm going to teach you about the letter "N", written like
this in the capital. Hah! Where's my marker gone? It's disappeared. Written in the smaller
case, it is like this "n."
So, a lot of people have difficulty pronouncing the letter "N". This lesson is for Rick. Rick,
you typed in a beautiful comment and said, "Ronnie, I cannot pronounce the letter "N"
properly. Can you help me?" And I said, "Sure, Rick." This lesson's for you.
Today's lesson is "n" as in "knew" Hah! What's this? What is a dirty little "k" doing here
in front of the "n"? Did you know that in English, if you have the "kn" like this, the
"k" - shhh -- is silent. So this word "knew" is the exact same pronunciation, as this word
"new". Shocking, I know.
So if I take my magic red marker, and all of a sudden, this will make sense to you,
with the "kn" sound, the delightful little "k," you don't say it, it's silent. Don't
say it. Don't ever say it like "canoe"; "canoe" is like the boat that you row. Mm-mm, so when
we say this word it's the exact same word, as this word, "knew" - "new"
Now when you want to say the "n" word! Hah! The "n-word" -- I would never say that. What
you want to do is you want to put your tongue, huh, at the top of your mouth. And it has
to be spread across your mouth and hitting the back of your teeth. So, your whole tongue
is going to cover all of the top of your mouth, and you're going to press your tongue up and
go "n-n-n-n-n-n-n-n-n-n-n-n".
The "n-n-n-n-n-n" sound is voiced. That means if you put your hands here, it vibrates. So,
if you go "n-n-n-n-n", "n-n-n-n-n", it's easily confused with the "m-m-m-m-m", with the "M"
sound. The difference, "n-n-n-n-n", is that your mouth is open and your tongue is all
the way up, pressed against the top of your mouth for the "N".
With the "M" sound, your mouth is closed. Your mouth is closed, "m-m-m-m-m", and your
tongue is in the middle of your mouth. So, "n-n-n-n-n" and "m-m-m-m-m"; so now you have
the "n-n-n-n-n" pronunciation, that's cool.
This word again, because it's a "k" and an "n" together, and a "w." What's happened here?
English is strange. This word is actually the exact same word as "no." So the difference
in meaning - you guys might know the difference; "know" means to understand. And this "no"
means negative. So, "I know" the spelling is like this. But, "no" there're no silent letters.
This word "knew" is the past tense of "know." So you can say, "I knew that, Ronnie." This
word "new" means it's not old. Okay, so "new" is the opposite of old.
We're going to go on to some other "n" words to help you study your pronunciation. So with
your tongue at the roof of your mouth you say "n-n-never", "n-n-never". Then you have
the word "n-n-now", "now". It rhymes with the word "cow" - now, cow "n-never", "now".
The magic twist, sometimes you want to twist your neck and it makes a cracking sound. This
part of your body is called your "neck". Sometimes you have a sore "neck" because you're watching
too many YouTube videos. It's all right. Just give it a crack, and you'll be fine, and "neck".
And the word "night" there's also another "kn" spelling for this. It is exactly the
same pronunciation, but this word "knight" means an old warrior that rode around on horseback.
So, you will see medieval knights or Knights of the Round Table, if you're into knighting.
The pronunciation is the same. The meaning is different. So you have to be very confused
about this "kn" thing, again, so a "knight" is basically a warrior from the olden times,
and "night" is the opposite of day.
There's another exception. If you go to the beautiful land of America or in some places
in Canada, and I'm sure the UK, you might see a word like this. And you go "'nite."
Oh, hah! Oh, oh, oh, hold on. That makes sense. The spelling makes sense there. Sometimes
Americans do it well.
This word is the exact same word as this one. They just don't mess around with all the extra
letters. So, this word is the same as this word "night". A difference in American and
British spelling. If you go to fast food restaurants or a lot of advertising, even in Canada you
will see this word written [informally].
There's one more I'd like to teach you, "knot" and "not." This "knot" again, the "k" is silent.
And it has the exact pronunciation as don't do it, "not." This "knot" is when you tie
something together, doodle-loodle-loodle-loo, like your shoe, you make a "knot".
This "not" is again, a negative sentence saying, "I am not going to do that knot." Hm, so sometimes
they may appear in the same sentence. If you knew this already, but you need some refreshment,
have a beer. If you'd like to know more about the "n-n-n-n-n" pronunciation, try it now,
"un-n-n-n-n-til next time, goodbye.