Do you make these pronunciation mistakes when you speak English?
The answer is probably yes, because they're extremely common.
But don't worry.
In today's lesson, I'm going to show you exactly how
to pronounce all of these difficult words perfectly in English.
First BEACH and BITCH
There are two reasons that you might be pronouncing this word.
Like this word.
First, are you using the long
or the short e sound?
If it's the long /i:/ sound, that's BEACH
The short /I/ sound that's BITCH
So be careful.
The second reason might be how you end the word.
How do you pronounce this part of the word?
If you use a glottal stop, which means your throat closes, that stops the sound.
That sound finishes the word.
It's good for both
Same thing, it’s fine!
However, if you use your tongue to stop the sound
by hitting the back of your teeth, Just there.
To stop the sound.
Then it will always sound like “BITCH”
Even if you use the long E sound.
Because my tongue is hitting here.
Changes the sound, makes THIS sound like THIS!
So practice with me.
ELECTION and ERECTION
If your language doesn't really have a specific “L” or ”R” sound,
it can be difficult to do the two sounds.
So how do you do the “L”?
And how do you do the “R”?
Well, “L” is all in your tongue.
La la la la la la la la la.
Nothing else makes that sound but the “R” is the opposite.
The tongue doesn't touch anything in the mouth.
It's only the lips that make the “R” sound.
Think of it like a tensed, awkward kissy mouth.
And then relax it.
See! Awkward kissy mouth! To compare, just the tongue
La, la la la la.
Could kiss the mouth.
Just the lips. Rah, rah, rah, rah, rah.
Now you try it. Let's practice together.
SHEET or SHIT
This one, you just have to be very careful about your long
/i:/ sound and the short /I/ sound for some people.
I know this still isn't clear, So let's see what's happening inside the mouth.
when I do the /i:/ sound the back of my tongue,
this area goes up, it's raised and tense.
The sides of my tongue match the sides of my teeth.
it's tense and raised.
EE But for /I/, everything relaxes the tongue does nothing.
Let's practice together.
I mean, right?
Let's just be honest.
They’re kind of mid!
TEETH and TITS
Yes. This can be very embarrassing if you don't have
the “TH” sound in your language and you replace it with a
So how do we learn the sound?
if you have your tongue and you rest it on your bottom teeth
like this
you breathe out and close your mouth slowly
you get this sound.
That's not a “TH” sound.
That's rubbish. So how do you do this?
So imagine there's a tiny weight right here on your tongue pushing down.
The rest of the tongue has tension
and comes up slightly in the mouth.
your mouth might be different to my mouth, but if we have the same mouth,
then the edges of my tongue
line up perfectly with the edges of my teeth,
with the exception of the front, just there!
if you don't have the “TH” sound in your language, it's a new muscle that you have to train.
So practice this until it sounds good, until it sounds like...
there's also the long E
and the long E and short E
But you already know that.
So let's just practice
ANKLE and UNCLE
I hope you paid attention to my mouth shape just then.
I hope you weren't. Actually, that's kind of creepy.
But if you were, then you noticed that the mouth
makes two very different shapes to make these two words.
So with “Ankle”
The “a” is represented by this symbol.
When you look in a dictionary and see those weird symbols,
this is one of those this sounds like...
You hear it in “apple”, “bat”, ‘can”.
And notice my mouth is very open and kind of in this shape.
My mouth is very wide open.
but this symbol represents the “U” sound.
You hear this in words like “Come”, “Up”, “Bum”
To make this sound correctly your mouth is more narrow.
Compare the two mouth shapes.
ANKLE UNCLE
Repeat with me.
See how good your English pronunciation really is.
Oof!
COKE or COCK
This one can be very embarrassing if you don't use correct pronunciation.
So how do you pronounce them correctly?
This word uses the ... sound.
This word uses an ... sound.
Notice there is only one sound for this.
This one, however, the mouth will change shape in the word.
And that creates two different sounds.
Starting position here,
finishing here.
Okay. Let’s practice together!
You're at a restaurant, you're reading the menu,
and your English pronunciation is not perfect
“Hi! Can I have a big bowl of crap?!”
CRAB or CRAP?
Some languages don't differentiate between the two, the P and the B.
So how do you pronounce them?
Well the “P” is what we professionals call an “unvoiced” sound.
The “B” is what we call a “Voiced” sound
when you have a voiced sound,
you can feel the vibration in your throat when you say it.
You can practice this, too! Put your hand here and say,
There's vibration here, right?
That's a voiced sound.
The “P”, however,
no vibration, It's a practice This You can grab a tissue
or a bit of paper and put it next to your mouth.
to make the “P” sound.
This should move
to make the “B” sound.
This should not move.
my job is weird.
So let's practice that together.
I mean, honestly, kind of. Right!?
at least very overrated.
FORK and FUCK
there are two distinct sounds you need to practice
“OR”, it's that same sound in “walk”,
“more”, “door”
and this is that sound again like in “bum”
Look how the mouth shape is different for both for this
So let's practice that together
PEACE and PISS
Do you wish peace for the world ...or just piss?
This difference is again that long /i:/ sound and the short /I/ sound.
long e for peace.
Short /I/ sound for “piss”
Practice it with me.
I'm sorry to my Japanese friends, but, yeah, you need to practice this one
EARTH and ARSE
When you don't pronounce the “TH” properly,
EARTH really sounds like ARSE
So you need to practice it.
Remember those very important tips I gave you?
There should be tension in your tongue.
The edges of your tongue should go with the edges of your teeth.
And there should be that gap in the front of your tongue
and the front of your teeth to let the air out.
Practice it a few times.
Remember, this is a new muscle that you need to exercise in your mouth.
So even if you get it perfect the first time
and then the second time you miss it, don't worry, you just need to practice it.
Then it will become normal. I promise.
Let's practice that together.
CITY or SHITTY
Loads of students have problems with these two words because of the sounds /s/ and /sh/
How do you differentiate those two sounds?
I'm glad you asked, you can relax your tongue for city, city,
My tongue doesn't really do much, but for shitty
I notice that my tongue comes back in
the mouth, there’s a bit of tension
notice the other thing.
My lips are going in that awkward kissy mouth thing again.
Let's practice together
I know I'm going to make lots of enemies, but I don't care
By the way if you pronounced everything perfectly in today's lesson.
But then tomorrow you try to say those words again and they sound wrong.
Don't worry, most of these sounds will be new in your language,
which means you have to work on a new muscle in your mouth.
So even if you pronounced it perfectly today, this is new.
You need to build that muscle memory in your mouth
in order for this to sound comfortable and therefore natural.
When you speak English.
Don't forget to leave a comment below
which words are difficult for you to pronounce?
So watch the video again.
If you need more practice,
this video will teach you more how to pronounce the “TH” sounds.
And I'll see you in the next class! Bye!