hello there this is the sounds American
channel in this video we're going to
talk about the American vowel sound ow
as in the word cloud
you can also hear this sound in words
like how now out or town will be using
special phonetic symbols ow for this
sound
let's begin with the simple exercise
take a look at these two words
Brahe and brow they differ by their
vowel sounds the OO in bra and the owl
in brow
now watch and compare what happens when
you pronounce these vowels
ah
ow
do you see a difference in how your
tongue and jaw move when you pronounce
the ah sound your tongue and jaw move
into one position only so you pronounce
just one sound that's why the AH is
called a monophthong which means a
single sound however when you pronounce
the ow
bowel your tongue and jaw move from one
position to another
the owl is called a diphthong which
means that it's made by merging two
single sounds into one
that's why your jaw and tongue change
their positions as you make the first
sound and then connect it to the second
there are three diphthongs in American
English the al the Oy and the I as in
the words bow boy and bi will cover the
Oy in the I in our other videos as for
the AL let's find out how to pronounce
this sound to make the AL diphthong
correctly you need to pronounce two
sounds and make a smooth connection
between them this is how you do that
start with making the AA sound open your
mouth as wide as possible
relax your lips and allow them to rest
in a neutral position
flatten your tongue
and place it very low in your mouth
the tip of your tongue should be
touching the back of your bottom front
teeth
next connect the ah to the sound
smoothly move your jaw up until your
mouth is almost closed then pull the
back of your tongue to your throat
the first sound in a diphthong is
typically longer and louder so make sure
that you pronounce a nice and full ah
and then connect it to the
now let's glide from the AA to the earth
and blend the two sounds together
Oh
ow
let's talk about the most typical
mistakes that people make when
pronouncing the AL diphthong number one
many non-native english-speakers
reduce the sound in the owl
as a result the whole sound gets
distorted and it may lead to
misunderstandings compare
shot
shout
number two in words like town the ow is
followed by a nasal consonant hmm
some people may distort the owl by
pronouncing it through their nose this
happens if you pass the air through your
nose too early before making the mmm
sound
how do you fix this practice pronouncing
words this way
Tao hmm town
Dow hmm down
you
remember both sounds in diphthongs are
equally important don't reduce the
second sound and avoid pronouncing your
diphthongs through your nose
now let's practice the ow sound in some
words
this is how the practice works
you'll see a word on the screen and here
it's pronunciation like this about
you'll have a few seconds to pronounce
the word
don't skip this part and do your best to
practice as many words as possible let's
begin about
allow
bow
cloud
couch
cow
crowd
doubt
eyebrow
flower
house
how
loud
mouse
mouth
now
powder
shout
south
thousand
towel
foul
amount
bounce
Brown
clown
count
down
downtown
Brown
found
[Music]
frown
down
ground
[Music]
now
playground
pound
[Music]
round
[Music]
sound
town
you're done congratulations
by the way did you know that in American
English there are two different
combinations of letters that are
pronounced as the owl diphthong
first is the o u combination as in the
words couch or loud the other is o W as
in the words cow or owl how awesome is
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