hi and welcome back in this lesson I
will teach you the four secrets to speak
English with perfect pronunciation these
are the same techniques that I have used
to improve my own pronunciation and I
have seen them work for many of my
students as well so what are these four
secrets they are sound stress tone and
rhythm I will explain to you what these
are and how you can master all of them
to sound more like a native speaker so
number one is sound when we write a word
in English we write it using letters
take this word for example we write it
with six letters in the same way when we
pronounce a word we do it using sounds
this word is pronounced school you see
that the written form has six letters
SCH ool but the spoken form has four
sounds ooh and ooh every word in English
has both consonant sounds like gah lah
etc and vowel sounds like ah a e woof
and so on here's another example women
so this word is written with five
letters and it's spoken with five sounds
but notice that both the O and the e are
pronounced as short it sounds women this
is because in English the spelling and
pronunciation of the word can be very
different and for this reason whenever
you say a word you need to get the
sounds right if you try to simply read
the spelling you might go wrong so you
must use a dictionary to learn the
correct pronunciation of words I suggest
that you use an online dictionary like
Cambridge Oxford or merriam-webster
because that way when you search for a
word you can see the pronunciation in
phonetic symbols and you can also click
a button to hear the correct
creation so here's an action point for
you every day
learn the pronunciation of at least five
words pick words that you're not sure
how to pronounce and look them up in an
online dictionary play the audio on the
website or app and practice along with
it for each word practice saying it
correctly at least five times this is my
five by five method practice the correct
pronunciation of five words five times
every day secret number two is stress
what does it mean to stress something
well it means to give it emphasis or
importance when we do this in
pronunciation it's called word stress or
syllable stress take the word school you
know that there are four sounds but we
don't say rule we say all the sounds
together as one group school this
grouping of sounds is called a syllable
in the word women there are two
syllables because there are two groups
of sounds women and in if a word has two
or more syllables one syllable will
always be stressed that is it will be
given more importance than the others in
this word notice that we stress the
first syllable women the apostrophe the
little mark before will indicates this
here's another word correct there are
again two syllables cut and wrecked but
in this word we stress the second
syllable right so correct notice how
that stressed syllable is said with a
slightly louder volume and it also
sounds longer correct in this next word
how many syllables are there there are
three but nan up which is stressed the
second banana here's one final example
three syllables again after noon this
time the third syllable is stressed so
after
like when we say good afternoon it is
very important to stress words correctly
because otherwise your pronunciation
will sound awkward and strange but if
you can do this well then it will show
your listeners that you have good
English pronunciation
now generally it's difficult for us to
get which syllable in a word is stressed
but there's good news when you look up a
word in a dictionary you will find that
the stressed syllable is marked some
dictionaries will show this as an
apostrophe others will capitalize the
stressed syllable
so when you learn the pronunciation of a
word you should learn how to say the
sounds correctly but you should also
learn which syllable to stress number
three is tone another name for this is
intonation this means the way our voices
go up and down when we speak so it
refers to the changes in the pitch of
our voice intonation exists in all the
languages of the world but different
languages use different tones so this
means that when you speak English you
might be using the intonation of your
language but the sounds natural you need
to learn the tones of English thankfully
English has just two major tones these
are called a rising tone and a falling
tone have a look at this example I work
as a teacher this is a falling tone
because notice how my voice goes down in
pitch at the end I work as a teacher
here's another example do you like ice
cream this sentence has a rising tone
because my voice goes up at the end do
you like ice cream and this one what's
your favourite color has a falling tone
what's your favourite colour these three
sentences show us the three main rules
for intonation in English statements or
affirmative sentences are usually said
with a falling tone yes or no questions
are said with a rising tone
and questions that ask for information
with question words like who what when
where why and how normally have a
falling tone this is important because
if you use the wrong tone your listener
can misunderstand your meaning or they
can be confused but an even bigger
problem is that wrong intonation can
show bad attitude take this sentence for
example what is the purpose of it well
imagine that I'm saying this to my boss
because I want a day's holiday from work
tomorrow so I'm asking for permission
this type of sentence should be said
with a falling tone to show politeness
but let me do the opposite let me say it
with a rising tone would it be okay if I
took the day off tomorrow how does that
sound
it sounds like I'm rude or maybe even
disrespectful but notice how it sounds
when I use the correct falling tone
would it be okay if I took the day off
tomorrow
isn't that more polite and here's one
last example you see this is an offer
maybe you're a guest at my home and I'm
offering you coffee this should be said
with a rising tone but here's the
opposite a falling tone do you want some
coffee
sounds terrible right it sounds like I'm
uninterested bored like I don't want you
as my guest here's the same sentence
with my voice going up do you want some
coffee
much better I'm sure that you see the
importance of tone now a great way to
improve your own intonation is to
practice with English language movies
and TV shows as you listen to the
dialogue notice the tones the speakers
are using practice along with them it
will be very helpful to have subtitles
when you do this because you can find
out where the tone goes up or down if
you're watching on your computer or your
smartphone you can even rewind and
practice saying the same sentences again
and again until you get the tone right
and finally number four is the most
important aspect of pronunciation rhythm
rhythm relates to music and we're
talking about it here because every
language has a kind of musical flow when
native speakers speak it this is called
the rhythm of the language English of
course has its own rhythm and if you
want great pronunciation you need to
understand and copy this rhythm take
this sentence for example he lives with
his wife Anna on in the village does
that sound right you could tell that
there was something wrong with it
maybe I sounded like a robot that was
because my rhythm was completely wrong
so what is the right way to say the
sentence here it is he lives with his
wife on a farm in the village that
sounded correct because I gave
importance to some words in the sentence
notice that lives wife farm and village
stand out if I take away these words the
sentence has no meaning that's because
these words have all the meaning or
content in the sentence and they're
called content words they're usually
nouns verbs adjectives and adverbs and
they are emphasized that is stressed in
a sentence all the other words are
grammar words that is they just give
grammatical information pronouns
prepositions and conjunctions we don't
stress these words instead we say them
quickly and softly he with his honor in
done he lived with his wife on a farm in
the village when you stress the content
words and unstressed the grammar words
you produce the correct rhythm of
English to speak with proper rhythm
there are three techniques you can use
the first is to use weak forms of
grammar words for example this word is
can this pronunciation is called the
strong form but when we say it
settings we say that's the weak
form and becomes unfor becomes / weak
forms help us to say grammar words
quickly and easily here's a sentence how
would you say it here it is we can meet
tomorrow and discuss arrangements for
the conference we can meet tomorrow and
discuss arrangements for the conference
we can meet tomorrow and discuss
arrangements for the conference the
second technique is to use contractions
we do this a lot with pronouns instead
of saying I am we just say I and instead
of she is we say she's here's a sentence
I'm trying to call her but she's not
answering her phone
I'm trying to call her but she's not
answering her phone
the third technique is combinations that
is to crush and combine grammar words
together for example the phrase going to
often becomes going to or even gonna in
informal speech
I'm sure you've also heard wanta or
wanna and hafta the phrases should have
could have and would have become should
have could've and would've or even
shoulda coulda and woulda for example
I'm going to visit my parents tomorrow
or I'm gonna visit my parents tomorrow
do you want to have lunch with me notice
I said do you wanna if I had studied
more I would have passed the exam we can
contract I had to ID and would have to
would've if I studied more I would have
passed the exam there are many more weak
forms contractions and combinations
you should study and practice them in
your own time the biggest pronunciation
mistake that learners of English make is
to stress all the words in a sentence
equally this is wrong you should learn
to stress only the content words and
unstressed the grammar words rhythm is
also sometimes called sentence stress
for this reason you should work on your
rhythm when you watch english-language
movies and TV shows a great technique is
to stop the scene and look at the
subtitles before you hear the dialogue
think about which are the content words
that will be stressed try to say it on
your own with the right rhythm then play
the scene and see if you got the rhythm
correct watch for the three techniques
weak forms contractions and combinations
then practice speaking along with the
actors this will give you the ability to
both identify the rhythm of English and
to be able to use it correctly alright
those are the four secrets to perfect
English pronunciation sound stress tone
and rhythm remember to practice
regularly with the exercises I shared
with you in this video and if you like
this lesson give it a thumbs up by
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learning and I will see you in another
lesson soon