How to say ‘HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY’ | B vs. V | American Pronunciation

16,256 views ・ 2018-02-13

Accent's Way English with Hadar


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

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Hey guys.
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It's Hadar, and this is the Accent's Way.
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This is Valentine's week.
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And therefore, we are going to learn how to say the phrase 'Happy Valentine's Day'.
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To be able to say it properly, we need to learn two important things.
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First, how to pronounce the A as in 'cat'; and also, how to distinguish
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between a B sound and a V sound to be able to say 'Valentine's' correctly.
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Let's begin with the A as in cat.
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The A as in cat is an open front vowel.
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And to say the sound you have to drop your jaw quite a lot, so
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the mouth is really, really open.
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As you can see, my lips pull to the sides a bit, and you
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can see a lot of tongue, right?
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So to get to that position, you want to push your tongue forward.
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The front part of the tongue is down and flat, the tip of the tongue is
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touching right behind the teeth, and the back of the tongue is high.
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We find it in words like 'apple', 'cat', 'happy'.
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Another important sound is the V sound, as in 'Valentine's'.
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Some non-native speakers, especially Spanish speakers, may
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turn the V sound into a B sound.
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Both of them are produced here, in the front part of the mouth and the lips.
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And both of them are voiced, meaning that the vocal chords are vibrating.
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But the main difference between the two is that for the B, you block
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the air and release it abruptly.
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'b', 'bei'.
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For the V sound, you don't really block the air, but the air is kind
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of like passing slowly between the teeth, right, because you bring
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the bottom lip to the top teeth and then you release sound slowly.
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So you don't hear that stop and release, you hear the air
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coming out slowly, much like an F sound, a TH sound, and a Z sound.
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These are all fricatives - the sounds are coming out slowly and
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you hear this friction sound.
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'Vvvvv'.
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Okay?
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So it's not 'Balentine's' - it's 'Valentine's'.
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And to make sure that you're actually saying it correctly,
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hold out the V sound - 'vvvvv'.
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If you can't hold it out, it means that you're making a B sound.
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All right.
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So, let's get started with 'Happy Valentine's Day'.
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Pronounce an H sound for the 'happy'.
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If you're not sure about the H, check out my videos about
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how to pronounce the H sound.
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'ha-'.
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Then it's the A as in cat - 'ha-', a P sound and a a high E - 'ha-pee', 'ha-pee'.
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Then we move on to 'Va-' - a V sound, we already talked about
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it - and A as in cat: 'va-'.
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Then you bring the tongue up for an L sound, and then relax it, drop it down
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to a schwa and bring it back up to an N: 'l'n', 'l'n' - a schwa is this
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really neutral sound - uh, l'n, l'n.
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Then you keep it up for a T sound and finish up with
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the last syllable - 'tainz'.
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The S is actually pronounced as a Z - 'tainz', so it's not 'tains' - 'tainz'.
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Your tongue is already up there, so don't bring it back down, move from the Z to
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the D immediately - 'tainz-dey', right.
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So it's not 'val'ntainz dey', don't separate it.
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'val'ntainz-', so you're actually pronouncing the Z and then you're
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blocking it with a D - 'z'dey'.
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Happy Valentine's Day.
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I have to confess that I don't particularly care about Valentine's Day.
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In fact, throughout my twenties, I hated it because I always worked in restaurants.
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And then I always ended up working on Valentine's Day, with all those balloons
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and heart-shaped chocolate cakes.
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And it felt like that instead of being a day about, you know, expressing
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emotions and acknowledging the people you love, it was a day about buying
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presents, making reservations, and walking around with red balloons.
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So I kind of resented it for a while.
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Having said, that let's bring it back to what it's really about - expressing
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love to the people you care about.
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This is a good opportunity to say, I love you guys.
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I love you, all of you, who follow me, and comment, and watch the
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videos, and practice with me.
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Thank you so much for being so awesome.
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And if you haven't subscribed yet, now is the time, and click
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on the bell to get notifications.
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Thank you so much.
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Enjoy your Valentine's Day and your Valentines.
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And I will see you next week in the next video.
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Bye.
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