Pronunciation of Million & Billion | American English

Hey, what's up?

I'm Hadar, and this is your 'how to pronounce' Accent's Way video.

Today we're going to talk about the two words, "million" and "billion".

Very important words, right?

Especially for planning to make a lot of millions and billions.

So, a "million".

First of all, both of them sound kind of the same.

So we're going to concentrate on the word "million".

The first syllable is a relaxed 'i' sound, 'mil-'.

So it's not 'meel', but 'mil'.

So your jaw is kind of drop, and there is space between your teeth and, you're kind

of lazy when you're saying it.

'mil', 'mil'.

Then you have a reduced vowel, 'y'n', 'y'n'.

It begins with a 'y' sound, a schwa, although it's spelled with an O, okay.

There is no 'o', it's not 'mil-yon', but 'milyuh-', 'uh', 'uh', and then an N at

the end, 'n'.

'mil-y'n', 'mil-y'n'.

The primary stress falls on the first syllable, so it's higher in pitch

- "MILlion".

Million.

One million dollars.

On the other hand, you have "billion", right?

So you kind of like close your lips for the B.

Billion.

One billion dollars.

All right.

Million and billion.

Million and billion.

So you don't have to say it a million times in order to get it, but you do want

to practice it quite a few times until you get used to the new pronunciation.

So go for it.

Good luck, and I'll see you next week in the next video.

Bye.