How to say FORWARD and BACKWARD | American English

Hi, it's Hadar.

And this is the Accent's Way, your way to finding clarity,

confidence, and freedom in English.

Ronnie asked me to explain how to pronounce the words

'forward' and 'backward'.

Forward and backward.

Now, both words end the same.

Listen: [w'rd], [w'rd].

Just like the word 'word'.

"Let's say a few words about it".

Now, although it's spelled with W A R D, WARD pronounced as 'ward'

as in 'the neurological ward'.

But here it's reduced, so you don't pronounce the 'or' as in 'four', you

pronounce it as a schwa - [w'rd], [w'rd].

Let's start with a W sound.

Round your lips, and then you bring the tongue up as you round

your lips for the R - [w'r].

There is nothing between the W and the R - [w'r], just like the word

'were' as in 'we were', [w'r].

As your tongue is up there, you push it to touch the upper palate

to close it with a D sound - [w'rd].

Now that's the ending.

Let's talk about the beginning in the word 'forward'.

The beginning is the word 'four', just like the number 4, 'four'.

You bring the bottom lip to touch the teeth for the F, release air, drop

your jaw for the O vowel - [fou].

And then you close your jaw a little bit and bring the

tongue up for the R - [four].

Now listen, you gotta open your mouth and keep the tongue down as you

pronounce the word 'four', otherwise it's gonna sound like 'fur' - [fur-w'rd].

It's too tight, too closed.

'Four'.

Also, this is the primary stress of the word, so take your time.

And it's a little higher in pitch - [four-w'rd].

Now let's say it a few times: forward, forward.

What's the difficult part about it?

'Forward'.

Where do you struggle?

I guess it's where the transition between the R, W, and R again - [r-w'r].

All right?

This transition is every nonnative speaker's dream, I know.

Just put in a TH there and it's a big party!

[four-w'rd].

I'm kidding.

It's not a party.

It's a nightmare.

So, to pronounce this transition, you bring the tongue up for the R in 'four'.

Then you keep the lips rounded, close your lips a little bit

more for the W, you relax it.

And then you bring the tongue up again for the R - [r-w'r].

Forward.

Now the word 'backward' is a little easier cuz you have the

word 'back' at the beginning.

It's a B sound, then the 'a' as in 'cat' - [ba].

And then you bring the tongue up in the back for the K

sound - [back], [back-w'rd].

For the 'a' sound, pull your lips a little bit to the sides so it

doesn't come out as [bick-w'rd].

[ba], and drop your jaw a lot: [ba], [back-w'rd].

'Forward' - 'I'm moving forward'.

And 'backward' - 'let's look backward'.

Forward - backward.

That's it.

All right.

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