How to say your name in English [without having to repeat it!]

Hey, it's Hadar and this is the Accent's Way.

And welcome to the say your name mini training.

In the previous video, I asked you to send me a video of yourself saying your name in your native tongue

and then your name in English or the way you say it in English.

What we're gonna do today is I'm gonna explain to you how English works

and how you should say your name in a way that is going to be clear for American speakers.

So they'll be able to repeat it right away and to say it accurately and not invent a totally new name.

When you think of saying your name in English, there are two things you need to think about.

One is the stress, where the primary stress of your name is.

And two, the sounds and which you're using to say your name.

Now when it comes to stress, you need to understand something about the stress system of American English.

Every word has one syllable, one unit, the smallest unit in the word that sticks out the most.

It is always longer, louder and higher in pitch.

Now that's something very, very important to remember because not every language

has this clear distinction between the syllables.

So for example when I say my name, Hada, in Hebrew, then for me it's very clear that

the primary stress is on the second syllable, but the way I'm stressing it would be unclear to American speakers

because I'm just saying it a little louder.

They're expecting to hear the primary stress a little longer and higher in pitch.

This is why I would change the way I'm saying it. So instead of saying

'Hada'

I would say

'Hadar'

I prolonged it and I went higher in pitch.

I also changed the vowel.

That's the original way I'm saying it, into a different vowel, American vowel

'Hadar'

Which leads me to number two, how you say your name using American sounds.

So once I know what the primary stress is, I need to hear the sound that I'm making.

In my case it's going to be

'a'

And change it into American sound

'aa'

A back open 'aa'

So I'm not saying 'Hadar'.

I'm saying 'Hadar'.

Now going back to stress.

Once I establish what the primary stress is the rest of the syllables either receive a secondary stress

which is a pure vowel or a weak stress, a schwa.

Now usually in names with two syllables what I recommend is to just figure out

what the primary stress is and then reduce the second syllable.

Like I do with my name

'Hadar'

I'm not saying something like

'Hadar'

Here I used two pure vowels, one was a secondary stress, the other one was a primary stress.

But it felt to me too long and too exaggerated.

This is why I just decided to focus on the primary stress and reduce the beginning.

'Hadar'

Okay, so once we establish what the primary stress is, we need to figure out

what vowel we're using and what is the closest vowel in American English.

And then with the rest of the syllables decide if you want to reduce some of the syllables

to a schwa, this really neutral 'uh' sound.

Or turn them into vowels in American English, but not to stress them so much.

Now I know it's still not super clear and because of that I asked you to send me your videos and we're gonna look

at the videos and some of the names and learn how to use the system to say the names in American English.

Okay so first of all, we're gonna talk about your first name.

Americans say

'Yasmina'

They change the primary stress, because you put the stress on the second syllable.

'Yasmina'

or 'Yasmina'

Right so you can insist on that by just prolonging the primary stress.

'Yasmina'

And then reduce the last part into a schwa.

'mina'

The first syllable can either be

'Yasmina'

'j' sound as in yes

Or a 'dj' sound

'Yas'

'Yasmina'

Right so both are okay, but they need to know, they can't have that middle sound

'Ya'

'Ya'

Now let's continue.

Okay

'Yasmina Romero'

'Romero'

So the reason why it's not clear is because they don't detect that 'R' sound, some of them.

So you need to turn it into an American 'r'.

'r'

Since there is no pure 'o' sound, it should either be a schwa or a long 'ow'.

I wouldn't say something like

'Romero'

But I would turn it into a schwa.

'Romero'

'Romero'

And then close it with a long 'ow' sound at the end.

Not 'Romero'.

'o'

'o'

Because you never end a word with 'o' in American English.

Since it's at the end, I would turn it into a long 'ow'.

'Romero'

And also with 'Liberato', the way you say your last name or your third name.

Here again, I would turn it into

'Liberato'

' Lib'- '

schwa

'-rato'

A strong 't' and then a long 'ow' as in 'go'.

Not 'o', but 'ow'.

Let's listen to Aziza (?) from Indonesia.

So let's just focus on your nickname or the first name.

'Aziza'

So in your native tongue, you're saying something like

'Aziza'

So there are two stresses.

And then you said it again as

'Aziza'

I would focus on that and then place the primary stress on the second syllable.

'zi'

Which has to be a long 'e' sound.

So pull your lips to the sides.

And then just reduce the beginning and ending syllables.

'Aziza'

'Aziza'

Okay Manuel, the primary stress in your name falls on the last syllable.

'L'

Now in American English there is no clear, clean 'L', like Spanish does.

So it's not 'L'.

It's going to be 'L'.

The first syllable in Spanish is

'Man'

'Man'

In American English, it's probably going to turn into 'aa'

'Maan'

The first syllable is 'Man', the last syllable is 'L' , and the middle syllable is going to be a really short 'u' sound.

'Manuel'

'Manuel'

'Manuel'

Remember to make it a dark 'L' at the end.

Birgit from Germany.

Okay, so Birgit, let's talk about your name in English.

First of all, let's establish what the primary stress is.

When you say it, it sounds like the first syllable is the primary stress.

'Bir'

'Birgit'

In German, it's also longer and higher in pitch which is great, so don't change a thing.

Once we establish what the primary stress is let's understand the sounds

and how we can turn them into American sounds.

So obviously there is no [german sound]

in American English, so we want to turn it into the 'r' sound.

So here you have two options, either take it to 'eer' as in 'deer'.

Always find anchor words or similar words that sound to you like the way you would say it in your native tongue.

So here 'eer' as in 'deer'

'Bir'

'Bir'

Okay.

'Birgit'

Another way to do it is just use the 'ir' as in 'stir' at the beginning

'Birgit'

'Birgit'

Now let's hear Andrea or Andrea from Brazil.

Of course it's hard, because you're not using the American 'r', you're using the Portuguese 'r'.

'R'

'R'

Although it's beautiful, Americans won't figure it out.

They won't get it's an 'r' sound, so immediately turn the first sound into an 'r'

're'

're'

And then right after we have the 'n'.

Now the 'n' in Portuguese and American English is exactly the same, thank God.

So just pronounce an 'n' sound and then turn the 'a' into 'aa', an open 'aa' sound.

Because that's the 'a' of American English.

'Renaa'

And then a 't' sound and since there is no 'o' just turn it into a long 'ow' sound.

Close it up with 'ow'.

'Renato'

'Renato'

Some Americans may say 'Renato' when they say it really, really quickly, but you guys can insist

on pronouncing the true 't'.

'Renato'

Let's listen to Mohammad.

So Mohammad, when we want to say your name in English

we want to think about where the primary stress is.

In this case it's 'ha', right.

Now in terms of pronunciation there is no [Arabic sound]

So we'll turn it into the closest sound in American English which is an 'h' sound.

'ha'

'ha'

The beginning syllable is super short even in Arabic, so I'll definitely turn it into a schwa in English.

'Moha'

And then close it with another schwa at the end.

'Mohammad'

'Mohammad'

Let's listen to Elena from Honduras.

Okay Elena, beautiful name.

So in your first name, Elena, we need to figure out what the primary stress is, so you're saying something like

'Elena'

Now the primary stress falls on the 'E' sound.

Usually a long 'E' sound turns into the 'ei' as in 'day'. This is why I would say

'Elena'

And not 'Elena'.

Now it's still going to be clear to American speakers if you say

'Elena'

But if you change it into

'Elena'

It's going to be even clearer because they're used to hearing that long 'E' as the 'ei' as in day.

So that would be the primary stress.

Now the other two syllables are pure vowels, the beginning is 'e' and the ending is 'a'.

I would turn them into a schwa 'Elena'

'Elena'

The second name in Spanish is pronounced as 'Escarlet', because you don't pronounce that 'sc' consonant cluster.

Right, so you always add an 'e' now that never happens in American English.

So I would recommend practicing this concept cluster

'sc'

'sc'

And then open it up to the 'aa' as in father.

'scaar'

Because it's part of the 'r' as in 'car' vowel, so I would definitely not go for a 'R' sound.

'EscaRlet'

Right and I would try to work on the 'r' sound and from the video

I know that you know how to use it because you just said

'Honduras'

With a beautiful American 'r' sound.

Okay, so in Hebrew you say 'Aviel', in English 'Aviel'. You change the primary stress.

While in Hebrews it's 'Aviel', the primary stress is at the end, I wouldn't change it to 'Aviel'.

People may say it like that when they read your name, but if I were to say it I would put the stress at the end

trying to be as loyal as possible to your name.

So I would do something like

'Aviel'

'Aviel'

So the first syllable is just gonna be a schwa, the second syllable a high 'e'

'Avi...'

And then the primary stress the longest syllable is at the end 'L' with a dark 'L'.

'Aviel'

'Aviel'

Okay Mikhail, that's a fantastic way to say your name in a way that is clear to American speakers

because there is no [Russian sound] in American English, so the closest a sound for you would be

a 'K' sound.

Another option would be an 'H' sound

'Mihail'

But just reduce the middle vowel, like you did, and turn it into 'Mikhail' is perfectly fine.

So you're actually doing a really good job.

Okay, so that's it for now. Here's what we try to achieve.

We looked at different names of different people from around the world and saw

What is the focus when we try to say it in American English?

What we discovered is that the most important thing is the primary stress and that is the one syllable

that sticks out the most in your name.

And this syllable should be pronounced a little longer and a little higher in pitch than the rest of the syllables.

Once we establish what the primary stress is, look at the sounds and find the American or the English equivalent.

So if you have a 'ha' sound or a 'Ra', turn it into American 'r'.

Same thing with 'o', it's not 'o', it's going to be 'ow' or 'oh'.

So we need to learn what the equivalent sounds are and to turn them into the right American or English sounds.

And as you can see there are a few options because for every neutral vowel in your language

you might have one or two similar vowels in American English.

So you can choose from whatever sounds best for you.

Okay, so I know this doesn't cover all names all around the world

but maybe you can use this system to help you say your name.

Okay, that's it.

Let me know in the comments below

if you figured out how to say your name in a way that it's going to be clear for American speakers.

And if not, write your name and I promise I will help you.

And thank you for all the views and comments and messages.

I love you all, have a great week, and I will see you next week in the next video.

Bye.