How to use GOOGLE to improve your pronunciation | Google Pronto Pronunciation tool

45,758 views ・ 2020-01-14

Accent's Way English with Hadar


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

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Hey, it's Hadar. Thank you for being here. Today I have some really good news for you.
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Have you ever wished that you'd have someone sitting next to you when you're practicing
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your pronunciation or saying new words, telling you, "Yes, that was awesome", or "No, you
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got to work on that a bit more"? Well, now you have it and it's totally free.
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Google just launched a new tool called Pronto. Pronto is basically your personal pronunciation
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coach. As you may or may not know, and I talked about it in this video here, Google now writes
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the words phonetically when you're searching for how to pronounce a word.
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So, for example, if you were to write 'how to pronounce arbitrary', you will see it written
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out phonetically. Not in IPA, what you can find in other dictionaries, but it's a representation,
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a visual representation, using the English alphabet of how to pronounce a word.
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Now, if you look closely, you'll see that they've added a small button that says 'Practice'.
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If you click on the 'Practice', it's going to ask you to record the word, and when you
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record it, it is going to give you feedback whether or not you pronounced it correctly.
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So you're going to have a visual feedback. It's going to color in red the sounds or the
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places in the words that were not clear. But also, it's going to tell you exactly what
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you need to do and what you have done differently that is preventing you from being clear.
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And it is so incredibly helpful. And the reason why I'm so passionate about it is because
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I had the privilege of helping Google's developers and best minds develop this product.
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So, I actually told them all about how I give feedback and how I coach my students and how
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I tell them what to focus on, and what I say exactly to help them get the right sound.
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And put it into this incredible tool that is there to help you, and it's absolutely
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free. Now, a few things you need to know in order
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for you to start using this feature. First of all, it was just launched last month.
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So, perhaps, you still don't have access to it, although you will have soon. Maybe by
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the time you're watching this video, everyone has access to it. You can only use it on your
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mobile devices, and your search language should be set to English.
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You need to be signed into your Google account, and if you're using your iPhone, it's best
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if you use Safari and not Chrome. By the way, this feature only works with American pronunciation,
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not British pronunciation.
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Okay, so let's give it a try. I'm using my
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phone, I'm using, I have an iPhone, so I'm using Safari, and I'm signed into my Google
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account, as you can see. Now, let's try 'how to pronounce authentic'.
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Great. So, first of all, I see the the phonetic representation. 'aa' is the A as in father - aa.
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Then we have 'then' - t-h-e-n - that's the 'e' as in red. It's in bold, so that's the primary stress.
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'aa-then-tuhk'. The 'uh' is a schwa, so basically you don't pronounce the 'tik' there, it's
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'tuhk'. Authentic. I can play it: authentic. I can play it in
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slow motion as well: au-then-tic. Good, which helps me understand better what I need to
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do, and then I do. I just try and practice it myself.
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Authentic (speaks with an accent). Now, what I did is I mispronounced 3 sounds and actually
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detected it perfectly. I said O instead of aa, a common mistake. I pronounced a T instead
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of a TH - 'ten'. And I put an 'ee' sound instead of a schwa - 'teek'. Oh-ten-teek, Oh-ten-teek.
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So, it recognized that I mispronounced those three sounds, just quite impressive. And the
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'aa' as in father - you may have mispronounced the aa. So I'm going to take a look here.
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And it says, "try to open your mouth wide and relax your lips." aa, instead of O, aa.
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"Your tongue should be low and flat in the back." Cause if it's high, O, it's going to
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sound more like an Oo. aa, aa. And then you have some examples here that you can play
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in practice with: job, hot - hot, office - office. Keep in mind the notes that you were given,
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okay. So you can actually apply it. Try to visualize it.
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And then I'm going to move on. You may have mispronounced TH. "Try to bring the tongue
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to your top teeth." Right? "Then let the air out slowly between your tongue and teeth."
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Right? 'TH' - not T. And then gave me some example words here: think, thanks, theory,
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method. Great. So I can practice with. 'then', 'then'.
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And then you have mispronounced 'uh'. "Make sure your tongue is on the bottom of your
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mouth as you make a very short 'uh' sound." uh, uh, uh, tuhk, okay. So, first of all,
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work unit by unit, syllable by syllable. Now, let's say I practice it a bit, I tried
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it a few times. I practiced the aa, practiced the TH. And then, what you need to do is just
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practice it again. Try it again. Practice the sounds that were detected, drill the words,
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watch my YouTube videos, come back to it and try it again. Fun!
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So this is a really great tool that will help you take action and start changing and seeing
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the change. Because watching YouTube videos is one thing, and obviously that's something
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that you do, you're learning from YouTube, otherwise you wouldn't have been here.
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But then, you need to take it to the next step, which means active practice.
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And sometimes people tend to not do it or avoid that, that stage because they say to
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themselves, "Oh, but I don't know if I'm doing this right."
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So, now there are no more excuses and you got to start taking action. Again, remember
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that you have to use your phone. For now, the search language needs to be set to English.
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When you get to the pronunciation box, make sure it's only set to 'American pronunciation'
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and sign into your Google account. Okay. I can't wait to know what you think.
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I absolutely love it. I know I'm not objective, but I love it. And I hope you will too.
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Be sure to subscribe if you want to learn how to pronounce the sounds that you're practicing using Pronto.
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Have a beautiful week and I'll see you next week in the next video. Bye.
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