WOMEN vs. WOMAN Pronunciation

Hey, it's Hadar.

Today is March 8th - International Women's day.

And I figured it would be the perfect day to discuss the difference

between a 'woman' and 'women'.

One woman - a few women, or many women.

And if you're watching it not on March 8th, then it doesn't matter

because every day is women's day.

So let's get started.

Woman - women.

Let's begin with a singular form - woman.

We start with a w sound, so round your lips and then open it up

to an 'u' as in 'good' - 'woh'.

You see, so my lips open up a little bit, but they're still a bit rounded.

The jaw drops - woh - the tongue pulls back.

And it's kind of relaxed in the back, think like you have a hot potato

in the back of your mouth and you don't want to touch anything: woh.

And then you move on to the second syllable, which is m'n, m'n.

It's an M sound, a schwa - a reduced vowel, and then an N:

m'n, m'n, woh-m'n, woh-m'n.

The plural form is different than the spelling at the end of the word.

Right?

So instead of 'a' you have 'e', but it affects the pronunciation

of the first syllable.

Now why is that?

I have no idea, but that's just how it is.

So, instead of saying woh-m'n, we now say wi-m'n.

All right?

It's the 'i' as in 'sit' vowel sound.

So from the W you switch to the 'i' sound - 'wi'.

And then again, the ending is exactly the same - m'n, m'n.

woh-m'n - wi-m'n.

One woman - a few women.

All right, that's it.

Now at the end, I'd like to wish all of you, my women friends around the world,

that you'll always give yourself the permission and space to express yourself

in English, and in your native tongue.

That's it.

Thank you for watching.

Have a wonderful day and have a great year.

I'll see you next week in the next video.

Bye.