10 Pronunciation Mistakes Spanish Speakers Make | Pronunciación en inglés para hispanohablantes

194,894 views ・ 2018-10-11

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 and this is the Accent's Way and today we're going to talk about the 10 pronunciation mistakes
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Spanish speakers make.
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These pronunciation mistakes happen because of patterns or sounds that exist
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in English, but don't exist in Spanish.
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And sometimes we know it, but we don't know what we need to do in order to change it, and sometimes we don't
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even recognize that we are making these substitutions or making these mistakes.
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So this video is here to help you, first of all, understand what are the common mistakes.
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And I'm also going to give you tools to overcome these challenges and improve your pronunciation.
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Sounds are dropped at the end of words. For example, instead of saying
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'text'
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You may say
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'tex'
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Instead of saying
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'mind'
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You may say
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'mine'
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In Spanish, there are no words that end with more than one consonant.
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Where there is a sequence of a few consonants, like in
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'texts'
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or
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'worked'
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or
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'mind'
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Right, where you have a consonant sound and then another consonant sound right after.
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So people, without even noticing, they may drop the last consonant, because it's very difficult to pronounce.
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If you concentrate you may pronounce it well, but then when you go into conversation
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you may drop those end sounds, because that's how it is in Spanish and we always want to go back
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to the comfortable place, right? Go back to old habits the way we pronounce it in our native tongue.
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So this is how you should practice it.
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First of all make a list of words that have two, three, and even four consonants at the end.
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And then practice them slowly, making sure that you're hitting every single sound.
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Even if it sounds exaggerated.
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'mind'
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'worked'
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'scripts'
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Right? Exaggerate every single sound until you teach your tongue to pronounce all
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consonants, without taking any breaks, without adding vowels in between and without dropping any sounds.
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Now, this is a good place to remind you that if you want a list of those top ten mistakes
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made by Spanish speakers and also a list of words to practice with, click on the link below and download
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the practice sheet I prepared for you.
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M turns to N at the end of words.
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In Spanish, there is the 'M' consonant sound but it never appears at the end of words.
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So when it does in English, for example in the word 'Game', Spanish speakers often turn it into 'N'.
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So 'Game' will sound like 'Gain'.
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Because that does happen in Spanish, you do have words that end with 'N'.
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So it turns to 'N'and it happens usually automatically without even people noticing it.
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'some' turns to 'son'.
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'comb' turns to 'cone'.
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'beam' turns to 'bean'.
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Does that sound familiar? So here's what you need to do.
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First of all, be aware of it. And when you have words that end with 'M', make sure that your lips are closed
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because for the 'M' you close the lips.
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'M'
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And release air through the nose, for the N the tip of the tongue goes up and touches the upper palate
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and still, you release air through the nose.
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'N' 'M' 'N'
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So first of all, practice these two sounds, go back and forth from 'M' to 'N'.
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'M' 'N'
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To gain control and to be more aware of your articulation organs.
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'M' 'N'
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And then, practice words that end with 'M' and make sure that you close your lips every single time.
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'seem'
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'comb'
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'ham'
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And use a mirror if you need to.
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A z sound in the middle of words turns into an s.
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In Spanish, there is no 'Z' in the middle of the word.
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So again, the common substitution would be to turn it into the closest sound that does exist in Spanish.
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In this case 'S'.
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So a word like husband, that needs to have a 'Z' sound in the middle, will be pronounced as
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'hussband'
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'reason' will sound like 'reasson'.
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When you speak with a lot of 'S' sound instead 'Z', it may affect your clarity and overall quality of speech.
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You want to make sure that you pronounce those 'Z' correctly.
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The difference between an 'S' and a 'Z' is whether your voice is activated or not.
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So for example, let's try this, put your hands here and pronounce an 'S' sound.
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'S'
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Now just activate your voice and keep on doing whatever you're doing.
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'Z'
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'S'
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'Z'
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You want a few vibrations here.
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'Z'
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And then keep this sound as you pronounce words with a 'Z'.
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'is'
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'was'
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And yes, I know all of these words have an S in the spelling.
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But you have to remember that an S
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represents a 'Z' sound a lot, in many of the cases in the middle of words, at the end of words.
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So we need to be aware of it, and you need to make sure that you know where these words are.
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So make a list of words that have a 'Z' sound and repeat them over and over again
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making sure that you feel those vibrations.
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And that you're actually pronouncing the 'Z' sound.
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And if needed record yourself and listen to it, because sometimes we think that we're pronouncing
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a certain sound, but we don't really, and only if we listen to ourselves from the outside
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if we listen to our recording, then we can tell whether or not we're pronouncing the right sound or not.
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The y sound is pronounced as j.
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And then, a word like 'years' may sound like 'jears'.
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And 'young' may sound like 'joung'.
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The difference between the 'y' sound and the 'j' is the placement of the tongue.
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For the 'y', the back of the tongue goes up and almost touches the soft palate in the back.
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'y', you feel the sides of the tongue touch the insides of your teeth.
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'y', so you need to bring the back of the tongue back.
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'y', and 'j'.
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So again, in order to be able to master this challenge, you have to first control your pronunciation.
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And the best way to do it is to shift from one sound to another, so do it with me.
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'y'
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'j'
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'y'
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'j'
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'young' and you want to make sure that you don't hear that 'j' sound.
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'y' 'y' 'young'
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'year'
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'you' and not 'jou'.
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'you' make sure it's a little cleaner than the 'jou' sound.
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And 'yellow'.
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And it shouldn't sound like 'jello', because jello is a different word.
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And on the other hand, make sure that words that begin with the 'j' sound like
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'job' and 'just'
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are not pronounced with a 'y' sound like
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'yob' and 'yust'.
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Okay? So this substitution can go back and forth.
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So be aware of these two sounds and remember that the 'y' sound is usually represented with the letter Y.
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Similar vowels are pronounced the same. And then 'leave' and 'live' will sound the same, 'leave' 'leave'.
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'pool and 'pull' will sound the same, 'pool' 'pool'.
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Alright, so here we need to understand that these are two different sounds.
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There is the tense 'e' as in
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'he'
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'we'
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'see'
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And the relaxed 'e', as in
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'sit'
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'kid'
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'list'
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The tense 'e' is usually spelled with two vowel letters like ee, ea, ie.
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And the relaxed 'e' is usually spelled with the letter I, not always but usually.
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And the relaxed 'e' is somewhere between 'i' and 'e' in Spanish.
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Okay?
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'kid'
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'list'
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'sit'
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versus
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'he'
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'we'
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'please'
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And then we have
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'sheep' and 'ship'
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'reach' and 'rich'
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'sheet and 'shit'
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Same thing with 'pool' and 'pull', the tense 'u' is 'pool', a little longer, in comparison to 'pull'.
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It's not the same sound!
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'food' should not sound like 'foot'.
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Even though it's spelled the same, these are two different sounds. Again
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'food'
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It's a longer vowel sound, in comparison to 'foot'.
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If you want to practice more the 'sheep' - 'ship' and the 'pool' - 'pull', then
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I'll post a link to those videos in the description below.
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The v turns into a b.
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In Spanish, when there is a V in the spelling it is pronounced as a very soft B sound.
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'b' 'b'
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And then, when the V appears in English they pronounce it the same and then the word
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'very' may sound like 'berry'.
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Now, these are two different words in English, so this substitution makes you sound unclear.
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When you pronounce a V sound, you want to make sure that the bottom lip touches the top teeth.
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'v'
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A 'v' is a continuous sound.
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'v'
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And the top teeth need to touch the bottom lip.
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'v'
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A B is a stop sound where both lips touch together.
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'b' 'b'
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Even if they touch really softly.
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'b' 'b'
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It's still a different sound, it's still gonna sound more like a B rather than a V.
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So whenever there is a word that begins with a V or has a V in the middle you want to make sure
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that the bottom lip touches the top teeth and the air passes.
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'very'
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'video'
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And to practice it, you have to hold out the sound, to make sure that you're able to make it a continuous
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sound and to recognize that your top teeth touch the bottom lip.
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'v'
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'very'
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'video'
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'Valentine'
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'vibrations'
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Because you want to feel vibrations when you're pronouncing the sound.
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The American r turns into a short Spanish R.
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'R'
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Instead of
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'r'
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And then the word 'boring' may sound like 'boRing'.
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'right' will sound like 'Right'.
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And then, what you need to do is, first of all understand that the tip of the tongue should not touch anything
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when you pronounce the R sound, unlike in Spanish where the tip of the tongue touches the upper palate.
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It gives it a high five.
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'R' 'R' 'R'
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'BoRing' 'Right'
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Right? So you don't want that you want to pull back your tongue and hold it out.
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'borrr...'
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You need to curl your lips, and then pull the tongue back, the sides of the tongue
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touch the insides of the upper teeth.
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'r'
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'ring' 'right' 'ready' and not 'redy'.
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'ready'
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A good way to do it is to hold out the sound and to make sure you're pronouncing it correctly.
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And if you want to practice your 'r' a bit more then click on the link here and watch my video
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about how to pronounce the American 'r'.
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In Spanish, whenever there is an H it is silence, you don't pronounce it. So whenever it appears
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in American English, people tend to create a different sound for the H, which is instead of a
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'H' sound, more of a 'g' sound.
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So the word 'ahead' may sound like 'agead'.
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The word 'hi' may sound like 'gi'.
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'g' g' g'
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Instead of
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'H'
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You have to remember that for the H sound everything needs to be open in the back
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and it's like you're just whispering.
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'H'
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'hi'
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'horse'
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'hello'
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and not
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'g' 'g' 'gello'
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The 'g' sound happens when the tongue is high up and the body of the tongue
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almost touches the soft palate, doesn't leave a lot of room for the air to pass
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and therefore you hear this 'g' sound.
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We don't want that whenever there is an H in English. We want a lot of open space
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'H'
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So first of all, practice the sound alone.
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'H'
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It's like 'H' 'H', when you're warming up your hands when it's really cold.
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'H' 'H'
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'H' 'hi'
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'ahead'
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'hello'
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And yes, I have a video about the H sound, when you pronounce it, when you
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shouldn't pronounce it and I'll post a link to it in the description below.
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Adding vowels at the beginning of words that begin with st.
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So instead of 'street', you'll hear 'estreet'.
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In Spanish, every time there is a word that starts with st, there is always a vowel before.
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So what you're probably doing is applying this pattern automatically and every time there is a word
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that begins with st, and there are plenty of those in English, you add a vowel before.
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'street'
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'strange'
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'stripes'
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And this is how you should practice it. Start with an S sound.
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'ssssss'
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Make sure that you know what your tongue is doing for the S.
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'ssss'
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And from there, move on to the rest of the word.
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'sssssstreet'
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'sssssstay'
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'sssssstaff' and not a 'estaff'
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'stay'
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And again, I believe that awareness is key. So you'll notice that once you are aware of it
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you'll stop doing it, or at least you'll know that you're doing it and gradually be able to
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stop doing it as you speak.
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The th turns into a t or a d.
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So 'think' turns to 'tink' and 'they' turns to day.
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In most Spanish dialects, there is no th sound.
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In American English you have to stick the tongue out for the th sound.
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'th'
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In Spanish, people tend to keep the tongue inside and then it sounds like a T.
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't' 't' 'tink'
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'teory'
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Instead of 'think' and 'theory'.
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You've got to make sure that the tongue sticks out and air passes between the tongue and teeth.
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Just like with a V, it's a fricative.
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So you have to feel the air flowing between the teeth and the tongue.
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'th' 'think'
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That's the voiceless th and it's substituted with a T sound, in comparison to
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'th' 'they'
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The voiced th, which is substituted with a D sound.
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'day' 'day'
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So make sure that the tongue is out and it's soft and you allow the air to pass.
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And you can stretch this sound forever.
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'th'
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Okay, that's it! Thank you so much for watching.
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These are the top ten pronunciation mistakes made by Spanish speakers.
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Now, of course, these mistakes are common for not only Spanish speakers, but other speakers as well.
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But the combination of the ten is very common for many speakers of different dialects of Spanish.
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Leave a comment below, tell me if you find yourself making any one of those mistakes.
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And tell me where you're from.
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Thank you so much for watching. Don't forget to subscribe and I'll see you next week in the next video.
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