How to Pronounce Were, Word, World | American English

Hi, My name is Hadar and this is a pronunciation tip in The Accent's Way.

Many foreign speakers find very difficult to pronounce the words 'words',

'world'. Actually it's words that begin with a W. They have one vowel letter and

then the R - "w-r". "Were". Now in this case, in all the following words that we're

going to practice, all the vowel sounds are actually the same, although they

might be spelled with different letters. For example, in the word 'were'. Now this is

going to be the base anchor word that we're going to use - W-E-R-E - "were". Basically,

we want to feel that we're pronouncing the W by rounding our lips and going

directly to the R without any vowels in the middle -"w-r" "w-r" - and we lift our

tongue slightly for the R - "w-r" "w-r". It's not pronounced as 'where', as in 'where are

you?', or 'where were you?'. It's pronounced as "wer". Look at my lips. They're still

rounded throughout the entire word basically - "wer". Now, if this is the anchor

word, let's take that word and add a K at the end - "wer-k" "wer-k". Work. Work. So although

it's spelled with an O in comparison, to the E that is in the word 'were', we still

hear and pronounce it the same - "work" "were" "work".

Next, let's add a D at the end - "wer-d"

"wer-d". "Word" "word". Work. Word. I work on a Word document.

Now, let's add an M at the end - "mmm" "wer-m", "worm".

"Worm. It's not "warm", 'warm' like the weather, its

'worm'. Worm. Next, we'll take the T-H at the end - "wer-th" - and here we have the word 'worth'.

Is it worth it? Is it worth it for the worm to say warm? Worm. Worth. Now, let's

take the L-D consonant cluster at the end - "wer-ld", "ld".

Now, here the L has to be heard and then we end it with a D. Notice that the L and

the D our positioned at the same place - "ld" - right behind the teeth on that

little bridge when the flesh starts to, when you feel the flesh.

"Ld". "Wer", just like the 'wer' in 'were' and 'work' and 'world'. World. World. If it sounds to

you like 'word', then you're probably not pronouncing the L. World.

Where were you? Where were you? Third-world country. "Third", that's the same sound sound - "er".

Third-world country. We were working. "We were", round your lips, "were working." We

were working in this world. We were working in this world. Good! So keep

practicing these words and you have some more words to practice after the

following video.

The more you drill it, the more it becomes your nature, so you've got to do it

over and over and over until you feel comfortable, you make it your own and

then when you speak you're not going to have to think about it. It's just going

to happen. So, practice. Now, practice "were",

"work", "word", "worth", "worm", "worse", "world".