How to pronounce Bourgeois [broken down and explained] | American English

111,726 views ・ 2018-02-08

Accent's Way English with Hadar


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

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Have you noticed that I put on my gold earrings to get into character?
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I feel very bourgeois today.
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The word "Bourgeois" does make me speak with the vocal fry: Bourgeois.
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Anyway, today we are going to talk about the word Bourgeois.
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We're going to learn how to pronounce it and when to use
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it, and what it actually means.
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According to dictionary.com: number one - a member of the middle class, and number
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two - a person whose political, economic, and social opinions are believed to be
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determined mainly by concern for property values and conventional respectability.
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Now, the word Bourgeois is derived from French.
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This is why we have this weird spelling pattern with a lot of
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letters that we don't pronounce, but what's new, that's English.
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To pronounce the word Bourgeois we start with a B sound, so make
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sure to close your lips - 'b'.
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You don't want it to sound like a V sound or anything like that - 'b'.
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And then it's the 'ur' as in "poor".
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01:01
So, it's not an 'oo' sound, it's not 'boorgeois'.
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It's not an 'o' sound, it's not 'bOrgeois', it's
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right there in the middle.
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Because why be specific if you can be vague?
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Make sure that the tongue doesn't go up too quickly, and then it sounds
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something like 'bur', burgeois'.
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It's not a huge mistake, and everyone will still understand you.
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So if this is the only way you can make it, by all means, do it.
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But if you want to be more accurate, try to pronounce this 'ur' as in poor.
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You hear transition here, and the tongue is not going up
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until the end of the vowel.
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'pur', 'bur', 'bur'.
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Then, although it looks like you're about to say 'goiz', or something like
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that, the S is not pronounced, and the G represents a 'j' sound as in "vision".
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'bur-j', and then W sound: 'wa', 'jwa'.
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That's the second syllable - 'jwa'.
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The last vowel is the 'aa' as in "father", you see it's the same sound.
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So you drop your jaw quite a lot, relax your lips, pull
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the tongue back: 'bur-JWAA'.
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So, there is this motion here.
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Now, since I'm feeling a little bourgeois today, I want to start
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a conversation by asking you what the word bourgeois means to you.
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What comes up when you think of this word?
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I'm really curious, and I'm sure it's going to spark an interesting
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conversation because there are so many people from all around the world
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here, so let me know what you think.
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That's it.
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Thank you for watching.
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Please share this video with your friends, if you liked it.
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And don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel and click on
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the bell to get notifications, so you'll know when I'm having a live
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lesson or when I upload a new video.
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Thank you so much for watching, and I will see you see you
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next week in the next video.
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