Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.
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Hi, it's Hadar.
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And this is the Accent's Way,
your way to finding clarity,
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confidence, and freedom in English.
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I wanna talk to you today about
the two words - staff versus stuff.
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Staff and stuff.
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Now, these two words are very similar,
except for one sound - the middle vowel.
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You have the A as in 'cat' - staff,
and the 'uh' as in 'cup' - stuff.
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A versus 'uh'.
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Staff and stuff.
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Now here's the thing.
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Most non-native speakers don't
have the A sound in their language.
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However, they do have this really small,
neutral 'uh' sound in their language,
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that is closer to the 'uh' as in 'cup'.
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So it's very easy to pronounce
the word 'stuff', but the word
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'staff' is a little harder to say.
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This is why a lot of non-native
speakers reduce this A sound into this
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very familiar, neutral 'uh' sound.
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But then the word 'staff' turns
into 'stuff', and then they both
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sound the same: stuff and stuff.
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Okay?
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So what I think you should do is
focus on pronouncing the word 'staff',
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focusing on the A as in 'cat'.
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So, to make this vowel, you drop
your jaw a lot, and pull the
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lips to the sides a bit - A.
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As you can see, my tongue pushes
forward, the tip of the tongue
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touches the bottom teeth, right,
right behind the bottom teeth.
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And the tongue is flat and forward.
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A, A, all right?
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Now, we have the 'st', and then you open
it to the A as in 'cat' - 'sta', staff.
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Versus 'stuff'.
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For this one, you just relax your
jaw, relax your tongue, relax your
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lips, release a short, quick sound.
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It's like a stressed schwa - stuff.
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'staff' versus 'stuff'.
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Let's try it in a sentence.
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'Her staff brought her
personal stuff to the meeting'.
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All right.
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So make sure these two
words sound differently.
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Her staff.
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Not 'her stuff brought her
stuff', but 'her staff brought her
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personal stuff to the meeting'.
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Staff versus stuff.
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If you need more help, go check out my
video 'cap, cup and cop', where I cover
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the three A sounds in American English:
the front A as in 'cap', the central 'uh'
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as in 'cup', and the back AA as in 'cop'.
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cap - cup - cop.
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staff - stuff.
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All right, that's it.
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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.
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You can also come and check out
my website for more content.
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And subscribe to my newsletter to get
it to your inbox every single week.
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Have a great week, and I will see
you next week in the next video.
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Bye.
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