10 MOST Difficult Words to Pronounce in English PART 2 | British English Lesson

62,755 views ・ 2017-09-15

Eat Sleep Dream English


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Welcome back to another Eat Sleep Dream English video. If you haven't met me before my name
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is Tom and I teach fresh modern British English so that you can take your English to the next
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level and achieve your life goals. Today we've got a really important lesson. Now I know
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how much you guys love pronunciation videos so today I'm going to take you through ten
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really difficult words to pronounce in English and by the end you'll be able to pronounce
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them perfectly. So if you are ready, let's do this!
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First of all thanks to all of you that wrote in on Facebook and Instagram telling me which
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words were the most difficult for you to pronounce. I've tried to include as many as i can. I
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couldn't do all of them so I promise that I'll try and do another video at some point
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with all the other words. Another thing to remember guys is that I teach British English
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and therefore my pronunciation will be mostly British English. Now British English comes
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in all different accents. Mine is a London accent so I'm going to teach the pronunciation
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that I have. It's not the only pronunciation ok. There are many different varieties. I
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can only teach the one that I have.
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Ok, our first pair of words are these two. Now these two are very commonly mispronounced.
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Now we have thing and think. And they are very similar. The first thing we've got going
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on is the /th/ that th /th/. This is a difficult sound if you are not sure how to position
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your mouth. So that's really important, is what are we doing with our mouth? Well the
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first thing, to make the /th/ sound. We need our tongue, touching our top teeth, ok? So
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tongue, top teeth and we are blowing air out. Thing. Now to make the /ing/ I'm bringing
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my tongue down on to the bottom of my mouth, thing. So starting on my top teeth and then
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coming down as I make the sound, thing. And it's a kind of -ing sound, you've got a vibration
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just there, thing. Ok, now the other word, think, same sound so -th sound that -th think
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and you're bringing the tongue down 'think' and at the end you just add the /k/ sound
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which comes from the back so you are pushing air out again /k/. So 'think'. Ok, so let's
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try this one 'thing' 'think'. Ok, let's do a practice sentence.Ok, you're turn. Ok, let's
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try another practice sentence. You're turn. Alright, so thing and think. Practise guys.
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Remember this is really important when you are doing pronunciation practise, practise,
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practise, ok? So repeating it as I do it, stopping the video and repeating. It's really
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important. Ok, let's move on to the next one.
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So many of you asked me about this one. These two words here similar sounds, we've got girl
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and world. It's that -rl combination that you are finding so difficult. So let's try,
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I'm going to go really slow with this one so you can see what happening with my mouth.
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Ok, here we go. 'Girl' 'World' Can you see what's happening with my mouth? So, first
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of all, my mouth is open and it's starting, it's opening up quite big. So 'girl' and then
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as I come out of the girl sound as I finish the word my mouth closes again and my tongue.
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Watch what my tongue does. 'Girl' so my tongue goes down and then it comes back up again
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to finish that sound. Let's try again. 'Girl'. Ok, so my tongue kind of comes back up and
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slightly pulls in to my mouth, so 'girl' and I'm finishing in that position 'girl'. A similar
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sound with 'world', exactly the same 'world' so my mouth opens up and then closes again.
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The tongue finishes coming back up 'world'. Alright, it sounds very strange when you do
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it slowly but 'girl' 'world'. Now the sound in British English is different from American
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English. In American English it's a much stronger /r/ so it's 'girl' whereas in English it's
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'girl' not quite so pronounced the /r/ there. Alright, let's do a practise sentence. Ok,
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This word has two different pronunciations. We have 'our' as in the letter /r/ or the
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very to be but with they 'they are' 'our' or 'our' like minutes and hours 'our' so you
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can use both. 'Our' or 'our' it depends on what you feel at the time. I think I use both
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to be honest. I probably usually say our but both are totally fine, totally normal so which
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ever you prefer you use that 'our' or 'our'. Both totally fine.
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This next word also has two different pronunciations. One of them is American English and one of
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them is British English however I commonly use both. So I don't think it's that important
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which one is American and which one is British English just that there are two pronunciations
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and you can use either one you want, don't worry too much about whether it's British
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English or American English, just use both, ok? The first pronunciation is 'schedule'
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and that is the American English pronunciation. In British English we would say 'schedule'
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so it's the -sh sound. So in American English -sk in British English -sh 'schedule'. As
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I said, I use both, I don't really think of them as being one American and one British,
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I just, whatever I feel like saying I'll say it and I think a lot of people feel the same.
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So let's do the American English again 'schedule' in British English 'schedule'. And the stress
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is on the first syllable 'schedule' Alright, an example sentence. Alright,
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this word causes a lot of problems but it's actually really simple. Two syllables 'mirror'.
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It's not mir or, 'mirror' it's really easy 'mirror'. A similar word 'error' So we are
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using that schwa sound, the -eh, which is the most common sound in the English language,
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Let's tackle three words that are spelled very similarly but the pronunciation is very
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different. Ok, the first one 'though' kind of means like however 'though'. So the -th
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sound. Now we know that there are two different ways to pronounce that -th. Here it's 'though'.
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This is a voiced sound, you feel it in your throat 'though'. How we make that sound is
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we put the tongue up against the top teeth and we make a kind of humming sound in your
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throat. Sounds like a bee flying around or something . And then to create the 'o' we
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release the tongue 'though' and open the mouth 'though'. Good so that's the first word 'though'.
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Now this word we're adding the /r/ but the -th sound totally changes. Now we're moving
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to the other sound which is, it's the voiceless sound 'through'. So here remember with thing
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and think we're putting the tongue against the teeth and we're blowing air out. You can
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feel the air on your hand 'through' and then my lips are going outwards. 'Through'. Alright
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and the last word in this little combination 'thorough'. If you do something thoroughly
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you do something properly, completely. So it's the same -th sound 'thorough'. So the
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first word was though, with the voiced, then through, voiceless with the air and then thorough
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was the last sound. Though, through, thorough. -Th spelling but different sounds each time.
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Alright here's a really tricky one 'regularly' here are four syllables there however when
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we say it we cheat slightly. We make life easier for ourselves by just saying 'regularly'.
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So three sounds there 'regularly. The stress is on the first syllable 'regularly'. Alright,
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good job 'regularly'.Alright the final one, we're going to look at the difference between
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this word and this word. Very similar sounds in many ways however it's what we do with
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out lips and our tongue that really determine which word we say. So the first one 'free'.
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Now in this word my lips are doing a lot of work 'free' and they open up as the sound
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comes out 'free'. My tongue isn't really doing anything in this one so 'free' it's not touching
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anything it's not moving anywhere so just let it relax. Now the other word 'three' the
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tongue is really important because just like with thing and think 'three' the tongue is
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touching the top teeth, we're blowing air out 'three'. So this word 'free', this word
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'three' 'free 'three' 'free' three'. Now there's a great tongue twister for this one and it's
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to do with basketball. I don't know if you have every played basketball but in basketball
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they have something called a free fro. Sorry a free throw, a free throw.
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That's a tough one. Ok, practise that one because that's really going to get you to think about the
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sounds that you're making and particularly the lips and the tongue and what you are doing
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with them to help you make the right sounds. Guys how was that? Did you enjoy that lesson?
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Which words do you find most difficult to pronounce? Let me know in the comments below.
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I've done lots of other pronunciation videos that will help you to say them perfectly in
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British English. Check them out, they are just above me right now. And if you'd like
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any other pronunciation videos please let me know, I really enjoy these ones. I think
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they are so helpful and so useful for you guys. i know the feedback you give me, tells
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me how useful they are. So yeah, if you'd like me to do any other ones let me know and
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remember guys if you haven't already discovered my Patreon page I would love you to go check
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it out. It's a community where I offer extra English resources for you guys, ok? So go
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check it out, if you haven't already. The link will be below and also at the end. So
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please go check out my Patreon page. I have some wonderful Patrons there who are getting
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extra English materials to help them take their English to the next level. Also guys
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remember my new videos are out every Tuesday, every Friday. Hit that subscribe button so
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that you don't miss any of my lessons. Thank you so much as always guys, this is Tom, the
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Chief Dreamer, saying goodbye.
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