My secret English vowel pronunciation trick!

Buh-clue.

Hi.

I'm Ronnie.

I have something that...

Oh my god, this is amazing.

Honestly, this lesson will change your life.

It changed my life when my good friend, Leaf, told me about this.

Leaf, thank you; grammar god, you are pronunciation god - Leaf.

Awesome.

So, I've been trying to figure this out for ages, years, maybe 100 years because I'm a

vampire, and I got it.

Thank you.

Are you confused about the pronunciation of vowels in English?

So, for example, we have a long vowel sound, and a long vowel sound means that the vowel

sounds like its alphabet name.

So, for example: "a".

But in English, we also have: "aw" and "a".

Different ways to pronounce the vowels.

One of them is a long vowel sound, so "a" is pronounced like "a".

Then we also have a short vowel sound where "a" is going to be pronounced like: "ah".

And how do you know when you read a new word to say it like "a" or "ah"?

I have the answer.

Oh, it's amazing.

I...

Okay, I get really excited about things a little bit too much; but this, I'm just super

excited about it.

And I want to teach you this - and, geez, it's going to change the way that you read

things, the way that you learn English.

So, give me some money or something.

Just, enjoy.

Listen.

It's amazing.

So, we have some guidelines.

Now, I want to make perfectly clear that people like to say "grammar rules", and Ronnie hates

rules.

I'm Ronnie.

I do not like rules because they're made to be broken; and in English, there's always

exceptions to rules.

So, you study a rule and you learn it, and then you go: "Oh", but no - sorry; that's

an exception.

And then you say: "Why?"

Maybe you ask someone, maybe you ask your teacher: "Teacher, why?" and the teacher goes:

"I don't know."

So, please think of these as only guidelines; life-changing guidelines, though.

Okay?

I'm telling you.

So, we have words that have two vowels.

Okay?

So: "a", "e", "i", "o", "u", and sometimes "y" are vowels.

But this is our guideline: If in the word you have two vowels, the first...

Oh, I'm sorry.

The first vowel sound...

The first vowel in the word is going to sound like its alphabet name or it's going to sound

like a long vowel sound.

The second vowel, it's silent; we don't even say the second vowel.

Crazy.

So, in English, if there's an "e" at the end of the word - we don't say it.

In all of the other languages of the world, we say all the vowels; but English, oh no.

The "e" is silent; we don't say that.

So, if you have two vowels in the word, for example: "a" and "e", we're going to say the

first vowel like it sounds like in the alphabet, so "a".

We're going to say: "ba", and we do not say: "bak-e"; we say "bake".

So, the first vowel is going to sound like the alphabet: "bake".

What about this one?

We don't say: "fah-me", like "ah"; we say: "fame".

And, again, we don't say the last vowel in the word.

So, this works with two-vowel words.

The "a" we pronounce like an "a", and the "e" or the second vowel is silent.

One more time the rule; it's life-changing.

The first vowel sounds like its alphabet name, the second vowel is silent; we don't say it.

Let's try this again.

So, this is "a".

The next letter.

What's this vowel sound or what's this sound in the English alphabet?

"A", "e".

So, we say: "these".

We don't say: "the-se", "the-se".

"Look at the-se.

Look at these."

So, again, we're going to say the "e" like an "e", and the second "e" is silent.

This is amazing.

Woo-hoo.

This word.

So, you look: "dre-am".

"I had an amazing dre-am last night; I was flying."

But it's actually just a dream.

So, one vowel we're going to say "e", the second vowel is silent.

So, we don't say: "dre-am"; we say: "dream".

"I had a dream."

Did you have a dream last night or now?

Are you imagining this?

No.

No, no, no.

This is real.

Get back into this.

It's amazing.

Let's see with this letter.

What letter is this?

Now, this is hard for you guys because in your languages maybe this is "uh" and this

is "e", but in English, this is "i".

So, watch this trick.

Put an eye-woo-hoo-on your "i".

So, this is the pronunciation of the letter "i".

So, this word is "pie".

We don't say: "pi-e".

"I'd like some pi-e, please."

This word is "ice"; we don't say: "ic-e" or "ec-e".

Okay?

So, again, we're going to say the "i" like an eye, and the "e" is silent.

"Pie", "ice".

Well, this is making sense.

I wonder who made this guideline.

Why didn't they tell me before?

This word: "drone".

Do you know what a drone is?

Do you know what pie is?

It's delicious.

But a drone is something that...

Like, a remote control aircraft that you can make fly and find aliens.

What?

If you don't know what a drone is, Google it, because I'm not Google.

So...

Or Yahoo, whatever.

A drone, we're going to say the "o" sound.

"O".

So, we're going to say: "drone"; not "drune", not...

Again, we're going to pronounce this like an "o"; we're going to say: "drone".

What about this word?

This is confusing English.

"Soap" and "soup" Hmm.

Again, these are guidelines.

So, "soap", we don't say: "so-ap".

"I used some so-ap yesterday.

It was delicious."

We say: "soap".

So, we don't even say the "e" because the second vowel is silent.

We only say the first vowel.

It doesn't have to be an "e" at the end; if there's two vowels together, we're going to

say the first one here and we're not going to say the second one.

Damn, this is great.

Great content, Ronnie.

The next one, oo, so cute.

Eee.

"Cute", again, "u", "u", "u'.

You, you're cute.

So, "cute" is "c-u-t-e", so we say: "cute".

What's this word?

This is a girl's name, it's "Sue".

It's also a verb.

So, we say: "u".

"Sue" and "cute".

Again, we're not going to say the "e" at the end of the word.

Are you getting this?

This is fun, this is easy; I love this.

Now, English just became easier for me; and I can imagine you, too, I hope.

So, let's go to the second one.

So, remember: If in one word you have two vowels together or two vowels, the first one

is going to sound like its alphabet name and the second one-shh-is silent; we don't say

it.

Okay?

If we have one vowel...

So, if we have a word that only has one vowel, then our game is a little bit different.

And, again, this is a guideline; not a rule.

The vowel sounds like a relative.

Now, not your aunt or your uncle.

A relative means, as I said, the short vowel sound.

So, instead of having "a", it's "ah".

So, we don't say: "hayd"; we say: "had", because there's one vowel - it's going to be the short

vowel.

We don't say: "jaym"; we say...

Oh, hi, James.

We don't say: "jaym"; we say: "jam".

So, these vowels are "ah"; not "a" because there's no vowel...

There's no two vowels; there's one.

The next one: "I'm going to go to bed.

I'm not going to go to bead", but I'm going to go to "bed".

If we said it like this, it would be "bead" and this would be "beand", which sounds like

I'm from New Zealand now.

So "uh": "bed"; "uh": "bend".

There's only one vowel, so you're going to say it like a short vowel - "bed", "bend".

Next one, it's a man and it's "him" - "uh", "uh".

This word: "pin", "pin".

"I have pins.

I have safety pins as a bracelet."

Don't steal my idea.

"Him", "uh"; and "pin", "uh".

We don't say...

Oh, I can't even say this: "he-, hime.

Hime.

Hime.

Did you see hime?

This pine is amazing."

So, we say: "him" and "pin".

In this letter, "o", if it's said like the alphabet, it's "o"; but when it's like this,

it's "aw".

"Aw".

So it more sounds like this.

"Aw".

Some people...

If you're cute-oo, oo, ute-if you say: "Aw, you're cute."

So, this word is: "hot", this "aw" sound and this is "snot".

Do you know what "snot" means?

It's one of my favourite words.

"Snot" is something that comes out of your nose if you have a cold, with liquid, like

nose water.

We don't say "nose water" in English; we call it "snot".

Yup.

So, snot-woo-hoo-mucous - we don't say: "snowt"; we say: "snot", like the word "not".

We don't say: "sume"; we say "uh": "some".

So, we don't use the "u"; we use "uh".

And we don't get on the "baws"; we get on the "bus".

So we have "some" and "bus".

Do you understand this?

I hope so.

I think the most difficult one is the two-vowel guideline - that one has been plaguing me

for years.

I am teaching you English, but I'm not te-aching you English.

I'm only teaching you.

So, if you'd like to grab a cup of tea and review this, I promise it will make your pronunciation

of English words, when you're reading new words, like a breeze, which means very, very

easy.

And, again, thanks to Leaf.

Wow.

And thanks to everyone out there for watching.

I'm Ronnie, and I will te-ach you soon.

No, I mean teach.

Bye.