Pronunciation - N, KN

483,857 views ・ 2013-06-21

English with Ronnie


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

00:03
"What's new?" Has anyone ever said that to you before? And you don't understand what
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they've said to you? "What's new?" New York. New Jersey. No, "what's new?" is another way
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of saying, "Hello. How are you?"
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And my name's Ronnie. Today, I'm going to teach you about the letter "N", written like
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this in the capital. Hah! Where's my marker gone? It's disappeared. Written in the smaller
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case, it is like this "n."
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So, a lot of people have difficulty pronouncing the letter "N". This lesson is for Rick. Rick,
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you typed in a beautiful comment and said, "Ronnie, I cannot pronounce the letter "N"
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properly. Can you help me?" And I said, "Sure, Rick." This lesson's for you.
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01:00
Today's lesson is "n" as in "knew" Hah! What's this? What is a dirty little "k" doing here
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in front of the "n"? Did you know that in English, if you have the "kn" like this, the
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"k" - shhh -- is silent. So this word "knew" is the exact same pronunciation, as this word
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"new". Shocking, I know.
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So if I take my magic red marker, and all of a sudden, this will make sense to you,
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with the "kn" sound, the delightful little "k," you don't say it, it's silent. Don't
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say it. Don't ever say it like "canoe"; "canoe" is like the boat that you row. Mm-mm, so when
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we say this word it's the exact same word, as this word, "knew" - "new"
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Now when you want to say the "n" word! Hah! The "n-word" -- I would never say that. What
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you want to do is you want to put your tongue, huh, at the top of your mouth. And it has
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to be spread across your mouth and hitting the back of your teeth. So, your whole tongue
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is going to cover all of the top of your mouth, and you're going to press your tongue up and
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go "n-n-n-n-n-n-n-n-n-n-n-n".
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The "n-n-n-n-n-n" sound is voiced. That means if you put your hands here, it vibrates. So,
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if you go "n-n-n-n-n", "n-n-n-n-n", it's easily confused with the "m-m-m-m-m", with the "M"
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sound. The difference, "n-n-n-n-n", is that your mouth is open and your tongue is all
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the way up, pressed against the top of your mouth for the "N".
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With the "M" sound, your mouth is closed. Your mouth is closed, "m-m-m-m-m", and your
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tongue is in the middle of your mouth. So, "n-n-n-n-n" and "m-m-m-m-m"; so now you have
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the "n-n-n-n-n" pronunciation, that's cool.
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This word again, because it's a "k" and an "n" together, and a "w." What's happened here?
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English is strange. This word is actually the exact same word as "no." So the difference
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in meaning - you guys might know the difference; "know" means to understand. And this "no"
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means negative. So, "I know" the spelling is like this. But, "no" there're no silent letters.
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This word "knew" is the past tense of "know." So you can say, "I knew that, Ronnie." This
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word "new" means it's not old. Okay, so "new" is the opposite of old.
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We're going to go on to some other "n" words to help you study your pronunciation. So with
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your tongue at the roof of your mouth you say "n-n-never", "n-n-never". Then you have
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the word "n-n-now", "now". It rhymes with the word "cow" - now, cow "n-never", "now".
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The magic twist, sometimes you want to twist your neck and it makes a cracking sound. This
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part of your body is called your "neck". Sometimes you have a sore "neck" because you're watching
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too many YouTube videos. It's all right. Just give it a crack, and you'll be fine, and "neck".
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05:05
And the word "night" there's also another "kn" spelling for this. It is exactly the
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same pronunciation, but this word "knight" means an old warrior that rode around on horseback.
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So, you will see medieval knights or Knights of the Round Table, if you're into knighting.
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The pronunciation is the same. The meaning is different. So you have to be very confused
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about this "kn" thing, again, so a "knight" is basically a warrior from the olden times,
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and "night" is the opposite of day.
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There's another exception. If you go to the beautiful land of America or in some places
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in Canada, and I'm sure the UK, you might see a word like this. And you go "'nite."
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Oh, hah! Oh, oh, oh, hold on. That makes sense. The spelling makes sense there. Sometimes
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Americans do it well.
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This word is the exact same word as this one. They just don't mess around with all the extra
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letters. So, this word is the same as this word "night". A difference in American and
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British spelling. If you go to fast food restaurants or a lot of advertising, even in Canada you
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will see this word written [informally].
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There's one more I'd like to teach you, "knot" and "not." This "knot" again, the "k" is silent.
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And it has the exact pronunciation as don't do it, "not." This "knot" is when you tie
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something together, doodle-loodle-loodle-loo, like your shoe, you make a "knot".
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This "not" is again, a negative sentence saying, "I am not going to do that knot." Hm, so sometimes
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they may appear in the same sentence. If you knew this already, but you need some refreshment,
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have a beer. If you'd like to know more about the "n-n-n-n-n" pronunciation, try it now,
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"un-n-n-n-n-til next time, goodbye.
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