BEST English Pronunciation Lessons - How to Improve NOW

hi guys I'm Gabby Wallace and this is a go  natural English lesson in this lesson I'm going  

to show you how to improve your listening and your  speaking skills I want to reveal a secret sound  

that we have in English that you would never know  about by just looking at the way we spell words  

so this is really going to help your pronunciation  and also your comprehension of the sounds that you  

hear people making or the words that you hear  people saying all right so this is a sound that  

comes from our stress patterns in English  every English word that has more than two  

syllables or two syllables or more is going  to have a strong or a stressed syllable and  

a weak or an unstressed syllable all right so  the strong syllable is really a bully and kind  

of punches the weak syllable in the stomach  and it makes a sound that sounds like this uh  

uh just like getting punched in the stomach hey  that's how I remember this sound it's called schwa  

but the name of the sound doesn't really matter  what matters is that you understand that English  

has this sound on unstressed syllables and it's  caused by the fact that the stressed syllable is  

so strong that it makes the unstressed syllable  sound weak and gives the sound uh so let's take  

a look at some examples I can show you how  each of the vowel sounds a e i o u becomes  

transformed into uh when you found when you  find these vowels in Weak syllables let's do it  

I've circled the weak syllable I've underlined  the strong syllable so listen to the word again  

it's not a gain it's again all right next vitamin  vitamin all right so you can hear the uh there  

and the uh there next events events a vent not  event event celebrate it's not celebrate it's

braids

this sound is kind of similar to getting  punched in the stomach but it's also kind  

of similar to that noise that some people  make when they're not sure what to say uh  

okay so let's look at the i words the eye  vowel here president so it's not president or  

president it's president okay and experiment  kind of similar to president experiment

the circled syllables are much shorter also than a  stressed syllable so that's how we have this small  

sound uh these syllables are shortened and if you  can produce this sound it's really going to help  

your pronunciation and your flow because we have  to shorten the syllable I I can't say president  

and speak in a natural way the natural flow of  English requires you to make a strong syllable  

and a weak syllable president all right next  official it's not oh fish shell it's official  

official condition similarly we  start with an uh sound condition  

and oh I also circled over here because it also  sounds like an uh sound con did shun hmm great and  

last we have the u sound which is really similar  to the schwa sound anyway but here we go campus  

campus like your college campus it's not campus  it's canvas and last we have support support  

in this English tip I'm going to answer a great  question from Hafiz Hafiz you're an awesome  

member of the go natural English Community online  and you asked about how to link words together  

that my friend is a huge secret to be able to  understand American English and to speak more  

like a native so I want to share some examples and  some answers with you now this English tip is also  

brought to you by the go natural English fluent in  15 course inside the course you're going to learn  

more about topics like this one like how to link  words together to understand American English and  

to speak more like a native the course is based  entirely on real spontaneous American English  

conversations so you learn subconsciously Without  Really Trying and it's a lot of fun we have a  

great community and we support each other there's  a great conversation going on every day people are  

talking back and forth in our online group so when  I say talking I mean a lot of chatting texting  

and some people are getting together online to  practice together one-on-one anyway I want to  

share this answer with you about how to link words  now it's difficult to give you steadfast rules  

that hold true for every situation that's just not  really how English works it's not black and white  

and people speak differently so when some people  might link words together other people will not  

also if you're in a more formal situation people  tend not to link words together or reduce them  

if you're in a more informal or casual situation  people definitely speak in a more relaxed way  

they will link and reduce words together now I  was thinking about how to give you some advice  

and some answers about your question and the song  came to mind I Wanna Dance With Somebody alright  

so that is a great song from the 80s I want to  feel the hate with somebody okay so the lesson  

here is not that I'm a great singer or that I'm a  great dancer I know you were thinking that thank  

you but the lesson is that want to reduces into  one word wanna so oftentimes you will hear one  

I Wanna Dance I want to do something so almost  always those two words reduce into wanna which  

sounds like one word but it's not it's two that  reduce and Link together reduce is when two words  

will lose sounds and come together want to want  ends in a t two begins in a t so the t's just  

blend together we don't hear them we don't hear  wants to we hear wanna the t's disappear crazy huh  

okay here are three other examples that are really  common how are you I rarely hear people say this  

question in this way unless they're being really  dramatic or they want to be overly clear we say  

how are you so how and are kind of blend together  they link together we say how are you so part  

of this is that the verb are is not stressed it  could be right as I mentioned before people speak  

differently some people may want to emphasize the  verb how are you it's a very common way that you  

might hear this question now it's your choice how  you ask this question but a lot of people will say  

how are you and you might miss that they're  asking how are you next example are you busy  

we could link together the words are you are you  busy so you is not really stressed so we lose the  

full word are you busy next what are you doing  we can link these sounds together what you doing  

wow that's really casual what you doing but you'll  hear people linking together the words what are  

you into what ya what you doing so let me hear  you say these phrases the first one how are you

good next are you busy good what you doing

good okay excellent so as I said there's a  lot more phrases than these where we'll find  

reduced sounds and words linking together but  I only have time to share three with you right  

now so if you're interested in learning  more come on over to gonaturalenglish.com  

fluent15 that's f-l-u-e-n-t-one five I  have a great question from a member of  

the go natural English audience Ali Mah mood  asks how do you say words that have rth like

w-o-r-t-h-n-o-r-t-h-b-i-r-t-h Ali great question  these words are not so easy especially if you're  

coming from a traditional English classroom  where you learn how to read before you learn  

how to speak these words are really important  to learn through your ears learn them with the  

sounds not by the way you read them there are a  lot of words in English that have r t h letter  

combinations of course I can't teach all of those  words in one episode because it would be way too  

long but I do teach them in the go natural English  premium course I teach a lot of pronunciation in  

that course and you can find out if the premium  course is right for you at gonaturalenglish.com  

I hope you'll join and learn more now the art  age combination is it's really important to  

understand that the vowel that comes before the r  is really important you'll all you'll always have  

a vowel there so you have to include the vowel  sound with the rth but actually the good news is  

it's always the same vowel sound regardless of  the spelling so I think the mistake the problem  

that a lot of English Learners have is that you  want to read the vowel in the way that you learn  

it in the alphabet like o should be o right so  with the word w-o-r-t-h you're thinking Warth  

which is incorrect with the word n-o-r-t-h  you're thinking North which is correct  

uh with b-i-r-th you're thinking beers which is  incorrect um now most words that have rth are  

there have they have what you call an R colored  vowel which means the vowel just sounds like e  

so er when combined with r Earth so like worth  w-o-r-t-h is worth North is an exception birth  

is the same ER so even though worth and birth have  completely different vowels o and I they have the  

same vowel sound worth birth and North which is  a nice exception English is full of exceptions  

don't you love it so if you'd like to learn more  about pronunciation remember that you can try  

the premium course at gonaturalenglish.com I'd  love for you to join I really break down how to  

create those sounds using your mouth and exactly  what you should be doing with your teeth tongue  

lips like pronunciation is all about how you move  your mouth so it's really important to understand  

the mechanics so for this episode that is all I  want you to practice repeating those three words  

worth birth and North hey there my amazing English  learner how are you today I hope you're doing  

awesome now I know that you are curious about  English pronunciation and if you're here it's  

because you probably want to learn North American  English pronunciation with me gabby your English  

teacher I am from the United States and I'm a  native North American English speaker with kind  

of a standard American dialect but there are a  lot of words out there that might be confusing  

maybe you don't know what is the right correct  proper way to pronounce them and did you know  

that there are some words that native English  speakers don't even agree on how to pronounce  

that's right because North America is very big  and when you consider there are different Regional  

dialects or accents even within the United States  we have several words that can be pronounced both  

a one of two ways either way is correct so in this  English video Lesson I'm going to share 11 words  

that can be pronounced two different ways and  both ways are correct so if you're curious about  

what these words are and how to pronounce them  properly then keep watching hey just before we  

dive into the lesson I want you to know you can  get my best free English video lessons directly  

in your email inbox if you like that simply join  my free email group by clicking on the link in  

the description or in the card right up there  I hope to see you inside the group now let's  

begin with our lesson the first word that can  be pronounced one of two different ways both  

correctly is something that I like to put on my  sandwiches and in fact I also like to put this  

condiment on my French fries it is mayonnaise or  as some people say mayonnaise both are correct  

next we have a delicious sweet it's a bit chewy  but it's very good caramel you might see caramel  

apples especially in the fall they're very popular  but some people say caramel both are correct now  

when I was a kid I loved doing artwork I loved  drawing and most of the time as most children do  

I made my drawings with crayons crayons but some  people say crayons and both ways are correct now  

today you might notice my beautiful earrings which  are in the category of jewelry I say jewelry some  

people say jewelry that's a big difference a  couple additional syllables jewelry or jewelry  

if you want to buy a house or sell a house you  probably want to get the help of a realtor or  

some people would call A realtor both are correct  and they're the same word with the same meaning in  

fact if you want to help people to buy and sell  houses you might become a realtor next if you do  

buy that house you're going to need home insurance  insurance or some people say insurance it's just a  

different way of stressing the stressed syllable  it's just a different syllable that's stressed  

depending on where people are from in the United  States so I say insurance but some of my friends  

say Insurance next one of my favorite snack foods  is a nut a very healthy nut called an almond I  

actually say the L usually slightly almond but  most people would say almond ends almond was  

no l sound did you know that I'm an only child  that means I don't have any sisters or brothers  

and that means that I won't be officially on aunt  or an aunt both are the same some people say Aunt  

some people say aunts however ants can also be the  name of a little insect but both are correct aunts  

or aunts but I will be an aunt when my friends  have children I'll be an unofficial auntie  

next if you want to describe someone who is  getting into minor trouble maybe playing jokes  

or always laughing always planning some kind of  funny thing you could describe them as mischievous  

Some People Say mischievous other people say  mischievous online you've probably seen this thing  

that is like a mix between an image and a video  and it's called a gif so officially correctly it  

is called Jif however a lot of people call it  a gif so you have to decide what you're gonna  

do here and our final word is a type of sandwich  I love getting this kind of sandwich from food  

carts in New York City it's very popular there  and there's a couple different ways that people  

say this kind of sandwich and I just never know  which way is really correct so we could call it  

a gyro or a hero or even another way I think some  people would call it a gyro but I'm pretty sure  

that's definitely not correct English Learners you  know that the irregular past tense is formed with  

an e d ending right but about when you actually  pronounce the past tense does it always sound like  

Ed is it I call it you yesterday is it I watched  Netflix last night is it I talked for an hour with  

my friend yesterday I don't think so but this is  a mistake that many of you English Learners are  

making so today I want to talk about this to solve  this confusion a once and for all and to help you  

with your English pronunciation now if you are  learning English I highly suggest that you join  

the wait list for my complete English course at  gonaturalenglish.com pre-reg and that's where  

I'll share more information about how my course  can benefit you to speak English fluently and  

confidently now let's jump into this lesson I'm  going to explain the three rules of pronunciation  

for the regular past tense in English I'm going  to share lots of real life examples that you can  

actually use they'll be practical not only  examples about pronunciation but really good  

examples that you can use in your conversations  and a quiz to test your understanding at the end  

okay so as I mentioned there are three rules for  pronunciation of the past tense we have as you  

can guess the Ed ending which is how you would  imagine e d to sound we have to remember that  

in English sometimes the way we spell words is not  indicative of the way it sounds in other words the  

way we spell a word is completely different from  the way we say it and that's what can make this  

confusing so Step One is remember that the sound  can be different from the spelling what you hear  

in English can be completely different than what  you see so for today close your eyes don't think  

about what you read on paper or in your textbook  and open your ears to the sounds of the past tense  

in English so the first sound is e d Ed the second  sound is also spelled e d but it is pronounced  

it's not a whole nother syllable like Ed it's  the I'll show you some examples in just a minute  

and the third sound is like a t sound but the past  tense is still spelled with an e d now I'm talking  

about the regular past tense here of course you  probably know there are lots of irregular verbs  

in English what a joy but we're not talking about  those today we're just talking about regular verbs  

so let's start with what you're probably most  familiar with is the ed sound this is the sound  

that we use when a verb ends in t or d so we're  always going to be thinking about the base verb  

for example want I want so this verb ends in what  letter can you tell me T right so the past tense  

of want of course is spelled with e d on the end  and is pronounced we have that ed sound which you  

imagine we would have based on the spelling  let's think about another verb that ends in  

D how about the verb end it ends in d and when we  make it in the past tense we add Ed and it sounds  

like ended so we have that Ed ending let me share  some full sentences with you so that you can get  

more practical examples I wanted a new challenge  as I say these examples I highly encourage you to  

repeat them after me because this will help you  with your pronunciation and to remember how to  

pronounce these verbs in the past tense when you  actually practice when you actually say them out  

loud it will help you to remember more than if you  simply listen to me so you could listen to this  

lesson once and then the second time you watch  this lesson try repeating after me very good so  

our first example was I wanted a new challenge  now let me add a little bonus information here  

you might have just noticed that when I make the  past tense with wants you barely hear that t right  

I wanted a new challenge I don't say I want Ted A  new challenge this is another mistake that English  

Learners often make now in North American English  pronunciation we often delete the T sound or mute  

the T sound when it comes between an n and a  vowel so because want is spelled w-a-n-t and  

then we have the Ed ending it sounds like wanted  it almost sounds like there's no T there at all so  

if you'd like to sound more like a native English  speaker remember you can mute that t now it's not  

a huge deal people will still understand you if  you say wanted and in other Regional dialects  

in other countries you will hear people say  wanted but if you'd like to sound more like  

an American English speaker you can say one mid  I wanted a new challenge very good next example  

I ended my contract land I landed a new job now  in this example landed means I received or I got  

a new job I landed a new job debate I debated  which job I should accept negotiate now remember  

that the spelling of negotiate ends with an e  but we don't base our pronunciation on spelling  

we base our pronunciation on sounds so negotiate  ends in a t sound not in an e sound we don't say  

negotiate T we say negotiate so that past tense is  negotiated I negotiated a higher salary now hold  

up hang on wait a minute why don't you hear that  sound and negotiate when I make the past tense  

well it sounds like negotiate dead it sounds  like a d That's because again North American  

English speakers love to change T's so that t  sound is between two vowel sounds and therefore  

it sounds like a d i negotiated a higher salary  except I accepted the job that would challenge  

me the most taste victory tasted great can you  think of any other verbs that end in t or d that  

would take this ed sound at the end write them in  the comments and let's share more examples write  

a full sentence if you're up for the challenge  the next category of past tense pronunciation is  

that sound the past tense sounds like when the  base verb ends in P f s k s h or sh or CH or t  

c h also CH and TH or these are called voiceless  sounds which means that when you make the sounds  

you don't use your vocal chords and those are the  sounds that get after let's look at some examples  

back or to back out I backed out of a bad deal  kick I kicked a bad habit so to kick a bad habit  

means that you stopped doing something bad for you  I kicked a bad habit talk I talked with my boss  

push I pushed for a raise wash I wash my hands  of Gossip to wash your hands of something is to  

avoid it or to stop doing it or say no I will  not get involved in this I washed my hands of  

the gossip watch I watched for a new opportunity  search I searched for information like I liked  

what I saw stop I stopped complaining laugh  I laughed about it hope I hoped everything  

would go well can you think of more examples with  verbs that end in unvoiced sounds like p f s k s  

h c h t h or t c h write them in the comments and  let's share more examples together the third rule  

of how to pronounce the past tense in English is  really good for all the rest of the verbs this is  

where we get the D sound and this applies to  verbs that end in b b g or a j sound Z j t h  

as a voice sound like l m n r w and vowel sounds  like y let's look at some examples average again  

this verb ends in e but the sound it ends in is  J like a g we don't say average G we say average  

so if I make this a past tense verb I would say  I averaged I averaged three interviews a week  

smile and here I smiled when I heard the news  confirm I confirmed I would accept the job call  

I called my parents and told them the news spouse  out to spaz out means to become very excited they  

spazzed out when they heard the news to man up  sorry guys this is the only verb I could think  

of that ends in N maybe you can help me think of  more examples in the comments so to man up means  

to be brave but I don't really like this example  very much but because it's a bit sexist but here  

we go just for the sake of practicing our past  tense pronunciation they said you finally manned  

up and got a job summarize I summarized the job  interview and the offer play I played my favorite  

song allow I allowed myself to take a day off to  celebrate NAB to NAB means to get or acquire I  

nabbed a great job save I saved the best for last  judge my new company told me they judged all the  

applications and mine was the best tithe to tithe  means to give a percent of your income to charity  

people often tithe by giving money to a church  or a religious institution or a non-profit with  

my new salary I tithed 10 of my income so these  were all examples with the D sound can you think  

of any more examples maybe verbs that end in the  th voiced sound like tithe or that end in b v z  

J or J like a d g sound like judge l m n r w or  vowels like y we'll share them in the comments  

so that we can all learn more together now it's  time for a quiz to test your or understanding  

of the past tense pronunciation so which past  tense pronunciation would you use for each of  

these questions the Ed or D sound you tell me  one I schedule your appointments for Wednesday  

if you said I scheduled your appointment you're  correct two I Google the address in the past tense  

this would be du I Googled the address three he  walk his dog earlier this morning in the past  

tense this would be he walked his dog earlier this  morning four when she tastes the coffee she said  

it was good if you said Ed you're correct when  she tasted the coffee she said it was good 5.  

he applaud your work if you said Ed he applauded  your work you're right and six they cap entry at  

100 people if you said you're correct they capped  entry at 100 people to cap means to limit so when  

I say they capped entry that means that they  limited the number of people who could enter  

an event very good how did you do on the quiz  and how are you feeling about your past tense  

pronunciation I would love to know if any of this  is still confusing and we can continue working  

on it together thank you so much for learning  English and practicing together with me and with  

go natural English again I highly recommend that  if you'd like to learn in a structured format and  

get my help and feedback on your English skills  that you join the wait list for the complete go  

natural English course at gonaturalenglish.com  pre-reg and if you haven't subscribed yet here  

to go natural English on YouTube please hit that  big red subscribe button so you don't miss another  

awesome free English lesson here thanks so much  for watching have an excellent day I hope you  

enjoyed this lesson and I'll see you again here  soon English is full of difficult sounds am I  

right but some sounds might be difficult for you  but easy for other English Learners why is this  

why is it difficult for my Brazilian English  students to pronounce the r and the H sounds  

why is it difficult for my Asian English Learners  to pronounce the R versus the L and for my Arabic  

speakers the p and the B are a big challenge well  this all relates to your native language your  

mother tongue the sounds that you grew up with  but there are five sounds that across the board  

for every English learner are challenging and I  know this because I've been teaching for about 15  

years and I've taught students from all over the  world from over 134 different countries so I have  

heard a lot of different challenges in English  pronunciation and I help you to improve them let  

me share something that's really important before  we talk about the most difficult five sounds a  

sound is not a letter when you think about the way  that words are written you think of the letters  

you use to spell them but a letter is not a sound  a sound is not a letter it could be but it is  

not always this way one letter for one sound for  example th two letters make one sound either or so  

this is a sound a phoneme it is represented by two  letters other sounds could be represented by two  

letters as well like could be c k but other sounds  could be just one letter like for love is an l and  

so on so I want us to be really clear that a  sound is not always just one letter and that's  

really where we have to begin to open our minds  to think about sounds as just sounds and not the  

same as the way we spell the words because this  is where we have those difficulties I mentioned  

my Brazilian students struggle with the H and the  r and Asian students struggle with r and l Arabic  

speakers with pnb and this is because of the way  you think of the words spelled on paper in English  

because in your language if you saw these letters  you would pronounce them with a different sound  

so you are transposing the rules of your native  language onto English and we can't do that because  

the rules of English are different than the rules  in your native language sounds can be represented  

by letters letters can represent sounds but they  are not always equal are we good are you together  

with me give me a yes in the comments if we can  go ahead first of all a lot of English teachers  

and a lot of English Learners think that it  is essential to have perfect pronunciation  

in order to communicate and this causes a lot of  stress because it can take years or perhaps even  

a lifetime to get that perfect native like  pronunciation it may honestly never happen  

especially if you have learned English later on  in life you could develop a perfect native accent  

but you might not and that's okay because I'm  here to tell you that communication and clear  

communication expressing yourself and being  understood is not dependent on whether you can  

pronounce these five sounds correctly or really  any sound correctly honestly it is not essential  

to have perfect pronunciation for example if an  English learner says to instead of the it's a  

common mistake or pronunciation with an accent for  an English learner I will still understand you if  

you say tanks teacher and not thanks teacher  I will still get it no it's not perfect it's  

not native like but you're still communicating I  understand that you wanted to say thanks teacher  

I know what you mean from the context even if  you say something like turd instead of third  

well other people might giggle and laugh a little  bit but we will still understand what you mean  

to say from the context for example the third  place I lived was Boston if you said the third  

place I lived was Boston it might make me laugh a  little bit but I still understand what you meant  

to say you were communicating successfully  even without the perfect third pronunciation  

so perfect pronunciation of every single sound in  English is not necessary for communication however  

perfecting your pronunciation can really help  to communicate faster to help your listener  

by reducing the cognitive load by helping them  to understand you faster especially if you're  

speaking with someone who is not used to hearing  someone with your accent there are a lot of  

people a lot of English speakers who have not ever  spoken with someone who speaks English as a second  

language now if you speak to me your English  teacher I will probably understand you because  

I'm so used to hearing a variety of accents  but if you go to a small town in the middle  

of America and you meet someone who has never left  their town or never interacted with someone from  

another country who speaks another language  they might have more difficulty understanding  

you so of course it's a good idea to try to speak  with a more correct or native like pronunciation  

what I'm saying is that you don't need perfect  pronunciation in order to start communicating I  

don't want that to stop you or make you hesitate  or shy because you might mispronounce a sound or  

a word it's okay but having more native like  pronunciation can help with your confidence it  

can make you feel more like you fit in with other  fluents or native English speakers so of course if  

it makes you feel better definitely keep working  on your pronunciation and your accent reduction  

you should however in my opinion be very proud  of where you're from and where your accent with  

pride some people think that it's really cool and  sexy to have an accent so if it's not hurting your  

communication with other English speakers then why  completely get rid of it or maybe you can have it  

both ways where sometimes you speak with a Kind of  Perfect native accent but other times you choose  

to leave your accents on a little bit for fun it's  nice when you have options right so here I've told  

you the truth before getting into the five most  difficult sounds in English which I'm about to  

share with you I wanted to preface that or to  First say that you don't need to master these  

sounds to start speaking English in fact the more  important point to learn that is rarely taught or  

spoken about in English class is stress not the  kind of stress you feel when you're going to have  

a test in English class but the stress where  we put kind of an accent on words in English  

or we make part of a sentence louder or give it  more weight this is stress and again because of  

time I'm not going to teach about stress in this  lesson but if you would like to know more about  

it I'm going to make a lesson about it next week  so make sure that you are subscribed here to go  

natural English so you don't miss it and if it is  already published I will link to it as soon as I  

publish it in the description and up there so what  are the five most difficult sounds to pronounce in  

English and how can we practice them well let me  tell you number one starting with what I consider  

the easiest of the hardest sounds is the th sound  and I know it's difficult so we're starting from  

a challenging place to begin with but number  one is th pronounced in two different ways as  

in father and as in theater let's practice  those words again father father and theater

I'm going to move quickly here so make sure that  you practice along with me to practice these  

sounds and also watch the way that my mouth moves  now it's very important for your pronunciation to  

understand how to use your mouth I'm going to  talk more about that in just a moment but let's  

talk about these five most difficult sounds to  pronounce first number two the ER sound which is  

represented in spelling most of the time as ER  but not always for example the word nurse it's  

spelled n-u-r-s-e but we pronounce it nurse the  same as the ER sound on the end of the word father  

nurse nurse father father this is an ER sound ER  which is also called in many cases an R colored  

vowel because we have vowels like you you that  actually sound like an e r the next difficult  

sound to pronounce is a very interesting one  I love this sound it is called the schwa sound  

now that's not how you say it but that's actually  the name of the sound and it has a very important  

role in English pronunciation the schwa sound s  like when you get punched in the stomach and you  

go uh or if you forget something or have a small  problem and you say uh-oh so it's this ah sound  

this is the unstressed sound in many English words  and so it can be spelled in many different ways  

with many different vowels for example the word  amazing amazing it's not amazing it's amazing  

amazing amazing so many words that have more than  one syllable in English have a stressed syllable  

and then either before or after the stressed  syllable you will hear the schwa sound amazing  

let's try another word entrepreneur did you  hear the schwa sound it comes after the first  

stressed syllable ah ra preneur entrepreneur so  that uh is the schwa sound coming out again but  

with a different vowel the first word amazing  is spelled with an A and the second word the  

schwa sound is spelled with an E entrepreneur  number four is a sound that actually it's a  

name of a sound that could be many many different  sounds so I'm kind of cheating a little bit here  

consonants clusters so a consonant is any  letter that is not a vowel a cluster is a  

group of them so for example the word cluster has  a consonant cluster with the K Le sound cluster  

another word friend has two consonants together or  a group a cluster the F and the r make a cluster  

another word with a consonant cluster is stretch  we have to R the St and R sounds so we have three  

consonants that are clustered together and then  the TCH sound at the end of the word is actually  

one sound it's not a consonant cluster just FYI  so consonant clusters can be really difficult  

because we have so many consonants together and  in English we don't need to add vowels between  

them next number five it's also okay I'm kind of  cheating on this one a little bit because it's  

also five different sounds for number five which  are long and short vowels actually ten different  

sounds five different vowels I'm sorry guys I am  cheating here giving you a lot of difficult sounds  

it's a ten for one here so long and short vowels  for example apple and ape or like and lick or  

umbrella and usually rob or robe and the word  election can have a long and a short vowel or  

a short and a short vowel depending on how you  pronounce it people pronounce this word election  

or election it just depends what region you are  from but both are correct so how do you improve  

your pronunciation if that is what you would like  to do well it is not by simply repeating these  

sounds over and over this it can help if you're  doing it the correct way but if you are repeating  

incorrect sounds over and over it will simply  make it worse so what you need to do is first  

understand the sounds and that the sounds are not  necessarily letters they're not necessarily the  

same and seconds you need to understand how your  mouth Works how to position your tongue your lips  

and your air flow and your voice these are all  important Mechanics for making a sound your voice  

is a musical instrument and it's quite complex but  there's no reason why you can't learn to use it  

hey Naturals what's up it's your American English  teacher Gabby here to help you with your English  

fluency and especially today in this lesson with  your pronunciation have you ever wondered why  

English just sounds like it's full of er sounds  well in this lesson we're going to talk about  

the r sound and how it can be a problem but also  how you can solve that to improve your fluency to  

sound more like a native speaker of English so if  that sounds interesting then let's jump right into  

it so this lesson is brought to us from inside  the English fluency formula ebook that I wrote  

for you to help you to become fluent in English  in 15 minutes a day so it's going to help you to  

learn faster and better better focusing on what  you really want to learn which is speaking and  

listening for fluent conversational skills right  okay so let's look at the chapter on pronunciation  

and there's a section in here on the r sound so  you probably know that the r sound in English  

is different from other languages I learned in  Portuguese the r can make an H sound like huh or  

in Japanese it can almost make an l sound like or  in Spanish it can kind of sound like a d or like  

a like a rolled R so English is different it's ER  or R so why do we hear this ER sound all the time  

it's because in English we have what's called an R  colored vowel that means a vowel followed by an r  

and in a lot of words in English no matter what  the vowel is that sound and becomes ER you form  

the Sound by rounding your lips and your tongue is  not touching anything it's just in the middle of  

your mouth so again watch and repeat ER very good  I will never forget the time one of my English  

students mispronounced the ER sound and it made a  huge misunderstanding he said teacher I'm hot and  

I was thinking okay so you're hot get over it  we're all hot but actually what he was trying  

to say is I'm hurt he had hurt himself but he  couldn't pronounce the ER sound so I was thinking  

he was hot you know like he needed to cool down  or maybe that he was complimenting himself because  

you know what to say someone is hot means they're  attractive but he was actually saying that he was  

hurt and when I finally figured this out and was  able to help him I was so embarrassed because I  

didn't understand right away so this could be  a matter of life or death if you know how to  

say the ER sound words like hurt and Hots can be  confused easily if you can't produce this sound  

here's some more examples of when you need to use  the r-colored vowel how about another example with  

you we have hurt and nurse so it's not a typical  u sound right it's ER not uh it's nurse how about  

an example with I the word first uses the ER sound  also the word bird uses the ER sound the O in word  

is another r-colored vowel word not Ward but word  we also have world and worry it's not world and  

it's not worry it's world and worry it's really  interesting because in different regions of the  

United States people use the r-colored vowel more  than in others for example in the South you might  

hear people saying instead of hair they might say  her so it's really confusing if you're trying to  

say her hair her her look at her her I'm not from  the south so I apologize for my horrible southern  

accent but I'm just telling you this because I  think it's really interesting how accents can  

change depending on different regions but here  at go natural English I'm teaching you a standard  

American English and we would say her hair so hair  is not typically using an art colored vowel and of  

course not every vowel that's followed by an R is  are colored so just to make this more complicated  

there are exceptions for example the word North  it's not nurse it's north however as I mentioned  

in different Regional accents you may hear people  saying Nerf it sounds strange to me but you may  

hear it it's not completely impossible another  example would be the word starts I would say  

start other people may say start let's start the  lesson but that is not really a standard American  

English I just want you to know you might hear  it but for your pronunciation I would recommend  

that you say starts to see more examples of  our colored vowels come read the full blog  

post lesson at gonaturalenglish.com and to learn  more with me download the English fluency formula  

ebook you can click right up there to buy it and  access it online immediately so if you're ready  

to get fluent then let's get started I'll see you  there hey Naturals what's up it's your favorite  

American English teacher Gabby here to help you  with the most commonly mispronounced words by  

English language Learners part two that's right  if you didn't see it yet check out part one in  

part one I really concentrate on helping you with  those are colored vowels that ER sound like words  

like word or world or work for example but in  part two we're going to take a little different  

Focus because there's a lot of words that are very  easy to mispronounce in English right I know so  

if you're curious about what those words are and  if you want to practice with me then keep watching  

also for learning English fluently you need to  take a big picture look so I recommend if you  

haven't gotten it yet to check out my ebook the  English fluency formula I took all of my best  

tips and lessons from the last several years and  put them inside for easy reading you can instantly  

download this ebook when you click there or go to  gonaturalenglish.com ebook now let's begin with  

the top 13 most mispronounced words in English  part two I'm gonna say each word twice and you  

can practice it with me to develop your amazing  American English accents are you ready let's go  

I read your comments in part one and I saw that  you had a few more words with the ER sound that  

r-colored vowel that you wanted to practice with  me so number one is worm not warm or warm but worm

worm number two warm not warm but warm my  job really drops when I say that vowel sound  

warm [Music] number three called not Khalid but  called hauled now we're getting into words where  

English language Learners often want to add extra  sounds so listen carefully how to pronounce these  

words without adding anything extra even though  you might see it in the spelling and when you  

look at the word you want to say that sound that  you see but don't say it just pretend it's not  

there just like someone you don't want to see it's  not there don't say it don't see it don't say it  

number four is cause not cows but cause cause five  is similar but different chaos not house but chaos  

chaos so we actually do say each vowel sounds  separately in this word unlike many other English  

words number six jewelry not jewelry but jewelry  jewelry so we cut out an extra syllable there  

number seven architecture not architecture  but architecture architecture architecture  

so notice how the C and T sounds blend  together in this word if this is your  

profession you're an architect architect  AIDS photograph not photograph but photograph  

photograph there's a couple of things going on  here that I want to bring to your attention first  

of all in American English we make a t into  a d when it is between two vowels such as the  

Oto in photo so notice I don't say photo I say  photo photograph and the second interesting  

point for this word is the stress we stress  the first syllable do you hear it photograph  

photograph that's a little bit too much right but  I'm just trying to show you photograph photograph  

not photograph uh maybe in your native language  you say something with a different syllable I know  

in Spanish it would be photographer number  nine vegetable not vegetable but vegetable  

vegetable so that first syllable is  so strong it makes the second syllable  

disappear a similar thing happens in number  10 comfortable not comfortable but comfortable  

comfortable the stress level is so strong that the  one after it pretty much disappears comfortable  

number 11 one of my favorite words chocolate  so again so much stress on the first syllable  

that the next syllable kind of disappears so  it's not chocolate it's chocolate chocolate

12 Tuesday not Tuesday but Tuesday and 13  another day of the week Wednesday not Wednesday  

as it's spelled but Wednesday so that syllable  after the first one also known as the second  

syllable disappears because the first syllable  is so strong so remember this grouping of most  

mispronounced words because there are syllables  that completely disappear and we have to pay  

really close attention to the stressed syllable  so remember to go back and watch part one so you  

can see more examples with the ER sounds and  I hope that you enjoyed this video if you did  

subscribe here to go natural English leave  a comment like it share this video with your  

friends and happy English language learning to you  thank you so much for watching mwah bye for now