12 Confusing Word Pairs You're (Probably) Mispronouncing | DON'T Confuse These Words!

In this video. Let's improve your  pronunciation so you can speak English,  

clearly and confidently will  review the 12, most confusing,  

English word pairs. So you understand the  difference in pronunciation. Let's get started.  

Here's our first word pair. I want  you to say these two words out loud.

Now, listen to me and notice the difference Lack.

Luck. Notice the difference  in my mouth position, lack  

act Luck, Chuck. Notice with lack, we have a  longer sound a more open mouth position and  

luck. My mouth is closed, because this  is more of a schwa sound in my throat.  

She doesn't lack luck in her life. Our next  confusing word, pair say, these two words,

Out loud.

Now, listen to me Dawn.

Down. There are very similar  because they both have open  

mouth positions. On Dawn a bow down.  Let's meet down by the water. At dawn,  

I hear mistakes with this word  pair all the time. Say it out loud.

Cup.

Cop. Which one is the shorter sound cup up a  cop off my mouth opens wider for cop. I gave  

the cop a cup of water. It's really important  that you get feedback on your pronunciation. So  

you understand what mistakes you're making and how  to fix those mistakes. Now I can't offer you that.

Feedback on YouTube. So I've partnered with an  app called old voice, the BoldVoice app can help  

you master the American accent with the help of  expert coaches from Hollywood. They're amazing  

AI technology. Analyzes your pronunciation  and gives you instant feedback on every  

single sound. Let me show you how this works  with the word Cup. First I can hear how Eliza

Accent coach says the word correctly cup  and now I can practice and get personalized  

feedback. I'm going to mispronounce this on  purpose. Let's see what happens. Cop. Now,  

you can click on the word to get instructions on  how to pronounce it correctly. And then try again,  

let me try that again.

Cup. Whoo hoo! I just improved  my pronunciation. Now let's say  

that you struggle with the uh vs awe  sound that we practice in cup and cop,  

you can learn how to correctly form, the sound  from their expert, Hollywood accent coaches,  

and then you can complete practice sets and  get feedback. Now, let's say you want to get  

feedback on a specific word or phrase,  you can go into the resources section.

And you can type any word or phrase that you want  to learn the correct pronunciation of and then  

get personalized feedback on your pronunciation.  So, let's practice this word because I hear a lot  

of mistakes with this word. Now, let me say  it. The way I hear a lot of students say it,

Wary.

Ah, it noticed the mistake. I made my V  sounded like a w. listen to the difference.

Very wary, and if I need more support, Eliza can  teach me the correct pronunciation of V. Now,  

let's try that again. Very woohoo.  Another Improvement. My best students  

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Right now, our next word, pair,  I want you to say this out loud.

Now, listen to me, advise advice eyes  ice. Notice the difference in that z  

sound. Advise advice, I advise you to seek advice.  

I bet you're going to make mistakes  with this word pair. Try it out loud.

Suit Soot. Notice the spelling does not match  the pronunciation suit suit suit suit soot but  

it's that schwa sound uh soot. Now what  is soot? It's the ash from a burnt fire.  

So I could say, I have soot on my suit. Spanish  speakers, pay close attention. Say it out loud.

This these notice again, we have a short  sound and a long sound. If this these ees.  

I don't want this shirt but I want these shoes.  We have our singular and plural. Try it out loud.

Man men.

Man, men.  

So, we have a long sound on the singular, and a  short sound on the plural. I hired one, man, and  

fired two men. Now let's see if you can get this  word, pair singular and plural. Try it out loud.

The difference is at the  beginning of the sound woman.

Women.

Whoop, with woman women. I  hired one woman and fired,  

two women Eastern European students.  This one's for you. Try it out loud.

Say says my vowel changes in the  third person singular say, a but  

says, as as we have a longer sound and a shorter  sound, I won't say what she always says. Here,  

we have two abbreviations that we  use with women, try it out loud.

Loud.

Miss Ms. So here it's the the unvoiced and  the voiced sound. I helped Miss Smith and  

Ms Brown. Now generally we use Miss  for younger women and we use Ms for  

older but unmarried women all students pay  attention to this one. Try it out loud.

Work walk  

her ignore the spelling. It's not an o sound.  It's a herb or were work. Work, walk awk awk.  

I walk to work. Can you get  this word pair? Say it out loud.

Daughter laughter. So notice in the first one  auditor daughter, but in the second one laughs  

laughter laughter.  

My daughter is filled with laughter. How  about this tricky word pair say it out loud.

Tomb bomb. So there's two things to  notice the bees are silent in both,  

you don't pronounce it but the  vowel is different. Umm tomb,  

bom, bom they found a bomb in the  Tomb and finally try it out loud.

Ensure insure.

Ensure, insure this one is about  syllable stress. Ensure the syllable  

is on the second sound ensure its louder  ensure, but the second one is insure.  

Insure the stress is on the first syllable. We  need to ensure we ensure the car now. Improving  

your pronunciation. Takes practice, practice,  practice. And it's so important to get feedback.  

So you understand what specific mistakes that  you're making and you can do that with BoldVoice.  

Remember you get that ten percent discount.  So create your BoldVoice account right now.