Fix these 3 common pronunciation mistakes in English!

Hi. I'm Gill at www.engvid.com,

and today we're having a lesson on confusing pronunciations and spellings.

Okay? I've got three main examples for you of confusion, because sometimes they...

They're spelt in the same way, but they are pronounced differently. Okay. So, let's start.

So, the first one is this word "bow", which can be pronounced in two different ways. Okay?

If it's this, it's a bow. Either a bowtie or a bow,

a ribbon with a bow in your hair.

Or if you tie your shoelaces in a bow. Okay? So that's a bow.

So, for example, you can say: "She has a bow in her hair."

And it's this... This sort of shape. Maybe a ribbon

tied into a bow. Or:

"He is wearing a bowtie." So, instead of a long tie, a bowtie like that.

Okay? So that's "bow". So that's pronounced like "oh", "bow".

Okay? But then there's another

kind of word spelt the same but pronounced differently: "bow". Okay? So, it's like this

here, if you do this. Usually men bow. Women curtsy. If this is when you meet the Queen,

men bow, women curtsy. So, men do this, bending.

"Men often bow when they meet the Queen."

So, this one is like "ow", if that helps. "Ow".

So: "bow", "bow", and they're spelt

exactly the same. So, you can only tell... If you're reading it, you can only tell from

the context which one it is. If someone is speaking, you can tell from the pronunciation.

Okay. Bow, bow.

Right, so moving on to the second example, completely different, but there's one little

confusion with this one. Words that end "atch". Okay? So, usually it's just one letter in

front of "atch". So, we'll have words like: "batch", "catch", "hatch", "latch", "match",

"patch". You may not know the meaning of those; I'll tell you in a second. But they all have

this short "ah" sound, like with "apple". Okay?

When you say: "Apple", "ah" like that.

"Batch", "catch", "hatch", "latch", "match", "patch".

But this with the time on it is a

"watch". So it's not a watch; it's a watch, so it's short "o" sound, "aw", as in "orange".

So it's apples and oranges, really.

So, "ah" and "aw", so a watch. I realized this when

a student of mine who is in Russia said: "Catch", and I thought: "Catch and..." When she typed it,

wrote it via Skype, I saw it was "catch", so I realized then: Ah, she was thinking of

"watch", and saying "catch". But it's wrong.

It's "catch". So "watch" is the only one I can think of that has the short "o" sound.

Okay, so we know what a "watch" is.

A "batch", if you don't know what a batch is, it's like a set of things, like bread...

Bread rolls in a batch, a batch of six or a batch of 12 rolls of bread. A batch that

go into the oven to be baked all together. That's a batch. "To catch", if someone throws

a ball to you, you try to catch it. Oh.

"Hatch", if there's an egg and the bird is sitting

on the egg, keeping it nice and warm, and then one day the shell starts to break and

a little beak comes out, and the little bird... Little baby bird is hatching. That's "to hatch",

when the egg breaks and the little baby bird comes out. That's "to hatch".

A "latch" is on a door to close the door.

And sometimes it's just something that goes over, and it

closes the door. That's the latch. Okay?

A "match" is something you... If you're...

Oh, hope you don't smoke cigarettes, but to light a cigarette,

people often use a match, a little wooden... It's got a red or brown

tip on it, and a piece of wood, and you go like that with it, and you get a flame, and

you light the cigarette. Or you may be lighting a fire, you strike a match and you light the

fire with it. Okay? "Match". "Match" can also mean putting two things together that are

the same, or colours that match. The purple and blue, maybe, you think:

"Oh, yes, purple and blue, they go together well. They match."

So, two totally different meanings of "match".

And "patch", if you have a hole in your elbow or your trousers, you put an extra piece of

material on there to... To cover the whole, and that's a patch. Okay. Right, so that's

the meaning of all of those. So they're all "ah", short "a", as in "apple"; and the "watch",

short "o" as in "orange".

Okay, so moving on finally to our third example, which is words ending "ough". So, here, unfortunately

we have three different pronunciations for this. Okay? But once you've learnt them,

you should be fine. So: "cough" and "trough",

that's like the "off", "off" sound. So, "cough",

[coughs]

"cough", and a "trough" is something that a pig eats out of... A wooden, usually,

or metal container that the food is put into for the pig, and the pig eats from the trough.

Okay, so: "cough", "trough", "off".

Then we have: "enough", "rough", and "tough", with the "uff" sound. Okay? So: "enough".

Have you had enough? I hope you haven't had enough yet, because I've still got a little

bit more to do. Okay? "Enough". "Rough", "rough" is the opposite of smooth. If... Oh, this

material is rough, but some other... Silk is very smooth. Other material can be rough.

Okay? And "tough", that's someone who's very strong and tough, resilient. Tough person.

Okay. "Enough", "rough", "tough", "uff".

And finally: "bough" and "plough" is the "ow" kind of sound, "ow".

A "bough" is part of a tree. So,

here's the tree,

and these things that stick out are the boughs, boughs of the tree,

these things here. Okay, so that's "bough". A "plough" is used in farming in a field,

to break up the ground for putting in seeds to grow crops. A "plough". So: "bough", "plough", "ow".

And funnily enough, "bough", you probably noticed, is the same pronunciation but different

spelling as this one, this type of "bow", that sort of bow. So, we have come full circle

to "bough", that kind of "bow".

So, there we are. I hope that's been a helpful lesson for you.

And if you'd like to go to the website, www.engvid.com,

there is a quiz there which you can do to test yourself on

this. And if you'd like to subscribe to my YouTube channel, I hope you will do that.

And look forward to seeing you again soon. Okay.

Thanks for listening. Bye.