English Pronunciation Fix: 1 small change, 100s of errors gone!

Hi. I'm Rebecca from engVid. I am so excited  to do this lesson today, because I know that  

when you make this one small correction in your  pronunciation, you are going to correct maybe  

hundreds or literally thousands of possible errors  that you might be making right now or that you  

might have made in the future. But once you watch  this video, and understand the small change that  

you need to make, you will be able to correct  all of those errors. And that's an important  

thing to be able to do, when one small change  affects a lot. Okay? So, let's get started.  

What is this lesson about? This lesson is about  the word "or" or the sound of "or" when it's used  

in a word. So, what happens is that most of the  time students say it correctly when "or" is at  

the beginning of a word, but a lot of English  learners make mistakes when "or" appears in  

the middle of a phrase, and definitely when it  appears at the end of a word. Lots and lots of  

mistakes are made in the pronunciation, here.  So, what we are going to do is we are going  

to go step-by-step to see what happens to this  sound at the beginning, in the middle, and at the  

end of a word or phrase. Okay? Let's begin. So, when "or" or the letters "or" appear at the  

beginning or by themselves, then "or" stays like  "or". The word "or", which you know by itself,  

that's how you pronounce it. There is no  change; it is stressed, it is strong. Okay?  

Let's look at some words with "or". The word "or"  by itself is pronounced "or". Also: "organize",  

"ornament", "orphan", "organic",  "orchard". Okay? What did you hear,  

here? That "or" sounds like "or", right? So,  so far you're saying: "Okay. What's the big  

deal?" The big deal is over here, so make  sure you keep watching. Okay? All right.  

Let's look at some examples. Number one:  "That's an order!" You can read it with me,  

you can repeat it after me; whatever you like.  The more you participate, the more you will master  

what you need to learn. Number two: "It's an oral  exam." Okay? Not written; oral. Number three:  

"This table is very ordinary." Okay? Again,  "or" being pronunciation like "or". Number four:  

"She works for a large organization."  Organization. Good. And number five:  

"The orchestra was amazing!" All right? So, we saw that whether it was in a word by  

itself, whether we were saying the word  by itself, or whether the word appeared  

in a sentence - the sound of "or" and the  pronunciation of "or" remained the same;  

it remained like "or". Now we're getting to the  good stuff. Let's see what happens when we find  

the word "or" in the middle of a phrase. Okay, now we come to what happens when the  

word "or" appears in the middle of a phrase. Now,  when you are speaking, you don't have to do this,  

but you do have to know that native speakers  will do this, so this part will help you to  

understand them better. If you don't want to  speak like this, don't speak like this. This,  

you already do; this is to help you to understand  better; and this last part is going to be very,  

very important to correct some of the things  that you say. So, hang in there for the last  

part. Okay? But let's do this part now. So, what happens when "or" is used in the  

middle of a phrase? Then "or" is basically a  function word, and function words are shortened  

or reduced. So, they're not only shortened or  reduced; they're also linked usually to a word  

that becomes before and sometimes to the word  that comes after. All right? So, let's see how  

this works. So, we would say, for example...  Here, I've just written some phrases first;  

and then later, here, we'll see how it works  in a sentence. Okay? Ready? Here we go.  

"Lunch or dinner". Okay? So, we don't say: "Lunch  or dinner". When we're just speaking in regular  

conversation, this "or" would be connected to  the word before, and it will sound like "er". So,  

the "or" now sounds like "er". "or" - "er".  "Lunch 'er dinner". Okay? "Soup or salad",  

"rain or shine", "seven or eight". Okay? Do you  see how the "or" now sounds like "er"? Okay?  

Let's continue: "Would you like tea or  coffee? "Tea 'er coffee". Okay? Now,  

if you're not used to it, you might wonder what  people are saying. But when you understand that  

the word "or" gets reduced, gets shortened, gets  linked to a word before or a word after, it will  

help you to understand what people are offering  you. Right? Okay. They're not offering you tears;  

they're offering you tea or coffee. Tea or coffee.  Tea 'er coffee. Again, you don't have to speak  

like this, but you do need to understand. Next, number two: "Should I turn left or right?  

Left 'er right". Okay? If you like, you can repeat  it, but you don't have to speak like that.  

Number three: "Am I right or wrong?  Right er wrong". Okay? Again,  

you see what's in red is what is linked. Now, let's look what happens... look at  

what happens when it's linked to the word  after, which happens sometimes. Number four:  

"Shall we talk now or later?" Okay? So,  now, the "or" got connected to the word  

after it, and that's okay; that happens, too. Number five: "You can call or send me an email."  

Okay? So, that is also possible - that it could be  linked to the word before or the word after. And  

now you're going to come to the most exciting part  where you're going to change your pronunciation  

of a whole lot of words-maybe hundreds and  thousands of words-and counting these expressions,  

there's probably thousands. Let's look at what  happens when "or" appears at the end of a word.  

Okay, so now we come to the most critical part -  the part where many students make a mistake in the  

pronunciation of "or", and that is at the end of a  word. What happens is your eyes deceive you. Your  

eyes see "or", and you want to say "or", but in  fact, again, in a word, when it comes at the end  

of a word, you need to say "er" and not "or". So,  you need to say not the sound "or", but the sound  

"er". Repeat after me: "er", "er", "er". Now we  sound a little bit robotic, but it won't sound  

like that once we actually say it in a word. So, what happens when "or" appears at the end of a  

word? It becomes reduced, shortened, and we don't  stress it as much as when we were saying it at the  

beginning of a word. Okay? So, what I want you to  do is to imagine that all these words down here,  

which in fact end in "or" sound exactly like  all these words in this line, which end in  

"er". Because, usually, when you see "er" at  the end of a word, like: "dancer" or "teacher",  

you don't have a problem pronouncing it.  Right? You say it correctly because you  

see "er" and you say the sound "er". So what  you need to do is to take that same principle,  

and apply it to all of these words; even though  your eyes will see "or", your brain and your  

mouth has to be trained to say the "er" sound, and  not the "or" sound. Okay? So, do it with me.  

First we'll practice and get our mouths to  remember the sound of "er". Okay? Ready? Say  

it after me or with me. "Dancer", "teacher",  "baker", "farmer", "waiter". Okay? In all  

of those words, of course they were spelt  with "er" and they had the sound "er".  

Now all of these words are going to be spelt  with "or", but you're still going to say,  

what? You're still going to say "er". Okay?  Here we go. "Actor", "doctor", "tailor",  

"author", "mayor". Okay? Those are people. Now let's look at some things-okay?-or ideas,  

or other words. "Factor", you know there  is some very popular show called Fear  

Factor - I hope you're saying "Facter" and not  "Factor". Okay? "Factor", "color", "terror",  

"honor", "error". Okay? Don't make an error when  you're pronouncing the word "error". Don't say:  

"error"; say "errer", "er", "er". Okay? Let's keep going. These were shorter words  

with two syllables, but the same principle  applies even if we have longer words,  

like here with three syllables. Ready? Here  we go: "Professor", "visitor", "bachelor",  

"survivor". Another popular show, right? Okay. Also some more things: "monitor", "reactor"-like  

a nuclear reactor-"behavior", "equator". What's  the equator? The equator is an imaginary line that  

goes around the Earth, and divides it between  the Northern and Southern Hemisphere. Okay.  

Now let's look at some longer words,  okay? "Ambassador", "supervisor",  

"terminator". Okay? A lot of people  have seen that movie. Okay. "Elevator",  

"refrigerator", "calculator". Okay? Excellent.  

Thank you for sticking with me in this  lesson, because if you did make this mistake,  

then you have just corrected something  very major. Okay? You've corrected so many,  

many words that you could possibly say in  your English-speaking life. All right?  

So, now, after this what can you do? Go  to our website: www.engvid.com, and there,  

you can also watch hundreds of other English  lessons for free on pronunciation, or grammar,  

or vocabulary, or writing, and all kinds of  other things. Okay? Also, if you haven't already,  

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save you years and years of English study. Okay?  Thanks very much for watching. Bye for now.