Your Questions Answered┃Learn American English Pronunciation On the Go

Rachel: You’re listening to the Rachel’s English podcast, made especially 

for non-native English speakers, where we study the way Americans really speak.

My goal is for you to listen to this podcast every week, and sound more natural when speaking English 

and improve your listening comprehension. In today’s episode, we’re answering

questions from you. Let me introduce my cohost today, my husband, David.

David: Hey, everybody.

Rachel: Today, we're going to be reading some questions that have come in

through YouTube, and we're going to do our best with your names, but

names can be hard. So, forgive us, please, if we mispronounce. 

Okay, David, why don’t you start  it off and ask a question?

Alright. So the first one is from Natalia. She says, Rachel, I've been watching your

videos and I really love them. Thanks for that, but I really need your help with

two words that I think are kind of tricky for us Brazilians to know the difference 

between in pronunciation. What's the difference between collar and color? Thanks in advance.

Rachel: Well, that's a classic issue. Ah versus uh. You all listening out there,

can you hear the difference between those two vowels? Ah. Uh.

David, can you hear the difference?

David: I can, yeah.

Rachel: Yeah. I remember this was one thing that surprised me, actually,

when I first started teaching, was to realize that some people couldn't hear the  

difference between those two, because I thought, wait, but they're totally different.

But the more I taught, the more I realized they're not really. 

So, the trick is relaxation in uh, the second one, the one that's in color. C-O-L-O-R.

The issue that most non-native speakers have is that they don’t speak with as much 

relaxation in the neck and in the vocal apparatus as Americans do,  

and you have to really have a lot of relaxation to get the right vowel for uh.

This is in the word butter, in the word color, in the word done.

And if you say that sound with any kind of tension, then it starts sounding

like ah, which we have in words like father, mop. So, it's hard, because you have to

know how to release all the tension in order to find the right vowel sound.

So, the difference between the words collar and color, the first one collar is like the part   

of your shirt that goes around your neck. And the second one color, like black, white, red.

The only difference in these two words is that vowel sound in the stressed syllable.

And in collar, the one that's like part of your shirt, it's the ah vowel, like in father.

Cah. Collar. And in the word color, like black, white, red, color, uh. 

It's the uh vowel like in butter. So, you know, I'm just going to say the two words,  

and everyone who’s out there listening to the podcast, I'm going to say the word,

then I'm going to pause for two seconds, and you say it back out loud.

I'm going to start with collar, like part  of your shirt. And then I'm going to do color,  

like black, white, and I'm going to go back and forth between the two of those five times.

So, each time I say it, you say it out  loud, too. Collar. Color. Collar.  

Color. Collar. Color. Collar. Color. Collar. Color.

The more you work with this kind of listen and repeat, um, kind of exercise, the, the better  

you're get. Your ear and your mouth start working together without your mind being so involved,  

and I think that that's a great  way to improve. So, Natalia,  

the answer to your question is, the difference is the vowel in that first stressed syllable.

David: And it's also interesting that the second sound in both of those

words is exactly the same, even though they're spelled differently, right?

Rachel: Right. Collar is spelled C-O-L-L-A-R, and color is spelled C-O-L-O-R. 

So, we have an ar ending and an or ending, but they are pronounced the

same way, right David? It's the schwa R, er, er, er sound.  

Right. Okay. So, let's move onto the next one. Um, so, we got a question that says the one and  

only word I can't pronounce correctly in  American English is liberty. Please help.

Rachel:Okay. So, this question is coming in from Benjbenjbenj. 

I like your username. Okay, liberty. So, David said it. Now, I've said it. 

Liberty. Liberty. So, first of all,  

it's a three-syllable word, and stress is  on the first syllable. So, that syllable  

should be a little bit longer. It's going to be  a little higher in pitch. Liberty. So, I'm going  

to say just the first syllable. Lih. And now I'm going to say the second two. Berty. Lih. Berty. 

You can hear there's a definite difference in quality between the stressed and the unstressed.  

Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. So, that’s the first  thing I want to say. The second thing I want to  

say is, we have the letter T, and it comes after the consonant R and before a vowel. In this case,  

the E vowel, unstressed E. Liberty. So,  when the T comes after an R before a vowel,  

it is a flap T. That's a really different  pronunciation than a normal true T.

For the flap T, the tongue just bounces  against the roof of the mouth once. This is  

similar to the D sound in American English. It's exactly like the D between vowels,  

but it's also like the R in other languages. Arabic, Spanish, Portuguese, for example. Liberty.  

So, the other tricky thing about this word is  the middle syllable has an R consonant.

And that's always tough. Liberty. And in this case, the vowel in the second syllable is the schwa,  

and the R consonant sucks up the schwa. It completely takes it over. So, you don’t need  

to try to make a separate vowel sound there. So, it's just liber—from the B straight   

to the R. Ber. Ber. Ber. Ber. Liberty. Liberty.  I'm going to say that a few times.

Everyone out there listening, repeat each time I say it. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Okay.

David: Okay. The second  

sound—the second half of liberty is  berty. That's the name of our car.

Rachel: Oh, yeah. Liberty.

David: That's the nickname we gave the car.

Rachel: Yeah. Our car is  

named Bertie. Although it's different,  because Bertie has stress on the first  

syllable, and liberty, berty, berty,  there's no stress. But you're right.

David: Okay, but  

maybe if you used in a sentence, it would  be like, hey, where did you park Bertie?

Rachel: Hey, where’d you park Bertie?

David: Ah, you're right. Still not quite.

It would be stressed. It would be stressed,  but it's very similar, and our car—I don't  

know if we ever actually agreed on this,  but I think our car’s real name is Roberta.

David: It is Roberta C. Jones III, isn't it?

Rachel: I'm not sure that we gave her the last name Jones.

David: I thought we did. Bertie Jones.

Rachel: Bertie Jones?

David: Maybe not.

Rachel: Bertie C. Jones? So,  

Bertie, short for Roberta,  and the C stands for car.

David: Yeah.

Rachel: Yeah, but I don’t,  

I don’t, I'm not quite sure  why we named our car that.

David: Yeah. We'll get to that later.

Rachel: Has anyone else out there named your car?

I hope so. I hope it's not just us. The other thing is,  

David’s car, I came up with a great  name for it. Oscar. And the reason why  

I think it's great is because it has the  word car in it. It's spelled O-S-C-A-R.

David: I've got to say, it's pretty awesome. Oscar went, I think, nine years 

without a name. Poor thing. But you're right. Oscar’s a pretty great name.

Rachel: Yeah. I like it.

David: Okay. So, back to business. So, talk about great 

usernames. Slimmusic has our next question. So,  

the word that they are wondering about is  call, and the question, is that light or dark?

Okay. Talking about the light L and the dark L. The word call. C-A-L-L.

So, the L is a dark L at the end of a word, and here it's the last sound in the word.

The last sound in the syllable. So, it is a dark L.

I'm going to try to say it here with a light L, which is not correct, but I'm going to

try it, see if I can do it. David, you tell me if this sounds weird to you. Call.

David: Yes.

Rachel: Right.

David: It's off.

Rachel: Yeah.

David: Wait, do it again.

Rachel: Call.

David: Yeah. That sounds—yeah.

Rachel: It doesn't sound right. So, the thing I'm doing is, 

I'm making a light L, which means I'm lifting my tongue tip to the  

roof of the mouth, and I'm not engaging  the back of the tongue. For the dark L, it's  

the opposite. You can leave the tongue  tip down. You should leave the tongue tip down  

while you engage the back of the tongue.  L. L. This is a dark sound. L. And now,  

sometimes we finish the dark L by bringing the tongue tip up, but only in certain cases,  

depending on the next sound. So, in the word call, it is a dark sound. Call. L. L. L. It's a dark L.

David: Okay. So,  

the next question that we got was from Jose, and Jose says, Rachel’s English. Great lesson. The  

light L is kind of easy for me, but the dark one is really hard to make. I don’t hear any “L” sound  

at all. By the way, in the word love, I hear loov. Am I right? Thank you for your excellent videos.

Rachel: Okay, Jose. Well, let's break it down.

First of all, he says in the dark L, I don’t hear any L sound. That's actually right.

I think that's right. If you're thinking the L sound is luh-luh-luh-luh-luh, then  

you're right. That's not a part of the dark L.  The dark L is this. L. That's really different  

than luh-luh-luh-luh-luh. L. L. L. So, the  dark L—hmm. Why do we even call it an L?  

I guess because it's still made by the letter L, 

but it's definitely very different, and you know, the International Phonetic Alphabet,

which I use a lot, it's a way to write out sounds, doesn't even take this

into account. If you look in any dictionary of American English  

and you look up the word call, for example, you won't see anything other than the L symbol. So,  

it's the same symbol for light L as it  is for dark L, but we know in practice,  

that is not how it works. The know the dark L is very different in practice. But I guess I  

just want to say, Jose, you're right. There's  not—there's no light L sound in the dark L,  

unless in certain cases, for example, if you're linking it into a word that begins with a vowel.

Then, you will make a dark sound, then  a light L, and then the next word. But  

that's getting complicated. For simplicity’s  sake, you're right. In the dark L sound,  

there is not an L sound. Luh-luh-luh-luh-luh. It's all L-L-L-L. Dark, and in a totally  

different place in the mouth. Okay, your second question had to do with the word love. It's a  

little hard to tell what you think you're hearing, because of course, you're writing these letters,  

and letters don’t correspond so distinctly  with sound. So, the sounds I'm thinking might  

be different from the sounds you're thinking. But the word love, here we have the letter O, and it's  

making the uh as in butter sound, just like back to our first question.

Love. Love. And if you're curious about the final consonant,

the final consonant here is voiced. V. The V is a voiced sound, and its pair, F, 

is unvoiced. F. So, they're paired together because they have the same mouth

position. And an unvoiced— or, I'm sorry, a voiced consonant is usually weak at  

the end of a sentence, at the end of a word. So, in those cases, it can sound like an F.

I'm not sure if that's exactly what your  question was, but the word love. Love. Love.  

If I just say it by itself, love. Love.

You don’t necessarily hear V, a very strong V sound. It's a weaker sound.

It's more like a weak F. Love. Love. Okay, I hope that answers your question.

David: Okay. So,  

we're going to move onto a question from  Diego. He says, hi, Rachel. I found your  

videos when I was looking for tips related  to pronunciation. Let me tell you that they  

are great. I'm learning a lot about the  correct form to pronounce words with,  

and I believe my pronunciation is pretty  good. Now, listening to your videos,  

I have a question to ask you. Are you the girl who told Mojos, Watch Mojo’s top 10 videos in English?

Rachel: Okay. So,  

I think you're asking if I do the voiceover  for them, for Watch Mojo. I do not. I have  

seen Watch Mojo. I've been to YouTube events with the creators of Watch Mojo, but I can definitely  

tell you that it's not my voice that you're  hearing in the top 10 videos on Watch Mojo.

David: Hopefully,  

they do not have a robot that has  been created to sound like you, babe.

Rachel: Wow. Yeah,  

hopefully no one’s created  that. I might lose my job.

David: Okay. This is from Next Gen English, and it looks like to me,  

this is trying to get some, uh, some humor involved here. Red Laurie,  

Yellow Laurie, and Next Gen says, keep saying this as fast as you can. Red Laurie, Yellow Laurie,  

Red Laurie, Yellow Laurie, Red Laurie, Yellow Laurie, Red Laurie, Yellow Laurie— I'm struggling.

Rachel: It's a tongue twister.

Oh, okay. Well, I got twisted.

Rachel: Yeah.  

You're supposed to get twisted. Red  Laurie, Yellow Laurie, Red Laurie,  

Yellow Laurie, Red Laurie, Yellow Laurie. It  is hard. It is hard. I can't do it too long.

David: So, what's—what's  

a tongue twister? That's kind of a funny idiom.  What's that supposed to mean? Is that an idiom?

Rachel: Um, yes, I would say. Tongue twister, the  

phrase tongue twister is an idiom, and it means a phrase that, when you say many times in a row  

quickly, you get messed up. I'm actually working on a tongue twister video. It's been really fun  

to work on, actually. And, uh, I'm going to  publish it this fall, but in the meantime,  

I did a little research, and I found that there  are tongue twisters

in pretty much every language.

David: Really?

Rachel: Mm-hmm,  

and that there are—most of the time,  you can say something quickly, and it,  

it doesn't mess you up. It, it doesn't twist your tongue, but there are certain sound combinations,  

and there's been a lot of research on this.  There's been certain sound combinations that  

tend to make it really hard to say a phrase  many times in a row quickly. Um, but, one of  

the tongue twisters that's in the video that I'm making is, I wish to wash my Irish wristwatch. I'm  

not going to make you say that. I'm just going to say, as a preview, look for my video coming  

out. It's so fun. It's really fun watching  people trying to do these tongue twisters.

David: Okay. So,  

now we've got a question from Faisal  Khan. I hope I got that right.

Rachel: Probably not, but it's okay.

David: That's a better way to say it. I'm  

sure I got that wrong, but here's the question. In this word, definitely, can we use flap T instead  

of stop T, as I think the letter T is between  two vowels, I and E? Please make it clear.

Rachel: This is a great question, and I see it a lot,  

because there's some confusion over the rules. So, there are rules about how to pronounce the T,  

and one of the rules is, if the T comes between two vowel sounds, it's a flap T, which means  

it sounds like this. Da-da-da-da-da. Instead of this. T-T-T. Which is the sound of a true T.

Now, in the word definitely, I'm making a stop T. That's a third kind of T. I'm going to say it,  

and I'm going to exaggerate the stop. See if you can find it. Definitely.

Do you hear that, David? Mm-hmm.

Rachel: Pause. Definitely. Now, I'm  

going to say it faster. Definitely. Definitely. It still has the feeling of that pause. Definitely.  

So, that's a stop T. So, he says, why is  that not a flap T? Because in this word,  

the letter T comes between two vowel letters, I and E. And the thing about these rules are,  

they apply to sounds, not letters. So, the E in definitely is silent. It doesn't make a sound. If  

you wrote that word out phonetically, you would see that right after the T sound comes the L  

sound. And when T is followed by a consonant like L, then it is a stop T. Definitely. So, keep this  

in mind when you're studying T pronunciations. Every rule applies to sounds, not letters.

David: That's actually—

that says it more succinctly  than I've heard you say it, and I've—so,  

okay. What's the—I don’t quite it, if it  applies rule, a rule to me is a rule. So,  

I should be able to look at something and  see that—just, I agree with the question.

Rachel: Yeah.

David: It's hard. It's definitely hard.

Rachel: It's definitely hard. Right,  

because you have to be thinking about the sounds you're making and not the letters

you're seeing, and it can be hard to switch your head to that.

David: But it's actually—that, that's part of why I think

your method is so unique is, you're trying to get at this rhythm and  

musicality, and having people’s ears be at least as engaged as their eyes, probably more engaged.

Rachel: Yeah.

David: Than their eyes, and to be listening and then thinking about rules  

versus looking and thinking about rule—I mean, isn't that?

Rachel: Yeah, definitely. And, you know, the thing about this is,  

if you listen to a native speaker, you're going to hear a native speaker do  

it right. So, if you're paying good attention  to what a native speaker is doing and you  

imitate that, then you're on your way to sounding really good without having to think about rules.

David: It's definitely true. Alright.

So, let's move onto the next question. Um, oh wow. This isn't even a question.  

This is just a—wow. Okay.  Question is, you're getting old, Rachel.

Right. The statement. Okay. So, I just—I put this on here, because, you know, every once in a while,  

I will get a comment on YouTube about how I look versus how I'm teaching. It doesn't happen much,  

and I know that lots of people who post online  have a lot more, you know, they're, have a lot  

more issue with that. People commenting on their looks. And I just put it on there, because I  

wanted to acknowledge that I am getting old. You know, I've been—I'm entering my, I think this fall  

is going to be either the 9th or 10th anniversary of posting my first video on YouTube. I mean,  

that's, that is a long time ago, and anyway, I am starting to get gray, and I'm not covering it all  

up. So, that's, I'm sure that's what that comment was about, was about my gray streak and my hair.  

And, yeah. Until I'm tired of teaching English, I'm going to keep teaching English, but you guys,  

I am going to keep getting older. So, every  year, you're going to see more wrinkles. Sorry.

David: Okay. So, let's move onto an actual question. So, Nicholas says, great video, Rachel.  

I have one doubt. How do I connect repeated vowels?

Rachel: Okay. Yes. So, this is a good question. This was probably on  

one of my linking videos. So, how do you connect repeated vowels?  

Um, let's come up with a couple examples. Uh, the words really and easy. Really  

ends in the E vowel, and easy begins in E vowel. So, I'm just going to say that a couple times and  

think about how I'm connecting them. Really easy. That was really easy. This is really easy. Really  

easy. Really easy. So, there, I'm just making one sound. It's a pretty smooth connection.  

Really easy. I guess if I wanted to stress easy, really easy, really easy, then I bring my voice up. 

But I still don’t make a break. The connection’s still there.

David: Wait. Let me do one. Okay. Here I go.  

It's really easy for native speakers to get it right.  

It's really easy, because we don’t even  have to think about it. It's really easy.

Rachel: Yeah. You're doing it,  

too. Really easy. You're just gliding right  in. It's not like there's a break in the word,  

in the two words. It's not like, uh, two different  vowel sounds. It's really just the one vowel.

David: Isn't it? It's like,  

it just smashed the words together. It's  almost take the space out in between the words.

Rachel: Right, and this is what I teach when  

I'm teaching linking is, when one word ends in a sound and the next word begins in the same sound,  

you just make the sound once, and you connect. But I have noticed that with vowels in particular,  

it can make people really uncomfortable to try to link two vowels, because they feel like they  

lose the definition of, like, between different words. It all glides together so much, but that's  

okay. That's actually what we want. So, let me think of another couple examples. The schwa. 

That's a common sound. Okay.  Sofa again. So, we have sofa,  

ending in a schwa. And again, beginning in a schwa. David, don’t jump on the sofa again.

David: It wasn't me. It was Stoney.  

Don’t jump on the sofa again. Do not jump on the sofa again. Sofa again. Sofa again. I mean,  

there, I'm not even really—I'm really just  making them the same thank you. Sofa again.  

I guess I could reemphasize again.  Sofa again. Sofa again. Sofa again.  

Don’t jump on the sofa again. But, you know, quickly, they're really just combining into  

the same syllable. Sofa again. Sofa  again. Don’t jump on the sofa again.

David: Or if it was the 30th time, maybe you would slow down and go,

don’t jump on the sofa again.

Rachel: Right. Hopefully,  

I'll never have to do that. Hopefully,  our child will never jump on the sofa.

David: Yeah, right. Uh, wait. Is there another example?

Rachel: Um, yeah. I did come up with one other example,

and this is using the ah is in father sound. So, it ends the word grandpa. 

It begins the word honored. Now, here again, honored begins with an H,  

but the is silent. We don’t care about the letters. We care about the sounds. Okay.  

Grandpa honored the agreement.  Grandpa honored. Grandpa honored. Now here,  

I don’t think I would just combine them into one syllable, because the word honored is a stressed  

word. Grandpa honored. Grandpa honored. I think I'm sort of doing a light reemphasis.  

What do you think, David? Grandpa honored. Grandpa honored. How are you hearing that?

David: I guess. Barely, but yes. It's there.

Rachel: So, to answer the question,  

how do you connect repeated vowels? Just with no break, and you don’t need to

think about it sounding like two different things. It's just one thing. It's one sound.

David: And tell me if this is true. I don't know if this is true. 

Or how you would respond, but I feel like if, if I was trying to learn this,  

I would say that native—to sound more like a native speaker, you  

would err on the side of pushing things together versus the other way. In other words, I feel like,  

you know, since I've been, since I've been  with you these years, I, I hear native speakers  

going so fast that if anything, if you're, if  you, if you're not sure, smash it together.

Rachel: Yeah, definitely. Most people err on the side of really clear definition 

of each word as they are speaking, if they're non-native speakers.

And definitely, that's not what native speakers do. We link like crazy. 

Link, link, link. We like everything  to be really smooth. Okay. Well, David,  

thank you so much for being on the podcast today,

and helping me answer these questions.

David: Absolutely. It was really fun.

Let's do it again some time soon.

David: Sounds good to me.

Rachel: Thanks for listening. To see the show notes and links to related topics,  

please visit RachelsEnglish.com/podcast  and look for this episode. New podcasts  

are released every Wednesday. Be sure to go to the iTunes store and subscribe.

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