How to Pronounce GRADUATE - Word of the Week - American English
161,743 views ・ 2013-03-21
Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.
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In this American English pronunciation video,
we're going to go over pronunciation of the
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word 'graduate'.
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This week's word of the week is 'graduate'.
Graduate is the verb form: gra-du-ate. It
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can also be pronounced 'graduate', in this
case it's either an adjective or a noun.
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Graduate, graduate. So, for both of them the
stress is on the first syllable, gra-, gra-.
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We begin with the GR consonant cluster. To
make the G, the back part of the tongue reaches
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up and touches the soft palate. Gg, gg. To
make the R, the tongue pulls back, so the
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middle part of the tongue is touching here,
and the front part of the tongue isn't touching
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anything. Grrr, grrr, you should be able to
hold that sound out. Gra-. The 'aa' as in
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'bat' vowel. To make this sound, you do need
to drop your jaw, gra-, gra-. And you may
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lift your upper lip a little bit, exposing
some of your front top teeth. Gra-, gra-.
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The next syllable, unstressed, has the JJ
consonant sound and the oo vowel sound. Gradu-,
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gradu-, gradu-, du, du, unstressed, lower
in volume---a little quieter. The last syllable
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is 'ate' as a verb. Graduate, -ate. So it
has the 'ay' as in 'say' diphthong, you do
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need to drop your jaw a good bit for the first
sound there, ay, ay, graduate. And finally,
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the T sound. This could be released very lightly,
in most cases it will be a Stop T, graduate,
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graduate, where you bring your tongue up into
position for the T, but don't release.
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And for the noun or adjective pronunciation,
the last syllable has the 'ih' as in 'sit'
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vowel and the T. Graduate, -ate, -ate. There
I'm making a Stop T, where my tongue goes
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up into position for the T, but I don't release
it. Graduate. You could also lightly release
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it to make a True T. Graduate.
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I'm going to graduate school next fall.
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I'll graduate in May.
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That's it, your Word of the Week. Try it out
yourself. Make up a sentence with the word,
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record it, and post it as a video response
to this video on YouTube. I can't wait to
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watch it!
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That's it, and thanks so much
for using Rachel's English.
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