How to Pronounce FOR SURE -- American English Pronunciation

In this American English pronunciation video,

we're going to go over

the pronunciation of the phrase 'for sure'.

This is part of a sentence study series,

where we look at a short common phrase,

and discuss it's pronunciation

Saying 'for sure'

is a very solid affirmation.

>> Will you be there tomorrow?

>> For sure.

For sure, da-DA.

The word 'sure'

is the stressed word in this phrase,

so it's going to be longer

than the function word 'for',

which will reduce.

da-DA, for sure.

We begin with the F sound,

so the bottom lip has to come up

and touch the bottom of the top front teeth.

The inside of your lips is what's touching,

so it shouldn't be ff, but ff.

Now we move straight into the R sound.

Forget about a vowel altogether.

So, my tongue tip was here for the F, maybe

not quite touching the teeth in this case,

but close behind.

For the R, it needs to pull way back,

pulling up towards the roof of the mouth,

with the tip not touching anything.

Even though this word is very short,

it should be a sound that we can hold out,

rrrrrrrrrrr. Fer, fer.

For sure.

We want to take the R sound

and transition directly into the SH sound.

Rrrr-shh.

To do that, we have to close our teeth,

which should have been close to each other,

but not yet closed for the R.

Rrr-shh.

Then we have to bring the flat,

top part of the tongue, in the front,

really close to the roof of the mouth

(but not touching).

The lips for the SH are flared,

but you'll already be transitioning

into that right after the F

because the R sound is so short.

Now, to go from the SH back to the R,

reverse what you just did.

Drop the jaw a little bit,

and pull the tongue back again

so the front isn't so close

to the roof of the mouth.

The tip shouldn't touch anything.

Now, the voice will fall off in pitch

because it's a stressed syllable,

and it's the last syllable of a sentence.

For sure, for sure.

And now let's look at the phrase

up, close and in slow motion.

This video is part of a series.

Click here to see other videos just like it.

That's it, and thanks so much for using

Rachel's English.