PERFECT ENGLISH – 10 must-know English words! | Rachel’s English Pronunciation 9/11

Today, you're getting the next video in the 100 most common words in English series.

This is video 9.

In this series, we're studying the real pronunciation.

This is likely different from what you learned in English class.

You see, in American English, we have all sorts of words that are unstressed or even reduced.

That means we change the Pronunciation.

The set of the 100 most common words in American English contains many, many words that reduce.

If you haven't already seen video one and the other videos in this series, I do suggest you start there.

These videos build one on top of the next.

So click here to watch video 1.

We start with number 81.

The word ‘back’.

A noun, a verb, this is a content word and will usually be stressed in a sentence.

Please step back.

Or, it was moving back and forth.

Please step back.

Back and forth.

Stressed.

Back.

We have the b consonant, the AH vowel, and finally, the k sound.

The back of the tongue lifts to touch the soft palate and is released.

Kk— back.

Back.

Careful with the vowel AH.

The back of the tongue stretches up.

Ah.

And the jaw drops.

You might also lift your top lip a little bit, back, ah, back.

Back.

Number 82, the word ‘after’.

This word can be a content word or a function word depending on how it's being used.

So it could be stressed or unstressed.

We don't reduce this word though, we don't change or drop the sound.

Let's look at an example.

It's raining so we can't go to the beach.

Well, let's go to the movies.

After all, I already took the day off.

After all.

After.

After.

It has that same AH vowel in the stressed syllable, doesn't it?

Ah. After.

Next, we have an F, then a really soft t sound: aft— after.

It's a True T but not as sharp or strong as it would be at the beginning of a stressed syllable like time.

Ttt- time.

So a soft t, then a quick schwa r ending.

Flat, low in pitch, said quickly.

After.

After.

Often this word will be unstressed.

For example, in the phrase ‘after all’ I could stress ‘all’ instead of ‘after’.

Now it sounds like this: after all, after, after, after, after, after, after, after, after,

the stressed syllable in the stressed version

is longer and has more of an up-down shape of a stressed syllable.

After.

Unstressed.

After, after, after.

It's flatter, less clear, a little bit more mumbled.

Let's look at another sentence.

He left after everyone went to bed.

Left after.

Left after.

After.

After.

After.

Unstressed let's leave after dinner.

Leave after.

After. After. After.

Unstressed.

‘Leave’ and ‘dinner’ are stressed.

Let's leave after dinner.

Let's leave after dinner.

After.

So the unstressed words are less clear, said more quickly, and are flatter and lower in pitch.

The contrast is the stressed words which are longer,

stressed syllables, and an up-down shape in that pitch, in that intonation.

That contrast is what makes good English.

Number 83, use.

This is one of those words it's pronounced differently depending on the part of speech.

As a noun, ‘use’, the final sound is an S.

As a verb ‘use’, the final sound is a Z.

Lots of words change like this depending on part of speech.

For example, ‘house’ the noun ends in the S sound, and ‘house’ the verb ends in Z.

Address, can have first syllable stress.

Address.

Address.

That's the noun.

But the verb has second syllable stress.

Address.

Address.

Use.

Use.

Both nouns and verbs are content words which means they’re stressed in a sentence.

They both begin with the JU diphthong.

Ju, ju.

Tongue tip presses the back of the bottom front teeth

and the middle part of the tongue presses forward along the roof of the mouth.

Yy-you-yy-you.

Then, the lips round.

Juuuu— juu—

‘use’ with an s or ‘use’ with a z.

What's the use?

A noun, or: I’ll use it later.

A verb.

Word number 83 and this is the 19th word that is reliably stressed in a sentence.

That means we've covered a lot of words that can be unstressed or even reduced.

What about number 84?

Nope this is another content word.

The word ‘two’.

This word is interesting because it's a homophone.

That means it shares a pronunciation with a different word.

It sounds just like t-o-o.

The number two.

I like it too.

Two.

Too.

Exact same pronunciation.

You might say this is just like t-o that's also pronounced ‘two’.

Not really.

Fully pronounced, sure.

But we don't fully pronounce the word ‘to’.

That one reduces so it's usually ‘te’, and not truly a homophone with t-w-o.

We learned the ‘to’ reduction back in the first video in this series.

It's number three in the most common words of American English list.

So the number two, t-w-o will be fully pronounced in a sentence.

Its pronunciation is simple.

A True T and the OO vowel which has quite a bit of lip rounding: two.

The OO vowel is tricky because you don't want to start with your lips in a tight circle.

Two.

Two.

Let them be more relaxed to start, then come in.

Two, two, two.

The game is at two thirty.

Two.

Number 85, a question Word, the word ‘how’.

We already studied ‘What’ at 40, ‘Who’ back at 46, ‘which’ at 48, and ‘when’ at 51.

Question words are generally Stressed.

Let's look at a few example Sentences.

How did it go?

How tall are you?

How hungry are you?

In all three of these Sentences, ‘how’ was one of the words that was stressed.

How.

How tall?

How tall are you?

How.

How hungry?

How hungry are you?

These words are longer, clearer, and have the up-down shape of stress.

How.

How did it go?

How.

How did it go?

How tall are you?

How hungry are you?

For this word, we have the H sound and the OW as in now Diphthong.

Make sure your H isn't too heavy.

How.

How.

Or dropped: ow, ow.

A light easy H, how, then jaw drop, and back of the tongue lifts.

How.

Then lips round.

How.

How did it go?

Number 86 the word ‘our’.

Now, this is a function word and it will reduce.

So when I’m saying the word on its own

and giving it its full clear pronunciation,

our, our, it's not really how we would be pronouncing that in a sentence.

But you might think full, clear, that's good!

That's how I want to pronounce things.

But remember, good English is made up of contrast.

More clear and less clear words.

So we have to have the less clear words for good contrast,

for good English, for the English to sound natural and understandable.

It's ironic sometimes we have to pronounce things less clear

for English overall to be more clear and more natural.

This is a pronoun and pronouns are function words.

That is the less clear words.

Let's look at some example sentences.

What time is our meeting?

Our, our, is our, is our.

What time is our meeting?

Our, our, our.

Now, I can say it with the other pronunciation with the AW, R pronunciation.

What time is our meeting?

Awr, awr, awr.

What time is our meeting?

Awr, awr, awr.

Our or awr.

Really they sound almost the same, the two reductions, because I’m saying them so quickly

and that's really what matters.

Saying it quickly, flat, low in pitch, so that the word is less clear,

so that it doesn't sound at all like the stressed version.

So that's what we want, a definite unstressed feeling.

Not ‘our’ but: our, our.

It's our son's birthday tomorrow.

It's our son’s— our, our, our, our.

Listen to how different that is from ‘son’s’ which is stressed.

Our son’s, our son’s.

Unstressed.

Stressed.

Number 87, the word ‘work’.

Work is a verb that's a Content word and that's a word that will be stressed in a sentence.

So this one is longer, clearer, has the up- down shape of Stress.

Now I know this is one of the hardest words out there.

All of the words with the R vowel is going to be a tough word for most non-native speakers

because they feel like they should make a vowel and then an R.

Well let's learn this right now.

In American English, this symbol is always followed by R and the two symbols together make just one sound.

Rrr— Wo— rrrk.

Don't drop the R sound and make it something like: wok, wok, wok.

That's not clear enough.

We want the R and we want the up-down shape.

Ww— orrrkk.

Work.

Work.

The biggest problem for people is how to make this R.

The lips round but they're not as rounded as they were for the W.

So they will relax out some: were, Wor. Wor.

The tongue movement is simple.

The tip is forward for the W and then the tip pulls back and up a bit.

It's not a huge movement and your jaw drops just a bit.

Wor.

Wor.

Wor.

Work.

If you know you're not getting the right sound, one thing to do is to make sure you don't drop your jaw.

Focus only on the tongue.

Work.

Work.

Work.

I have a video with some illustrations of this vowel, I’ll put a link to that video at the end of this one.

If you struggle with this word or vowel, you'll definitely want to check it out.

Let's look at this word in some sentences.

We'll work it out.

Work.

Work.

She doesn't work Mondays.

Work.

Work.

Number 88, first.

Interesting another word with this R vowel you see the letter I and you try to do a vowel but don't.

Don't do it.

Just the r sound.

Ff— rrr— st.

Ff— rrr— st.

Make your f, pull back the front of the tongue, don't drop your jaw: fir, fir, and the ST cluster.

First.

First.

Make your s with your teeth together, then lift the tongue tip to touch the roof of the mouth, which stops the air,

then release everything to make the t.

Sst.

Ssst.

As you release the tongue, the teeth part and the air comes through.

Sst -

First.

First of all.

First.

First.

We have a True T in that ending cluster.

First.

If you've seen in many of my videos, then you know that the pronunciation of the t can change

depending on the next word.

Here, it's an ending cluster ST.

A True T, unless it's followed by a consonant.

Let's look at two examples.

First, I want to try this.

First, john wants to try this.

First, I want to.

First, I want to.

There, it's followed by the diphthong AI and I’m making a True T.

First, ttt.

First, I want to.

And the next sentence: First, John wants to try this.

First, john.

First, john.

Here, I’m linking into a word that begins with a consonant and I’m not making a t sound.

First, John.

So when we have an ending ST cluster

followed by a word that begins with a consonant,

it is very common to drop the t sound.

So this is a content word that means we normally stress it in a sentence but because of this t

we do sometimes make a reduction by dropping the t for a smoother connection into the next word.

Number 89, the word ‘well’.

We use this word in lots of different ways, as an adverb, an adjective, or a noun.

They're all content words where we'll stress it.

Things are going well.

I wish him well.

All is well.

Well, w consonant, EH as in bed vowel, and the dark L.

Well, uhl, well.

The dark l is made with the back of the tongue pressing down and back a little bit.

Uhl, uhl.

You don't lift your tongue tip unless maybe you're going to link into a word that begins with a vowel or diphthong.

Well.

Well.

Well.

Up-down shape of stress.

But this can also be an interjection and then it's often unstressed.

We use this a lot at the beginning of sentences.

Well, I want to leave by 7:00.

Well, I want to leave.

Well, I want to leave.

Well, well, well.

Well, I want to.

Well, I want to.

It's really just the w and a quick dark sound.

Wuhl, wuhl, wuhl, wuhl.

I've dropped the EH vowel, turned it into a schwa,

which sort of gets lost in the dark l.

Wuhl, wuhl, wuhl.

Try that with me.

Wuhl, wuhl, wuhl.

Well, I want to.

Well, I want to.

Well, I want to.

Well, I want to leave by 7:00.

Well, that's not what she said.

Well, well.

Well, that's.

Well, that's.

Well, that's not what she said.

So this word can definitely reduce depending on how it's being used.

Number 90, the last word for this Video, the word ‘way’.

This is fun.

This reminds me of a video I just made for my online school,

Rachel's English Academy,

where my dad and I are talking about my way, your way, the best way, the wrong way.

This is a noun and it’s stressed in a sentence.

It's fully pronounced and has the up-down shape of stress.

Way.

W consonant, AY as in say diphthong.

Way.

We've had lots of words beginning with W in this video.

Haven't we?

Work.

Well.

Way.

Lips come together into a tight circle for that W.

Www— way.

Then the ay as in say diphthong.

First, jaw drop.

Wa— way.

Then, the jaw relaxes up as the front of the tongue arches towards the roof of the mouth.

The tip stays down.

Way, way.

Get out of the Way.

We need to find a way to solve this Problem.

You've come a long way.

When we were going over the word ‘work’,

I told you that I'd share a link to a video that goes over this R vowel sound.

This is for the word ‘first’ as well.

Rrr. Rrr.

Click here or in the description below to see that video that goes over that vowel

and has some illustrations so you can see what the tongue is doing inside the mouth.

Let's keep going down this list of the 100 most common words in American English.

Look for the next installment in this series, coming soon.

That's it and thanks so much for using Rachel's English.