How to say I HAVE A COLD -- American English Pronunciation

In this American English pronunciation video, we're going to go over how to say 'I have

a cold'.

I'm not in my normal recording space, as I'm sure you can see. And that's because I'm not

feeling well. I can't talk for very long, I can't record a bunch of videos. I have a

cold. Let's go over that phrase. I have a, I have a, I have a cold. 'I' and 'cold' are

the most stressed syllables there. So, the structure is DA-da-da-DA. I have a cold. We

begin with the AI as in BUY diphthong. You do need to drop your jaw for the first sound

of that diphthong. I, I, I have a, I have a.

Are you noticing? I'm dropping the H in 'have'. This is a pretty common habit. We do this

with words like 'have', 'had', 'his', 'her'. I have a [3x]. I have a cold, I have a stomach

ache, I have a headache. Dropping the H in 'have' in all of those phrases.

So, I am keeping the AA as in BAT vowel and the V sound, I have [3x]. I have a. Adding

on a schwa now to make the article 'a'. Notice that the V sound of 'have' is linking right

into the schwa. I have a, I have a, I have a. There's no break between any of those words.

And finally, 'cold'. Some of my students have problems with this word. It's hard for them

to make the difference between 'cold' and 'code'. So, let's talk about it. First, we

have the K consonant sound where the tongue tip is down and the back part of the tongue

reaches up to touch the soft palate. Kk, kk. For the word 'code', we go straight into the

OH as in NO diphthong. Jaw drops, and the lips round for the second half. Code. That

means the whole sound is up here in the front of the mouth. Now, for the word 'cold', we

have the OH diphthong, but it's a little different because of the Dark L. I do drop my jaw for

the beginning of the diphthong, co--l. But rather than finishing the diphthong with a

lot of lip rounding, I go straight to the Dark sound of the Dark L, where the back part

of my tongue pulls back. So the tongue tip stays forward, col-, but the back part of

the tongue stretches back. Ll, ll. Collllld. And to end, the front of the tongue goes up

to the roof of the mouth and releases for the D. Cold, cold.

So the difference between 'code' and 'cold' is the Dark L. 'Code', the whole thing is

up here. Collll, cold, some of the sound is back here for the dark L. Code, cold [2x].

I have a cold.

Unfortunately, you're probably going to need to say this at least once a year, so I hope

this video helps.

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