Vocabulary: Parties and Labor Day - American English Pronunciation

Hello Rachel's English fans! Today we are going to go over vocabulary for parties, specifically,

for a grilling/Labor Day party, which is what I went to just this past weekend. Labor Day

is the first Monday in September in America, and it is a holiday. So, most people are lucky

enough to have that day off, and therefore have a three day weekend.

First, Labor Day. Labor Day begins with the L consonant sound, ll, tongue tip up behind

the teeth. Ll, ll, lay, lay, the 'ay' as in 'say' diphthong, Labor. The second syllable,

unaccented, will be lower in pitch, lower in volume, Labor, Labor, with the B consonant

sound and the schwa/R sound: br, br. Labor, Labor. Day, with the D consonant sound and

the 'ay' as in 'say' diphthong, watch how the tongue moves between those two sounds:

Day, Day. Labor Day.

Show them a good, old fashioned, American back yard. It's pretty typical to grill out

in one's back yard. Back yard. The B consonant sound followed by the 'aa' as in 'bat' vowel

sound. Ba-aa, jaw drops quite a bit, tongue is raised a little bit there in the back.

Baa-aa-k. To make the K sound, the back of the tongue reaches up, kk and pulls away,

kk, to release and make that sound. Back yard. The Y consonant sound followed by the 'ah'

as in 'father' sound. Ya, ya-rd. The R consonant sound and the D sound. Yard, yard. I've noticed

recently with some of my students: when they have the 'ah' as in 'father' vowel followed

by the R consonant sound, that they tend to make it one sound: rr, rr. Make sure your

jaw drops, ya-, ah, at the beginning, so you get that good ah vowel sound. Yarr, before

moving into the r sound. Yard. Back yard.

And here we have the grill.

Grill begins with the G consonant sound, gg, gg, the R consonant

sound, gr, gr, so it is a G-R consonant blend. Gg, the back of the tongue is raised and it

releases while the vocal cords are making noise. Gg, gg, rr, gr. To make the R sound,

the tongue has to move up in the middle. Gr, rr, and press against the insides of the top

teeth. Gr, gr. The ih sound is next, gri-, gri-ll. And finally, the dark L. Uhl, and

the tongue tip moves, finishing, ll, just behind the top teeth. Grill, grill.

The meat. We had ribs, pork, and chicken. Actually, I believe that was not pork, it

was lamb. At any rate, this is what we had, and it was especially delicious. The ribs

actually had been made before and frozen. My friend who is a chef assures me that the

best way to cook ribs is actually to cook them twice. He says it's the only real way

to get them juicy. Anyway, I do wish we'd had some fresh vegetables to put on the grill.

Corn on the cob and zucchini are among my favorites.

Ribs begin with the R consonant sound, rr, rr, lips will be in a circle there to make

that beginning sound. Ri-, opening into the 'ih' as in 'sit' vowel sound, ri-. And finally,

the B consonant sound followed by the Z sound. Ribs, ribs. The plural here is pronounced

as a Z because the final sound on the word rib is B, which is voiced, bb, bb, and the

voiced consonant will be followed by the Z sound in plural form. Ribs, ribs.

Chicken begins with the

ch CH sound, ch, opening into the 'ih' as in 'sit' vowel sound, chi-, chi-kk. K consonant

sound, where the tongue reaches up, chick, chick-en. And the schwa sound followed by

the N consonant sound. Chicken. The first syllable here is stressed. Chicken. So the

second syllable, unstressed, will be lower in pitch and lower in volume, also shorter.

Chicken, chicken.

While we were all waiting on the meat to be ready, we had some smaller, lighter food before

hand, we call those appetizers. Chips and dip are a very popular American appetizer

to have at a party. Appetizers. Notice the first syllable is stressed. Appetizers. The

third syllable has a secondary stress, meaning, it will come out of the line a little bit,

but it's not as high or as loud as the first syllable. Appetizers. The 'aa' vowel sound

begins the word. Appe-. The P consonant sound followed by the schwa. Appe-ti: the T consonant

sound followed by the 'ai' as in 'buy' diphthong. Appeti-, ti-, appeti-zers. The Z consonant

sound, schwa-R sound, and the Z consonant sound. Appetizers.

Chips begins with the ch consonant sound, ch, chi, the 'ih' as in 'sit' vowel sound.

Chi-, chi-ps, ps. The P consonant sound with the S sound. Chips. So the lips have to come

together, pp, ps, for the P, and the open, ss, while the teeth remain together to make

the S. Chips, ps, chips. The word 'and' will be reduced here. It is a function word, therefore

not as important as the two nouns that surround it. Chips nn, nn, so it will be pronounced

just with the N sound, chips-n-. Dip: the D consonant sound, the 'ih' as in 'sit', and

the P consonant. Dip, dip, chips and dip.

Not a great lowercase A, but here is an apple pie that I made. Apple pie begins with the

'aa' as in 'bat' vowel sound. Apple, pp, pp, the P consonant sound followed by the schwa

and the dark L sound. -ple, -ple, apple. Apple. I'm sure you notice it's the first syllable

that's stressed. Apple pie. The P consonant sound and the 'ai' as in 'buy' diphthong.

Apple pie. Yummy yummy, serving it up.

This is part of an idiom, as American as apple pie. What does this idiom mean? Well, apple

pie we sort of think of as being an American invention. We associate it with American holidays

such as the 4th of July, summer, it feels like a very American thing. So if you say,

she's as American as apple pie, that means she is very American: perhaps very patriotic

or just your typical American girl. That's it, and thanks so much for using Rachel's English. .