ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION | ADVANCED STUDENT LESSON | The Play It, Say It Method

Today, you're going to study some really hard to pronounce words in American English.

Words with Rs and Ls.

We'll talk about why these words are tricky, go over 'regularly' and 'clearly',

and practice lots of other similar words together.

The sounds R and L are difficult for most non-native speakers when they occur in words on their own.

So when they occur in the same word, it can be very challenging.

For japanese speakers and others, it's common to mix up or switch the R and L sounds.

So the word 'class' might be pronounced 'crass'.

Rr-- rr-- crass.

More of an R sound, by accident.

In this video, we'll be working on finding more clarity for these sounds.

To do this, we'll be focusing on multi-syllable words,

that include both R and L sounds.

For in-depth descriptions of these sounds,

you can visit the specific sound videos,

I'll link to some of these important videos at the end of this video.

But let's start by going over the basic differences in the mouth movements for Light L, Dark L, and R sounds.

First, let's talk about 2 L sounds.

Light and dark.

The Light L is used when the L is beginning a word, like: light or love.

Or for an L in the middle of the word when it starts a syllable like: believe or delight.

For the Light L, the tongue tip lifts and touches the roof of the mouth just behind the teeth: ull, ull.

I've also noticed, some native speakers make it like this: ull, ull,

where the tongue tip is pushing up on the bottom of the top front teeth.

The Dark L is used when the L ends the word like: feel or mail.

Also, in the middle of the word, if it comes after

the vowel or diphthong in the syllable like: billing, billlling, or taller, tallller.

The Dark L can be made with just the back part of the tongue pulling back and pressing down a little bit.

Uhl.

Uhl.

Uhl.

You don't need to lift your tongue tip up to make this dark sound and in fact,

native speakers don't lift their tongue tip except in a few cases.

When students lift the tongue tip in the Dark L, it tends to destroy the dark sound

and it ends up sounding more like a Light L instead.

When people focus on the tip, they forget the back.

Uhl.

Uhl.

And for Dark L, we want that dark sound made with the back of the tongue.

Now, for the R sound.

The position is completely different.

It's not made in the front or the back, but the middle.

Uhl, uhl.

Light L.

Uhl, uhl. Dark L.

Rrr-- rr-- R.

The front part of the tongue lifts and pulls back a little bit,

but the middle part of the tongue might make contact with the roof of the mouth in the middle.

Rrr, rrr.

Okay, we've taken a look at the specific way we make Light L,

Dark L, and R.

As you've heard and seen, each of these sounds has a very distinct mouth position.

We'll have to really think about these positions as we work on these tough words with Rs and Ls.

It's a great idea to stop on the R, to stop on the L, hold out the sound, and check your mouth position.

Let's analyze two words that both have R and L in detail.

Let's do 'regularly'.

It starts with R, EH as in Bed, and G .

So tongue tip is pulled back and up to start,

rrr, lips are flared, rrrr--eh--, then jaw drop, tongue tip goes down.

Re-- reg-- back of the tongue lifts for the G, touches the soft palate, reg--, then we have Y consonant schwa.

Regyy-- For the G, the back of the tongue is lifted, touching he soft palate.

For the Y, you move your tongue forward along the roof of the mouth.

Regyyy-- then bring your tongue down for the schwa.

Regyyi-- reggyy--

Now, an L.

It's in the middle of the word.

Does it come before or after the vowel in the syllable?

it comes before.

It begins the third syllable so it's a light L, tongue tip up.

Regulll--

Let's try that again, just holding our L and R.

Rrrr--regu-lll.

We still have one more R and one more L.

From the light L, the tongue pulls right back into the R.

Lar-- lllarr--

Don't try to make a vowel in there, the schwa is absorbed by the R.

Let's practice that transition by holding out L and R.

Lllarr--- lllarrr--

Now, we have an L again and it's the beginning of the syllable again so it's a Light L

so the tongue tip comes back up for the Light L.

Uhll, uhll, uhll.

It pulls back for the R and goes right back up.

Llllarrrlllyy---

Llllarrrlllyy---

You don't have to move your jaw very much.

Just move the tongue.

Larl, larl, larl, larl.

And finally the tongue tip comes back down for a quick unstressed E,

ly, ly, ly, ly.

Woooh, okay.

Let's do this whole word, holding out our Rs and our Ls.

Rrrregulllarrrrllly.

Regularly.

Now, let's do the whole word in slow motion a few times:

regularly,

regularly,

regularly.

How does it feel? Is it any easier for you to do this?

Having slowed it down and broken it down?

If not, break it up into parts, keep going slowly, practice just individual sounds,

then go back and do the word, holding out those tricky sounds.

Another amazing technique that works well

after you've really studied the position

is just to use pure repetition.

In my academy , I call it the play it, say it method.

You hear something, you say it out loud.

You hear it again, you say it again

and you don't think too much about position, you definitely don't correct yourself if you hear it's not right,

you just play it again and say it again, always moving forward.

As you listen and repeat over and over, something amazing happens.

You start to become an amazing imitator.

And your mouth makes subtle adjustments

that makes you sound more native.

I've seen this happen over and over with students.

I'll watch them use play it, say it and I don't even tell them what to fix.

They figure it out by repetition

and in the end, they sound amazing.

Try this with me now. I'm going to say the word ten times in a row.

Each time, I'll take a break that's just long enough for you to repeat.

You're not focusing on what to do here, you're focusing on what you hear

and repeating it back exactly.

Okay, here we go.

Repeat out loud.

Regularly.

Regularly.

Regularly.

Regularly.

Regularly.

Regularly.

Regularly.

Regularly.

Regularly.

Regularly.

You did it.

If you want, go back and play this part of the video again

to get ten more times of hearing it

and repeating it back exactly like you hear it.

I couldn't hear you but I bet after the tenth time, you are sounding pretty good.

Can you imagine if you did this everyday with your most challenging words for one or two weeks?

Those wouldn't be your most challenging words anymore.

You'd have to come up with a new list.

And finally, the word 'clearly'.

Both Ls are light Ls because they come before the vowel and the syllable.

So make the K by lifting the back of the tongue, kkk,

then as you release it, lift your tongue tip.

Kl, kl, klllii---

then the tongue tip comes down for the EE vowel, kli, kli.

And now, our R.

Tongue tip pulls back and up.

Earr, earr.

Clear.

Now, let's hold out the L and the R.

Clllearrrr.

Now, all we have to do is add the LY ending.

Tongue tip comes up again for the light L.

Llllly.

And pulls down for the EE vowel.

Ccllleearrrrllllyy.

Clearly.

Clearly.

We'll do it again, holding out all Rs and Ls.

Ccllleearrrrllllyy.

And now, slowly, a few times.

Clearly.

Notice the shape of stress.

This is a stressed word

so we want the voice to go up and then curve back down.

And we can hear that even more clearly when we do the word in slow motion.

Ccllleearrrrllllyy.

Clearly.

Clearly.

Play it, say it, ten times in a row.

Ready?

Clearly.

Clearly.

Clearly.

Clearly.

Clearly.

Clearly.

Clearly.

Clearly.

Clearly.

Clearly.

Now, we're going to look at many words with Rs and Ls

that students find really tricky like: rarely and culturally.

I'll do each word ten times. It's the play it, say it method.

Repeat out out with me.

Don't stop to correct mistakes.

Don't think too much about what you're doing. Let your body make adjustments

by focusing only on repeating back just exactly what you hear.

This method is amazing.

Let's start.

Culturally. Ten times.

Culturally.

Culturally.

Culturally.

Culturally.

Culturally.

Culturally.

Culturally.

Culturally.

Culturally.

Culturally.

Temporarily. Ten times.

Temporarily.

Temporarily.

Temporarily.

Temporarily.

Temporarily.

Temporarily.

Temporarily.

Temporarily.

Temporarily.

Temporarily.

This only works if you're repeating out loud so if you're watching this video by now,

I hope you're still repeating out loud.

Popularly. Ten times.

Popularly.

Popularly.

Popularly.

Popularly.

Popularly.

Popularly.

Popularly.

Popularly.

Popularly.

Popularly.

Orderly. Ten times.

Orderly.

Orderly.

Orderly.

Orderly.

Orderly.

Orderly.

Orderly.

Orderly.

Orderly.

Orderly.

Now, nearly.

Nearly.

Nearly.

Nearly.

Nearly.

Nearly.

Nearly.

Nearly.

Nearly.

Nearly.

Nearly.

Rarely, ten times.

Rarely.

Rarely.

Rarely.

Rarely.

Rarely.

Rarely.

Rarely.

Rarely.

Rarely.

Rarely.

There are a lot more words you can practice with.

I'm going to suggest that you go to Forvo.com,

find a native speaker that you like

and use the play it, say it method yourself.

You play it on the audio file and you say it out loud.

Play it, say it, back and forth over and over.

We'll do one more word together.

Rural. Ten times, out loud, say it with me.

Rural.

Rural.

Rural.

Rural.

Rural.

Rural.

Rural.

Rural.

Rural.

Rural.

You've learned in this video how to break down difficult words and sounds and put all words back together.

Now, you can take long, intimidating words and make them sound really natural

with just a little bit of practice.

Let's link now to those videos I told you about.

I have videos that contrast R and L, a great place to start if these two confuse you.

Then I have a video on L and a video on R.

These go over the exact position of these sounds with illustrations.

Be sure to check them out.

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