How to Pronounce VULNERABLE -- American English Pronunciation

In this American English pronunciation video,

we’re going to go over how to pronounce the word

‘vulnerable’.

You guys have noticed:

‘vulnerable’ is a pretty tough word.

It’s got two dark L’s, which can be really tricky,

not to mention the R.

Let’s get started.

‘Vulnerable’ is a four-syllable word

with stress on the first syllable.

Vulnerable, DA-da-da-da.

So the first syllable should definitely feel

like the most important syllable, vulnerable.

The way to achieve this is to take the

other three syllables and make them less important.

–nerable, -nerable, -nerable.

They’re quieter, less clear,

and they may even sound a little mumbled.

Vulnerable, -nerable, -nerable.

There’s not much air in them.

You would never want to talk this way all the time,

but in your unstressed syllables it’s great,

it really makes them sound unstressed,

so the important syllable,

the stressed syllable, pops out.

Vulnerable, vulnerable.

The first and stressed syllable

starts with the V consonant. Vv.

To make the V, the bottom lip comes up

and the inside of it, here,

touches the bottom of the top front teeth. Vv, vv.

The top lip needs to lift a little bit

to get out of the way. Vv.

Your bottom lip shouldn’t disappear,

because it’s the inside of the lip

that vibrates against the teeth. Vv, vv.

Then we have the UH as in BUTTER sound,

but it’s followed by a Dark L,

so it’s not really a pure sound.

A Dark L is an L that comes

after a vowel or diphthong in a syllable.

So rather than UH, bu-, butter,

the sound is uhl, uhl, vul-, vulnerable. It’s dark.

When people think L,

they think tip of the tongue to roof of the mouth, ll.

But that’s not actually how the dark part

of the Dark L is made.

It’s made with the back of the tongue. Vul-.

I’m making that sound while the tongue tip is down.

So to make the dark sound,

the back part of the tongue

presses down and shifts back a little bit. Vul-.

Don’t lift the middle part of the tongue,

or it will start to sound like an R.

Back part of the tongue back.

Tip can stay forward. Vul-, vul-.

That’s all we need for the Dark L, that dark sound.

Now the N.

The front, flat part of the tongue, nn,

goes to the roof of the mouth.

Vuln-.

The next three syllables are all unstressed, -nerable,

less important, less clear.

First, pull the tongue back, -ner-,

so the tongue tip isn’t touching anything, -ner-.

This is for the R sound.

The lips flare a little bit, -ner-.

Notice how the rest of the mouth

doesn’t need to move much, -ner-, -ner-. Good.

That helps us make it faster and more simply.

Vulnera-.

Now we have the schwa,

so we're just going to bring the tongue back down,

relax it, tip is forward,

vulnera-, vulnera-.

The movement of the mouth is minimal:

-nera- [5x].

Now we have the B sound,

the lips do need to come together for that.

Vulnerab-, -bb-, –ble.

And another Dark L, except this one is faster,

less energized, less clear because it’s unstressed.

-Ble, -ble, -ble.

Just a quick dark sound,

where the back part of the tongue pulls back a bit,

vulnerable, -ble.

It’s an L, but you don’t need to lift your tongue up.

That’s just an extra movement. We don’t need that.

The dark sound tells us it’s a Dark L, -ble, -ble.

Practice just those

three unstressed syllables together:

-nerable. [3x].

Vulnerable.

Vul-, -nerable.

Vulnerable.

Now let’s watch up close and in slow motion.

If there’s a word you’d like to learn how to pronounce,

put it in the comments below.

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