How to Pronounce OPPORTUNITY -- American English

In this American English pronunciation video,

we're going to go over the pronunciation

of the word ‘opportunity’.

This week’s word of the week is ‘opportunity’.

It’s a five syllable word

with secondary stress on the first syllable

and primary stress on the third syllable.

Da-da-DA-da-da, opportunity.

It begins with the AH as in FATHER vowel.

You do need a little bit

of a jaw drop for that.

Ah, ah, Op-, then the lips will come together

to make the P sound. Op-, -por-, -por-.

Next we have the schwa R sound.

The R will take over the schwa so don’t worry

about making that a separate sound.

Op-, -por-, -por-. So the tongue

will pull back and up for that R sound.

Op-, -por-, -por-, -por-

and now we have the stressed syllable,

it begins with a T and since this is

a stressed syllable it will be a true T.

Op-, -por-, -tu-, -tu-.

So to make the T the tongue goes to the

roof of the mouth and the teeth will close.

Op-, -por-, -tu-.

We’ll stop the air just a little bit and then

let it escape when we part the teeth

going into the next sound.

In this case the OO as in BOO vowel.

Notice how much your lips

need to round for that.

Tu, tu. Op-, -por-, -tu-. Opportunity.

Next we have the N consonant sound,

so the tongue will go to the

roof of the mouth again.

Tun, n, n. This time for the n. Opportunity.

Then we have the IH as in SIT vowel.

And now we have a T

this comes between two vowels.

It’s not beginning a stressed syllable,

so is a flap T.

Opportunity. Ni-ty, ni-ty, ni-ty.

So the tongue will come down for the IH vowel

back up to the roof of the mouth,

quickly for the flap T then down again

for the EE as in SHE vowel.

Opportunity. Opportunity.

This is a great ‘opportunity’.

That’s it your “word of the week”.

If there is a word you would like to suggest

for the “word of the week”

put it in the comments below.

That’s it, and thanks so much for using

Rachel’s English.