Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.
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In this American English pronunciation video,
we're going to go over
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how to pronounce 'United States'.
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This week's Word of the Week is actually two
words: 'United States'. 'United'. It's a three-syllable
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word with stress on the middle syllable. United.
So, it begins with the EW as in FEW diphthong.
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Then we have the N consonant sound, so the
tongue will lift and touch here: un-. Then
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we have the AI as in BUY diphthong: uni-,
uni-. Make sure you drop your jaw enough for
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that first sound: uni-, uni-ted. So here we're
going to have a Flap T because it comes between
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two vowel sounds (the AI diphthong and the
schwa). -ted, -ted, -ted. So the tongue tip
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will go to the roof of the mouth, -te-, pull
down and go right back up: -ted, -ted. United.
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United.
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States. This begins with the ST consonant
cluster, ss, ss, ss. So, the tongue tip is
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down, the teeth are closed, states, states.
The front part of the tongue can reach up
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and touch the roof of the mouth here, rather than
bringing the tip up. It's a short cut with
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the ST cluster. Tongue tip down, front part
to the roof of the mouth. St-, st-, st-, states,
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states. Then we have the AY as in SAY diphthong,
so the jaw does need to drop a good bit for
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that, sta-, sta-. And finally, the TS consonant
cluster, -ts, -ts, states. United States.
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I'm from the United States.
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That's it, your Word of the Week. Try it
out yourself. Make up a sentence with the
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word, record it, and post it as a video response
to this video on YouTube. I can't wait to
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watch it.
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That's it, and thanks so much for using
Rachel's English.
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