How to Pronounce FOREIGN -- American English Pronunciation

In this American English pronunciation video,

we're going to go over the pronunciation of the word 'foreign'.

This week's Word of the Week is 'foreign'. Thanks so much to the fan who suggested it!

Looking at this word, the pronunciation seems pretty tough, but it's actually not so bad.

First, let's talk about the stress.

It's a two-syllable word with stress on the first syllable,

DA-da, foreign, so we have to make sure our first syllable is long,

and the second syllable is short.

It begins with the F consonant sound, so the bottom lip will come up,

and the inside will make contact with the bottom of the top front teeth. Fffff, foreign.

Next we have the AW as in LAW vowel, but because the next sound is an R,

which can affect the vowel before, it's not really a pure AW vowel,

the lips will round more than they would if the R wasn't there. For-.

Then my tongue will pull back and up from the middle, kind of like this, for-.

The front part isn't touching anything,

it can be pointing up a little bit or pointing down a little bit.

I have a contact point here, for-,

where the middle part of the tongue touches the roof of the mouth,

or maybe the insides or bottom of the teeth. For-, fore-ign, -ign.

This second syllable should be as fast as you can make it, since it's unstressed:

foreign, -reign, -reign.

So the tip of the tongue makes a quick motion down and then back up.

It doesn't have to go all the way down, where it would normally be for the IH vowel,

but it should come down a little before the front,

flat part goes to the roof of the mouth for the N. Foreign, foreign, foreign.

I teach English as a foreign language.

Here it is in slow motion.

If there's a word you find difficult to pronounce, suggest it in the comments.

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