TRICKY ENGLISH WORDS THAT SOUND (ALMOST!) THE SAME

hey what's up Stefanie the English coach here from EnglishFullTime.com in this video we

are going to be talking about words that sound very similar in English but these words don't

sound similar to native English speakers in fact, to native English speakers these words

sound nothing alike they're completely different but when you are learning English and you

are dealing with sounds that don't exist in your native language some of these words might

sound almost identical to each other, ok? so i'm gonna go through a list of words that

you guys helped me create, that's right I didn't invent this list myself I did not find

it on Google this comes from the feedback that you guys have been leaving on my YouTube

videos so thank you so much I love the feedback that you leave because it helps me know what

to teach in my videos anyhow, so let's just get into it the first pair that we have is

MEN and MAN men man many men one man men man en en an an next we have WANT and WON like

I want a car or I won a car now the reason why these two sound so similar is because

when they are said quickly they actually do sound exactly the same listen I really want

a car I won a car right? when we say them quickly in fast speech they're said the same

way I wan a car but when you pronounce these words individually one is WANT with the T

at the end and the other is WON with the N at the end however when we do pronounce WANT

we rarely pronounce it with the T at the end usually we cut it off and we say WAN I wan'

that and the other word is WON so the difference is wan' and won wan' and won now the next

pair of words is ONE like the number one and also WON one won now one of the reasons why

these words get confused so much is because a lot of people actually say won like yeah

I won a car so they pronounce it exactly like the number one and maybe that's why you've

been confused I do not however I would say I won it i don't say I won it but a lot of

people do so that's another reason why they sound exactly the same sometimes because they

do they are the same, depending on how people pronounce them next HAIR and AIR do you see

how I'm taking a breath in and then I'm releasing it to say hair hair hair right because you

do have to release that breath of air that's the H sound right hair the word air on the

other hand I just start right away with the word air the air was blowing through her hair

the air was blowing through her hair hopefully you can hear the difference there next TREE

THREE FREE this set of words is one that you guys have told me that you struggle with the

difference is what comes at the beginning of the word so tree we have a strong CH sound

there tree tree tree then we have three three three ok so the tongue does go between the

teeth you do not have to exaggerate this and say thhree like that ok three three three

my tongue is like right between my teeth right behind my teeth and it's just there quickly

and then I pull it back three for the r three then we have free free k free that is the

F sound my vocal cords do not vibrate I'm just releasing the air blowing it out and

my teeth are right here on my bottom lip and notice the top lip is relaxed free free ok

so tree three free try saying that fast a few times it's a real tongue-twister next

LOOSE LOSE loose lose k your shoe laces are loose did you lose the ball your shoe laces

are loose did you lose the ball what's the difference here?

there are two main differences one is that the vowel is elongated we have the same vowel

in both words but one is longer than the other listen loose lose loose lose k the other difference

is the ending loose has the S sound loose then we have lose lose that's the Z sound

next we have PROVE and PROOF prove and proof k can you prove that? he wants proof so here

we have some very similar differences the vowel sound right prove that's longer you

are saying it for a longer length of time and the proof is a lot faster proof prove

proof k and then the other difference is the ending prove has the V ending proof has the

F so the way these sounds are made is almost exactly the same the tongue the teeth the

lips they are all in the same position the only real difference is the vibration of the

vocal cords with the V sound your vocal cords vibrate with the F sound they don't next LEAF

and LEAVE leaf and leave again we have the same differences here as we've been having

in the previous set of words leaf the E sound is very fast leaf and then in leave the E

sound is longer leave that's a beautiful leaf he wants to leave ok and the other difference

is the ending again we have the V versus the F leave leaf next YEAR and EAR the difference

here is just the Y sound at the beginning of year it's gonna be a great year ow my ear

hurts ear year ok so you should be able to hear that sound at the beginning of year now

if you can hear the sound then you can practice making it and saying the words correctly next

WORD and WORLD word and world I know these two words are very difficult for many of you

so lets practice this word word word now notice I am pronouncing the D at the end but I talk

about this in another pronunciation video that I've done you can stop the word at the

D sound wor' wor' wor' that's a really long wor' or I can say that's a really long word

ok but usually if it's at the end of a sentence I might just cut off the D sound same with

world I don't have to say world I can say worl' this is a crazy worl' do you see how

I'm stopping the word at that D sound now one thing I should mention though is that

sometimes the D sound would get attached to whatever comes after it like this that word

is really big that wordis wordis wor-dis wordis that word is really big now one quick tip

for pronouncing world you can also think of it as two separate words were like the word

were and then old like that man is old were-old that's actually a trick that someone commented

on my last pronunciation video I thought it was pretty cool so I wanted to share it with

you guys here were-old world if you think about it like two separate words that might

help next we have SHIP and SHEEP ship sheep and I'm going like this because you should

be able to hear that one sound is higher than the other ok this sound is a bit higher and

it's placed more forward in the mouth all of the vowel sounds that we make are made

in different places of our face our vocal apparatus ok some sounds are made more in

the back some are made more in the front some are made maybe more on the nose depending

on what language we are speaking k cause some languages have more nasal sounds than others

so the sound when I'm exaggerating it look how my mouth just widens like this however

when I'm saying sheep I'm not going sheep like that that's totally awkward I'm just

saying sheep sheep so you should be able to make that sound without exaggerating and going

like that but doing that sort of shows you were the sound is placed in your mouth ok

anyhow sheep sheep ship ship k again if you can hear a clear difference that is gonna

help you pronounce them correctly you have to hear the difference first and then you

have to play with your voice and practice until you can say it the way I'm saying it

next we have SICK and SEEK he's really sick she wants to seek a new job and again you

don't necessarily have to pronounce that K sound at the end you can say he's really sic'

he's really sic' and likewise with the other examples I gave of words connecting to whatever

comes after it when I say she wants to seek a new job I'm saying seeka seeka she wants

to seeka new job next PILL PEEL every morning he has to take his pill peel the orange before

eating it pill peel next TAX TASK tax task the ending is inverted one has the KS sound

tax and the other has the SK sound task you'll have to pay tax with that item don't worry

it's an easy task next BEER BEARD he spilled beer in his beard ok I am cutting off the

D here of beard cos I don't really say beard but again in English we tend to cut off lots

of sounds at the end of words specially consonant sounds k where you can just stop the sound

in your throat anyhow beer beard beer beard next PEPPER PAPER she puts pepper on her eggs

he wrote it down on a piece of paper ok and this video would not be complete without a

couple examples of profanity so if you have children around please send them away or mute

this video or do something if you don't want them to hear this because the next couple

words we are gonna talk about are swear words here we go B*TCH BEACH now if you listen closely

there is actually real words inside this words itch itch like my leg itches each each person

is different each bitch beach ok so again we have you do wanna practice these words

specially if these are words that you use cos you don't wanna say oh she is such a mean

beach because beaches aren't mean they are really nice so beach beach and b*tch b*tch

b*tch next SH*T SHEET he just step in a big pile of sh*t she washed the sheets for her

bed sheet sh*t and last I saved the best example for last or at least this was my favorite

KISS and KEYS like he wants to kiss her she lost her keys he wants to kiss her she lost

her keys now this I thought it was a very important example to go over because you don't

wanna say to someone hey can I keys you ok you wanna say hey can I kiss you can I kiss

you not keys ok kiss keys alright you guys that's it thank you so much for watching this

video I hope you learned something please let me know in the comments which words pairs

were easy for you which ones were difficult did this video help you with any of them are

you able to pronounce them correctly now please let me know I love reading your feedback and

if you are new to this channel I just wanna let you know that the number one way I promote

improving your English is by practicing by speaking English with real people that is

the one thing that can help take you form where you are to where you want to be to help

improve your fluency your confidence etc so I wrote a guide is on my website it's totally

free you can download it it's about how to practice your English with native English

speakers I pretty much mention this guide in almost every video because it has helped

thousands of people I really believe it can help you too so I would go ahead and link

that in the description feel free to download it it's an easy read it's really quick to

get through but it's gonna teach you strategies that you can start using today alright guys

that's it I'll see you in the next video