Spelled the SAME, Pronounced DIFFERENTLY 😵 Correct English Pronunciation

Hey there I'm Emma from mmmEnglish!

Today's pronunciation lesson is all about

some extremely common English words, like this word

and actually this word, like all the others that I'm gonna

share today has more than just one meaning.

It can be more than one type of word.

It can be a verb and a noun so of course,

a verb and a noun, the meaning is different

and interestingly, the pronunciation is different.

I mean which really is quite annoying

but we're going to take a look at some of these different

words and learn some cool tricks so that you know

how to pronounce them correctly

so you ready to dive in?

So let's start nice and simple with this word.

Now there's actually two ways to pronounce this word.

Do you know them? Do you know them already?

We have tear.

And tear.

Can you hear the different vowel sounds

that I'm using in each word?

But now I want you to try saying it out loud and I want

you to listen to make sure that there's a difference

in the vowel sounds that you're using.

Nice! I always like to remember that a tear

comes down near your ear

and you know when you hold something up to tear it

you're holding it up in the air right.

A little reminder there.

So practise with me.

A tear rolled down his cheek as he saw his dad

tear up his favourite book.

Your turn.

Nice! Now there are some clues in this sentence

that help us to know which word is a noun

and which one is a verb.

So articles are always in front of nouns

and when we have a subject, dad,

and an object, our favourite book,

we know that this must be a verb right?

We need it to complete the clause in the sentence.

So I want you to keep looking for these clues as we go

through this lesson okay

keep looking for the types of words in each sentence

as a clue for how to pronounce them.

So as a noun this is a type of bird, right and it's

pronounced dove.

Dove. It's that short vowel sound.

But this word is also a verb.

It's the past tense of 'dive'.

And that's a diphthong vowel sound, the

sound. It's the same sound that you hear in 'go' and 'no'.

He dove into the pool.

So let's see if we can put those two words

together in a sentence, might be a little tricky.

Miraculously, the dove

dove into the river to escape the cat.

Your turn.

I don't know about you but I've never seen a dove

dive into a river but there you go,

that's what practice at mmmEnglish is all about.

So how about this one?

Do you know the different ways to pronounce this word?

I think you probably know the verb, to lead right?

And you really need to try and make that long

vowel sound there.

Make that sound too short, it'll sound like lid.

Now there are quite a few different uses for this verb

so I'm gonna give you a few different examples.

You lead the way!

Last time I checked, the green team was

leading the race.

And I asked Sarah to lead this project for us.

So the verb form is probably the most common way

that you'll come across it right?

You'll hear it pronounced lead often.

But lead is also a metal. It's a noun.

And so when it's used this way the pronunciation is led.

And it used to be really commonly used in pipes

and construction until people started realising

that it was actually poisoning us.

And it's also the dark part inside a pencil.

That's also called lead, a lead pencil.

An exposure to lead can lead to serious

health problems.

He was asked to lead the children off the stage.

Now one of the trickiest things here is trying to work out

when to pronounce it as a verb

and when to pronounce it as a noun.

So usually we look at the words around it

to give us a clue, to try and work out

what type of word it is.

But look here, we've got the preposition to

coming before lead or lead in both examples.

We have exposed to lead.

And he was asked to lead.

So it's not always as simple as it seems.

Now this one I know you know.

What are the two different ways to pronounce this word

and it's got nothing to do with the vowel sound.

It's actually the consonant sound, close.

That voiced consonant sound.

You know this is when we, you know, close a door or

we close the shop early.

But it can also be an adjective as well

and when it's an adjective, we pronounce it as close

to say that something is nearby or a short distance

away. It's close

and this is the unvoiced sound, exactly the same mouth

and tongue position as the sound but

it's made with air pushing through our mouths.

Can you please close the door?

Sounds a bit odd, doesn't it

because it's not the right word.

Although you live close by, you still need to

close the front door and lock up before you leave.

So we're getting a little trickier now. Do you know the

two different ways to pronounce this word?

As a noun, this is an injury

right especially when you cut your skin

so it can be quite

serious right? And it's

pronounced wound with that long sound.

And this is the same sound that's used in the adjective

wounded.

So we would say

the soldier was wounded on the battlefield.

But this is also a verb,

it's the past tense of wind, wound.

Again it's that diphthong sound.

And it's the same sound that you hear in words like

flower and frown.

So it's wound.

He had wound up the window just as it started to rain.

Now let's put them together in a sentence.

Sam wound the belt tightly around his leg to stop

the blood flowing from the open wound.

So first things first, we are not talking about this right?

At least we know these are different words because

they're spelt differently

but did you know that this word can actually be a verb

and a noun

and the pronunciation is different when we're using

each type of word and it's all in the syllable stress.

We have desert.

This is, you know, an area of land that doesn't

have a lot of water. Then we've got the verb desert.

Exactly like dessert right but it means to leave

someone alone and to

abandon them in the middle of nowhere.

I'm not going to desert you in the middle of the desert.

So again we've got a noun and a verb to consider here.

An object, object is a thing, right?

The stress is on the first syllable but the verb object

means to be opposed to something you know,

using words and it's quite a formal verb.

Will you object if I move the object from the table?

That is a really random sentence.

So just to mix things up a little bit here, this word

can be a noun and an adjective.

So the noun content is a really generic word.

It's not very specific and you're probably most familiar

with it in the context of social media. It means

any material or piece of writing or video or music

that appears on a website, on Youtube,

or on social media somewhere. This is called content.

I produce a lot of content on YouTube!

Now if you are happy and satisfied with life,

then you are content.

The very best way to be.

So when it's used as an adjective, the syllable stress

shifts to the second syllable and the first syllable

reduces right down so the vowel sound becomes

a schwa.

So listen to the difference between those two words.

Are you content with the amount of content

that you post on social media?

So tell me how do we pronounce this word here?

Because we can use it as an adjective

to say that two things are not together

then we say separate.

Keep the cheese separate from the meat.

And usually you just hear it pronounced with

two syllables separate.

But as a verb, separate,

we hear three syllables right and it means to

put things in groups so

can you separate the red apples from the green ones?

Separate.

So let's compare them together.

Practise out loud with me.

Now even though these are different types of words,

they do have a really similar meaning

so we can compare them together.

I try to separate my work life from my home life.

I try to keep my work life separate from my home life.

Okay we're going to end on a tricky one.

I'm wondering if you've ever heard this word before

and if you know how to pronounce it

but it actually follows a really similar pattern to

the previous word, right?

As an adjective, we say deliberate

meaning that an action was fully intended or it was

carefully considered. It wasn't done by accident.

He made a deliberate attempt to embarrass me

in front of my boss.

Now as a verb, the pronunciation changes to deliberate.

So we've got four syllables.

The second is the strongest

and the fourth is also strong.

So to deliberate is to think really carefully about

something and to consider all the different options

So again the word types are different

but the meaning is quite similar.

So deliberate means that something is carefully

considered and to deliberate means that

well the verb is to carefully consider, right?

We don't need to deliberate over how deliberate

his actions were.

So there you have it! I hope that this lesson highlighted

how important pronunciation is, especially

vowel sounds in English.

Often they're the only thing that separates one word

from another. Now before we finish up, I want to quickly

go over the pronunciation of all these words again

so get ready to say them out loud with me.

Awesome work everyone!

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