This website was created to help people improve their American English pronunciation. At the core is a series of videos explaining in detail how each sound is created, as well as a blog.
American English Pronunciation :: Study Reduction and Linking while Cooking Ramen!
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In this American English pronunciation video, I'm going to make a steaming bowl of ramen noodles. Of course, we'll also study pronunciation, and we'll see a lot of reduction in action, like 'gotta', 'gonna', them, and can. Stay tuned, it's going to be a blast.
This video is actually not entirely about American English pronunciation. It's by request from my mother because when I was with her over Christmas I was telling her how much I love to make ramen noodles. And she thought that was sort of gross. Did you notice? I made a flap T out of the T in 'sort of'. This is because it comes after an R, before a vowel sound. Sort of. We'll want to link the D to the next word, which begins with a vowel, sort of, sort of, so it sounds more like one word than two separate units. Sort of. Let's listen again.
Sort of gross. [3x] --ramen noodles. And she thought that was sort of gross.
I assured her it's not gross. Not the way I make it! So this video is for her: how I make my ramen noodles. Now I was also on vacation with my aunt. A-U-N-T. I know that aunt is not the number one pronunciation for that word. Most people pronounce it aunt. I use aunt. So let's look: mom, aunt, ramen. They all have that AH vowel, but each one of those words spells the AH vowel differently. Ok, let's get cooking.
First, I take the bowl that I'm going to eat my ramen soup in. Fill it up. It's got to be kind of big. Do you remember in the Thanksgiving video when we reduced "I have got to" to "I've gotta", or, "I gotta"? It's happening here. "It has got to": I'm reducing it to "It's gotta, it's gotta". Listen again.
It's got to be kind of big. [3x]
Maybe leave about an inch at the top. I'm going to put it on high. Did you notice? I'm gonna. I've reduced "I am going to" to "I'm gonna". Of course, use of 'gonna' is very prevalent in everyday spoken American English. I'm gonna. The first syllable has the G consonant, 'uh' as in 'butter' vowel, a nice, clean N, and the second syllable, the schwa. The first syllable is stressed, gon-, and the second syllable unstressed, -a. Gonna, gonna. Listen again.
I'm going to put it on high. [3x]
Oops. Wrong burner. You'd think I would know by now. OK. So. While that's heating up, let's talk about the vegetable situation. Come over here camera lady. So I'm going to use mushrooms, I have some frozen green beans, and carrots. Um, I love to use bok choy but I don't have any. I'm going to garnish with a little cilantro. And you know what? I'm remembering that in my freezer, I have some chopped up onions that I already fried one time when I made an absolutely ridiculous amount of fried onions. So I'm actually going to chip off a little bit of that to throw in as well.
Ok, so, I'm going to chop up my mushrooms. I'm going to try to be careful not to loose any finger parts in the process. I'm not exactly gifted in the kitchen. I have lost finger parts in the past.
Don't make them too small. Did you notice? I reduced the word 'them' to the schwa-M sound: um, um. Because in this pronunciation the word 'them' begins with a vowel, and the word before, 'make', ends with a K, I'm going to make sure that those two words link and feel like one unit --- make 'em, make 'em --- rather than two separate words. Listen again.
Don't make them too small [3x], because we are going to be eating this with chopsticks. It's got to be a grabbable size. Ok, I'm also going to put in a carrot. Carrots, I like to cut them on the diagonal, because again it makes them bigger. Did you notice? Two more cases where the word 'them' was reduced to 'em. I like to cut them on the diagonal, cut them, cut them. We're taking the final letter of the word 'cut', we're attaching it to the word 'em, 'em, and because the T now comes between two vowels, I turned that T into a flap, or, a light D sound. Cut them, cut them. Also, the phrase "it makes them bigger, makes them bigger." Again, 'them' reduced to 'em, 'em. Also did you notice, I reduced the word 'because' to simply cuz, cuz. The K, schwa, Z sound. Cuz it makes 'em, cuz it makes 'em. And, as usual, when you reduce something, you link it to the words that come around it. Cuz it, cuz it, cuz it makes 'em. The Z sound links to the next word 'it'. Listen to the phrases again.
I like to cut them on the diagonal, because again it makes them bigger, easier to grab with a chopstick. Ok, so then I'm going to use the frozen green beans from Trader Joe's. And my frozen onion, which actually, when I made it, I had fried in grease from ground beef. What? She just gave me, camera lady just gave me a face that was like "that's gross." And you know what? It's not gross. It just --- it makes it more tasty. Ok. I'm guessing that the water is boiling. So I'm now ready to head over to the pot. Just a quick note: did you see how much the jaw dropped in the word 'pot'? And you can see a dark space in the mouth because the tongue is pressed down in the back. Just the way the AH vowel should be.
It's not boiling. I need to be patient.
So, to make my broth, I'm not just going to use the packet that came with the ramen of course. I will use some of it, but I'm going to supplement--- Hey! Another 'gonna'. I'm gonna supplement. I'm gonna supplement. But I'm going to supplement with fish sauce, soy sauce, sugar, some fresh lemon, and probably a little fresh pepper as well. It's boiling. In goes the ramen. I give it just a few seconds to start to break up. Even though these are frozen, it's ok to throw them right in. Did you notice how quickly I said the word "it's"? I reduced it by dropping the vowel altogether, and attaching the TS sound to the next word. Tsokay, tsokay. This was very fast of me, quite casual. It's ok to throw them right in. And now all the vegetable that we've chopped goes in. Mmm, tasty. Break up the noodles a little bit. Ok, I'm going to put in my sauce ingredients. Little fish sauce, just a few drops. Little soy sauce, just a few drops. Little sugar. That wasn't enough. There we go. Where did my ramen packet go? There it is. And then maybe half of this. Ok. Lemon juice. Oops, don't want that seed to fall in. Ok, so there it is. I'm going to mix it up, I'm going to let it go for not very long. Just maybe two minutes before my next step.
We're going to put an egg in this guy. Ok, so, I take my egg. Get it all nice and good and cracked. Can you see? Can you see? I reduced the word 'can' to cn, cn. That's because, in this sentence, it's a helping verb. 'See' is the main verb. Helping verbs will usually be unstressed. And 'can' likes to reduce when it's unstressed to cn: K sound, schwa, N. Cn, Cn. Can you see? Listen again.
Can you see? [x3] ---in there?
Then, just split it open, dump it right in, put on the lid, turn off the heat, boom!
So now I'm going to dump the ramen into my bowl, and I have this little spoon because I'm going to hold up the egg, so that the egg doesn't get crushed in the process. So I dump it all. And now I'll put the egg in. And now, if I want a runny yolk, I just leave it as it is. If I want the yolk to be more cooked, then what I'll do is I'll pick up some noodles and sort of cover it. And that will cook it. So that maybe when I'm half way through, or towards the end of my bowl of ramen, I have a delicious yolk that's mostly cooked. Mmm, I love it. Ok, last thing, going to garnish with a little bit of cilantro. Not a must, just because I had it. And there you go, mom, auntie, a bowl of ramen.
As a thanks for being my camera lady, I'm going to let my friend Sara eat this delicious bowl of ramen.
What do you think Sara?
>> It's delicious.
I know I'm no master chef. And probably a lot of my students can make a much better noodle dish than I can. I'm obsessed with noodles right now, so please send me your recipes! Post a photo to my Facebook page, or maybe even post a video of you making your noodle dish. I can't wait to get some recipes! That's it, and thanks so much for using Rachel's English.
American English Pronunciation :: JJ Sound in the Phrase Could You
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Do you hear a J sound in this phrase? "Could you? Could you?" There's no J sound written, but that does happen sometimes in American English pronunciation. In this video, we'll look at why.
I've had several people ask me about when the word 'you' follows a T or a D sound. First, let's look at some examples. Could you, could you. Could you be there? Want you, want you. I want you to come. Do you notice the JJ sound in 'could you', or the CH sound in 'want you'? The JJ and CH sounds that you're hearing are coming in because of the mouth position. The shape of these sounds -- JJ, CH -- is similar to the 'oo' as in 'boo' sound. So what's happening is the lips are beginning to move for the oo vowel sound, even as they're making the T and the D consonants. And these things blending together make more of a JJ or CH sound. Let's look at some more examples. What would you do? [3x] It doesn't have to be pronounced this way. Could you? Could you? Where you make a separate D and Y sound: totally appropriate, and you will hear that. However, in more casual conversation, the JJ and CH sound does tend to come into play. Let's look at some more examples. I want to know what you thought. I want to know what you -- I want to know what you thought. Would you hand me that? Would you, would you. Would you hand me that?
I hope this helps to clear up what many of my students hear and find confusing.
That's it, and thanks so much for using Rachel's English.
American English Pronunciation :: Mouth Position Study
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In this video, we're going to focus on the correct mouth position for the various sounds in American English.
Today we're going to look at freeze frames of the mouth in various different positions, and we'll guess what sound is being produced. It's important to know well the positions of the different sounds. The correct position is the key to the correct pronunciation. Let's get started.
What sound do you think is being made here? The lips are closed, but clearly the mouth is not at rest. This is the M sound, where the lips are closed but the vocal cords make noise. M isn't the only sound that is made with closed lips. B and P are also made by releasing closed lips. This is the B sound, bb. What sound do you think we have here? Corners of the lips are pulled back, and the top lip is a little raised, showing some of the top teeth. You can see that the tongue is coming down in the front, touching behind the bottom front teeth. And it's raised in the back, because we can see quite a bit of the tongue. This is the AA vowel, aa. Notice how much the jaw is dropped for this sound. And what sound is being made here? The bottom lip has been pulled up and is touching the bottom of the top front teeth. That means it is either the F or the V sound. In this case, it was the V. But both the F and the V take this same position. What sound is this? The lips are flared, and the teeth are together. There are actually four sounds that have this mouth position: SH, DJ, CH, and JJ. Here, I was saying the word 'generally', so it was the JJ sound. What sound is this? The tongue is coming through the teeth. If you guessed the TH, you're correct. This can either be the voiced or the unvoiced TH. The L can also have this shape. Some people do bring the tongue tip to the bottom of the front teeth, rather than to the hard palate to make the L sound. What sound is this? The lips are making a tight circle. This is the W consonant sound. What sound is this? The lips are parted, but the teeth are together. In this particular photo, it is the Z sound, zz, in the word 'because'. It's the same mouth position as the S sound. The true T and D sounds are also made in part by the teeth being together with the lips parted. The sound is made complete when the teeth part and the air comes out. What sound is this? The lips have come in, yet it looks a little less round than the W. This is a beginning R, in the word 'reduce'. If you could see it from the side, you would see that as the corners have come in, the lips do come away from the face as they round.
In closing, we are going to watch speech with the sound turned off. This is to help you focus on the mouth. I want you to see how much the mouth really is moving to make these different sounds. When you practice English, use a mirror sometimes, and watch your mouth. Make sure that your lips rrrrrrrround enough to make the R sound, and that your tongue comes th-th-th-through the teeth for the TH. Let's watch.
Hey Rachel's English users. Thank you so much for watching my videos, for continuing to tune in, for leaving comments and giving me ideas for more videos. I hope that they're helping you in your study of English, and that you think enough of them to pass on their information to your fellow students, teachers, and other people you know who are studying English.
And now we'll see that same clip slowed down a little bit.
Hey Rachel's English users. Thank you so much for watching my videos, for continuing to tune in, for leaving comments and giving me ideas for more videos. I hope that they're helping you in your study of English, and that you think enough of them to pass on their information to your fellow students, teachers, and other people you know who are studying English.
I hope this video has helped make clear to you the distinctly different positions of the sounds of American English.
That's it, and thanks so much for using Rachel's English.
American English Pronunciation :: Holding Out the R Sound
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In this American English pronunciation video, we're going to have some fun holding out the R sound.
As with any new concept or sound, it's a great idea to slow something down when you're first working with it. Slow it down, and drill it over and over. If you can speed up, great. But never sacrifice correctness for more speed. Today we're going to apply this slow-down method to the R consonant, specifically, in consonant clusters. I've noticed, with some of my students, that even when they've gotten a good R sound, sometimes in clusters it tends to turn more into a W sound. Or, sometimes, it turns into more of a D sound, a flap. Now when you do this, you can't hold it out. So holding out the R is a good way to test that you're doing it correctly. So, say these words along with me, really holding out the R sound. If it feels awkward, that's a good sign that you really need this exercise, that the R sound is not yet second nature to you.
If that was hard or uncomfortable, do it again. And do it on your own many times. That is what it takes to drill a sound that is new. I hope this helps.
That's it, and thanks so much for using Rachel's English.
In this American English pronunciation video, we're going to discuss how to pronounce the little word 'or'.
The word 'or' is written in IPA with the 'aw' as in 'law' sound followed by the R consonant sound. But I find actually, the vowel sound is more closed than that--- o, o, o, or, or. However, this word will generally be unstressed in a sentence. It is a conjunction. That is is a function word. And function words will normally be unstressed. In this case, it will be pronounced er, er. Very short, very low in pitch, the schwa-R sound: er, er.
Let's look at some examples. He'll come at 6 or 6:30, 6 or, er, er, 6 or, 6 or 6:30. Now, the thing to note, when you reduce a word, you must link it to the words that come around. You don't want to say 6---or---6:30. Six-er, six-er. 6 or 6:30. Very connected, very smooth. He'll come at 6 or 6:30.
Do you want to leave now, or wait a while? Er-wait, er-wait. Did you notice? I did put a gap before the word 'or'. That's ok. Just make sure that it links to either the word before or the word after. Do you want to leave now, or wait a while? I don't eat beef or chicken. Beef-er, beef-er, beef or chicken, beef or chicken. I don't eat beef or chicken. Come here, or you'll be sorry! Er-you'll, er-you'll, or you'll be sorry. Come here, or you'll be sorry.
Reduction and linking are important concepts in American English. Saying 'or' this way will help to smooth out your language, and will help you to be understood.
That's it, and thanks so much for using Rachel's English.
A lot of people ask me if it's possible to sound like a native speaker if you weren't born in the US. They want to know how long it will take. That, of course, depends entirely upon the individual. Really focused pronunciation practice can yield great results. In this video, I'm going to go over two different ways to study English to perfect your pronunciation. All you need is the audio or video of a native speaker speaking.
First, we're going to do a Ben Franklin exercise. This is when you write down everything you can about what you hear: whether or not you hear words being linked, or if you hear something being reduced, for example.
Now, we'll do this together to help you get an idea of how to listen to and analyze what you hear. "A lot of people ask me if it's possible to sound like a native speaker-- A lot of people ask me." So the first thing I notice is that this T is a flap T, it sounds like a D, "a lot of," that's because it's coming between two vowel sounds. I also notice that I hear these three words as one unit: "a lot of, a lot of," with the stress happening on the middle word. "A lot of, a lot of people ask me--" I also notice that this word ends in a consonant, this word begins with a vowel, there's no punctuation in-between, "a lot of people ask," and I do hear that L as really linking to the beginning vowel sound: "people ask." Another thing you'll want to note as you listen is any sounds that you know are difficult for you. For example, many of my students have problems integrating the AA sound into their speech. They know how to do it, but they just don't use it in speech. So I would definitely, if was one of them, mark this AA vowel, so that I'll be sure to note it. And then will hopefully begin to integrate AA into my speech when I see this word 'ask.' "A lot of people ask me." Let's keep going.
"A lot of people ask me if it's possible to sound like a native speaker-- if it's possible to sound, if it's possible to sound--" So, I notice the stress here: possible, first syllable is stressed, "to sound," I notice that has stress too. "…if it's possible to sound…" The word 'to' is definitely reduced to the schwa, so I may mark that so I don't forget to reduce it. "Possible to sound." "If it's, if it's." Here's another case where one word ends in a consonant sound, the next word begins with a vowel sound, "if it's, if it's," and I do definitely hear those connecting together. "If it's possible to sound."
"A lot of people ask me if it's possible to sound like a native speaker-- like a native speaker--" I notice my voice goes up at the end here, "speaker." That's because the sentence isn't over, the next word is "if." I also notice the stress is big, small, big, small, big, small. "Like a native speaker." DA da DA da DA da. "Like a native speaker." Also, again here we have ending consonant sound/beginning vowel sound: like a, like a. I hear the K linking to the schwa. "Like a. Like a native speaker." Native -- I hear this T as a D because again, it's a T coming between two vowel sounds: will be a flap T, sounds like a D. "Like a native speaker." In the entire sentence, I don't hear and gaps or pauses between words. So in some cases, there's a very obvious link, like when one word ends with a consonant and the next word begins with a vowel. But even when there's not a very obvious linking sound, there's never a gap between the words.
"A lot of people ask me if it's possible to sound like a native speaker--" We've been working for several minutes, and here we are only half way through one sentence. This is just an example of how you might take notes from the audio or video clip of your choice. After you've listened several times and taken thorough notes, you then put the audio or video away and, from your notes, try to speak the way the native speaker was speaking. If you can, record yourself, and then compare this to the native speaker. This is how you can figure out where you still need to work.
And now we'll do an imitation exercise. In this video, you don't look at the text. You're not concerned with the actual words because you do already have ideas about how words should be pronounced. So in this exercise you're just listening. And I loop things three times in an imitation exercise so that you begin to think about the pitch changes and the musicality of the speech, rather than the individual words themselves. Repeat it back exactly as you hear it, even if you're not sure of the individual words. It's ok, that's not what we're going for in this particular exercise.
A lot of people ask me [x3]
A lot of people ask me
if it's possible to sound like a native speaker [x3]
if it's possible to sound like a native speaker
if you weren't born in the US. [x3]
Because of the internet, there really is an endless supply of audio and video where English is being spoken by native speakers. I know looping something over and over, as in the imitation exercise, can be more of a hassle on your own. That's why, on my website, I do have both Ben Franklin and imitation exercises ready for you. So I encourage you to take a look at these, or any other audio or video clip that interests you, and turn it into a pronunciation exercise: study it this way. It will really take you far in your practice. That's it, and thanks so much for using Rachel's English.
In this pronunciation video, you're going to learn how to avoid some common mistakes in pronouncing words related to the word 'say'.
The verb 'to say': I say, you say, we say, they say, has the 'ay' as in 'say' diphthong: ay, ay, say. But, in the third person, you add an S, and the diphthong changes to the EH vowel. He says, she says. So here it is the 'eh' as in 'bed' sound, and the final S is pronounced as a Z. He says, she says, I say. The EH vowel is also used in the past tense of the word: said.
So it is the S sound, the 'eh' as in 'bed' vowel, and the D sound. Said, said: I said, you said, he said, she said, we said, they said. So, make sure you avoid saying like 'he says': No, in that case, it changes to the EH sound. He says. That's it, and thanks so much for using Rachel's English.
American English Pronunciation :: S Pronounced [z]
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This video comes to you from Dillon, Colorado, where I'm spending Christmas with my family. I'm going to introduce you to my cousin and my cousin's husband. Do you notice anything interesting about how those words are pronounced? If not, stay tuned.
>> Hi, I'm Rachel's cousin Nikki.
>> I'm Rachel's cousin's husband, Steve.
>> Did you notice how they pronounced the words 'cousin' and 'husband'? Listen again.
>> Hi, I'm Rachel's cousin Nikki.
>> I'm Rachel's cousin's husband, Steve.
Did you notice how they pronounced the S as a Z sound? This is actually quite common in American English. I've done a video on how to pronounce plural nouns. There are many cases there where the final S will be pronounced as a final Z. The same rules apply to third person verb conjugations. But in the words 'cousin' and 'husband', they're not plural nouns, and they're not third person verb conjugations. They're simply words where the S is pronounced as a Z. Unfortunately, there are no rules to tell you why the S is pronounced as a Z. But there are a whole slew of words where this is the case, and they just have to be memorized.
Two days ago, my cousin's husband Steve took me snowboarding. Unfortunately, because I'm not very good at it, I fell many times. And I've ended up with a huge bruise on my knee. Both knees, actually. Did you notice? Because, with a Z. But also, did you notice, bruise. Spelled with an S, pronounced with a Z.
>> Don't believe her, she did an excellent job. Do believe her about the bruise, though.
>> Yes, the bruise is, is not a lie.
Other words where the S is pronounced as a Z: is, his, use. Now, let's stop for a minute and talk about use. In verb form, the S in 'use' is pronounced as a Z. But when it's a noun, use, it's pronounced as an S. So that's one way you can differentiate between which form of the word is being used. This also applies to a few other words, for example, house. As a noun it is an S, and as a verb, house, it is a Z. Was, design, lose. These are just some of the many words where the S will be pronounced as a Z. Special thanks to my cousin and her husband for being in this video with me. That's it, and thanks so much for using Rachel's English.
American English Pronunciation :: Word Stress and Clarification
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He's married. He IS married. Why would you say this sentence two different ways? In this video, we're going to discuss word stress and clarification in American English.
I have already done some videos on stress, and you've learned that stressed words will generally be the content words in a sentence. Content words are nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. But there are almost always exceptions to the rules. And today, I want to talk about clarification. When you stress something for clarification, you may find that you change the stress of the sentence. Let's take the example sentence "He is married." Let's say you're at a party with a friend and you're talking about someone else. You point and you say, "He is married." But it's loud, your friend has not quite heard you. She says, "He's not married?" And you say, "No, he IS married," stressing the word 'is'. So the first time you said it, "He's married … he is married," the word 'married' got the stress. But the second time, "He IS married," you're bringing out the word 'is', because there was confusion: is or isn't. So, you're going to stress the word where the confusion was. He IS married: changing the stress of the sentence.
Let's say your friend did understand, "He's married," but she thought you were pointing at someone else. So she points and says, "He's married?" And you say, "No, HE's married," he, and you point to the correct person. Now, here you're stressing the word 'he' because you are clearing up that misunderstanding. "No, HE's married, HE's married," stressing 'he'. So, stress that doesn't follow your typical stress roles can happen when someone is trying to clarify a point. Keep this in mind as you study native speakers speaking, and see if you can identify them using stress in this way. That's it, and thanks so much for using Rachel's English.
American English Pronunciation :: How to Pronounce Christmas
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In this video, we're going to talk about how to pronounce the word 'Christmas,' and you'll see some scenes from my Christmas party and from Christmastime in New York. The word 'Christmas.' First, let's point out that the T is silent. Christmas, Christmas. So it's the first syllable that's accented. And the CH here represents the K consonant sound. So the first sound is the KR consonant cluster, Chr-, Chr-. The vowel in the first syllable is the 'ih' as in 'sit' vowel. Chri-, Chri-. This syllable ends with the S sound. Chris-, Chris-.
The second syllable, unaccented, has the M consonant sound, schwa, S sound. -mes, -mes. It will be lower in pitch than the first syllable, which is stressed. Christmas, Christmas. As I've been discussing Christmas and Christmas plans with my students this week, I noticed that several of them have a misconception about the schwa-S sound. A lot of my current students have a native language of Mandarin. And I've noticed not just with this word, but with others, that the schwa-S sometimes sounds like it has an R in it. So, Christmas becomes Christmers, er, er, ers. And focus becomes focurs. Famous becomes famours, rs. So to prevent this from happening, make sure the tongue does not pull back. The er sound is made when the tongue pulls back some. So, in this second syllable, -mas, -mas, -mas, the tongue can stay forward the whole time for the schwa and the S sound. Christmas, Christmas.
At our holiday party this year, we had a wonderful meal followed by a gift exchange and cookie decorating. In our gift exchange, we each brought one gift. Then we drew numbers to determine the order in which to open gifts. When it was your turn, you could either steal a gift that had already been opened, or open a new gift yourself.
>> OK, so I draw my number. I want to make sure I get the best one. Now, no one else can see, except for my Rachel's English users.
>> K, Tim has drawn number one, the lucky duck.
Lucky duck is an idiom you can use for someone who has good fortune. In our gift exchange, whoever drew number one got to go first, but then take his choice of all the open gifts at the end. Lucky duck. Both words have the 'uh' as in 'butter' sound followed by the K sound. Uk, uk. Lucky duck. Listen again.
>> K, Tim has drawn number one, the lucky duck.
>> Tim, I feel like you rigged that somehow.
>> I hope that you don't need a scissors. Just tear the paper.
>> That is some tea that I brought back from Africa in May.
>> Whoa! That's an awesome gift.
>> Oh wow! I love how excited you are about it!
>> Who's number 7? I am! I steal!
>> NO!
>> Pinkberry! This is a delicious frozen yogurt--uh--place that's not so far from the house. Sorry Janae.
>> Janae!
>> Yes?
>> That cookie is so adorable!
>> Thank you.
>> How long did it take you?
>> Approximately 30 seconds.
>> You know that we have 5,000 more to do, right?
>> Yes.
>> K.
Did you notice? I reduced the word 'okay' to simply 'k', k. Listen again.
>> You know that we have 5,000 more to do, right?
>> Yes.
>> K.
>> Jovon, that's also some excellent handy work.
>> Tell her about the dots.
Tell her about the dots. Did you notice the dropped H? It's not uncommon to drop the beginning H in unaccented words like her, him, and his. If you do this, always link it to the word before. Tell her, tell her. Tell her about the dots. Listen again.
>> Tell her about the dots [x3]
>> The dots. This is actually braille for 'cookie'.
>> Oh, you're really gifted.
>> Linds, can I show you my cookies?
>> Mm-hmm. Please do. Let me zoom in, it looks good.
>> Thanks. It's very colorful.
>> Are you going to bite its head off?
Here's a sampling of some of the cookies we ended up with at the end of the night. I tried to make a Rachel's English cookie but I ran out of room.
I'm going to close with a hymn that some friends and I sang a few nights ago. It's the first verse of The First Noel. I'm standing in the middle of the back row.
Then I'll switch to some footage of Christmas cheer in New York. I think New York does December very well. A lot of restaurants and shops put out really lovely decorations, and it does help to get me in the Christmas spirit. Happy holidays everyone.
The First Noel, the angels did say, was to certain poor shepherds in fields as they lay. In fields where they lay keeping their sheep on a cold winter's night that was so deep. Noel, noel noel, noel, born is the King of Israel.
To all my users, no matter what holiday you celebrate if you celebrate at all, I wish you a very joyous December and all the best in the New Year.
Hey Guys, I'm REALLY EXCITED about a way to get you more feedback on your accents. The videos are great, but they're also passive, and to speak better English you have to speak!!
Check out this site ...
... I think it is a GREAT resource for studying pronunciation. You can slow down videos without the pitch changing, you can loop sections, you can look up words. It's an amazing resource, and I've enjoyed playing around with it.
Write on my Facebook page to tell me what you think!
