Words You're Saying Wrong! Learn English Like A Native

89

Hello everyone Anna English here and

Little Baby English and today we are discussing five very simple

very common English words that many of you

mispronounce.

Before we get started

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so

Let's have a look at those

mispronounced words. Number one

the or

thee

This is the most common word in the English language

and even the most advanced English speakers will make the mistake of when to use the and when to use

thee. now bear in mind it is a TH so both versions have to be pronounced with the tongue between the teeth

always when you see a TH stick that tongue out

With this word we have THE or

the alternative THEE

We use THE when the following word begins with a consonant

sound, the

post-office, the television, the teacher,

the student, and

we use THEE when the following word begins with a vowel sound for example, the

orange, the astronaut, the engineer.

Okay, so try to bear that rule in mind and make sure you're using the correct version of this word.

Number two

Sure

Sure

It's pronounced exactly the same as this word

Shore

you have that SH beginning Shh and we have this O R sound in the middle or

or

Anna are you sure it's pronounced like that? I'm

Absolutely Sure

It's pronounced like that. So

practice making that big round vowel sound or

Not curling into the R and giving me a nice SH fricative at the beginning

Sure

Number three is the word of

of

what I often hear is this Vvvv

This voiced fricative sound

being reduced into an

unvoiced fricative sound, a fff

Sound so I hear off off

instead of of of

always make it nice and strong so a cup of tea

a cup of tea please, not a cup off tea

Piece off cake would be wrong. We'd have a piece of cake, a piece of cake

It doesn't have to be long and it doesn't have to be stressed. It just has to be voiced

vvvv, okay, so not breathy

Vvv and for those of you who struggle with that V sound make sure that your bottom lip is clearly touching your top

teeth

It was a day of adventure

She was a teacher of English, it was a piece of cake

Number four some

some

This has a brighter vowel sound than many of you use. I often hear some

Som it's a very subtle difference but to a native ear we will hear it

So a and o, this is the difference. We're looking for. We want a nice bright. A, o

It sounds very close to a, but don't go that far. Oh, it's like you're about to say up

Up. Um

some

That's the vowel sound we're looking for so you might use the same vowel sound in mum

some

mum

Mum gave me some. mum gave me some yummy food.

Mum some yum. mum gave me some yummy food

number five a very common word work

work

Now this sound is problematic for so many of my students at least

90% of my students struggle with this sound and this particular vowel sound

Appears in many words that we often see like her girl

shirt world word

The trick to this long vowel sound is a relaxed tongue and almost a relaxed jaw as well

It's a very flat

relaxed vowel

Look how my mouth is doing nothing

My tongue stays completely relaxed I

Don't pronounce the letter R. I just make the sound

Worked

work

Okay, so try this sentence for me. I'll do some of the work

Sure

I'll do some of the work

Sure

Oh

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So there you go five commonly mispronounced words which you will no longer

mispronounce. If you liked it give it a thumb and don't forget to subscribe. See you soon.