Minute vs Minute | Improve Your English Vocabulary and Pronunciation

Shaw English Online

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Hello, everyone.

My name is Fiona.

Today, we're going to be looking at these two words.

They look the same and they almost sound the same.

And knowing the difference is really going to help your English pronunciation and language skills.

Keep watching to find out what it is.

First, I'm going to say the sentence really quickly.

‘It took a minute to find the minute crack.’

Okay, I'll slow down.

‘It took a minute to find the minute crack.’

Let's have a look at the sentence.

‘It took a minute to find the minute crack.’

What two words go in the blanks here?

Well the answer is, ‘It took a minute to find the minute crack.’

Again they look like the same word but they're two different words.

Pronunciation here is key.

Let me tell you why.

Okay, let's have a look at our two words a little bit closer.

We have ‘minute’ and ‘minute’.

They look the same with the spelling but the pronunciation and the meanings are different.

It's a heteronym.

What's a heteronym?

Well it's where you have two words that have the same spelling

but the meanings and the pronunciations are different.

Okay, let's look at our two words in closer detail.

We have the meanings and the pronunciations.

Word number one is ‘minute’/ˈmɪnɪt/.

‘minute’ is a time noun.

It can mean 60 seconds - a literal minute or a short amount of time.

Let me show you.

Sentence number one.

‘Class ends in a minute.’

Class ends in one minute - 60 seconds.

That's all the time left.

Sentence number two.

‘Wait a minute.’

Can you wait a short amount of time, please?

‘Wait a minute.’

Now let's look at pronunciation.

Repeat after me.

Word number two is ‘minute’ /maɪˈnjuːt/.

‘minute’ is an adjective.

It describes something small or something in a lot of detail.

So you're looking very closely at something.

I have two sentences to show you this.

Sentence number one.

‘She examined the contract in minute detail.’

She looked really closely at the contract.

She found all of the details.

Sentence number two.

‘The baby's hands are minute.’

They're really small.

The baby has very small hands.

Okay, let's look at pronunciation.

Repeat after me.

Now let's have a look at our main sentence.

‘It took a minute to find the minute crack.’

Let's break it down.

‘It took a minute …’ It took a short amount of time or 60 seconds

‘ … to find the minute crack.’

To find the very small crack in my phone screen.

‘It took a minute to find the minute crack.’

Now let's practice pronunciation.

We're gonna go slow to start and then speed up.

Repeat after me.

‘It took a minute to find the minute crack.’

Now like a native speaker.

‘It took a minute to find the minute crack.’

Great job, guys.

You got some awesome listening and pronunciation practice in today.

If you want to leave a comment to let me know what you thought of this video,

leave them down below.

And as always I'm really really thankful for my students support.

I'll see you in the next video.