Advanced Pronunciation Practice Which words are hard to pronounce
hello hello welcome to today’s live
English lesson here on the speak English
with Vanessa
YouTube channel today we’re gonna talk
about some difficult words to pronounce
so I’m gonna need your help you’re the
one who knows which words are difficult
for you so I want you to tell me which
words we should practice today I have
some ideas but I’m counting on your
feedback and your ideas if you’re new
here welcome I’m Vanessa and we have
live English lessons right here on the
speak English with Vanessa YouTube
channel every Tuesday at 9 a.m. est at 9
a.m. est that’s the New York time so if
you can join me live great I think you
can learn a lot get some feedback and be
involved in our international community
if you can only watch the replay no
problem I’m glad that there’s a replay
so that you can watch it if you would
like to continue to learn English with
me if today’s lesson is useful for you I
recommend watching some of our other
live English lessons there have been
about 200 video lessons on this channel
and a lot of live lessons I recommend
learning with those and reading my free
ebook the description is the link is in
the description five steps to becoming a
confident speaker I hope to be as useful
and helpful to you today for your
pronunciation muscles thanks everyone
who’s here with me live good morning
from Ecuador hello in China Brazil
Kuwait Vietnam Pakistan Taiwan Brazil
thank you so much everyone I have a
challenge for you today because we’re
going to be talking about pronunciation
you need to participate it’s great if I
can pronounce it but it’s even better if
you can learn how to accurately
pronounce these words so if you’re
somewhere public or maybe somewhere that
you don’t feel comfortable speaking out
loud right now close the door go
somewhere that you feel comfortable
speaking out loud because as I say these
words in a sentence to give some context
as I say these difficult words I want
you to repeat directly after me imitate
my mouth imitate my intonation and
really use it now if you are on the bus
or you can’t get to a private place
right now go back and watch the replay
after this is finished because your
pronunciation muscles need to exercise
and that’s what we’re gonna do today
exercise your pronunciation muscles so
before I give you some of my examples I
want to give you a chance if there are
some words that are difficult for you to
pronounce or maybe a sound like th
that’s difficult for you to pronounce
write it in the comments in the live
chat box write these words and I’ll try
my best to help you learn how to
pronounce them and use them correctly
and I’ll also give you some examples of
words that my students have had
difficulties with so that you can really
use them correctly we have our first
suggestion from try Yujin he says can
you help me pronounce th in the word
they they so what I’m gonna do is I’m
gonna write a nice challenge sentence a
nice challenge then it’s here
they are going over there with them oh
this is our challenge sentence first of
all we’re gonna start with one of the
the most difficult sounds I think for a
lot of people this th sound so what I
want you to do is I want you to put your
hand here on your throat and put your
tongue between your teeth and then we’re
gonna save this word they they do you
feel some vibrations here it’s because
these words have some vibration when we
say the th it’s not just air it’s your
voice so let’s try to say this sentence
using vibrations here plus your tongue a
little bit outside your teeth let’s say
it together they are going over there
with them and of course we’re
emphasizing the th really strongly and
in conversation you’re not gonna say
they are going over there you’re not
gonna talk like that in daily life so
what I recommend is really emphasizing
when you practice pronunciation practice
and then in daily conversation your
voice is gonna feel more comfortable
with those sounds so that you can say it
a little quicker and more naturally so
practice by emphasizing and then when
you have a real conversation you’re
gonna be able to do it more naturally
alright let’s go
to the next sound if this sound is asked
again let’s practice we had some other
great words that people recommended the
word experienced exhausted oh those are
great words I’m gonna write these down
because after this live lesson finishes
the chat box will disappear and I would
like everyone who joins even for the
replay to be able to see your your words
and your suggestions
so let’s write let’s write this together
in a sentence
I had an exhausted experience just to
put it in a sentence so that we can
practice it in a sentence structure I
think it’s a little more realistic the
common sound here is e^x I had an egg
saw stood exhausted it kind of sounds
like something that you eat an egg I had
an exhausted experience of this one
sounds more like an e X exhausted
experience I hope you can repeat this
word directly after me exhausted
experience Oh Eileen a has a great word
here she asks about this huge word she
says let’s sum how can we make this
interesting it’s how about my company
is hierarchical oh we have two different
seas in this word my company is higher
like I’m going to climb higher higher
art
so this is like a cake higher arc pick
another K Oh hierarchical hierarchical
and this means there’s a CEO there’s
another manager and another manager and
another manager and then the employees
and then maybe another manager and some
other employees kind of like a a pyramid
there’s a lot of bureaucracy so you
could say my company is hierarchical
thanks for saying that with me tawfiq
has a great question with the word
overgeneralization Oh lots of big words
it’s a good challenge for me to let’s
say it’s an overgeneralization
[Music]
okay so let’s break it down because
these these nice words are pretty long
over we know the word over over general
e let’s keep that by itself is a ssin
and this means if I say all women have
long hair not all women have long hair
this is an overgeneralization
it’s generalizing too much generalizing
everyone so we could say it’s an
overgeneralization overgeneralization I
hope that helps with this word Alejandra
asks please help me with the L sound the
L sound so let’s create some let’s
create a sentence using a lot of L
sounds how about we start with Lucy
likes lots of lemons now this L is all
at the beginning of the sentence we have
L at the beginning at the beginning at
the beginning at the beginning so let’s
practice just this first and
english-speakers like to have our tongue
out a lot o lot with th your tongue is
really active and it’s the same with the
L so are you ready to practice a little
of Lucy likes lots of lemons Lucy likes
lots of lemons but can we change one of
these words to having R instead because
I know a lot of our friends here have
difficulties between L & R so I love
your question Alejandra because we can
use this for a lot of different
situations let’s change this to
really Lucy really likes lots of and
let’s change it to something crazy let’s
make a crazy sentence I’ve never seen a
red lemon before but hey why not Lucy
really Lucy so you can’t see my tongue
at all it’s just rude
I hope that you can say the sentence
with me I’m gonna say it slowly and I
want you to repeat and try to imitate my
mouth Lucy really likes lots of red
lemons so when we slow it down and you
see that my face and my lips are in a
completely different position for the
are and the el Lucy really it makes it a
little bit easier to imitate it yourself
so my recommendation if this sound is
challenging for you read a challenge
sentence like this several times and try
to read it faster and faster this is
gonna help you to train your muscles but
also to feel more comfortable with it
because when you’re speaking and having
a conversation you don’t think about
pronunciation and each word so the more
you feel comfortable with it the easier
it will be to do it without thinking
thank you for this wonderful question
mario has another great question we’re
gonna go back to our th he says vanessa
with needs an explanation too so you
might have noticed
we have another th here at the beginning
at the beginning of this lesson we
talked about them and you need to put
your hand here to feel the vibrations
who them them but this word is gonna be
different this word is similar to let’s
start with on Thursday we have another
th but this th is the second kind this
is the kind that your voice is not gonna
do anything it’s only air so let’s
practice with your hand in front of your
mouth Thursday it’s not Thursday there’s
no voice that’s coming out it’s only air
so this is the main difference on
Thursday I hope you can put your hand
here and feel some air on Thursday they
are going to the
theater theater this is our second aired
th the lot of air is coming out let’s
practice this challenge sentence and
then I’m gonna move on to some of your
other recommendations on Thursday I’m
gonna put a piece of paper a piece of
paper in front of my mouth so that you
can see Thursday Thursday Thursday this
is really strong because we’re
practicing pronunciation so maybe in
daily conversation the air will be a
little bit less Thursday Thursday but
we’re practicing now so I want you to do
the same thing if you have a piece of
paper or if you just want to use your
hand on Thursday they are going to the
theater with them so we have two
different kinds of th one of them uses
your voice this that these those and the
second one usually is with more
descriptive words like Thursday theatre
with these words use air Thursday
theatre with so I hope that this quick
quick guide will help you with th let’s
see what other questions we have from
all around the world oh we have a lot of
questions about words that sound similar
that sounds similar let’s start with
with with some words that are using a CH
a CH we haven’t really practiced much
with a clear CH I’m gonna use a new
piece of paper here all right we have a
question from Estella Estella says I
also find it interesting how these two
words are pronounced chores
and choir let’s make this a sentence the
choir a choir
what’s a choir hmm a choir is just a
group of people who are singing together
so when I was in high school one of my
classes was a singing class and each
year we sang in a choir performance so
we were acquired I was part of the choir
and we sang songs a group of people
usually a pretty big group who sing
together so let’s say the choir does
some chores and chores it’s like doing
the dishes doing the laundry cleaning
your house things that everyone loves to
do right probably not so we have 2 CH
sounds here choir this is like a case a
kW sound can you say the sentence with
me the choir the choir does some this is
a pure CH chores church
chores let’s read it all together I want
you to say it with me
are you ready the choir does some chores
and I’m sorry to say that in English
sometimes there’s not a specific rule
about how to pronounce a specific sound
ch
it could be cook it could be chew or in
our previous example it can be cook
hierarchical so my best recommendation
is to listen to a lot of English
listen to podcasts listen to audiobooks
watch videos like this and really train
your ear because if you hear this word
pronounced correctly each time you’re
not gonna mispronounce it because you’ve
never heard it another way so I really
recommend listening to as much as you
can that’s gonna help to train your ears
with any difficult words let’s see what
kind of other wonderful sentences
sentences we have here we have people
who are practicing hierarchical
overgeneralization with us and
practicing the L excellent excellent
Nina has a question can you help me
pronounce EE D sounds at the end of
verbs and I want to say because this is
a huge question how to pronounce watered
skied wanted because this e D ending is
quite varied I have a full video
dedicated just to this sound
so my recommendation after this live
lesson finishes is to go to my YouTube
channel and watch the video about e D
there’s a playlist called the fearless
fluency Club and you can watch this edie
pronounced pronunciation video or type
in the search bar edie and that will
help you to find it quickly I hope that
helps
we have a good question with W let’s
talk about W we haven’t talked about
that yet
world word work and I’m gonna add one
more worm let’s let’s see how can we put
all these words together in a sentence
oh it’s gonna be a good challenge for me
- nice challenge in the morning I love
it
in this in this world in this world even
worms need words this is a crazy
sentence but it’s okay to work okay and
the reason why I’m putting it in a
sentence is to help you see how it
naturally flows with other words because
sometimes if we have a word by itself it
sounds differently when it’s linked with
other words so let’s see this crazy
sentence that I wrote this world in this
world nowadays that’s what this
expression means nowadays in this world
even worms this is a little this is a
little mm bug or kind of like a little
snake that lives under the ground even
worms need words to work so poor worms
they have to learn language to work
nowadays life is hard for them just a
crazy sentence but let’s practice these
and see if there are any similarities so
I’m gonna say this sentence and I want
you to write which words sound the same
to you
because some of these sounds are the
same so I want you to write I want you
to write which ones are the same are you
ready I’m gonna read this and I want you
to think is it world worms words or work
in this world even worms need words to
work world worms words work Oh which one
sound the same to you
hmm world this is the earth here’s a
lovely picture lovely picture of the
earth the world in this world worms need
words to work I have some good news
these are all using this same W plus a
vowel plus R or were it kind of sounds
like were they were hungry they were
hungry world words work worms we’re
saying were plus another sound at the
end LD d M K were good were mmm were
world
so because we have an L it sounds like
maybe it’s different but that first part
is the same so we’re gonna add were plus
a final part that’s a beautiful question
and with the W make sure that your lips
are like this kind of like a kissy face
world words worms work you got it
great great practice I hope that you’re
saying this at the same time as me we
have some other questions I’m gonna
answer maybe one more question before we
go and if you didn’t have your question
answered today please write it in the
chat box or write it in the comments so
that I can make another video like this
to help you because there’s tons of
words that are complicated and my
recommendation is break it down break it
into specific sections like this listen
for similarities
slow it down to look at someone’s mouth
Lucy really that way that you can really
imitate imitate what someone saying I
agree once as English is crazy but I
love it yes you got it you got it
and we have a good question from waha
dear says how can we do this
automatically because I’m not always
gonna be there if you have a
conversation with a British friend and
you want to say something but you don’t
know exactly how to say it you can’t
just pick up your phone and say Vanessa
how do I say this
help me I wish I could be there in that
way but because there’s not speed dial
for me or for an English teacher to help
you
I recommend listening to a lot of
English and doing exactly what we’re
doing today shadowing practice I’m
saying something and you’re repeating
directly after me that’s training your
muscles and helping you to see exactly
where it’s difficult for you because
maybe when I say a word you think oh I
understand it I know that word and then
when you try to say it you feel like oh
it is difficult and that’s what I want I
want you to be able to decide which
sounds are the most challenging for you
so that you can learn to really correct
and imitate important pronunciation
let’s see do we have any final questions
before we go oh I think I saw one about
a tea a tea this is something that we
talk about a lot in the fearless fluency
Club because American speakers love to
use this a lot so the tea in the middle
of the word let’s practice a crazy
sentence haters want better sweaters so
a hater is someone who hates stuff
doesn’t like stuff better sweater this
is a sweater it’s the kind of warm
clothes that you wear in the winter
right now it’s not too cold actually
this afternoon it’s supposed to be like
20 degrees it’s gonna be a spring day in
the middle of February I love it but
let’s talk about this sentence anyway in
American English this is American
English so make sure make sure that we
know that there’s a difference what do
you think what happens to this T sound
I’m gonna read the sentence and tell me
the T is gonna change and become another
sound what do you think it’s gonna
become haters want better sweaters
haters want better sweaters they hate
other sweaters they want better sweaters
exactly
Paolo want I think you’ve got it it
changes to a D sound and American
English speakers love to do this there’s
one big rule that we can remember for
this we have a vowel and a vowel vowel T
vowel vowel to vowel valve T vowel
oh great eval is a II I owe you so a lot
of these words like the word I just used
a a lot a lot of a lot of this is
linking here vowel T vowel it’s not even
the same word it’s two words lot of the
it’s gonna become a D and I think that
in general a lot of pronunciation is
just trying to find the easiest way to
say something so in this situation the T
haters to - it takes a little more
effort to make a tea and have some air
come out so American English speakers
want to be relaxed and maybe lazy and we
are gonna change that into a D so I want
you to repeat this sentence after me
repeat it out loud are you ready haters
one better sweaters let’s try to say it
quickly
haters want better sweaters haters want
better sweater so my tongue is at the
top of my mouth did haters haters want
better sweaters I hope that this is
useful to you and I’m sure that you’re
gonna hear it a lot so if you’re
expecting to hear haters want better
sweaters in American English you’re not
gonna hear that you’re never gonna hear
that so we need to make sure that we’re
listening for a T changing to a deep
because improved pronunciation is also
going to improve your listening skills a
lot because you’re gonna know what in
the world are those characters in this
TV show saying you can hear exactly the
sounds that they’re saying because you
know you know some of these tips for
difficult words so I hope that this
and practice was useful to you would you
like me to do another pronunciation
practice like this again if you would
like a live practice let me know in the
comments and I’ll try to organize one
again I really appreciate your your
feedback and your suggestions because I
have some ideas about challenging words
but you really know because you’re the
one who’s learning English right now so
you know the words that are challenging
for you so let me know if this would be
useful for you again and if you would
like to continue learning English with
me you think oh this 30-minute live
lesson is not enough I need more English
now well I recommend watching some of
the other lessons on my youtube channel
and also downloading my free ebook five
steps to becoming a confident English
speaker today you are practicing
confidence because you’re improving your
pronunciation when you feel confident
all of the other parts of English come
together your vocabulary good grammar
good pronunciation good sentence
structure when you are confident I can
do it oh if I make a mistake it’s okay
it’s part of the process when you feel
confident then you can become fluent
then you can go to the next step in
English so I recommend reading this free
ebook it’s helped thousands of English
learners feel comfortable with the next
step so there’s a link in the
description below this video or you can
click on the screen at the end of this
lesson to download it and thanks again
for joining me really appreciate it
I’ll see you again the next time happy
pronunciation keep exercising those
muscles watch this lesson again and keep
up the good work bye everyone see you
later