How to Pronounce GRADUATE Word of the Week American English

In this American English pronunciation video,
we’re going to go over pronunciation of the

word ‘graduate’.

This week’s word of the week is ‘graduate’.
Graduate is the verb form: gra-du-ate. It

can also be pronounced ‘graduate’, in this
case it’s either an adjective or a noun.

Graduate, graduate. So, for both of them the
stress is on the first syllable, gra-, gra-.

We begin with the GR consonant cluster. To
make the G, the back part of the tongue reaches

up and touches the soft palate. Gg, gg. To
make the R, the tongue pulls back, so the

middle part of the tongue is touching here,
and the front part of the tongue isn’t touching

anything. Grrr, grrr, you should be able to
hold that sound out. Gra-. The ‘aa’ as in

‘bat’ vowel. To make this sound, you do need
to drop your jaw, gra-, gra-. And you may

lift your upper lip a little bit, exposing
some of your front top teeth. Gra-, gra-.

The next syllable, unstressed, has the JJ
consonant sound and the oo vowel sound. Gradu-,

gradu-, gradu-, du, du, unstressed, lower
in volume—a little quieter. The last syllable

is ‘ate’ as a verb. Graduate, -ate. So it
has the ‘ay’ as in ‘say’ diphthong, you do

need to drop your jaw a good bit for the first
sound there, ay, ay, graduate. And finally,

the T sound. This could be released very lightly,
in most cases it will be a Stop T, graduate,

graduate, where you bring your tongue up into
position for the T, but don’t release.

And for the noun or adjective pronunciation,
the last syllable has the ‘ih’ as in ‘sit’

vowel and the T. Graduate, -ate, -ate. There
I’m making a Stop T, where my tongue goes

up into position for the T, but I don’t release
it. Graduate. You could also lightly release

it to make a True T. Graduate.

I’m going to graduate school next fall.

I’ll graduate in May.

That’s it, your Word of the Week. Try it out
yourself. Make up a sentence with the word,

record it, and post it as a video response
to this video on YouTube. I can’t wait to

watch it!

That’s it, and thanks so much
for using Rachel’s English.