How To Pronounce Any Country in English Pronunciation Lesson

Hello, I’m Emma from mmmEnglish!

In this video, I’m going to go over the English

pronunciation of country names.

Now many of you have been asking for a video like this

because the way that native English speakers

say your country names,

can be quite different to the way that you do.

And this can be a real challenge for communication.

When you’re listening to a native speaker,

or when you’re speaking yourself,

to make sure that you’re understood.

What’s interesting with country names though,

is that on the one hand, there’s the pronunciation

of the country name as it’s pronounced

by the native population - by the people who live there.

Right? It’s their native language!

Now often, English takes that pronunciation

and changes it or adapts it a little to make it easier

for native English speakers.

So on the other hand,

sometimes it sounds completely different!

And it might also sound slightly different depending on

which native English speaker you’re speaking to.

So an Australian

might pronounce the same country name

slightly different to a Canadian or a British person.

Some native English people might pronounce this name

or they might say

So it depends on their accent.

This lesson will show you how to pronounce

all the different

country names or the hundred and ninety-three

that have been recognised by the United Nations.

And you’ll also hear the pronunciation from me,

which will help you to improve your listening skills.

So I’ll go through the names in alphabetical order

so if you’re curious about a particular country,

then you can just skip forward in the video.

Now for my students,

I know that this video is going to be long,

but I think you should stay with me

and practise the whole time, out loud.

It’s going to be a huge

English gym workout for your mouth.

I guarantee that we’ll cover every single English sound

in this lesson.

Plus it’s a really fantastic opportunity to revise

the international phonetic alphabet symbols, the IPA.

Okay? Revise those sounds and what they look like.

Alright, are you ready? Let’s do this!

Now notice the little line there under the vowel.

This is the stressed syllable in this word

and I’m going to use this line

all the way through this lesson to show you

which syllable has the main stress

in English pronunciation,

which vowel is the strongest vowel.

You’ll also see it shown

in the phonemic script here as well.

Now if you’re wondering what these crazy symbols are

that I’ve put over here,

then make sure you check out this lesson

if you’re curious to find out, you want to learn

more about the international phonetic alphabet

to help you improve your pronunciation,

check it out there.

Notice that the stressed syllable is the /eɪ/

as in ‘day’ vowel sound.

It’s the same stress pattern as ‘Albania’.

It’s the /dʒ/ consonant sound.

So that stressed syllable is /ɔː/

as in ‘door’.

Again, it’s that same stress pattern.

The stress is on the second syllable

but notice as well that the consonant sound /ŋ/

is there instead of

I’m a little nervous about this one because

I’m not very good at saying it in English

but let’s break it down together.

The second syllable is the stressed syllable

in the first word, it’s the long

sound.

And the last two vowel letters are actually unstressed,

they make just one sound, the schwa.

The ‘and’ is reduced to

So there are two long vowel sounds here.

and

but it’s the second one that’s stressed

so it’s pronounced a little more strong, a little clearer.

And finally, the last syllable is an unstressed syllable.

So the stress is on the third syllable this time.

So Argentinians and Spanish speakers,

notice that in English, we use the /dʒ/ consonant sound

not the /h/ sound.

Of course, you don’t need to change your pronunciation

to be understood but to reduce your accent,

you would try to pronounce the /dʒ/ sound.

Can you hear the stressed syllable there?

So the main stress is on the second syllable.

That’s the /eɪ/ as in ‘day’ vowel sound.

I come from Australia!

And since this is my home country,

I’ll give you a couple of extra tips.

Many Australians are pretty lazy with their pronunciation

and with their syllable stress.

So you’ll probably just hear

So the final

is reduced down to

And sometimes,

even the first syllable gets completely dropped.

So instead of

it’s

So that’s just a bit of insider knowledge for you!

Now very similar, is

But you’ll hear that the stress pattern is different, okay?

The stress pattern

puts the stress on the first syllable.

Okay, the first syllable is stressed.

So the stressed syllable here is actually the last one.

Now I always thought it was

the /ʒ/ as in ‘vision’ not /dʒ/ as in ‘jam’

But there you have it! I was pronouncing it wrong!

Whoop! We’re already up to B!

Usually said, ‘The Bahamas’.

So the stress is on the second syllable there.

Now, the long vowel sound is actually in the first syllable

but the second syllable is the one that’s stressed.

Now I know I’ve got a lot of students

watching in Bangladesh,

so hello to all of you in Bangladesh!

The main stress here in English is on the final syllable.

But notice that the first syllable also has a stress as well

That middle syllable reduces down to the schwa.

So there’s a long vowel sound in the first syllable

but the stress is on the second syllable.

And notice that the two A’s

are actually pronounced differently.

So starting with

we have

The middle syllable is unstressed and it reduces

to become the schwa sound.

So the main stress is on the final syllable.

The stress is on the first syllable.

is the strongest sound.

And the ‘I’ and the ‘U’ create the unstressed

vowel sound, the schwa in the second syllable.

So hear how that stressed vowel sound is a long

vowel sound in the second syllable.

And we’re finishing with that

consonant sound.

Again, hear that long vowel sound in the second syllable

It’s unusual for the letter ‘I’ to be pronounced like that

but here we have it.

So again, there’s a long vowel sound in the first syllable.

But the second syllable is the stressed one.

The first syllable is unstressed.

It’s very low in pitch.

The stress is on the second syllable.

is the strong syllable there.

Two syllables are easy!

What about five?

So

Hear the /t/ sound that’s added there?

That’s the stressed syllable.

It’s quite a mouthful!

So the stress here is on the second syllable.

So it’s a little tricky

thanks to all of those consonant sounds there.

I also know I’ve got a lot of

students watching from Brazil too so hello to all of you!

In English, we really hit the final

/l/ consonant sound there in ‘Brazil’.

So the unstressed schwa sound is heard in the

first syllable.

But the stressed sound is on the second syllable.

So the first syllable has a longer sound

but it’s the second syllable that’s stressed.

It’s an unstressed syllable.

The second syllable there is the stressed syllable.

The stress there is on the second syllable.

So we hear the /ʊ/ as in ‘book’ vowel sound there.

You hear it twice, actually.

The second syllable is the stressed syllable though.

The stress is on the second syllable there.

It’s the /əʊ/ in ‘go’ vowel sound.

So the stress there is on the final syllable,

it’s the long vowel sound.

The stress is on the first syllable and see

how the second one’s reduced to the schwa sound,

the unstressed sound.

It’s probably one of the easiest country names

to pronounce and the people in Canada are also lovely.

They are the nicest, most polite people

that I’ve ever come across.

So, easy to say their name, very kind people.

Probably worth a visit!

So the final ‘E’ on ‘Verde’ here is

silent when spoken in English.

And there’s that plural ‘Islands’ again.

It comes up all the time

when you’re talking about countries, doesn’t it?

Comes up very frequently.

It’s the /aɪ/ as in ‘my’ or ‘sky’ vowel sound.

And it’s followed by the unstressed

vowel sound, the schwa.

And notice that the plural ‘S’ is actually pronounced

as a voiced /z/ sound.

Three words.

The first syllable there is stressed.

The first syllable again, the second to reduce.

So can you hear that in ‘Republic’

it’s the second syllable that’s stressed?

The first syllable reduces right down,

it becomes the schwa.

We’re moving on to the ‘ch’ consonant sound here.

So bring the corners of your mouth in a little

and flare your lips to make this sound.

Now, most English speakers will say ‘Chile’ rather than

though those who have actually visited Chile

are probably likely to pronounce it

bit more like the locals.

Again, we have the ‘ch’ consonant sound.

The consonant sound is followed by the

/aɪ/ vowel sound,

/aɪ/ as in ‘my’.

And then we have the final unstressed syllable.

Unstressed.

Or

Native English speakers will say both.

But the stress is on the second syllable.

So the stress here is on the first syllable.

Again, we learnt this one before.

And it’s followed by two unstressed words.

They reduce down.

So the stress there is on the first syllable.

Now, right next door to the Republic of the Congo

is the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

So that stress there, can you hear it?

So, both unstressed syllables are schwa sounds there.

So again, we have the /aɪ/ as in ‘my’ vowel sound here.

So we have a short syllable following.

So this is the /əʊ/ as in ‘go’ vowel sound.

Again, the /əʊ/ as in ‘go’ vowel sound.

So the middle syllable is the stressed one here.

And again, the /eɪ/ as in ‘day’ vowel sound.

The ‘-tia’ here is actually pronounced as

So remember,

this is the English pronunciation of this word.

So it’s not

but

Notice the /j/ sound that’s included.

It’s the consonant letter ‘Y’ that creates

the stressed vowel sound here.

The second syllable is shorter and lower in pitch.

This one’s tricky for native English speakers too.

The first word,

sounds exactly like that word.

So we went over ‘Republic’ a few countries ago.

And the stressed syllable there is the second syllable.

And it’s often used with the article, ‘the’.

So there’s quite a few words here,

but let’s focus on the stress.

So we have the unstressed form of ‘of’

It’s low in pitch.

It kind of links to the end of ‘Republic’.

So the middle syllable is stressed there.

The other two reduce to the schwa sound.

Also known as North Korea.

So that’s the

vowel sound

followed by the unvoiced ‘-th’ consonant sound.

Push that air out through your mouth.

The first syllable is stressed, it’s the strongest.

That’s the /dʒ/ as in ‘jam’ consonant sound.

And the /uː/ as in ‘food’ vowel sound.

Now be careful here,

the stress is actually on the third syllable.

It’s the long

vowel sound, as in ‘she’.

So the other syllables reduce down.

So there’s a little stress change there between the two

that are very similar. It’s not

But

There’s a stress change, now we’re stressing

the second syllable

and the others become short and fast.

So that’s the long

vowel sound in ‘east’.

So the stress is on the first syllable.

But note that there’s a linking between these two words

that happens when English is spoken

because ‘East’ ends in the same consonant sound

that ‘Timor’ starts with.

We can push those words together

and we only pronounce the

sound once.

So can you hear that stress? It’s on the first syllable.

So that last syllable is the /ɔː/ as in ‘door’ vowel sound.

So there’s the long

vowel sound followed by the /dʒ/ consonant sound.

Now don’t forget the last consonant sound, the /t/

So listen out for the final two consonants,

they are both there - though the

reduces a little and it’s without the air pushing.

So in English, we hear that /v/ consonant sound clearly.

Make sure that your teeth are touching your bottom lip

to make that sound.

Where is the stress there?

It’s the third syllable.

Now don’t worry about all of the vowel letters

in the second word, it’s simply pronounced

So the third syllable is the stressed one.

The others reduce down.

So that stressed syllable there is the second one.

The /əʊ/ vowel sound as in ‘go’.

So the third syllable there is actually the strongest.

We have

It’s the long

vowel sound.

So the consonant sound /dʒ/

The first syllable is stressed

and the second syllable is unstressed

so that vowel sound reduces down.

Notice that it is an

unvoiced /s/ consonant sound at the end there.

The second syllable there is the stressed one.

The first one reduces to the schwa.

So we have the unstressed ‘the’

So that first syllable there is the strongest one.

So starting with the /dʒ/ consonant sound,

/dʒ/ as in ‘jam’

then the /ɔː/

vowel sound.

Then we have the second syllable

which includes the unstressed schwa sound.

Same consonant sound again.

So we have the same vowel sound

and the first syllable is the stressed syllable.

That’s the /ɜː/ as in ‘her’ vowel sound.

The two second syllables are reduced and unstressed.

The first syllable is stressed,

the second one unstressed.

Oh my gosh, we’re up to ‘Greece’.

If you haven’t been to Greece, you have to go!

It is one of the most beautiful places that I’ve ever been.

And the food!

I’m just dreaming of a European summer right now,

it’s cold here in Australia!

So we have one long sound of the vowel sound here

because there is just one syllable.

The final

consonant sound.

Watch that middle syllable there, the stressed one.

The sound is the /eɪ/ vowel sound like in ‘day’.

Not

So we’ve got four syllables here

and the third one is stressed.

Now we’ve already talked about Guinea with

Equatorial Guinea,

so remember that you don’t need to worry about

all of the vowel letters here, okay?

It’s just pronounced

Ah and here we have it again,

so the stress is on the last syllable in the second word.

It’s the /aʊ/ as in ‘now’ vowel sound.

The stress here is on the second syllable.

But the first syllable also includes

a stronger vowel sound.

So here the ‘ai’ is pronounced /eɪ/

in the same way as ‘day’. It’s the same vowel sound.

So the stress there is on the second syllable

• also the most trickiest.

Notice the extra little syllable there,

so it sounds different from the adjective ‘hungry’

So that’s the first syllable that’s stressed.

/aɪ/ as in ‘buy’ or ‘my’

The next syllable is unstressed.

You hear the schwa sound.

The stress there is on the first syllable.

I know I’ve got a lot of students watching in India as well

so I’m really pleased to say hello to all of you!

So here, we’ve got the third syllable stressed.

So that’s the /ʒ/ consonant sound like in ‘vision’

Now, Indonesians will probably pronounce that as

So that /s/ consonant sound is different to

Indonesia is

also a beautiful country to visit for a holiday.

Or, some native speakers will say

So the second syllable is where the stress is

and the vowel sound might be slightly different.

Same for

and

I say

So, this is a little tricky, it’s pronounced

slightly different to ‘island’.

There’s an extra schwa sound in there.

Notice that I don’t pronounce that /r/ there but

Irish English speakers will, they will pronounce

There’s my rubbish Irish accent but

note that there will be a few distinctions between

native English accents and that’s one of them.

I would say

and Irish people would say something like

Anyway, if you want to practise with an Irish accent,

practise pronouncing that /r/

That first syllable is the stressed syllable.

The first syllable is the stressed syllable,

the other two reduce.

Okay, let’s take a break!

Quick ad break, grab a mouthful of water,

shake things up a little bit and relax.

Then come back and join me for the letter J.

So that’s the /dʒ/ as in ‘jam’ consonant sound.

The second syllable is the stressed one

and the others reduce.

So that’s the /eɪ/ as in ‘day’ vowel sound.

Again, we have the /dʒ/ consonant sound

followed by the schwa, which tells us that the

first syllable is unstressed.

So that’s the /æ/ as in ‘apple’

• strong vowel sound in the second syllable.

Again, the /dʒ/ consonant sound followed by the

/ɔː/ vowel sound, /ɔː/ as in ‘door’

The second syllable is unstressed.

So the stress there is on the final syllable.

And there’s quite a few countries that end

with this suffix, ‘-stan’

Okay, so you’ll hear native English speakers

pronouncing it either

or

So that stress is on the first syllable.

The third syllable is the stressed one.

That’s the /ʊ/ as in ‘book’ vowel sound.

The /eɪ/ vowel sound

So you’ll see that the third syllable

is the stressed syllable.

But the first syllable is also quite strong,

it’s a secondary stress.

This is the /aʊ/ as in ‘now’ vowel sound.

The first syllable is the stressed one.

The first syllable is stressed

and the second and third syllables are unstressed.

Okay this one, I have been

saying incorrectly for my whole entire life!

It’s not

like I’ve been saying, but it’s

So the stress is on the second syllable there.

That’s the /uː/ as in ‘zoo’ vowel sound.

And the ‘-th’ you don’t need to pronounce

as a /th/ sound, it’s just

So the first syllable is the /aɪ/ as in ‘buy’ vowel sound.

So the second syllable is stressed and it has the

/ɪə/ as in ‘here’ vowel sound.

So the first syllable there is the strongest as well.

‘Liech’ is the strongest syllable.

That’s the /aɪ/ as in ‘buy’ vowel sound.

So it’s the third syllable that’s stressed.

So we have the /ks/ consonant sounds together.

So that last syllable there,

is pronounced - the vowel sound is pronounced /ɜː/

as in ‘her’.

So we have a couple of stressed syllables here

but the third one is the strongest.

The first syllable is also quite strong.

So the middle syllable there is the stressed one,

the strongest syllable.

The second syllable there is the stressed one.

The other two are unstressed syllables so they reduce.

And just like ‘Indonesia’, you’ll hear the

/ʒ/ consonant sound.

/ʒ/ as in ‘vision’

I used to live in Malaysia actually, in Penang.

Also delicious food!

Lots of beautiful places to visit too, I recommend it.

Not ‘The Maldives’ but

The /ɔː/ as in ‘door’ vowel sound is the stressed sound.

Then you hear the long

vowel sound in the second syllable.

Gosh the Maldives is one place that I would love to visit!

Have you ever been? I hear it’s quite expensive but

maybe that’s why people go there for their honeymoon.

But it’s on my bucket list, I really want to go!

So that long /ɑ:/ vowel sound is the stressed sound.

Now you might hear the vowel sound

in that stressed syllable pronounced slightly differently

by different native English speakers but I say

So ‘Mar’ is the stressed syllable

and then you’re adding the

/ʃ/ consonant sound.

So that stressed syllable there is the third,

the /eɪ/ as in ‘day’ vowel sound.

And we can hear the first sound quite clearly too.

So the first syllable is unstressed,

you can see that it reduces to the schwa.

So there’s the stressed syllable

So we have

So hear as well, how the third syllable reduces down

to the schwa.

Okay now in English, it’s

Another place that is on my bucket list!

Watch out for the consonant cluster here

in the English pronunciation, you have

Okay that last syllable uses the

/əʊ/ as in ‘go’ vowel sound.

Now think back to ‘Indonesia’, this is very similar, right?

It’s the same stress pattern.

/ʒ/ is the consonant sound there.

Okay it’s that long vowel sound.

So we’ve got two letter O’s here

but they’re pronounced differently.

The main stress, in the second syllable

is pronounced as /əʊ/

like the verb ‘go’

So the first syllable is stressed

and the second syllable relaxes to become the schwa.

So the second syllable there is stressed.

The third syllable there is stressed.

You can hear that the first one is also quite strong.

And that final syllable there is the /əʊ/

as in ‘go’ sound.

So the second syllable there is the stressed one.

So that final syllable is the

/əʊ/ vowel sound

but the stress syllable in the middle is the short

sound.

So the first syllable, we have the /əʊ/ vowel sound.

And the last syllable is the stressed syllable.

It’s louder and clearer.

The long

vowel sound.

This is actually an interesting word

for native English speakers to try and pronounce

because the /m/ and /j/ consonant sounds

don’t often appear together in English.

But it’s the second syllable that is stressed.

Can you hear that second syllable is the stressed one?

Three syllables here and the second one is stressed.

So if there are any Australians watching at this point,

our neighbours, our little neighbours must be pretty sick

of us calling their country

It’s

So it’s the second syllable that’s stressed here

and the vowel is the /ɔː/

as in ‘door’ vowel sound.

So we have an unstressed ‘the’,

followed by the stressed syllable

And then followed by the voiced consonant sound

Can you see that extra /j/

there that’s included in the word ‘New’?

Try to make sure that you can hear that word.

Then the second word, ‘Zealand’

has the first syllable stressed.

You’ll hear lots of English pronunciations of this one

which is quite different from the way that

Nicaraguans actually pronounce their country name.

But this is how English speakers usually pronounce it.

or

Okay so there is two different pronunciations

that you’ll hear native English speakers using.

is much closer to the French pronunciation of this word

which I think makes it a little more correct,

but you’ll hear

quite a lot, as well.

And that might be because of ‘Nigeria’

where you hear the second syllable stressed

that’s the /ɪə/ as in ‘here’ vowel sound.

So for ‘Norway’, you’ll hear the first syllable stressed

it’s much louder and much stronger

than the second one.

The second syllable has the strongest stress

and it’s the longer vowel sound.

/ɑː/ like in ‘father’

So again, you’ll always hear the stressed

syllable pronounced slightly differently depending on

which native speaker you’re listening to

but you’ll hear a strong first syllable and the main

third syllable stressed.

See the unstressed syllable at the start.

And the stronger

as the second syllable

The first and the last syllables there are quite strong.

So the first word has three syllables

Again, lots of vowel letters in that last word

but it’s just pronounced

So the first syllable is stressed and

the third syllable is quite interesting, it’s pronounced

Another place on my bucket list.

First syllable unstressed. Second syllable stressed.

So in English, the ‘-ph’ makes the

consonant sound.

The first two syllables are very short and fast.

It’s the

voiced consonant sound.

So here, in the first stressed syllable we have the /əʊ/

as in ‘go’ vowel sound

Another beautiful country!

So that’s the /ɔː/ as in ‘door’

sound in the first and stressed syllable.

That’s an unstressed syllable at the end.

Very low in pitch.

or

depending on which English speaker you hear!

or

So the stress changes there.

Now the main stress is on the second syllable

so it’s /eɪ/ as in ‘day’

And the first syllable is unstressed

so it reduces right down.

Sometimes to the schwa, sometimes you’ll hear

but

usually the schwa.

The stress is on the first syllable there and it is a

short vowel sound

the /ʌ/ vowel sound as in ‘up’

Followed by - so the double S here,

S-S-I-A

makes

the /ʃ/ consonant sound.

That’s the unstressed schwa sound at the end.

So the first syllable you have the

/uː/ as in ‘shoe’ vowel sound

but the second syllable is stressed

So for ‘Saint’

it’s often said quite quickly as

Hear how ‘and’ reduces to

and links to the consonant sound before it

That’s a longer vowel sound there on the first syllable.

The stress on the first syllable is

then ‘-cia’ is pronounced as

So we have

Again, we can link that

vowel sound to the consonant sound.

is the stressed syllable there

That stressed syllable is the /əʊ/

as in ‘go’ vowel sound.

So the stress there is on

Now I have to admit that I’m not the best person

to pronounce this correctly

but as a native English speaker,

who doesn’t speak Portuguese,

I’m going to give it my best shot!

So we have

that’s the /aʊ/ as in ‘now’ vowel sound.

So that

is unstressed, you can see the schwa there.

is stressed, sounds like /eɪ/ as in ‘day’

It kind of rhymes!

So you have the stressed syllable in

So the last syllable here is the stressed syllable.

It’s the /ɔː/ as in ‘door’ vowel sound.

So that stress is on the first syllable.

Now the second syllable is actually the stressed one.

Sounds a lot like

shells.

And don’t forget the plural /z/ sound at the end.

Now it’s actually the last syllable that’s stressed there.

It’s the /əʊ/ as in ‘go’ vowel sound.

It’s the first syllable that’s stressed.

We have that /ŋ/

consonant sound.

That unstressed vowel sound.

You can hear that stress is on the second syllable.

It has the same stress pattern.

It’s that long

vowel sound.

So the stress there is on the first syllable.

You can see how the other two syllables in ‘Solomon’

reduce to the schwa.

The second syllable is the strongest.

So in the first word we have the /aʊ/

as in ‘now’ vowel sound.

and the unvoiced ‘-th’

is the strongest syllable in ‘Africa’

And the consonant

and the

vowel sound can link together.

So we have ‘South’

So that’s the second syllable that’s stressed there.

I’m pretty excited!

I’m visiting South Korea next week and it’s my first time

to visit South Korea. I’m going to Seoul, the capital.

So I think that

street food is pretty amazing there in South Korea

so I’m going to eat as much as I can while I’m there

and I’ll report back.

So the second syllable there is the stressed one.

Spain - also delicious food oh my gosh.

This video is making me hungry!

has the /eɪ/ as in ‘day’ vowel sound.

Notice that the consonant is the

consonant, okay?

is unstressed so it’s quite short and low in pitch.

But our main syllable, the stressed syllable is

which we went over a few minutes ago.

Now this first vowel sound is quite an uncommon one,

it’s the /ʊə/ as in ‘tour’ vowel sound.

And the last syllable is the stressed syllable.

Now I just found out that only a few months ago did

this country name change!

And now it’s not called Swaziland, it’s known as

The Kingdom of eSwatini.

So forget Swaziland,

it’s The Kingdom of eSwatini now.

So that stressed syllable is the first

syllable and it’s a long vowel sound.

So our strongest syllable is

It’s a short vowel sound but we have the

the consonant cluster

The Y makes a short vowel sound.

So the main stress here like all of the other ‘-stans’

is on the last syllable but we can also hear

the first syllable clearly.

So here, we’ve got the third syllable is stressed.

It’s a short vowel sound but it’s the strongest.

Now the ‘-th’ doesn’t make the usual

sound here, it’s not

but

So in English, actually we pronounce

‘Thailand’ with a stress on the first syllable.

Thai people usually stress the second syllable.

Another beautiful country with delicious food!

So we have the same vowel sound that’s repeated,

it’s the /əʊ/ as in ‘go’ sound.

The stress is on the first syllable

with the second syllable

being the reduced schwa sound.

so that’s all short vowel sounds

the reduced ‘and’ sound

that’s the /eɪ/ as in ‘day’ vowel sound.

So notice here the /j/ consonant sound.

Not

but

The stressed syllable is the first one and it’s the /ɜː/

as in ‘her’ vowel sound.

So again, we’re starting with the /ɜː/ vowel sound here

Now ‘men’ is the secondary stress here

so we hear it a little more clearly.

‘-stan’ is the strongest syllable.

The second syllable is the strongest one and they’re

all long vowel sounds.

We have that

sound there,

The second syllable is stressed.

Again we have that

pronunciation.

The second syllable is the stressed one.

It’s the /eɪ/ as in ‘day’ vowel sound.

So you have

The stress in ‘Emirates’ is on the first syllable.

Now of course the United Kingdom is made up of

England, Scotland, Wales

and Northern Ireland.

And I want to highlight ‘England’ because

some of my students, particularly my

Chinese and Korean students,

they have trouble with the first vowel sound in ‘England’

It’s a short /ɪ/

Not the

vowel sound.

It’s English, not

It’s England, not

Okay so focus on that short /ɪ/ sound.

Notice how the second syllable reduces to the schwa.

We’ve been over this one.

So ‘States’ has the ‘eɪ/

/eɪ/ as in ‘day’ vowel sound.

reduced sound there

Okay so we have

It’s that second syllable that’s stressed and strongest.

So you can hear at the end there that that

is pronounced as /aɪ/ like ‘bye’

It’s the /ʊ/

as in ‘book’ vowel sound at the start.

so ‘bek’ is the second stress

‘-stan’ is the strongest stress.

That third syllable is the stressed one.

Notice that in English, the pronunciation

of that V is

instead of

it’s

Just like

Again, that /j/ sound

but the stress is on the first syllable.

The first syllable is stressed.

The second syllable is the strong one.

We made it!

If you stayed with me the whole way

through that lesson, give yourself a huge

pat on the back.

That was insane!

I’m completely exhausted now!

But keep in mind that this is the standard English

pronunciation of these countries,

in my Australian accent.

So there’s definitely going to be variations,

when you listen to pronunciation

between native English speakers.

But learning and practising the English pronunciation

with me is going to help you to communicate a little

more clearly and to help your listening skills as well.

I need a glass of water.

I need to drink about three of those, I’m sure you do too.

This has been such a great

pronunciation practice lesson.

It’s literally like taking your

mouth to the gym for a workout, I think

you probably need about five minutes break before I

send you to another video so I won’t recommend any

just yet.

But please do hit that subscribe button down there

if you haven’t done so already.

You definitely have earnt

new lessons from mmmEnglish just by

sticking around through that whole lesson

so make sure you click that button.

Click the little bell button so that you get notified

whenever I release a new lesson for you.

Thanks for watching and thanks for working so hard

with me today. You’re amazing!

Thanks for watching and I will see you next week.

Bye for now!