How to Pronounce CROISSANT Word of the Week American English
In this American English pronunciation video,
we’re going to go over the pronunciation of
the word ‘croissant’.
This week’s Word of the Week is ‘croissant’.
It was suggested by a user on YouTube, Rebeca.
Thanks so much for this suggestion, it allows
me indulge. I absolutely love croissants.
One of my favorite pastries.
Croissants originated in France, so of course
the original pronunciation is French. In
American English, we have our own pronunciation
of it that it uses American sounds and feels
more comfortable to us. I recently did a word
the week on BURRITO, which sparked quite a
debate on whether or not it’s even ok to have
an American English pronunciation of this
Spanish word. To check out that video, click
here or see the video description.
So here’s the American English pronunciation
of ‘croissant’. It’s a two-syllable word
with stress last syllable. da-DA, croissant.
It begins with the k-r consonant cluster.
I can have my tongue in position for the R
when I make the K sound. So for the R, the
middle part of the tongue is touching the
roof of the mouth here. For the K, the back
part of my tongue is touching the roof of
the mouth here. So I can be touching from
the middle all the way to the back, and simply
release the back to go into the R sound.
The tip of my tongue shouldn’t be touching
anything, and the lips will flare some.
Cr-, cr-. The vowel in this unstressed syllable
is the schwa. Uh, uh, super quick, almost
no jaw drop, relaxed tongue. Make that first
syllable really short, so we have contrast
between it and the second syllable, which
is stressed, croi-, croi-, croi-.
The second syllable begins with the S consonant
sound. The teeth come together for this
sound, the corners of the lips might pull
a little bit wide, ss, and the tip of the
tongue will press here behind the bottom front
teeth. Ss, ss. Next, the AH as in FATHER
vowel. Drop your jaw for that, -ssa-, and
there will be a little tension in the back
of the tongue as it presses down for that
vowel. Then we have the NT ending. Just
like with the N’T contractions, many native
speakers will not pronounce a True T there.
What we do instead is combine the stop quality
of the T with the nasal quality of the N to
make a nasaly stop sound. We want it to
be a little abrupt. Croissant. Not ‘croissan’
– with the normal shape of a stressed syllable,
but croissant. This abruptness lets us know
there was a T there. Croissant.
Now I’m going to finish my croissant.
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.
If there’s a word you find difficult to pronounce,
suggest it as a Word of the Week in the comments.
That’s it, and thanks so much for using Rachel’s
English.