How to Pronounce the Idiom Learn the Ropes American English

Today I’m going to go over the pronunciation
of the idiom “learn the ropes.” First, the

meaning. This means to understand how to do
something. Learn the ropes. So let’s look

at some example sentences. It’s ok to ask
questions while you’re learning the ropes.

Or, After I learn the ropes, I’l be able to
do it on my own. Learn begins with the L consonant

sound, ll. It then has the ‘ur’ as in ‘her’
vowel / R consonant sound together: rr, rr,

rr, lear-. So your tongue will go from being
at the very top, forward part of the roof

of the mouth, lear-, rr, to being pulled back,
raised in the middle, pressing against the

insides of the top teeth with the tip then
hanging down, lear-, further back in the mouth.

Learn. Then the N consonant sound, so the
tongue, doing acrobatics here, then has to

go back up to the roof of the mouth, learn,
to make that N sound. Learn. The: the TH consonant

sound, voiced, with the schwa, learn the,
learn the. It’s an unaccented word. Ropes

begins with the R consonant sound at the beginning
of the word. The lip position will be quite

tight, rr, rr. The tongue in that same R position.
Ro-, the ‘oh’ as in ‘no’ diphthong, ro-pp.

The P sound, so the lips have to come together,
pp, to release that, and finally, the S sound.

Both the P and the S are unvoiced. Ropes,
ppss, ppss. Learn the ropes. That’s it, and

thanks so much for using Rachel’s English.