Idiom Back Burner How to Use and Pronounce American English
In this American English Pronunciation video,
we’re going to go over the idiom ‘on the
back burner’ to learn its meaning and pronunciation.
Just today I was writing an email to a business
contact. I said: My bookkeeping project has
been moved to the back burner for the time
being.
What is the literal meaning of this?
This is a stove. It has four burners. And
this is the back burner, here and here. Now,
what’s in this pot isn’t that important
right now. It doesn’t need much attention.
So I’m just going to move it to the back
burner. There we go. I have literally moved
it to the back burner.
That’s the literal meaning of ‘back burner’.
But the phrase ‘back burner’ is used more
commonly as an idiom. You move something to
the back burner when something else comes
up that has become more important. It doesn’t
mean you’re not going to work on it, it
just means you’re not going to work on it
right now or very much.
You may hear ‘back burner’ with the verb
‘move’ or ‘put’. Let’s put that
on the back burner. Or simply ‘on’.
Let’s look at a few more examples of how
to use this idiom before we discuss how to
pronounce it.
Yeah, I have a lot going on. I should put
some things on the back burner, but, I don’t
really want to.
I had, just a big event at my work, and
so now I’ve got a lot on my plate to try
to deal with the post-event stuff as well
as things that I had put on the back burner
while I was working on the event.
Right.
Back burner. ‘Back’ is the most stressed
syllable here. Baa-. It has a clear AA as
in BAT vowel. Lift your tongue in the back,
aa, and lift your upper lip just a little
bit. Ba-. Back burner. We have a very soft
K sound before the B. Back, kk, kk, kk. The
tongue goes up to the soft palate and releases,
kk. It’s not strong, KK, but pretty soft,
kk, kk. Back, back, back burner.
‘Burner’ is a two-syllable word with stress
on the first syllable. But it’s not as stressed
as the word ‘back’. Let’s take some
of the energy out of the voice to give contrast
to ‘back’. Back burner, burner, burner.
Back burner. Since the first syllable won’t
be too stressed, we can make the first and
last syllables sound the same, ur, ur, with
a quick flip of the tongue for the N, -urner,
-ner. UR, this vowel is a lot like the R consonant:
flare the lips, and pull the tongue tip back
and up, ur, ur. This part of the tongue can
be either touching the roof of the mouth or
the inside or bottom of the side teeth here,
urr. And the tongue tip doesn’t touch anything.
Urrrrnerrr. So the tongue just flaps up quickly
for the N -urner, then right back down into
position for the UR again. This time, even
less energy is in the voice. Let the pitch
go down, -ner, -er. This will give us the
right sound. -Urner, -urner. Burner, back
burner. Back burner.
Let’s look at the examples one more time.
Yeah, I have a lot going on. I should put
some things on the back burner, but, I don’t
really want to.
I had, just a big event at my work, and
so now I’ve got a lot on my plate to try
to deal with the post-event stuff as well
as things that I had put on the back burner
while I was working on the event.
Right.
Try it out. Think of a scenario where you
could use the idiom and share it in the comments
below.
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