Vocabulary Parties and Labor Day American English Pronunciation
Hello Rachel’s English fans! Today we are
going to go over vocabulary for parties, specifically,
for a grilling/Labor Day party, which is what
I went to just this past weekend. Labor Day
is the first Monday in September in America,
and it is a holiday. So, most people are lucky
enough to have that day off, and therefore
have a three day weekend.
First, Labor Day. Labor Day begins with the
L consonant sound, ll, tongue tip up behind
the teeth. Ll, ll, lay, lay, the ‘ay’ as in
‘say’ diphthong, Labor. The second syllable,
unaccented, will be lower in pitch, lower
in volume, Labor, Labor, with the B consonant
sound and the schwa/R sound: br, br. Labor,
Labor. Day, with the D consonant sound and
the ‘ay’ as in ‘say’ diphthong, watch how
the tongue moves between those two sounds:
Day, Day. Labor Day.
Show them a good, old fashioned, American
back yard. It’s pretty typical to grill out
in one’s back yard. Back yard. The B consonant
sound followed by the ‘aa’ as in ‘bat’ vowel
sound. Ba-aa, jaw drops quite a bit, tongue
is raised a little bit there in the back.
Baa-aa-k. To make the K sound, the back of
the tongue reaches up, kk and pulls away,
kk, to release and make that sound. Back yard.
The Y consonant sound followed by the ‘ah’
as in ‘father’ sound. Ya, ya-rd. The R consonant
sound and the D sound. Yard, yard. I’ve noticed
recently with some of my students: when they
have the ‘ah’ as in ‘father’ vowel followed
by the R consonant sound, that they tend to
make it one sound: rr, rr. Make sure your
jaw drops, ya-, ah, at the beginning, so you
get that good ah vowel sound. Yarr, before
moving into the r sound. Yard. Back yard.
And here we have the grill.
Grill begins with the G consonant
sound, gg, gg, the R consonant
sound, gr, gr, so it is a G-R consonant blend.
Gg, the back of the tongue is raised and it
releases while the vocal cords are making
noise. Gg, gg, rr, gr. To make the R sound,
the tongue has to move up in the middle. Gr,
rr, and press against the insides of the top
teeth. Gr, gr. The ih sound is next, gri-,
gri-ll. And finally, the dark L. Uhl, and
the tongue tip moves, finishing, ll, just
behind the top teeth. Grill, grill.
The meat. We had ribs, pork, and chicken.
Actually, I believe that was not pork, it
was lamb. At any rate, this is what we had,
and it was especially delicious. The ribs
actually had been made before and frozen.
My friend who is a chef assures me that the
best way to cook ribs is actually to cook
them twice. He says it’s the only real way
to get them juicy. Anyway, I do wish we’d
had some fresh vegetables to put on the grill.
Corn on the cob and zucchini are among my
favorites.
Ribs begin with the R consonant sound, rr,
rr, lips will be in a circle there to make
that beginning sound. Ri-, opening into the
‘ih’ as in ‘sit’ vowel sound, ri-. And finally,
the B consonant sound followed by the Z sound.
Ribs, ribs. The plural here is pronounced
as a Z because the final sound on the word
rib is B, which is voiced, bb, bb, and the
voiced consonant will be followed by the Z
sound in plural form. Ribs, ribs.
Chicken begins with the
ch CH sound, ch, opening into the ‘ih’ as
in ‘sit’ vowel sound, chi-, chi-kk. K consonant
sound, where the tongue reaches up, chick,
chick-en. And the schwa sound followed by
the N consonant sound. Chicken. The first
syllable here is stressed. Chicken. So the
second syllable, unstressed, will be lower
in pitch and lower in volume, also shorter.
Chicken, chicken.
While we were all waiting on the meat to be
ready, we had some smaller, lighter food before
hand, we call those appetizers. Chips and
dip are a very popular American appetizer
to have at a party. Appetizers. Notice the
first syllable is stressed. Appetizers. The
third syllable has a secondary stress, meaning,
it will come out of the line a little bit,
but it’s not as high or as loud as the first
syllable. Appetizers. The ‘aa’ vowel sound
begins the word. Appe-. The P consonant sound
followed by the schwa. Appe-ti: the T consonant
sound followed by the ‘ai’ as in ‘buy’ diphthong.
Appeti-, ti-, appeti-zers. The Z consonant
sound, schwa-R sound, and the Z consonant
sound. Appetizers.
Chips begins with the ch consonant sound,
ch, chi, the ‘ih’ as in ‘sit’ vowel sound.
Chi-, chi-ps, ps. The P consonant sound with
the S sound. Chips. So the lips have to come
together, pp, ps, for the P, and the open,
ss, while the teeth remain together to make
the S. Chips, ps, chips. The word ‘and’ will
be reduced here. It is a function word, therefore
not as important as the two nouns that surround
it. Chips nn, nn, so it will be pronounced
just with the N sound, chips-n-. Dip: the
D consonant sound, the ‘ih’ as in ‘sit’, and
the P consonant. Dip, dip, chips and dip.
Not a great lowercase A, but here is an apple
pie that I made. Apple pie begins with the
‘aa’ as in ‘bat’ vowel sound. Apple, pp, pp,
the P consonant sound followed by the schwa
and the dark L sound. -ple, -ple, apple. Apple.
I’m sure you notice it’s the first syllable
that’s stressed. Apple pie. The P consonant
sound and the ‘ai’ as in ‘buy’ diphthong.
Apple pie. Yummy yummy, serving it up.
This is part of an idiom, as American as apple
pie. What does this idiom mean? Well, apple
pie we sort of think of as being an American
invention. We associate it with American holidays
such as the 4th of July, summer, it feels
like a very American thing. So if you say,
she’s as American as apple pie, that means
she is very American: perhaps very patriotic
or just your typical American girl. That’s
it, and thanks so much for using Rachel’s English.
.