WEBVTT

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In this American English pronunciation video,
we're going to go over the pronunciation of

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the word 'umbrella'.

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This week's Word of the Week is 'umbrella'. 
Thanks so much to the user who suggested it!

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This is a three-syllable word with stress
on the middle syllable. Umbrella, da-DA-da,

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da-DA-da.

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We begin with the UH as in BUTTER sound. Since
it's not in a stressed syllable, the jaw won't

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drop quite as much as it would in a stressed
syllable, like the first syllable of 'butter'.

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Um-. Um-. Um-. Then we have the M consonant
sound, the lips must come together for that.

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Umb-. For the B, they may press a little bit
more than they did for the M. Umb-re. Next

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is the R consonant. So our tongue tip, which
has been behind the front teeth the whole

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time, must pull back and up. The tip isn't
touching anything, and the middle part is

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touching the roof of the mouth or the teeth
about here, umbr-. Now we have the EH as in

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BED vowel. This is our stressed syllable,
and this vowel requires a good bit of jaw

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drop. Your tongue tip will come forward and
back down so it's again touching behind the

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bottom front teeth, -bre-. Umbre-. Now we
have a Dark L. To make this sound, the jaw

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will come back up, and the back part of the
tongue will pull back, umbrell-. The tip stays

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forward, where it was for the EH. Umbrell-.
This pulling back of the tongue makes the

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dark sound, ul. Next we bring the tip of the
tongue up to the roof of the mouth, umbrell-,

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and quickly back down so the tip is again
behind the bottom front teeth for the schwa.

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Umbrella, umbrella. Make that last syllable
really short since it's unstressed: -a, -a,

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-a. Umbrella. Umbrella.

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Make sure you go buy Rihanna's single 'Umbrella',
'ella, 'ella, eh, eh, eh. I'll let her sing it.

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Here it is in slow motion.

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If there's a word you find difficult to pronounce,
suggest it in the comments. That's it, and

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thanks so much for using Rachel's English.

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Hey guys! Did you know I'm running an online
course? The topic: Vowels and Diphthongs.

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I hope to see some of you there. Click here
for more information.