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Hello! I'm Emma from mmmEnglish and in this

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lesson, I'm going to share with you 10

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English words that you're probably

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mispronouncing! If you are learning to

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speak English, then pronunciation is

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probably one of the biggest frustrations

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that you have right now and these words

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that I've chosen are difficult because

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of the combination of letters or sounds

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in English. Together they can be quite

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difficult or your eyes can, in fact, play

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tricks on you because the letters that

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you see, they don't sound like you think

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they should and some of these words are

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even difficult for native English

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speakers to pronounce! But don't worry

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about it, don't sweat, we are going to fix

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these pronunciation problems right here,

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right now in this lesson! Let's get

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started! OK the first word is 'vegetable'

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'vegetable'. Now this word is a challenge

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because it looks like there should be

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four syllables in this word. 'Vegetable'.

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But there's not, there are three

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syllables, 'vegetable'. Can you see the

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syllable - that we completely forget the 'e'?

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'Vegetable'. We don't pronounce that second

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syllable. 'Vegetable', 'vegetable'.

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Fantastic!

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I'm going to the market to get some

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vegetables for dinner.

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'Comfortable'. Now

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this word, just like 'vegetable', has an

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extra vowel in there that we don't need

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to pronounce. 'Comfortable', not 'comfortable'

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or 'comfortable' but

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'comfort-

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-able'. 'Comfortable'. You skip that vowel

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sound. 'Comfortable'. You look very

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comfortable this afternoon.

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'Almond'. Now in this word the 'L' is silent.

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It's not 'almond' or 'almond' it's 'al-

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-mond', 'almond', 'almond', 'almond'.

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I'm going to make an

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almond cake for dessert.

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Now there are lots of other English words that have a

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silent letter 'L' in them - words like

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'salmon', not 'salmon', 'half', not 'half', 'would',

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'talk', 'walk'. All of these words have a

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silent 'L' in them, which makes them a

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little bit tricky to pronounce correctly.

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I've got a separate video that is all

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about silent letters in English words

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and I talk about the letter 'L' and lots

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of other silent letters in that video.

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You can check it out up here at the end

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of this video!

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OK, what about this one?

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How many times

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have you been asked to read a paragraph

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out aloud in front of the class and

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you've been reading and then you come

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across this and you think, 'How on earth

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am I going to say that?!' Lots of native

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English speakers actually mess this up

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as well and they'll pronounce X-cetera

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or X-cetera and it should be pronounced

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'et cetera', 'et cetera', 'et cetera'.

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or 'et cetera', if you're like me. OK this one

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is especially difficult! 'Clothes', 'clothes',

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'clothes'. Now the reason why it's

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especially difficult is because of the

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two final consonant sounds, the '-th' and

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the plural sound. Now this noun is of

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course, always plural. Clothes refers to

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shirts, shorts, trousers, jumpers, jackets

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- anything that you wear is your clothes,

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are your clothes! But 'clothes', 'clothes'

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not 'cloths', not 'close' and not 'clothes' either!

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The difficult thing about the

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pronunciation of this word is the two

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consonant sounds.

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together. Both of

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those sounds are voiced consonant sounds

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so the sound is made here in your vocal

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cords.

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Now the thing to remember

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that's really important is with that '-th' sound

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you need to bring your teeth through

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- your tongue through your teeth! Now the

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'-th' sound is very, very soft. It is

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definitely still there, it needs to sound

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different from the verb 'close'. OK, which

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doesn't have the '-th' sound. This word has

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the '-th' sound, 'clothes', 'clothes'. It's very

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short but it's definitely there! I need

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to pack my clothes tonight because we

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leave early in the morning. I need to

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pack my clothes tonight.

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'Jewellery', 'jewellery', 'jewellery'.

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Again, we've got an extra vowel here that we don't need

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to pronounce. We don't say 'jewellery',

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'jewellery'. It's just 'jewellery' and actually

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in American English the spelling is

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slightly different to the British and

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the Australian version. And the American

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version should help you to pronounce

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this word more correctly. 'Jewelry', 'jewelry',

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so that's gold, silver, pearls, diamonds,

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earrings, rings, necklaces - all of these

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things that we wear to make ourselves

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look more beautiful! I don't wear a lot

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of jewellery myself. The only jewellery I

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wear is this ring and sometimes some earrings.

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'Architecture', 'architecture'.

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This one is so often mispronounced! I hear

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'architecture', 'architecture',

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- which is incorrect! The '-ch' sound in this word is a

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sound like in 'cat'.

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'Architecture', 'architect'.

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'Architect'.

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It's not the same '-ch' sound

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that you hear in words like 'chocolate'

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and 'cheese', it's a sound and there are

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quite a few English words that actually

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have this same pronunciation of the '-ch'

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combination - words like 'stomach' and 'ache'.

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The '-ch' in all of these words is

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pronounced like a sound.

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My brother is an architect.

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He went home early because he had a stomach ache.

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'Enthusiastic', not

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'enthusiastic' or 'enthusiastic', but

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'enthusiastic'. You have to work harder to

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get this one correct! So many of my

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students say "This one is too hard! I'm

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just not going to use this word!" and I

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say "NO, we are going to get it right,

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right now, together here in this lesson!"

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'Enthusiastic'. So what you need to do

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is break down this word. Start with the

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first syllable,

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Where is your

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tongue? What's it doing on that final

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consonant sound?

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It's at the top of

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your mouth and the 'n' sound is made back

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in the soft palate - it's a nasal sound

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and to move to the '-th' sound, you need to

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of course, bring your tongue down and out

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through your teeth.

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The tongue must come out through the middle of your

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teeth! If you don't, you will mispronounce

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this word and you'll say 'enthusiastic'

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or 'enthusiastic' instead. You need

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to say

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See how I'm breaking that down for you?

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'Enthusiastic', 'enthusiastic'.

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Now you're going to be enthusiastic

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about using that word!

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'Word', 'world'.

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and 'work'.

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Now you're probably mispronouncing

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these words because you are looking at

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the '-or' and you're trying to pronounce

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the vowel sound 'or', like in 'door'.

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But this is incorrect, the vowel sound is actually

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as in 'her'. 'Work', 'world', 'word'.

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This is your eyes playing tricks on you! Your eyes are

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seeing these words, seeing the letters O

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and R and they're telling you to

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pronounce 'or' but, in fact, you should be

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pronouncing

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for all of these words!

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'Word'. 'World. 'Work'.

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If you pronounce 'or', especially for this last one, 'work', it

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actually sounds a lot like the English

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word, 'walk'.

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'Photograph'. Now perhaps you

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can pronounce this word correctly,

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'photograph', but what about all of the

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other words in this word family?

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'Photography', 'photographer', 'photographic'.

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When my students mispronounce these

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words, it's usually because they are

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stressing the wrong syllable. English

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words that have more than one syllable

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always have one strong stressed syllable.

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Sometimes there are secondary syllables

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but there is always one main stressed

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syllable that is clearer and stronger

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than the others and the unstressed

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syllable - the syllable that's not

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stressed - is often reduced down to a

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schwa vowel sound.

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Now the schwa sound is the lazier sound

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in English.

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That's the schwa sound,

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it's the laziest vowel sound in English.

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And these stress patterns are exactly

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what is different about the

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pronunciation of these words, so in the

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first example, 'photograph', the first

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syllable is the stressed syllable. You

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can hear it very clearly, 'photograph'.

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The second syllable is

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unstressed and it is reduced down to the

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schwa sound.

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'Photograph', 'photograph', it's very short,

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it's very lazy, it's not very strong at all.

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Now if you look at the second

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example, 'photography', you can hear the

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pronunciation is different and that's

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because the second syllable is the

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stressed syllable in this word.

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'Photography'.

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'Photography'.

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Compare it to the first syllable where the schwa

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sound is - it reduces down to the schwa

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sound and you just hear 'photography'.

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'Photographer'.

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The third example

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'photographic', the stress is on the third

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syllable, so you can hear how much

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influence stress has on this word family.

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To correctly pronounce all of these

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words correctly you need to pay

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attention to the stressed syllable

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and that's true for a whole range of

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different word families. 'Economic', 'analyze',

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'nature, 'politics', all of these words and

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their word families are influenced by

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stress in different ways.

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Well that's my official list of the words that you are

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probably mispronouncing and I didn't

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just make that list up, I built that list

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over years and years of coaching English

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students to improve their English

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pronunciation. They're the words that

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students consistently get wrong! Many

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different students, many different times,

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they are the ones that are the most

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difficult for you to pronounce.

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I hope that you enjoyed this lesson, if you did

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make sure you subscribe by clicking the

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red button here. I mentioned a video

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about silent letters earlier in this

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lesson, you can watch it here and you can

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also watch my imitation lessons right

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here and those lessons are fantastic for

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improving your English pronunciation and

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expression by speaking with a native

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English speaker. Thanks for watching and

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I will see you in the next lesson.

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Bye for now!