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This American English pronunciation video
comes to you from Keukenhof in the Netherlands.
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As we look at the beautiful tulips in Keukenhof
Gardens, we'll study some colors.
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>> Sara, it's so fun visiting the Netherlands
with you.
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>> I know! It's great.
>> Now, I thought in this video, since we're
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at the flower garden, we can talk about the
colors. And I'll go over the pronunciation.
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What are you seeing here in this bed?
>> So, here there is red, and white, and yellow,
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and, it's hard to see, but there's a little
bit of purple.
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>> And a little bit of purple too.
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Red, white, yellow, purple. Colors are adjectives,
which are content words. Nouns, verbs, adjectives,
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and adverbs are content words. This generally
means they should be stressed, or, longer
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in a sentence.
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So, we want to say 'red', not 'red'. The red
one. Red, which is the only stressed word
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in this sentence, should be noticeably longer
than 'the' and 'one'. The red one. The red
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one. 'Red' has the R consonant, the EH as
in BED vowel, and the D sound. Red. R is a
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difficult sound. You should be able to hold
it out. Rrrrrr. If it's at the beginning of
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a word, the lips will really round a lot.
Let's take a look at Sara saying this word.
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>> Red. [3x]
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Even though Sara is in profile, you can still
tell how much her lips are rounding for that
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beginning R. Rr.
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>> Red. [3x] And white.
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White. This is also a one-syllable adjective.
So, just like 'red', it should stand out in
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a sentence, being longer than the unstressed
words. It begins with the W consonant. Just
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like the beginning R, the lips come into a
tight circle for that. Next is the AI as in
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BUY diphthong. You'll need to drop your jaw
some for this sound. 'White' ends with a T.
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Sara chose to make that a True T sound. White.
You'll also hear many native speakers make
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it a Stop T. 'White' instead of 'white'. Let's
listen to Sara say it again.
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>> And white [3x], and yellow. And, it's hard
to see, but there's a little bit of purple.
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Yellow, purple. These are two-syllable words.
There is one stressed, and one unstressed
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syllable each: yellow, purple. Can you tell,
which syllable is stressed? Yellow, yell-ow.
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Purple, pur-ple. They both have stress on
the first syllable. DA-da, yellow, purple.
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What does is mean when a stressed word, a
content word, has an unstressed syllable?
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Well, even though it's a stressed word, the
unstressed syllables should still be very
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short: -ow, -ow, yellow. -ple, -ple, purple.
Listen for how the first syllable in these
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words is longer than the second syllable.
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>> And yellow. [3x] And, it's hard to see
but there's a little bit of purple. [3x]
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Yellow, purple.
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>> A little bit of purple, too. Here we have
a gardener.
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>> ... These are for you.
>> Thank you!
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>> Oh wow. That's so nice!
>> Yeah. You got a good picture?
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>> Thank you!
>> The Netherlands just got better.
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>> Yellow and orange.
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Orange. Another two-syllable word with stress
on the first syllable. Orange. [3x]
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>> So here in this bed, there's some pink.
Also some peach.
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Pink, peach. Each one syllable. Pink has the
P consonant, the IH vowel, the NG consonant,
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and the K. You may ask: why is there an NG
consonant when there's no letter G in the
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word? The letter N makes an NG sound when
the next sound is a K. Kk. Other examples:
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thanks, thanks, with the NG sound. Drink,
drink. With the NG sound.
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>> So here, in this bed, there's some pink.
Also some peach. Magenta.
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Magenta. Here's a three-syllable word. What
is the one stressed syllable? Can you tell?
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>> Magenta [3x]
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Magenta, da-DA-da. It's the middle syllable.
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>> Magenta [4x]
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>> Your favorite color in general?
>> I like certain blues, like teals.
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>> Uh-huh. I don't think we're going to see
any teal tulips unfortunately.
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>> Right. But it is good alliteration.
>> It is.
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What is alliteration? This is when the
same sound begins words that are next to each
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other, or in the same thought group. Teal
tulips. Rachel runs regularly.
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>> This is my friend, Puck, who invited me
to the Netherlands. Thanks, Puck.
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>> You're welcome.
>> So, Puck just taught me a very cool trick
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about tulips. When you cut tulips and put
them in a vase, they droop.
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>> They do.
>> And what is the trick that you taught me?
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>> They go in the vase, vase.
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'Vase' has a couple of pronunciations. In
America, we generally say 'vase', with the
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AY diphthong, and an unvoiced ending, ss.
In British English, and some Americans will
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use this pronunciation too, the second sound
is the AH as in FATHER vowel, va-. And the
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ending is voiced. Vase (4x).
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>> Grow in the vase, vase...
>> Yeah?
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>> And then they do this. Imagine this is
a tulip. It's a daffodil, but we'll...
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>> Right. It's not a tulip, but pretend it
is.
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>> Pretend it's a tulip. And then it goes
like this. Just underneath, one centimeter
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from the flower, you just pinch a needle.
>> Stick a needle.
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>> Stick a needle though the stem. All the
way through. And then, they stand up.
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>> And that'll keep them from dropping. Now,
she also told me if it's already drooping,
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and you stick a needle in, it will make it
come back up straight again.
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>> But you have to cut some piece of...
>> You have to cut some off the bottom. Ok.
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>> And then stick the needle.
>> I'm definitely going to use that tip because
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I love tulips, and they're always dropping.
Now I know how to fix it. Thanks Puck.
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>> I have braces.
>> If you can't understand her, please forgive
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her. She just got braces.
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Thanks so much to Puck and Sara for being
in and helping me make this video. Always
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remember to pay attention to word stress and
pronunciation as you learn new vocabulary words.
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That's it, and thanks so much for using Rachel's
English.
