Hi, everyone. Nice to meet you. My name is Ronnie. If you're joining me for the first
time, I'm going to teach you some pronunciation. This is by special request. If you have a
special request about pronunciation or vocabulary, something you need help with in English, please
go to the website, www.engvid.com, type in a comment. Magic. Done. Lesson for you.
This lesson is about vowel sounds. We have five vowels in English, but we have many different
sounds. It's not easy, I know, because if you just have a quick look at the spelling
of these two words -- for example, "suit" and "suit" -- you have a double "o" and then
you have a "ui". But in the next one, we have an "ou" and a double "o". Unfortunately, the
spelling will not help you with the pronunciation. I will help you with the pronunciation.
The first technique that I'm going to teach you is the most important. It's your mouth
positioning. In the phonetic alphabet, this crazy "u" sound -- looks like a "u" or two
people going like this -- is actually going to be pronounced "uh". When I make the "uh"
noise, my mouth is very relaxed, and I gently blow air out of my mouth. Try. You can do
it a long time. You want to do it in a very short breath. You want to go "uh". You don't
want to go "uh". That's too long. Short "uh". Your vocal cords should be vibrating. "Uh".
The next sound, the other sound that's difficult, is -- in the phonetic alphabet, it looks like
a "u" -- how deceiving. It is actually an "oo" or an "oo". No, an "oo" sound. When you
make the "oo" sound, you're going to make it look like this. Okay? Do this, do this
now. Okay? And you're going to make the sound very long. As I told you, this "uh" sound
is short. The "oo" sound is a very long vowel sound. If you don't make it long enough, it
sounds like "u". This is why these two sounds in English are difficult for you to say. One
of them, you have to make longer and have a mouth like this. The other one is shorter
with a more relaxed mouth. So let's practice this. "Oo". "Oo". "Oo". If you're having problems,
look in the mirror. Look in the mirror. Look at your mouth. "Oo". Donut mouth. Okay?
Let's practice with some comparative words. The first word, all of these words on this
category are going to be the "uh". So let's make the "uh" sound here. And all of these
words here are the longer "oo" sound. So the "oo", I'll put here with a smiley face. Okay.
The first word is "sut". "Sut". "Sut" is not a common word anymore in English. "Sut" is
what you get when you burn something and the black ashes -- if you burn coal or burn something
in a fireplace, the black ashes are called "sut". If you touch them, your finger becomes
black and you can -- so we're not too concerned about the vocabulary but more about the pronunciation.
So this is your "uh". So it's "sut". To contrast that with the "oo" sound, we're going to use
the word "suit". The spelling is very confusing. It would help me if in English, we spelled
it like this. But unfortunately, this word is taken. So this pronunciation is like "suit".
"Suit". And this is "sut". This word is very fast. "Sut". Try. "Sut". This word, on the
other hand, has the long vowel sound. "Sut". A "sut" as a noun is formal wear or formal
clothes -- not wear -- that men and women have to wear to an office to look very formal.
I don't own a "sut". Do you have a "sut"? It usually has a tie and a jacket. Very beautiful.
The next word, the spelling is strange, very different from the pronunciation. Thank you,
English. This word is "could". If I was going to spell it -- it would be easier -- I would
spell it "k-u-d". "Could". So if you look at this, the "o" -- ding, ding, ding -- and
the "l" are silent. So this word is "c-u-d". "Could". We're going to go through all of
the "u" pronunciation first, so to help you. "Could". This is a modal verb. You're going
to hear this a lot in English, in English grammar. So get to know it well. "Could". Next
word, "full". "Full" means -- if you have a gas tank, your gas meter, when it has no
gas, says "empty". When it has a lot of gas, it's "full". When you make the word "full",
you have to watch your "f" pronunciation. So your teeth are back. Your teeth are back?
What? Your lips are behind your teeth? "Full". Your tongue ends up, because it's the "l"
pronunciation. "Full" means the opposite of "empty". It means like 100%. Pronunciation
is "full". "Full". Next one, "foot". Do you have a foot? I have two feet. You can't see
them. I don't have any feet. Not at all. I have a head and shoulders. That's all you
can see. I don't have feet. I have two feet, one foot. "Foot". A foot is singular. Oh, yes.
What a great foot. And it's the thing at the end of your leg is a foot. Two of them we
call "feet". So this is singular. "Foot". The next word is "pull". Maybe you want to
open a door. You need to pull the door. So "full" and "pull" have the same pronunciation
at the end. The only thing that's different is the beginning. When you want to do the
"p", your lips are together. "Pull", "full". But the vowel sounds are the very short "p".
Next one is a friend of our modal "could". It's our modal "should". In this word as well,
the "o" and the "u" are silent. So it sounds like this word, except we're changing it to
"should". "Should", "should". "Could", "should". Last one, "look". "Look, look, look, look.
Watch, look." "Look" means you're using your eyes and you're seeing something. It's the
short "u" sound, so it's "look". Please practice these words.
We're going to go on to the "oo" sound. Have you practiced? Do you have it? "Oo". Next,
we're going to move on to the long "oo" sound. The first word that we did before is called
a "suit". "Suit". Don't do it like that. That's a little strange. So you're going to say "suit",
"suit". This is "suit", this is "suit". You need to make your mouth like a donut and you
need to drag the vowel sound out.
The next word is "cooed". "Cooed". "Cooed" is a very strange word. Again, this is not
a vocabulary lesson. "Cooed" is the sound that pigeons make. Do you know what a "pigeon"
is? It's a bird. Whoa. And it goes "huh, huh, huh". Not a duck. Ducks are down more, but
it's a pigeon. When pigeons talk, they go "coo, coo". I can't do a pigeon noise. Did
I sound like an owl? So embarrassed. When pigeons speak, they actually say "coo, coo".
That was good. Practice. Don't bother. So "pigeon"'s noise is a "coo". In the past tense,
it's "cooed". "Cooed". Uh-oh. Next word, "fool". "Fool". "Fool" means someone who is stupid
or naive. "Fool". "Fool". Make sure that you make these "oo" sound in the middle. Uh-oh.
One of my favorites. The next word is "food". "Food". Stretch out the "oo" sound, and you'll
be doing well. "Food". Do you like swimming? No? Do you like to play pool? "Pool" has two
meanings. One, it's a place where we go -- we can swim. The other one we call "8-ball".
"Pool" is a sport. Play with 8 balls. The pronunciation of this is "pool". "Pool". The
next one -- bang, bang -- is "shoot". You can "shoot" a gun. You can "shoot" a video,
which means make a video. We're doing that. Are we shooting a video here? Yes, we are.
"Shoot". And the last one is a male name, "Luke". "Luke". So we're going to now practice
"Have you seen Luke this morning?"
"All right. I'll be right there, Aunt Beru."
And we're back in action. Hello. Have you practiced? Do you think you can do it? Let's
try. What we're going to do is we're going to contrast the "uh" with the "oo". This is
where it gets difficult, and you need to know this. Did you practice? Okay. The first word
is "s" -- "uh" -- "t". So the first word that we have is "suit" -- "sut" -- "sut" -- contrasted
with "suit". Try this. "Sut" -- "suit". Make sure that your mouth is practicing what we
Next one -- "could". Very short word -- "could". Contrasted with "cooed". "Could" -- "cooed".
"Full" -- again, a very short word. "Full" -- "fool". If you notice the position of my
mouth, and if you can copy this, you will get this right 100% of the time. "Full" -- "fool".
Next word -- "foot" -- "foot". "Food" -- "food". Don't eat feet. Next word -- "pull" -- "pool"
-- "pool". We're almost done. "Should" -- very fast again -- "should". "Shoot" -- "shoot".
Last two -- "look" -- it's a very short sound -- "look". And the male name -- "Luke" -- "Luke".
Go to the website www.engvid.com. See some more videos. Have some fun there. Bye-bye.
Now, obviously, when you are pronouncing these words with the "oo" -- the long "oo" sound,
you don't want to exaggerate as much as I have when I teach you to do this. So I'm going
to go through this list one more time -- how I would say these words or how a native speaker
says these words very quickly. I want you to practice with the long "oo" sound. Eventually,
I want you to be able to say it very quickly and understand the difference when native
speakers say the words, too. I'm going to go through the list. "Suit" -- "cood". "Fool"
-- "food". "Pool" -- "shoot". And "Luke". As long as you're making the donut mouth like
this, you will be able to get the fast "oo" sound without exaggerating. Good luck. Bye.