question is a very common question that I got from Korean ESL speakers and

that's how to differentiate the words kiss a smooch keys what you use to

unlock your door kits something that comes together that you typically put

together and kids a slang term for children so we're going to focus on

vowel length and then the ending cluster combinations okay so this will all make

sense in a second let's take a look at these words let's start with kiss and

keys because those will be the easiest to address so for the word kiss we're

going to say that word with the short I sound ih this vowel looks very similar

to that long e in keys so to make these vowels different for keys your mouth is

going to be smiling and very closed and then for kiss it's going to relax a

little bit and open and when that happens your tongue goes from way up

here for keys and it pops down a little bit for kiss so keys kiss keys kiss the

other difference is that when you end these two words the S is voiceless your

throat is not vibrating versus the Z sound your voice is on and vibrating so

kiss keys and also keep in mind for these two sounds that after you say the

vowel sound you're going to keep your tongue in the same spot do not touch

your teeth and then keep the air moving out of your mouth okay so let's listen

to those two again kiss keys kiss keys now let's move to kits and kids these

words have the short I sound ih so again we know how to do this your

mouth is slightly open and more relaxed and that vowel is short we're going to

end with the T s so to do this you're going to move from that short I sound ih

touch your teeth with the tip of your tongue to the back of your top front

teeth kit and then you're going to pull it back down tsssss and let that air move out

of your mouth okay so ki t ss now for kids all that you're going to do is turn

your voice on for that D and Z sound the tongue is going to do exactly the same

thing so we have kits and kids kits kids so let's give all four of those words a

try kiss-kiss keys keys kits kits kids kids and then I'm going to just

contrast quickly for you kiss kits keys kids so give that a try people will

notice the difference if you found this helpful

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