holiday edition of question of the week and I have a helper today yes Claire we are going to say elf

Elf Claire that's right and we are going to learn how to pronounce the word elf and

elves today so let's go ahead and take a look at our words so word number one is

elf e.l.f and word number two the plural form of elf is elves we're going to

actually change that F to a V and then add an es that's the spelling rule for

when a word ends in F so to say these words correctly what you're going to do

is start with a short eh sound your mouth is slightly open and your tongue is

between your top and your bottom teeth eh that vowel is nice and short next you

are going to move to the L sound to do this you're going to touch the tip of

your tongue with the back of your top front teeth L and then you're going to

end with an S sss and you're going to do that open slightly open mouth the teeth

are either going to be biting the inside of the bottom lip or the outside of the

bottom lip and the air is going to keep going elf now if you want to say this a

little less formally elf is fine really hitting that L sound but a lot of people

say the word elf how do you do that to do that you're going to start with that eh

sound and then you're going to move your tongue very very close to the back of

your top front teeth but you are not going to touch the back of your top

front teeth instead you're going to quickly pull it down almost touch and

then pull it down for that F sound elf elf elf next for the word elves what we're

going to do is we're going to start with that L again by that making that short e

and then adding that L L and then we're going to move to a V to do this you're

going to do exactly what you did for the F sound but this time turn your voice

box on so biting it inside our the outside of the

bottom lip air keeps moving but this time the voice is on elv elv and then

end with a Z zzz elves elves and for that Z sound do not touch your teeth

with your tongue it's going to be high in your mouth behind the front teeth and

that air is going to keep moving out of your mouth

elves so again if you want to say that's a little less formally you don't have to

touch your teeth for the L just make sure you get super close and then pull

it down elves elves elves Claire could these words or try for us elf elves and in a

sentence one elf said I want to be a dentist when I grow up and all the elves

laughed and I think you will watch that show yeah that is from Rudolph the

red-nose way everybody know this is not a real elf because it's just stuff it's

just stuffed it's just a stuffed elf so wishing everyone a happy holiday

season all the best to you and yours Merry

Christmas