This is Elliot from E.

T.

J.

English.

Today we are going back to basics with our pronunciation.

Why are we doing this?

Do you tell me?

Because in fact, the most common words are the words which have the most common mistakes with non native speakers.

No one eso you might think some of these words are quite basic, quite simple, but unfortunately they have some of the highest amount of missed aches.

Thes words can easily be mispronounced by non natives, so we need to make sure that we get these words correct.

These words are generally what we would call function words, small words which are technically not really important.

When we're speaking English, we call them function words or grammar words because they are kind of the grammar words that keep everything together.

Keep the sentence working.

However, these words do need to be pronounced correctly on what makes them Even more annoying is the fact that some of them actually have two different forms.

A strong form Onda weak form.

I'm going to explain this when we talk about these 10 words, so why don't we just go straight into it?

Let's start with number one.

So firstly, you guessed it the word I Now it's actually one letter.

But would you believe that the word I is actually a combination off to sounds?

That's what we would call a diff thong.

A dip thong is a combination of two vows made in tow.

One sound.

Just listen to how I pronounce it.

Watch my mouth move.

I So I start with this kind of open mouth.

Are I?

And then I go into a nice smile with that e sound.

I this'll word, if it said quickly, sometimes will actually become a Schwab sound.

For example, I want to buy a new handbag.

Could become I want to buy a new handbag.

I want a I want to buy a new hand back now.

This is when native speakers air talking fast, sometimes thes unimportant words.

If they're not stressed in a sentence, they will become relaxed and we often use the Schwartz out.

So it even happens with I.

Next word have the movement of the mouth.

We're starting.

Uh ha pronounced that sound.

The teeth need to connect with the bottom lip.

We vibrate the sound have have have Let's try practice sentence with this I have a question.

I have a question.

I'm also connecting my speech here because have finishes with a constant sound We could move that continent to any vowel at the beginning of the next word.

Have Ah, I have a question.

We don't want to hear Hove We want have next word that once again we have this act sound this vow sound in the middle But the most important part of this word is the th sound.

At the beginning, I have done a video about the th sound.

If you need some help with that, just a quick run down this tongue goes between your teeth.

Just the tip of the tongue.

Okay, that's the sound we need to make.

I was actually trying to get a wasp out of my house earlier.

Got stuck in the window.

I was thinking how the sound is very similar to when we pronounce this sound when they fly around to the word that that make sure you're finishing with a nice T sound at the end.

The reason why is because it does make your British English sound a little bit more sophisticated.

I don't always pronounce the teas.

At the end of my words, I will drop them or blot allies them.

If I want Thio, it's really up to you the formality of your speech and how you're feeling.

So I could say this and that.

Or I could say this and that.

And that's a nice little tongue twister for you to practice this and that.

This and that.

This and that.

Trying to say that 10 times as fast as you can see how you get on next in this one's really important because we have a short sound.

Hear this sound?

Unfortunately, a lot of my students on my pronunciation course pronounce it as e.

So, for example, they might say in instead of in now, you might not even notice the difference.

But I do.

So your tongue needs to kind of lift just behind, not touching, but behind the top teeth.

You need to create a very quick pushed sound.

Yeah, okay, try and get it exactly like me.

If you can try and finish with a nice sound where we create the sound through the nose, the tongue touches the top of the mouth in in for example, in a sentence.

I'll see you in three years.

I'll see you in three years.

You notice that I'm connecting you and in you'll know from my videos before with connected speech Who is a vowel sound And it at the beginning of in is of our sound.

We create a continent sound to join those two words together and sound more like a native you you win.

I'll see you in three years on the next one.

The letter A which we would pronounce as a This one is very simple.

It is the Schwab sound and if you don't know what the Schwann sound is, you should have a very relaxed tongue in the middle of your mouth.

Just open your mouth like your breathing Very relaxed on the sound he should make is a I have a dog.

I have a dog connecting our speech on a have Ah, I have a dog Next word.

Of course, one of the most common words in English is Andi.

Now this one is interesting because it does have ah weak form.

Firstly, the strong form when we would stress this word or say it very clearly in a sentence.

Andi, if I'm talking faster, you'll be quite interested to know that we will actually use the Schwab sound in this word.

Remember, the Schwab's sound is our lazy sound.

We will use it just to kind of make annoying words more relaxed.

This word when it's not important.

Andi.

I mean, it's not really that much of an important words when we're speaking.

So when we're talking fast, it will become a new, for example, dogs and cats, dogs and cats, cats and dogs.

And so what we're doing is that Schwab on finishing with And that's because and is not very important if it is important in the sentence.

I have a dog Onda, a cat, were stressing on because we really want to stress that we also have a cat.

But if I just want to share some normal information, I have a dog and a cat have a dog and a cat, so it really depends on the rhythm of your speech.

What you're stressing on how important the words on is very common word, though, right?

I've probably said it about 50 times already in this video.

We're getting into the good stuff Now we're getting even more common with these words.

The next word is off.

Once again, this has a weak form.

Can you guess what it is?

Vows are often replaced by the SWA sound.

So hopefully all right.

It should be of firstly off round shape with the mouth off off teeth going down to that bottom lip off.

So, firstly, I could say the capital off England is London.

If I'm talking slowly, if I don't want to sound so much like a robot, I want to know the weak form.

The weak form, like we said, is of the capital of England, the capital of England.

Is London off off?

The reason why we do these weak forms is because it's much easier to pronounce the Schwab sound.

It's in the middle of the mouth.

Everything is relaxed.

Oh, it just makes more sense, right to once again, it does have a weak form.

Firstly, let's talk about how to pronounce the strong form.

Ooh, that's that vowel sound.

Ooh ooh, Look how small my mouth is.

Ooh, the tongue is lifting up to for example.

I went to school today.

That's how we'd say if we wanted to sound like a robot.

Generally, I will pronounce this as toe once again using this yr sound toe.

I went to school today.

Second, most common word in British English is be So you know, earlier we mentioned the it sounds, for example, in a word that, like it, it tongue lifts up.

This time the tongue needs to go a little bit higher.

You should feel the sides of your tongue kind of touching your top teeth.

B.

I want to be a doctor.

Number one Most common word in English is off course.

I hope you guess this right?

The word the so they're two different ways off pronouncing the word the you could save the Or you could say the Firstly, I want to stress once again that the word the is extremely important And it has to be pronounced correctly every time.

That means pronouncing that th sound the the okay.

It's just a th on a Schwab.

So it should be easy.

The so Firstly, we pronounce it with Schwab as the when there is a continent after the word.

So when the next word begins with the continent, however, if the next word after the begins with a vowel, for example Earth Island education.

Whatever word you're talking about, we will then pronounce the as the Onda.

We will connect our speech.

So let's just talk about this sentence here.

The dog we know we're saying the because dog begins with a continent.

The dog lives on the island.

The dog lives on the island.

That is a brilliant sentence for you to practice because you're learning how to use the on the so the we know we're doing that big smile e the we know we're doing the Schwann.

So they're Ugo.

Your most common word in British English was the word the I hope you found this list quite useful.

And I hope I've also taught you a few things about pronunciation here.

I know it's a really simple lesson, but you need to know this kind of stuff.

If you want to sound clear and confident in your English, you have to learn this simple stuff as we say.

Go back to basics.

It's so important because when you get in bad habits with your pronunciation, then you're never going to get back.

So it's good to learn this now while you can, and then start focusing on the big sounds, the big words, the complicated stuff.

If you're really interested in really pushing your pronunciation to the next level sounding great with your pronunciation on spoken English, I really recommend that you join my pronunciation course the links below.

But you could go to E T.

J English com on did you could sign up right now and start improving your pronunciation and spoken English.

I look forward to meeting some of you there soon and chatting to you on what's app.

But for now, that's it for this week.

I will see you in the next video.

Cheers, guys.

Bye.

Wow.

Wow.

You know what?

Uh huh.