Our question today is how do I pronounce the word: On—which is in contact with a surface or part of a topic, own—belonging to a person, and only—meaning solely or exclusively or no longer than like only a year.

So, let's take a look at our words.

We have on, own and only.

So let's start with the 'n' sound /n/.

Let's get that out of the way.

To say this sound, you're going to touch the tip of your tongue to the back of your top front teeth, and air moves out of your nose.

The 'l' sound is made in the same spot, this /l/, but the air moves out of your mouth.

So, /n, /l/, /n/, /l/.

Let's also talk about the "y". "Y" is  that nice high flat tongue, vowel is long, and you are smiling.

So we're gonna end this word with /ly/.

Now let's talk about these vowels.

O in english is very confusing for a lot of my students.  

It can be pronounced many different ways.

We have two options here for the letter o and how we pronounce it.

For "on", we are going to pronounce it with an open,  short /o/ sound.

You can see my mouth is in an oval, it's very open, my lips are not puckered.

My tongue is going to be low in the front and pulled up and high in the back. 

You're gonna see I have to close my mouth.

Now for "own", I'm going to start with that open mouth again, my tongue is going to be low, the back is going to be pulled up, but then I'm going to move to a pucker.

As I close my mouth and move to that pucker, my tongue is going to just come along for the ride.

It's going to start here and it's going to move up as I close my mouth.

And then at the end /oʊn/.

So we have "on". 

"Own".

"Only".

So, yes. We're gonna use that long /o/ here.

So let's try those again.

On, own, only.

And now for a sentence: She only wants to be on her own when she is studying.

She only wants to be on her own when she is studying.

So, give it a try.

I know people are going  to notice the difference.

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Thanks so much, everyone. Have a great week!