A few weeks back I did a lesson on the word  city and it was a short and I got a really  

great question and then I actually heard  this mistake with a student in a class.  

And the word is city of course  which I did the short about.  

But the mistake is shitty and that  can be a really embarrassing mistake.

So a city is a large town and shitty means  worthless, um, a contemptible person or action,  

or covered in excrement. So you don't want to  confuse these words. Okay let's take a look  

at the words. Let's start with the endings  because they're both the same. We have the  

d. This is technically a flap t but I teach it as  a very fast d sound. So to say this sound you can  

just touch the same spot that you do for the d,  which is sort of the back of the top front teeth,  

if you want to get super fancy, you can  move that tongue a little further back  

on the roof of the mouth,  and just go for that fast  

d sound. Then add that long e. Smile.  Ttongue is nice and high and flat. d d d.

Now the difference. Here is the s in city  

and the s h in shitty. Can't believe I'm saying  this word so much um but I want you to avoid  

embarrassment, so i'll just keep  going. All right the sh is a sound  

one sound but it is spelled with two letters.  We do not say an s and an h. No. Iit is a shh.

You can see for the sound, my lips are rounded  and puckered, and air is moving out of my mouth.  

My tongue is behind my top  front teeth shh. It is flat  

and it is high up sh. It is not near the  front teeth, but it's pulled back a little bit  

shh. Okay, now for the s sound in city.  My tongue is a little more forward  

and you can see my mouth is sort of smiling.  When my tongue is more forward you have a couple  

of options. Your tongue can be flat or the tip  of your tongue can be pointed slightly down.

All right let's try those two together

Sssssss Shhh 

Sssssss shhh

For a lot of people just focusing on  the lips solves this whole problem.  

So if you're having trouble start there  first and then really think about the tongue.

All right let's put these all together.

d c d city city city

I'm smiling for that whole word.

Now shih d shih dee

shitty shitty shitty

I like to think that my face looks kind  of uh and that might be a little shitty.  

If that helps you we're gonna go with it.  All right let's try them together again:

city shitty city shitty city  city city shitty shitty shitty

And now for a sentence:

I think the city is beautiful even  though some people told me it was shitty.

So give it a try. I know people are going to  notice the difference. If you found this helpful,  

please share us with your friends,  and give us a like. If you need help,  

check us out on Tarle speech.

Thanks so much everyone have a great week!