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  • In this American English Pronunciation video, we're going to go over the reduction of YOUR.

  • Both YOU'RE the contraction and YOUR the pronoun sound great when reduced to 'yer' in a sentence.

  • So, we're keeping the Y consonant sound, but then we're reducing the vowel sound to the

  • schwa. Since it's followed by the R, we don't really need to think of the schwa as being

  • a separate sound. It's sort of taken over by the R, and it's just the er, er sound.

  • Just one sound. So, we have yy, er, yy, er, yer, yer. You'll notice also that the word

  • is very quick. It's going to be lower in pitch and flatter than other words in the sentence.

  • This is what happens to reduced words: yer, yer, yer. To make the Y sound, the tongue

  • tip is here, and the front part of the tongue is touching the roof of the mouth here, yy,

  • yy, pressing there. To make the R, the tongue will also touch the roof of the mouth, but

  • it's further back. So, rather than the front part of the tongue reaching here, it's the

  • middle part of the tongue that will reach here. The front part of the tongue won't be

  • touching anything for the R. Yer, yer. Notice also, we don't need much jaw drop for either

  • of these sounds: yer, yer.

  • Let's go over some examples.

  • What's your name? Yer, yer yer. Your name, your name. What's your name?

  • It's for your project. Yer, yer, your project. It's for your project.

  • Can I borrow your car? Yer, yer, your car, your car. Can I borrow your car?

  • You're doing great. Yer, yer, you're doing, you're doing great.

  • You're in the lead. Yer, yer, you're in the, you're in the, you're in the lead.

  • It's too bad you're not feeling well. Yer, yer, you're not, you're not. It's too bad

  • you're not feeling well.

  • Using this reduction in your speech, yer, yer, your speech, will help smooth out your

  • speech and provide some nice rhythmic contrast to the longer, stressed syllables in the sentence.

  • That's it, and thanks so much for using Rachel's English.

In this American English Pronunciation video, we're going to go over the reduction of YOUR.

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