the word America.

This week's Word of the Week is America. 'America' is a four-syllable word with stress on the

second syllable. America. The first syllable is simply the schwa sound, uh. Then we have

the stressed syllable, -mer-. It begins with the M consonant where the lips are together.

Then we have the EH as in BED vowel. The jaw has to drop for that, -mer-. Then the R consonant.

So, the tongue will pull back and up, and the jaw will close as the tongue reaches towards

the roof of the mouth, -mer-rr-. Then we have the IH as in SIT vowel, Ameri-. And finally,

the K consonant sound and schwa for the last syllable. The tongue will reach up here, kk,

kk, and the back part of the tongue will touch the soft palate and release to make the K

sound. America, America. She visited America last May.

That's it, your Word of the Week. Try it out yourself. Make up a sentence with the

word, record it, and post it as a video response to this video on YouTube. I can't wait to

watch it.

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