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  • Hello everyone Anna English here and

  • Little Baby English and today we are discussing five very simple

  • very common English words that many of you

  • mispronounce.

  • Before we get started

  • This video has been very kindly sponsored by Skillshare a learning platform that provides

  • thousands of different types of courses and we're going to be giving away lots of free subscriptions at the end of this lesson.

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  • so

  • Let's have a look at those

  • mispronounced words. Number one

  • the or

  • thee

  • This is the most common word in the English language

  • and even the most advanced English speakers will make the mistake of when to use the and when to use

  • thee. now bear in mind it is a TH so both versions have to be pronounced with the tongue between the teeth

  • always when you see a TH stick that tongue out

  • With this word we have THE or

  • the alternative THEE

  • We use THE when the following word begins with a consonant

  • sound, the

  • post-office, the television, the teacher,

  • the student, and

  • we use THEE when the following word begins with a vowel sound for example, the

  • orange, the astronaut, the engineer.

  • Okay, so try to bear that rule in mind and make sure you're using the correct version of this word.

  • Number two

  • Sure

  • Sure

  • It's pronounced exactly the same as this word

  • Shore

  • you have that SH beginning Shh and we have this O R sound in the middle or

  • or

  • Anna are you sure it's pronounced like that? I'm

  • Absolutely Sure

  • It's pronounced like that. So

  • practice making that big round vowel sound or

  • Not curling into the R and giving me a nice SH fricative at the beginning

  • Sure

  • Number three is the word of

  • of

  • what I often hear is this Vvvv

  • This voiced fricative sound

  • being reduced into an

  • unvoiced fricative sound, a fff

  • Sound so I hear off off

  • instead of of of

  • always make it nice and strong so a cup of tea

  • a cup of tea please, not a cup off tea

  • Piece off cake would be wrong. We'd have a piece of cake, a piece of cake

  • It doesn't have to be long and it doesn't have to be stressed. It just has to be voiced

  • vvvv, okay, so not breathy

  • Vvv and for those of you who struggle with that V sound make sure that your bottom lip is clearly touching your top

  • teeth

  • It was a day of adventure

  • She was a teacher of English, it was a piece of cake

  • Number four some

  • some

  • This has a brighter vowel sound than many of you use. I often hear some

  • Som it's a very subtle difference but to a native ear we will hear it

  • So a and o, this is the difference. We're looking for. We want a nice bright. A, o

  • It sounds very close to a, but don't go that far. Oh, it's like you're about to say up

  • Up. Um

  • some

  • That's the vowel sound we're looking for so you might use the same vowel sound in mum

  • some

  • mum

  • Mum gave me some. mum gave me some yummy food.

  • Mum some yum. mum gave me some yummy food

  • number five a very common word work

  • work

  • Now this sound is problematic for so many of my students at least

  • 90% of my students struggle with this sound and this particular vowel sound

  • Appears in many words that we often see like her girl

  • shirt world word

  • The trick to this long vowel sound is a relaxed tongue and almost a relaxed jaw as well

  • It's a very flat

  • relaxed vowel

  • Look how my mouth is doing nothing

  • My tongue stays completely relaxed I

  • Don't pronounce the letter R. I just make the sound

  • Worked

  • work

  • Okay, so try this sentence for me. I'll do some of the work

  • Sure

  • I'll do some of the work

  • Sure

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  • dear

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  • So there you go five commonly mispronounced words which you will no longer

  • mispronounce. If you liked it give it a thumb and don't forget to subscribe. See you soon.

Hello everyone Anna English here and

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