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  • Buh-clue.

  • Hi.

  • I'm Ronnie.

  • I have something that...

  • Oh my god, this is amazing.

  • Honestly, this lesson will change your life.

  • It changed my life when my good friend, Leaf, told me about this.

  • Leaf, thank you; grammar god, you are pronunciation god - Leaf.

  • Awesome.

  • So, I've been trying to figure this out for ages, years, maybe 100 years because I'm a

  • vampire, and I got it.

  • Thank you.

  • Are you confused about the pronunciation of vowels in English?

  • So, for example, we have a long vowel sound, and a long vowel sound means that the vowel

  • sounds like its alphabet name.

  • So, for example: "a".

  • But in English, we also have: "aw" and "a".

  • Different ways to pronounce the vowels.

  • One of them is a long vowel sound, so "a" is pronounced like "a".

  • Then we also have a short vowel sound where "a" is going to be pronounced like: "ah".

  • And how do you know when you read a new word to say it like "a" or "ah"?

  • I have the answer.

  • Oh, it's amazing.

  • I...

  • Okay, I get really excited about things a little bit too much; but this, I'm just super

  • excited about it.

  • And I want to teach you this - and, geez, it's going to change the way that you read

  • things, the way that you learn English.

  • So, give me some money or something.

  • Just, enjoy.

  • Listen.

  • It's amazing.

  • So, we have some guidelines.

  • Now, I want to make perfectly clear that people like to say "grammar rules", and Ronnie hates

  • rules.

  • I'm Ronnie.

  • I do not like rules because they're made to be broken; and in English, there's always

  • exceptions to rules.

  • So, you study a rule and you learn it, and then you go: "Oh", but no - sorry; that's

  • an exception.

  • And then you say: "Why?"

  • Maybe you ask someone, maybe you ask your teacher: "Teacher, why?" and the teacher goes:

  • "I don't know."

  • So, please think of these as only guidelines; life-changing guidelines, though.

  • Okay?

  • I'm telling you.

  • So, we have words that have two vowels.

  • Okay?

  • So: "a", "e", "i", "o", "u", and sometimes "y" are vowels.

  • But this is our guideline: If in the word you have two vowels, the first...

  • Oh, I'm sorry.

  • The first vowel sound...

  • The first vowel in the word is going to sound like its alphabet name or it's going to sound

  • like a long vowel sound.

  • The second vowel, it's silent; we don't even say the second vowel.

  • Crazy.

  • So, in English, if there's an "e" at the end of the word - we don't say it.

  • In all of the other languages of the world, we say all the vowels; but English, oh no.

  • The "e" is silent; we don't say that.

  • So, if you have two vowels in the word, for example: "a" and "e", we're going to say the

  • first vowel like it sounds like in the alphabet, so "a".

  • We're going to say: "ba", and we do not say: "bak-e"; we say "bake".

  • So, the first vowel is going to sound like the alphabet: "bake".

  • What about this one?

  • We don't say: "fah-me", like "ah"; we say: "fame".

  • And, again, we don't say the last vowel in the word.

  • So, this works with two-vowel words.

  • The "a" we pronounce like an "a", and the "e" or the second vowel is silent.

  • One more time the rule; it's life-changing.

  • The first vowel sounds like its alphabet name, the second vowel is silent; we don't say it.

  • Let's try this again.

  • So, this is "a".

  • The next letter.

  • What's this vowel sound or what's this sound in the English alphabet?

  • "A", "e".

  • So, we say: "these".

  • We don't say: "the-se", "the-se".

  • "Look at the-se.

  • Look at these."

  • So, again, we're going to say the "e" like an "e", and the second "e" is silent.

  • This is amazing.

  • Woo-hoo.

  • This word.

  • So, you look: "dre-am".

  • "I had an amazing dre-am last night; I was flying."

  • But it's actually just a dream.

  • So, one vowel we're going to say "e", the second vowel is silent.

  • So, we don't say: "dre-am"; we say: "dream".

  • "I had a dream."

  • Did you have a dream last night or now?

  • Are you imagining this?

  • No.

  • No, no, no.

  • This is real.

  • Get back into this.

  • It's amazing.

  • Let's see with this letter.

  • What letter is this?

  • Now, this is hard for you guys because in your languages maybe this is "uh" and this

  • is "e", but in English, this is "i".

  • So, watch this trick.

  • Put an eye-woo-hoo-on your "i".

  • So, this is the pronunciation of the letter "i".

  • So, this word is "pie".

  • We don't say: "pi-e".

  • "I'd like some pi-e, please."

  • This word is "ice"; we don't say: "ic-e" or "ec-e".

  • Okay?

  • So, again, we're going to say the "i" like an eye, and the "e" is silent.

  • "Pie", "ice".

  • Well, this is making sense.

  • I wonder who made this guideline.

  • Why didn't they tell me before?

  • This word: "drone".

  • Do you know what a drone is?

  • Do you know what pie is?

  • It's delicious.

  • But a drone is something that...

  • Like, a remote control aircraft that you can make fly and find aliens.

  • What?

  • If you don't know what a drone is, Google it, because I'm not Google.

  • So...

  • Or Yahoo, whatever.

  • A drone, we're going to say the "o" sound.

  • "O".

  • So, we're going to say: "drone"; not "drune", not...

  • Again, we're going to pronounce this like an "o"; we're going to say: "drone".

  • What about this word?

  • This is confusing English.

  • "Soap" and "soup" Hmm.

  • Again, these are guidelines.

  • So, "soap", we don't say: "so-ap".

  • "I used some so-ap yesterday.

  • It was delicious."

  • We say: "soap".

  • So, we don't even say the "e" because the second vowel is silent.

  • We only say the first vowel.

  • It doesn't have to be an "e" at the end; if there's two vowels together, we're going to

  • say the first one here and we're not going to say the second one.

  • Damn, this is great.

  • Great content, Ronnie.

  • The next one, oo, so cute.

  • Eee.

  • "Cute", again, "u", "u", "u'.

  • You, you're cute.

  • So, "cute" is "c-u-t-e", so we say: "cute".

  • What's this word?

  • This is a girl's name, it's "Sue".

  • It's also a verb.

  • So, we say: "u".

  • "Sue" and "cute".

  • Again, we're not going to say the "e" at the end of the word.

  • Are you getting this?

  • This is fun, this is easy; I love this.

  • Now, English just became easier for me; and I can imagine you, too, I hope.

  • So, let's go to the second one.

  • So, remember: If in one word you have two vowels together or two vowels, the first one

  • is going to sound like its alphabet name and the second one-shh-is silent; we don't say

  • it.

  • Okay?

  • If we have one vowel...

  • So, if we have a word that only has one vowel, then our game is a little bit different.

  • And, again, this is a guideline; not a rule.

  • The vowel sounds like a relative.

  • Now, not your aunt or your uncle.

  • A relative means, as I said, the short vowel sound.

  • So, instead of having "a", it's "ah".

  • So, we don't say: "hayd"; we say: "had", because there's one vowel - it's going to be the short

  • vowel.

  • We don't say: "jaym"; we say...

  • Oh, hi, James.

  • We don't say: "jaym"; we say: "jam".

  • So, these vowels are "ah"; not "a" because there's no vowel...

  • There's no two vowels; there's one.

  • The next one: "I'm going to go to bed.

  • I'm not going to go to bead", but I'm going to go to "bed".

  • If we said it like this, it would be "bead" and this would be "beand", which sounds like

  • I'm from New Zealand now.

  • So "uh": "bed"; "uh": "bend".

  • There's only one vowel, so you're going to say it like a short vowel - "bed", "bend".

  • Next one, it's a man and it's "him" - "uh", "uh".

  • This word: "pin", "pin".

  • "I have pins.

  • I have safety pins as a bracelet."

  • Don't steal my idea.

  • "Him", "uh"; and "pin", "uh".

  • We don't say...

  • Oh, I can't even say this: "he-, hime.

  • Hime.

  • Hime.

  • Did you see hime?

  • This pine is amazing."

  • So, we say: "him" and "pin".

  • In this letter, "o", if it's said like the alphabet, it's "o"; but when it's like this,

  • it's "aw".

  • "Aw".

  • So it more sounds like this.

  • "Aw".

  • Some people...

  • If you're cute-oo, oo, ute-if you say: "Aw, you're cute."

  • So, this word is: "hot", this "aw" sound and this is "snot".

  • Do you know what "snot" means?

  • It's one of my favourite words.

  • "Snot" is something that comes out of your nose if you have a cold, with liquid, like

  • nose water.

  • We don't say "nose water" in English; we call it "snot".

  • Yup.

  • So, snot-woo-hoo-mucous - we don't say: "snowt"; we say: "snot", like the word "not".

  • We don't say: "sume"; we say "uh": "some".

  • So, we don't use the "u"; we use "uh".

  • And we don't get on the "baws"; we get on the "bus".

  • So we have "some" and "bus".

  • Do you understand this?

  • I hope so.

  • I think the most difficult one is the two-vowel guideline - that one has been plaguing me

  • for years.

  • I am teaching you English, but I'm not te-aching you English.

  • I'm only teaching you.

  • So, if you'd like to grab a cup of tea and review this, I promise it will make your pronunciation

  • of English words, when you're reading new words, like a breeze, which means very, very

  • easy.

  • And, again, thanks to Leaf.

  • Wow.

  • And thanks to everyone out there for watching.

  • I'm Ronnie, and I will te-ach you soon.

  • No, I mean teach.

  • Bye.

Buh-clue.

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