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Hey guys, it's Tom. Today we're going to be looking at my top ten most difficult words
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to pronounce in English.
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Welcome Eat Sleep Dreamers. Now why have I chosen these ten words? Well there are three
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reasons. The first reason, they are all high frequency. That means that they are used a
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lot in English and especially spoken English. Second reason, I've been a teacher for almost
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ten years and these are the words that I found my English learners have most difficulty with,
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Ok? And the third reason, you guys asked for these words, ok? I asked you on Facebook and
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Instagram which words you find difficult to pronounce and these are some of the words
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that you told me. Yes, there are hundreds of words I could have put in this video but
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I can only choose ten. So if you are ready, let's have a look at them.
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Our first word, comfortable. Now how many syllables does that have? Com-for-ta-ble four
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syllables but we don't need them all. In fact we can just get rid of that middle section,
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that OR , we don't need it. Now we have comfortable and where's the stress on this word? Comfortable.
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On the first syllable. 'These shoes are super comfortable'. Your turn. 'These shoes are
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super comfortable'.
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Number two, is a pair that are often confused walk and work. So often that I hear they are
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confused. Learners say 'I walk for Google', I walk for Google? I mean maybe you do walk
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for Google but you probably work for Google. Now the key here is all in the mouth, ok?
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We have to look at the mouth. Look at what the mouth does. Ok, the first word 'work'.
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Second word 'walk' 'work' 'walk'. Can you see what's happening there? Alright now sometimes
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with pronunciation you have to make an idiot of yourself so it's my job to make an idiot
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of myself. Here we go! Have a look at the lips. So we've got 'work' 'walk' 'work' 'walk'
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ok, can you see my mouth is going outwards for 'work' and forwards or closed for 'walk'
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'work' 'walk'. Let's try these practice sentences 'I work for Google'. Alright let's try this
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one 'I walk to school every day'. I've got a really silly tongue twister for you guys
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to practise this. Here we go. 'I walk to work, I don't work to walk'. Guys you are not singing
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it back to me. 'I walk to work, I don't work to walk'. You're not doing it, I'm on my own!
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Number three, 'restaurant'. Now again it's a long word but we don't need the middle part
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and all those sounds. All we need, two sounds, restaurant, ok? You got it. Restaurant. So
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'what's your favourite restaurant?
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Number four, clothes. This one is tricky! Ok, so let's look at how we can say it properly.
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There are two things we need to think about. First of all, is our mouth and second of all
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is our tongue. First of all our mouth. So our mouth is going forward, so clo and then
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back 'clothes'. So forward and narrow and then back and wide 'clothes'. Alright, now
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our tongue is going up and down 'clo' and then it touches the top of our teeth and comes
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back so 'clothes'. It's tricky, let's put it together 'clothes' that's not easy is it?
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Practise, practise, practise 'clothes'. Let's try a practice sentence 'How often do you
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buy new clothes?' Now Eat Sleep Dreamers, I've got a little cheat for you ok. If you
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cannot say 'clothes' properly. If you are just like 'I can't say it' then you can try
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saying 'close'. Now they are kind of similar in sound. When you put it into a sentence
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they sound kind of similar, let's try. 'I love your new close' which one did I say?
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'Close' or 'clothes'? It was 'close'. 'I love your new close'. But they are kind of similar
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so if you want to cheat just a little bit you can say 'close'. But don't tell anyone
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that I told you ok? It's our secret.
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Number five, 'island'. Now it's not that difficult to say but we do need to remember that 's'
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is silent, ok? We don't pronounce it. So it's just 'island'. Let's put it into a practice
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sentence 'The hotel is on the island'.
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Number six, 'dangerous'. Here are two sounds 'dangerous'. The stress is on the first syllable
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'dangerous'. Say it with me 'dangerous'.
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Number seven, 'analysis'. Now this is a noun and the important thing to know is where the
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stress of the word is. So it's on the second syllable 'analysis'. Now don't be confused
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by the verb which is 'to analyse' and the stress there is on the first syllable 'analyse'.
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So remember the noun 'analysis' on the second syllable and the verb 'analyse' is on the
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first syllable. Our practice sentence 'let's look at the analysis'.
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Number eight, 'vegetable'. It had to be there of course. Now this one, I've often heard
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mispronounced as veggie table I love veggie table it sounds brilliant but the real pronunciation
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is 'vegetable'. Ok, so that middle section, we throw it away, we don't need it 'vegetable'.
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Alright, let's put that into a practice sentence 'I love vegetables'.
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Number nine, is another pair of words 'tooth' and 'teeth'. 'Tooth' is one and 'teeth' more
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than one. Now the trick here is the /th/ sound at the end of the word. So the way I make
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it is I put my tongue on my top teeth and I blow out. So 'tooth' and at the end of the
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word 'tooth' you should feel air on your, on the back of your hand or the front of your
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hand 'tooth' 'teeth'. Ok, I want you to practise 'tooth' 'teeth'. Our practice sentence 'You've
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got really nice teeth'.
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And our final word is 'asked' not ask ed asked. This is a past tense regular verb, the -ed
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has a /t/ sound. Now I've done a whole video about the -ed endings, the pronunciation,
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if you want to check it out it's right there. When we put asked into a sentence we often
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don't pronounce the /k/ sound. Listen to this 'have you asked him yet?' The pronunciation
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there asked not asked and that's just because we are lazy and it's much easier to say it
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like that. So let's practise 'Have you asked him yet?' Eat Sleep Dreamers, that's it. I
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hope you've enjoyed it as much as I have. Take a few minutes to watch another English
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language video and until next time guys thank you so much. This is Tom, the English Hipster,
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saying goodbye.