It's another month.

It's time for another.

Ask E T.

J.

Let's get straight into those questions, so I'd expect most of you know this by now.

But every month I do something called Ask E T.

J.

Where I post a picture on instagram.

Everybody comments on it, asking me questions.

Toe answer in a video on Duh.

Of course, we've done that this week, and now I have lots of great questions.

Toe answer.

I don't want to waste any time, so we're going to get straight into it right away.

Let's start with question number one.

This is a really simple question, but it's actually really, really important.

How do we pronounce on do this Now I know why I've been asked this because when natives talk fast, sometimes words become relaxed.

We have this thing in English called function words.

I talk about them, Aled, the time in my pronunciation course, and I talk about them all the time.

On this channel, Words like Andi can have a week relaxed form.

So instead of saying Hi, my name's Elliott.

This is my friend John on.

This is my friend John.

I would probably say Hi, My name's Elliott and this is my friend John and this and this.

So my name's Elliott and this is my friend John.

What's happening is Andi is becoming a new and so what's happening is we're missing the at the beginning of and and it's becoming a Schwann sounder sound.

We're also missing the d a.

The end of Andi.

So it's becoming on this on this.

The D is dropping to make it easier to pronounce the T h at the beginning of this.

But also, we're dropping the app at the beginning because usually when words have a weak form, a way that we say them faster nine times out of 10 that way will be with the vowel being changed to a Schwab sound.

The reason why is because the Schwab sound is the easiest sound to make tongue just relaxed in the middle of the mouth.

And this is my friend John.

So one more time.

Hi, I'm Elliot on This is my friend John.

I guess that would be relevant if I actually had any friends.

Another great question I had was Elliot.

How do I pronounce this word?

So the reason why I was asked.

This is because the stress placement can be different.

Generally, we have a British way of pronouncing it, stressing it on a particular syllable on an American way of pronouncing it with a stress on a different syllable.

So let me just tell you the British form, because I don't want to damage your ears with my dreadful American accent.

So it would be advertisement advertisement.

The stress is on vour.

We have advertise Mont.

The stress primary stress is on vour advertisement.

So take that tone up slightly on vour tone rises.

It becomes a bit more pronounced and just a bit stronger on that particular syllable.

And there you go.

That's how we stress syllable advertisement.

This word is also great for learning some of the trickiest sounds in English.

We have the Schwab sound, which happens twice.

Blood ver tous mint hunt.

So it's happening twice.

The Schwab sound on Remember, the Schwab is really important to practice.

We also have the er sound in this word, which is one of the most difficult sounds for non natives to pronounce on the vertical on.

Then the vowel sound tous This it sound is another one of the most difficult sounds for non natives to pronounce.

So it's in fact, a great word to just break down and practice all of the sounds in it.

Give it a try, do it slowly and then get faster.

But in response to your question advertisement, the stresses on vour Americans do it differently.

They pronounce it differently, but we're British English channel.

So we're focusing on British, English, southern, British, English.

If we have to be precise, my British, English, if we have to be even more precise for the really sensitive people that watch this video and get offended difference between very Andi.

Very so.

The main difference is, of course, the two vowel sounds.

We have the air on the air.

Okay, there, there, That there.

So firstly, very.

It just has the X sound very also has the ETS sound, but it has another vowel attached to it, which is a Schwab sound.

So in very it's there, very.

We have air air, so imagine you're doing an a sound and then you cut it out with a Schwab air Watch my mouth air.

Very, very so very short.

Vow fast.

Very compared to vary.

Another thing to know is this sound in vary the air and joining together.

This is called a diff thought.

We have a few of these in English and they are two vowels combined together and they create one vowel air.

Is this one Onda?

Uh, it's really important that we understand the length off a diff thong is kind of in between short vowel and a long vowel.

So make sure you're kind of making this sound a little bit longer than very Listen to me.

And the length Very, very, very quick, very bit longer.

Right.

There you go.

Very, very.

On a more personal question.

Elliot, are you learning any languages At the moment?

My problem in life is I always start learning a language and then I get bored and give up, probably because I work so much that I'm always working and I don't really have much time to learn languages.

I'm trying to learn Spanish.

I'm not very diligent with it, but I'm hoping that I can be in the future.

I'm just gonna keep trying to work hard.

The reason why I'm learning Spanish is because I go to Spain a lot It's very country that's very close to the UK, so it's easy to travel there.

Andi Yeah, I spend lots of time there, so Ah, yeah, hopefully, one day I'll be able to have a Spanish conversation with someone, but I can speak a bit of French.

That's probably my best language.

I hope in the future that I could be fluent in, uh, everything that would be useful, especially for my job.

So this question was the most hearted, the most loved on my instagram.

Somebody who asked this was obviously very popular with from asking this question.

And it was, Can a non native who's learned the American accent in school changed their accent to a British accent on?

The truth is, yes, you can, but it depends on you.

It depends how hard you work.

It depends how much you want it.

It depends on just about everything.

Um, we can change an accent.

I could start learning the American accent doing muscle memory training on.

Eventually I would start teaching my muscles to change.

It takes a long time, but with the right training, for example, if you join my course, it can happen faster.

You know you're never going to be 100% but we can get you into the 90 to 95% area eventually after some time off repetition Practice muscle memory training.

It's a process of elimination.

So at the moment you're pronouncing sounds this way the American Slash, non native way.

We need to learn what sounds are very obviously American, what things you're doing, which are very obviously American, for example, pronouncing her at the end of words very American thing.

Pronouncing the AAT sound as are like ah LA rather than a lot learning to remove those things and replace them with something new.

And with repetition and time, it will eventually kind of change.

Remember that an accent is making sounds naturally without thinking about making the sounds.

You just maketh, um, onda, uh, to start doing that.

It requires lots of repetition and practice on.

I love this question.

Elliot.

How can I sound more friendly with my intonation?

It's quite a simple answer, actually, and is one of the first things I teach my students who joined my course because lots of my students talk with what we call a falling tone a lot of the time, or just a monotone, where the tone doesn't really go up or down.

This in English in native English isn't particularly friendly.

I mean, it is there's nothing bad about it, but it can have quite a boring kind of flat effect.

Now if we start raising the tone a bit more, you heard me.

Then if we start raising the tone, I'm not just saying if we start raising the tone, I'm saying, If we start raising the tone a bit more, what's going to happen is we're going to create more of an approachable, friendly sound to our voice.

So my answer to you really is just start raising your tone a bit more.

Be more playful with your intonation.

And there's a particular tone called the up down tone.

None of my students really do this.

When they first joined my course on the sound, essentially, all the tone is essentially Mm.

So it's up, down on this is used a lot to show emotion, so whether it's positive or negative emotion, for example, if somebody said to me, Hi, Elliot, You all right?

I could say, Yeah, I'm great.

So, yeah, what's happening there is.

I'm raising the tone up in the word and then I'm bringing it back down.

I'm essentially singing a little bit on that word.

Yeah, yeah.

What that does is it creates a friendly, happy atmosphere.

In my opinion, happiness is friendliness.

So if you want to sound more friendly, try and sound mawr happy to sound more happy, raise your tone a bit mawr or do the up down kind of bouncy tones.

The more we do this, the more approachable, happy and friendly we will sound.

And that's it.

Those are my answers to your questions this month.

Remember, I'll be doing another Ask E.

D.

J next month in August, so make sure you hit the subscribe button on Do Follow Me on Instagram If you want to send me mawr questions, don't forget I have a podcast If you need some listening practice.

And of course, if you want me to be your teacher and you want me to help you directly, then you conjoined my pronunciation course at e.

T.

J english dot com links in the description box below on.

We can start changing your accent right now faster than it would be if you were learning alone.

Especially so thanks very much for watching guys.

It's been a pleasure as always on that.

I will see you next time.

Bye.