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  • I'm going to focus on two consonant sounds in English.

  • The /f/ sound and the /h/ sound.

  • These are very important sounds in English, so I want you to be able to pronounce them

  • correctly.

  • Let's start with two example words.

  • The first example word is the word 'fat'.

  • Can you hear the /f/ sound?

  • 'fat' Now, the second word is 'hat'.

  • This time it's an /h/ sound, 'hat'.

  • 'fat' 'hat'

  • Can you hear the difference?

  • Well if you keep watching, we are going to practice together.

  • And I promise you by the end of this video, you will pronounce them correctly.

  • So keep watching.

  • Before we learn about these two consonant sounds the f /f/ sound and the /h/ sound in

  • English, you need to know about the I.P.A. spelling.

  • It's very important.

  • You can also watch me, and how I move my mouth, and of course always try to repeat after me.

  • I know you can make these sounds, guys, so let's do it together.

  • Now, let's first learn how to make the /f/ sound in English.

  • So it's an unvoiced sound.

  • You are not going to use your voice.

  • You're not going to feel any vibration in your throat.

  • And what you're going to do is put your teeth against your bottom lip,

  • and you're going to push out some air through your teeth and bottom lip, okay.

  • /f/ Please try and do it.

  • Repeat after me.

  • /f/ /f/

  • /f/ Let's practice with the word 'fat'.

  • Please repeat after me.

  • 'fat' 'fat'

  • 'fat' Good.

  • Let's now practice producing the sound /h/ in English.

  • So as you can see your mouth is wide open.

  • It's voiceless as well, so nono sound.

  • No vibration.

  • Mouth wide open and you're going to push out the air with your throat.

  • It has to come from down there, so… /h/

  • Please watch my mouth, try to repeat after me.

  • /h/ /h/

  • /h/ Let's practice with the word 'hat'.

  • Please repeat after me.

  • 'hat' 'hat'

  • 'hat' Good.

  • Let's now practice with minimal pairs; two words they sound very very much alike but

  • the sounds are actually different and they are very good for you to hear the difference

  • between the two sounds.

  • But first, let's practice the sounds themselves.

  • Please watch my mouth and repeat after me.

  • First the /f/ sound.

  • /f/ /f/

  • /f/ Now the /h/ sound.

  • /h/ /h/

  • /h/ Let's do the two sounds together.

  • Please repeat after me.

  • /f/ /h/

  • /f/ /h/

  • /f/ /h/

  • And now let's take our words.

  • Please repeat after me, guys.

  • 'fat' 'hat'

  • 'fat' 'hat'

  • 'fat' 'hat'

  • Good job.

  • Okay, guys.

  • Let's go through minimal pairs together.

  • Please watch how I move my mouth and repeat after me.

  • Let's get started.

  • faced haste

  • fad had

  • fail hail

  • fair hair

  • fall hall

  • fang hang

  • fare hare

  • farm harm

  • fart heart

  • fate hare

  • fear hear

  • fed head

  • fee he

  • feed heed

  • feel heel

  • fees he's

  • feet heat

  • fell hell

  • fence hence

  • fey hey

  • fight height

  • fill hill

  • fir her

  • fit hit

  • five hive

  • fizz his

  • foal whole

  • foam home

  • foe hoe

  • foes hoes

  • fog hog

  • force horse

  • found hound

  • four haw

  • fowl howl

  • funky hunky

  • funny honey

  • furl hurl

  • phase haze

  • phone hone

  • Great job, guys.

  • Let's now practice with sentences containing these consonant sounds.

  • The first sentence is: 'Please feel her fur heel.'

  • Please repeat after.

  • 'Please feel her fur heel.'

  • The second sentence: 'The whole foal has fair hair.'

  • Please repeat after me.

  • 'The whole foal has fair hair.'

  • And finally: 'He'd feed the hog in the fog.'

  • Please repeat.

  • 'He'd feed the hog in the fog.'

  • Very good.

  • Let's move on.

  • Let's now move on to listening practice.

  • I'm now going to show you two words.

  • I will say one of the two words, and I want you to listen very carefully and

  • to tell me if this word is, 'a)' or 'b)'

  • Let's get started.

  • Let's start with our first words.

  • You see you have word 'a' word 'b'.

  • Now which one do I say?

  • Listen.

  • 'hair' One more time.

  • 'hair' Was this 'a' or 'b'?

  • 'b', hair.

  • 'a' would be pronounced 'fair'.

  • Our next two words.

  • Listen to me, guys.

  • 'funny' 'funny'

  • It's 'a', 'funny'.

  • 'b' would be 'honey'.

  • 'horse' 'horse'

  • 'It's 'b', 'horse'.

  • 'a' is 'force'.

  • What about this one?

  • Listen.

  • 'hence' 'hence'

  • It's 'b' guys, 'hence'.

  • 'a' is fence.

  • 'fog' 'fog'

  • It's 'a', 'fog'.

  • 'b' would be 'hog'.

  • Listen to me.

  • 'fowl' 'fowl'

  • It's 'a', 'fowl'.

  • 'b' is 'howl'.

  • 'feet' 'feet'

  • 'a'?

  • 'b'?

  • What do you think?

  • It's 'a' guys, 'feet'.

  • 'b' is heat.

  • 'hear' 'hear'

  • It's 'b' guys, 'hear'.

  • 'a' would be pronounced 'fear'.

  • 'fall' 'fall'

  • It's 'a' guys, 'fall'.

  • 'b' is 'hall'.

  • And our last two words.

  • Now listen to me.

  • 'haste' 'haste'

  • It's 'b', 'haste'.

  • 'a' would be 'faced'.

  • Great job, guys.

  • I know you now understand the difference between this /f/ sound and this /h/ sound in English.

  • Of course it takes a lot more practice to be able to master these sounds but you can

  • do it.

  • So keep practicing, you will also train your ear to hear the differences between these

  • sound.

  • And obviously watch my other pronunciation videos.

  • I promise you they will help you improve your skills.

  • See you next time.

  • Thank you so much for watching, guys.

  • If you've liked it, show me your support, click 'like', subscribe to the channel,

  • put your comments below, and share this video.

  • See you.

I'm going to focus on two consonant sounds in English.

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