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  • Hi there it's jennifer from Tarle  Speech with your pronunciation question.

  • We have four words today: insect or a bug 

  • incest which is a crime of sexual  relations between relatives 

  • innocent not guilty 

  • and innocent purity

  • So um let's take a look at our words now as  you can imagine if you say some of these words  

  • incorrectly it could be a very embarrassing  mistake; so let's start all of these words  

  • are going to start with the same syllable the  in in in and to say this sound this beginning  

  • part of the word correctly you are going to  think about smiling and here's a tip for you  

  • that have trouble saying this short i sound say  an e and then just relax your lips a little bit

  • ih ih ih so an e ih e ih

  • so in

  • then you're going to touch the tip of your  tongue to the back of your top front teeth: in in

  • All right so we all have that let's move on to  these bottom two words because we have this nice  

  • short schwa sound as a syllable that's an unstressed uh sound 

  • your mouth is relaxed tongue is just hanging out  in the middle of your mouth it's very short very  

  • soft and lower and pitch in a inna

  • Then for innocent we are going  to end with the word sent s e  

  • n t sent sent sent

  • So for the s the tip of your tongue either  be pointing down or just behind your top  

  • teeth and the air is going to continue out we're  going to add that short eh sound and to do that  

  • your mouth is open you're going  to be able to see the tip of your  

  • tongue between your top and your bottom  teeth but your mouth is not very open

  • and then you're going to move to that n

  • air is coming out of your nose  

  • the tip of your tongue is behind  your top front teeth that is touching 

  • then you're going to pull  the tongue down for that

  • sent sent sent in a sent  innocent innocent innocent

  • some of you might be saying I thinkheard you say a schwa there actually I did!  

  • I made a little bit of a mistake. I  am teaching this as sent because I  

  • think that's a little bit easier to remember  sometimes when you're thinking about a word;  

  • but ultimately what i'm doing is making  this last vowel sound short and unstressed,  

  • and so when I do that, oftentimesthat will sound like a short uh.

  • So whether you say a short  e, a short i, or short u  

  • does not matter as long as it's extra  short, extra soft, and it is lower in pitch.

  • Now for sense what we're going to do is say this  whole thing again, but instead of touching the  

  • teeth for the ending, you're going to let your  tongue either be right behind your top teeth,  

  • or pointed down a little bit, and  the air is going to continue out,

  • in a sense innocence innocence innocence

  • Now for insect again we're going to start with the  in then we are going to add sect. To do this start  

  • with the s sss, add that e sound, and then the k:  tip of the tongue is down towards the bottom of  

  • the mouth and the back of the tongue is pulled  very high up. Then touch the teeth for the t t

  • sect sect insect insect insect

  • For incest I think what happens here is  people let the air move out of their mouth.  

  • That is the mistake for that s and then they  stop it for the t so we have incest incest

  • So let's give these all a try:

  • insect insect insect incest incest incest 

  • innocent innocent innocent and innocence in a sense innocence

  • So i'm actually going to write on here so  I don't get any complaints from all of you  

  • that you can actually say sunt or suns at the  end with that short u sound. That's totally fine.  

  • But it might be easier for you to think  of the short e. And that's fine as well  

  • as long as it is short enough. And again you've  been watching my videos you know I'm all about  

  • it's all about being clear, you don't have  to be perfect, just be better understood.

  • So one more time: insect insect insect 

  • incest incest incest 

  • innocent innocent innocent and innocence innocence innocence

  • So give it a try people are going  to notice the difference - if you  

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  • Thanks so much everyone!

Hi there it's jennifer from Tarle  Speech with your pronunciation question.

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