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  • In this American English pronunciation video, we're going to discuss how to pronounce the

  • little word 'or'.

  • The word 'or' is written in IPA with the 'aw'

  • as in 'law' sound followed by the R consonant sound. But I find actually, the vowel sound

  • is more closed than that--- o, o, o, or, or. However, this word will generally be unstressed

  • in a sentence. It is a conjunction. That is a function word. And function words will

  • normally be unstressed. In this case, it will be pronounced er, er. Very short, very low

  • in pitch, the schwa-R sound: er, er, er. Let's look at some examples. He'll come at

  • 6 or 6:30, 6 or, er, er, 6 or, 6 or 6:30. Now, the thing to note, when you reduce a

  • word, you must link it to the words that come around. You don't want to say 6---or---6:30.

  • Six-er, six-er. 6 or 6:30. Very connected, very smooth. He'll come at 6 or 6:30.

  • Do you want to leave now, or wait a while? Er-wait, er-wait. Did you notice? I did put

  • a gap before the word 'or'. That's ok. Just make sure that it links to either the word

  • before or the word after. Do you want to leave now, or wait a while? I don't eat beef or

  • chicken. Beef-er, beef-er, beef or chicken, beef or chicken. I don't eat beef or chicken.

  • Come here, or you'll be sorry! Er-you'll, er-you'll, or you'll be sorry. Come here,

  • or you'll be sorry. Reduction and linking are important concepts

  • in American English. Saying 'or' this way will help to smooth out your language, and

  • will help you to be understood.

  • That's it, and thanks so much for using Rachel's English.

In this American English pronunciation video, we're going to discuss how to pronounce the

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