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  • In this American English pronunciation video,

  • we're going to go over how to pronounce the Y consonant.

  • To make the Y sound, the jaw drops a little bit.

  • Yy--

  • The lips may be relaxed, or they may begin to take the position of the next sound.

  • The tongue tip is down, lightly touching the back of the bottom front teeth.

  • The middle part of the tongue lifts and touches the roof of the mouth.

  • It pushes forward against the roof of the mouth before pulling away.

  • As we push the tongue forward on the roof of the mouth,

  • we close the vocal cords to get this sound. Yy-- yy--

  • which we add to the sound yyi-- yyi--

  • We release them the same time we release the tongue.

  • Relaxed jaw drop and the lips are relaxed.

  • The tongue tip is down while the middle of the tongue presses forward against the roof of the mouth.

  • The word 'yes'. The tongue tip is down,

  • while the middle of the tongue presses forward against the roof of the mouth.

  • The tongue releases into the EH as in Bed vowel.

  • The word 'youth'.

  • Notice how the lips begin to round for the next sound.

  • The OO as in Boo vowel.

  • Yell

  • The tongue tip is down while the middle of the tongue presses forward against the roof of the mouth.

  • Releasing into the EH as in Bed vowel.

  • This sound is most common at the beginning of words.

  • It doesn't occur at the end of any words

  • though the letter Y does.

  • The Y sound. Yes.

  • Youth

  • Yell

  • Example words. Repeat with me.

  • Yeah. Yy-- yeah.

  • Unusual. Yy-- unusual.

  • Senior. Yy-- senior.

  • You. Yy-- you.

  • Yesterday. Yy-- yesterday.

  • Yellow. Yy-- yellow.

  • This video is one of 36 in a new series, The Sounds of American English.

  • Videos in this set will be released here on YouTube twice a month,

  • first and third Thursdays, in 2016 and 2017.

  • But the whole set can be all yours right now.

  • The real value of these videos is watching them as a set,

  • as a whole, to give your mind the time to take it all in and get the bigger picture.

  • Most of the materials you'll find elsewhere just teach the sounds on their own in isolation.

  • It's a mistake to learn them this way.

  • We learn the sounds to speak words and sentences, not just sounds.

  • Move closer to fluency in spoken English.

  • Buy the video set today!

  • Visit rachelsenglish.com/sounds

  • Available as a DVD or digital download.

In this American English pronunciation video,

Subtitles and vocabulary

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