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  • In this American English pronunciation video, we're going to go over how to say 'I have

  • a cold'.

  • I'm not in my normal recording space, as I'm sure you can see. And that's because I'm not

  • feeling well. I can't talk for very long, I can't record a bunch of videos. I have a

  • cold. Let's go over that phrase. I have a, I have a, I have a cold. 'I' and 'cold' are

  • the most stressed syllables there. So, the structure is DA-da-da-DA. I have a cold. We

  • begin with the AI as in BUY diphthong. You do need to drop your jaw for the first sound

  • of that diphthong. I, I, I have a, I have a.

  • Are you noticing? I'm dropping the H in 'have'. This is a pretty common habit. We do this

  • with words like 'have', 'had', 'his', 'her'. I have a [3x]. I have a cold, I have a stomach

  • ache, I have a headache. Dropping the H in 'have' in all of those phrases.

  • So, I am keeping the AA as in BAT vowel and the V sound, I have [3x]. I have a. Adding

  • on a schwa now to make the article 'a'. Notice that the V sound of 'have' is linking right

  • into the schwa. I have a, I have a, I have a. There's no break between any of those words.

  • And finally, 'cold'. Some of my students have problems with this word. It's hard for them

  • to make the difference between 'cold' and 'code'. So, let's talk about it. First, we

  • have the K consonant sound where the tongue tip is down and the back part of the tongue

  • reaches up to touch the soft palate. Kk, kk. For the word 'code', we go straight into the

  • OH as in NO diphthong. Jaw drops, and the lips round for the second half. Code. That

  • means the whole sound is up here in the front of the mouth. Now, for the word 'cold', we

  • have the OH diphthong, but it's a little different because of the Dark L. I do drop my jaw for

  • the beginning of the diphthong, co--l. But rather than finishing the diphthong with a

  • lot of lip rounding, I go straight to the Dark sound of the Dark L, where the back part

  • of my tongue pulls back. So the tongue tip stays forward, col-, but the back part of

  • the tongue stretches back. Ll, ll. Collllld. And to end, the front of the tongue goes up

  • to the roof of the mouth and releases for the D. Cold, cold.

  • So the difference between 'code' and 'cold' is the Dark L. 'Code', the whole thing is

  • up here. Collll, cold, some of the sound is back here for the dark L. Code, cold [2x].

  • I have a cold.

  • Unfortunately, you're probably going to need to say this at least once a year, so I hope

  • this video helps.

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

In this American English pronunciation video, we're going to go over how to say 'I have

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