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  • Today were studying words that are difficult in English because of the sound combinations.

  • Don’t worry, theyre not just difficult for non-native speakers.

  • They can be difficult for native speakers too.

  • So, and I also struggle with, and there’s no synonym for this one: rural.

  • Rural. I get questions about that.

  • R-U-R-A-L. It’s very difficult. Rural.

  • Now, I’m noticing a pattern. Withregularlyandrural’, I think youre having issues with R’s and L’s maybe.

  • I have always struggled with the R.

  • And I don’t know why. Can you help me?

  • I can.

  • Rural?

  • Yeah, that’s a tough word.

  • Were going to go over it, break it down, make it easier to pronounce, along with several other difficult words.

  • And yes well study the mouth movements of these tricky sound combinations

  • with up close, slow motion shots.

  • Craig Melvin is a broadcaster for NBC and he said rural is a tricky word, he also said regularly.

  • R’s and Ls’s.

  • These are sounds youre going to be seeing a lot of in this video.

  • In fact, each word in this video has both sounds.

  • Regularly

  • Regularly

  • Part of what we can do to make this word easier is focus on stress.

  • The first syllable is stressed.

  • Re-.

  • For the first R, you need a lot of lip rounding.

  • Re-.

  • Let’s see that up close.

  • Regularly

  • Can you believe how much the lips round for a beginning R?

  • The tip of the tongue is pulled back and up a little bit inside the mouth, rrr.

  • Re--

  • Then the jaw drops and we have the EH vowel in the stressed syllable.

  • Quite a bit of jaw drop.

  • The tongue tip is down and the middle part of the tongue lifts up.

  • This is a lot more jaw drop than well get in the rest of the word with the unstressed syllables.

  • Here we see the tongue move a little bit.

  • This is at the back of the tongue as the back lifts.

  • Reg--

  • The back of the tongue goes up to touch for the G: ggg---

  • It's touches the soft palate.

  • Reg, reg.

  • Regularly.

  • Now we have three unstressed syllables.

  • Regularly.

  • Regularly.

  • Youll see that the lips don’t round nearly as much for this second R

  • because it doesn’t begin a stressed syllable.

  • The lip position is more relaxed.

  • Simplifying your mouth movements and mouth positions

  • in unstressed syllables will help you sound more natural when speaking,

  • it will help you focus on stress, and I think it will make these difficult words easier to say.

  • Let’s look at the mouth for the rest of this word.

  • Regu--

  • Y sound, schwa as the mouth moves into position for the L.

  • This is a light L because it comes before the vowel or diphthong in the syllables.

  • The Y sound is made with the back of the tongue on the roof of the mouth.

  • Yy--- yy--

  • It’s up there for the G, it slides forward as it comes down.

  • Regu-, regu-. Regularly.

  • Regul--

  • The light L can be made two different ways, with the tongue here,

  • pressing up on the bottom of the top front teeth, or inside the mouth, pressing up on the roof of the mouth.

  • Next we have the schwa-R.

  • The R absorbs the schwa, so you don’t need to try to make a separate sound.

  • It's just R: Reg-u-lar--rrrr--

  • Right from L to R.

  • Youll be able to see the tip of the tongue pull back and up for the R.

  • So here’s the R.

  • See how the lip position is different from the beginning R?

  • Much more relaxed.

  • Let’s compare the two.

  • Beginning R, much more rounded.

  • R ending a syllable, much more relaxed.

  • The tongue tip still pulls back and up though.

  • Regularly.

  • Now we move into another Light L, and again the tongue is pushing up against the bottom of the top front teeth.

  • Then the tongue tip will go back into the mouth, behind the front bottom teeth, for the EE vowel: Ly--

  • The front part of the tongue is arching towards the roof of the mouth.

  • Let’s watch that word a few times slowly.

  • Regularly.

  • Regularly.

  • Regularly.

  • When youre practicing a longer word like this, it does help to break it up

  • and practice it just the stressed syllables and just the unstressed syllables.

  • Reg-ularly. Reg-ularly.

  • It also helps to practice it slowed down.

  • Regularly. Regularly.

  • That’s something we do a lot of in my online school Rachel’s English Academy.

  • If you can’t get it at regular pace, slow it down,

  • work out the movements, make that comfortable before trying it again quickly.

  • This feels like a lot of work, but youre not going to have to do this for every word,

  • just those words or phrases that are especially tricky for you.

  • So now youll hear it, youll see it three times, then a fourth time with no sound,

  • you say it that fourth time, in slow motion.

  • Regularly.

  • Regularly.

  • Regularly.

  • Now let’s tackle Rural.

  • Rural.

  • Beginning R, that’s going to be a really tight circle of the lips

  • with the tip of the tongue pulled back and up.

  • Rr-- Rural. Rr--

  • Yes indeed, a tight circle for the lips.

  • Wait.

  • Before we go further with that, I have to show you a clip from 30 Rock,

  • the pronunciation of the wordruralwas actually a joke for their entire episode.

  • Oh, this isn't for TGS. It's for my movie. The rural juror has a limited release next week.

  • Oh, congratulations! I didn't know they had a release date for the rur-- for that movie.

  • Rural juror.

  • Basically that phrase is almost entirely an R sound.

  • Let’s get back to the word.

  • The first syllable is stressed, it starts with the R sound.

  • now the next sound is tricky because it’s followed by an R in the same syllable.

  • The vowel is the vowel in book, cook, push, uh.

  • UH.

  • But the R that follows it does change it.

  • Youll hear a couple of different pronunciations of this word,

  • but the most common is to make this an R vowel,

  • Rur-al.

  • Rural.

  • Let’s look at it.

  • from the tight circle for the beginning R, the lips relax a bit for the R vowel.

  • Lips are still flared though.

  • The tongue has relaxed position just a bit.

  • The tongue isn’t quite as close to the roof of the mouth.

  • Now there is a little re-emphasis of the R

  • as the tongue does go back up a little closer to the roof of the mouth again.

  • Rrruuu--- rruu---

  • I totally get why this word is so frustrating to practice.

  • Working on it will help you improve your R sound.

  • Because you can’t do this word without an American R.

  • Ruuur-- so I start with an R, then I let the tongue lower just a bit, and then I bring it back up again.

  • Rrruuu-- rural-- rural.

  • Then we have the second, unstressed syllable.

  • Youll see the lips relax.

  • You can’t see the tongue, but the tip is coming back down behind the bottom front teeth.

  • What? This is an L.

  • Inregularly’, we saw that tongue tip came here, ll.

  • But that was a light L. This is a dark L.

  • It comes after the vowel in the syllable.

  • The Dark L is made with the back of the tongue and the tongue tip down relaxed.

  • Watch.

  • Rural.

  • You will not see a tongue position like what we saw onregularlywith the Light L.

  • No tongue tip visible.

  • So you go straight from the R to the dark sound.

  • Rruuurraal. Uhl.

  • L is a syllabic consonant.

  • It absorbs the schwa. You don’t need to try to make that sound.

  • Rural. Uhl.

  • Just make that dark sound, tongue tip down, and the dark sound made with the back of the tongue.

  • Uhl. uhl. The tongue presses down in the back just a little bit to make the dark sound. Rural.

  • Let’s watch it three times slowly,

  • then we'll play it again silently, it's your turn to practice it out loud that fourth time.

  • Rural.

  • Rural.

  • Rural.

  • Rural.

  • A tough word.

  • But again, if you practice it slowly, intentionally, it will get much easier.

  • Who knows, maybe it will end up being your favorite words.

  • Before we move on to the next word, let me give a shout-out to Cambly who sponsored this video.

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  • And thank you, Cambly, for sponsoring this video.

  • The next word also came to mind from a video in the Interview a Broadcaster series that I did.

  • This is Chris Jansing, a senior national correspondent for NBC news.

  • She pointed out a word with R and L that gets mispronounced a lot.

  • I do have some pet peeves. Like nuclear, which we know is nuclear.

  • Nuclear.

  • If youre not confident saying this word it makes sense,

  • because youre hearing it mispronounced all the time.

  • Many people say: nu-cu-ler, but it should be: nuc-le-ar.

  • Nuclear. The L goes with the K. Not, nu-cu-lar.

  • Nuc-le-ar.

  • By the way, this word has two different meanings.

  • The one you probably know

  • is relating to the nucleus of an atom, the release of energy associated with that,

  • and then things like nuclear waste, nuclear weapons.

  • But we also use it in reference to a family.

  • It refers to parents and children.

  • So, this is my nuclear family, and this picture was taken back in April.

  • When I was a kid, my nuclear family was different, it was me, my parents, and my brother.

  • Nuclear.

  • L goes with the K sound, first syllable stress, let’s look at it.

  • Nuclear.

  • Nu-- nu--

  • N consonant, OO vowel.

  • Lips move into a circle for that stressed vowel, nu.

  • Then the back of the tongue touches the soft palate in the back, that’s making the K. Kkl--

  • The tongue tip immediately comes through the teeth for the L. Nucl-.

  • It’s a light L because it comes before the vowel in the syllable.

  • Then the tongue tip goes down, touching the backs of the bottom teeth for the EE.

  • Nucle-

  • --ar.

  • Next, youll see the lips come into a relaxed flare for the R,

  • and youll see the tongue tip pull back and up a bit for the ending R.

  • Nuclear.

  • Focus on the stress, I think it will help.

  • Now youll see it and hear it three times slowly.

  • Then a fourth time silently, repeat it back out loud that fourth time.

  • Nuclear.

  • Nuclear.

  • Nuclear.

  • Squirrel.

  • How much do you hate this word?

  • Let’s study it.

  • It’s a two-syllable word with stress on the first syllable.

  • Squirrel.

  • Squirrel.

  • Let’s take a look.

  • Squirrel.

  • First we have an S.

  • The teeth are together.

  • Why are the lips rounding?

  • They don’t need to round for the S.

  • That’s because theyre already getting ready for the W.

  • You can’t see the K, that’s done with the back of the tongue

  • and it happens very quickly before the lips come into a tight circle for the W.

  • Squ.

  • Now we have the hard part.

  • An R vowel-consonant.

  • The thing I always have to tell my students with this vowel

  • is that it doesn't sound different than R.

  • Rrr---

  • the sound for the vowel and R are together, just one sound.

  • Squ-irr--el.

  • So don't try to make a vowel and then an R, it's just the R sound.

  • Squirrel

  • So the lips flare and the tip of the tongue pulls back and up.

  • Let’s see.

  • Squir--

  • Tongue tip lifted and pulled back, squirr-.

  • It doesn’t pull back much.

  • I’ve definitely had students make a sound like squirr--.

  • This is from pulling the tongue tip too far back.

  • Rrrr.

  • The correct sound is more forward.

  • Squir-- rrr--

  • The tongue tip does pull back, but not a lot.

  • Watch the sound you get.

  • Match it to rrrrrrrrrrr and not rrrrrrrrrrr.

  • And to finish off the word, we have a dark L.

  • You won’t see the tongue tip come out of the teeth or go to the roof of the mouth because it’s a dark L.

  • Squirrel.

  • We just want the dark sound.

  • the tongue tip comes back down from the R,

  • And it touches lightly the backs of the bottom front teeth,

  • it's the back part of the tongue that makes that dark sound, pressing down the back a little bit,

  • uhl, uhl, squirrel.

  • Let’s watch.

  • Squirrel.

  • Squirrel.

  • Here’s the dark sound.

  • Let’s watch and listen three more times, then you repeat once while we're watching.

  • Squirrel.

  • Squirrel.

  • Squirrel.

  • Regularly, rural, nuclear, squirrel.

  • We covered some truly crazy words in this video.

  • What do you think of this slow motion, up close footage?

  • Does it help?

  • It would be way better if my cheeks were transparent, wouldn’t it?

  • Sorry about that.

  • I’ve dreamed about that for years.

  • Please let me know in the comments below if you like this kind of video and

  • what words you’d like to see next.

  • And the best way for me to know that you liked it is to share it

  • the more views it gets, the more I know, do that again.

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

Today were studying words that are difficult in English because of the sound combinations.

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