🎉Great news!🎉 Our brand new Sounds American website is up and running!🚀🎊 There's lots of content on pronunciation.🤓You can start with the article about the /ɝ/ sound: soundsamerican.net/article/rcolored_vowel_sound_ur_as_in_first
I love your videos!! They're really useful. And, for example, I've never heard about R-colored vowels and now I'm really happy because I've been able to understand better each sound, improve my pronunciation and now I feel more comfortable and confident about English speaking.
Hi everyone, I wanted to give my feedback after months struggling with this sound with a Canadian friend helping me. I finally got there ! I'm french (from France) so my experience may help especially french people as they will encounter the same problems. Some other latin rooted speaker might benefit of it too though. So here is what I did : 1 - I had a meeting every week with a native Canadian speaker (I was there for 6 months but you very probably can practice on the phone) who wanted to learn french and he told me whenever I was pronuncing correctly or not. 2 - I wrote down every single word presented in this video and read them loudly in front of him, trying to put as much as I could of an american accent and they were all wrong. 3 - MOST IMPORTANT POINT : The first very very wrong thing I was doing is I was making it a diphtong, that's to say instead of saying a single sound, I was actually making the sound "e" (first voyelle of "ago") and then "r" which is completely wrong as the right sound is a single sound that you should be able to hold for a bit. To tell you how important it is, at some point I deseperatly said "feu" (fire in french pronunced "fe") with pure french accent instead of "fur" and my friend got so exited telling me it was so much better, not there yet but way better. To be honnest it hurts lol. 4 - I realized I was trying to make the sound but without hearing it anymore. That's to say I was so focused on the shape of my mouth and tongue that I realized I was just trying random tongue positions expecting to find the good one. The right way to do it was to play this video in my headphone again and again, try to repeat, record myself on my phone each time, listen to the recording at the end, cry, get back to it trying a different shape of mouth and tongue. 5 - I tried every possible position of tongue before I finally found one that really gave me the good result. I curled my tongue way more back than I thought I should. That's to say, see how the hard palet is made : teeth, then alveolar ridge then let's say hard palet. Instead of pointing my tongue toward the alveolar ridge I pointed it way more back. When closing my mouth while making the sound, the tip of my tongue would touch behind the alveolar ridge not touching IT. The sides of the tongue are curled too and touch the upper teeth at the bottom. When doing this, on the recording, I felt that it sounded better : there was this kind of resonance and it's something you want. 6 - When meeting my friend now, I used to just pronunce the 5 first words of the list and then he would tell me it wasn't good and I stopped and tried to change something and say these 5 words again. HUGE MISTAKE : The 5 first words of the list "bird" "burst" "clerk" and "curl" are the hardest ones. When I said the whole list, my friend finally spotted one word that I was pronuncing perfectly : "earth". Eventhough all the others were wrong, this one was pronunced good (confirmed later by my canadian housemates : earth was the only one good but it WAS good lol). I know it is weird because this one should be the hardest one as none of the sounds it contains exist in french (th doesn't exist in french) but maybe that's the reason : no native language influence. 7 - Before saying any word from the list that I would hear from my speaker, I would say "earth" first to put my tongue and mouth in the right position. After a while, my friend told me that he couldn't hear my accent on most of the words of this list. 8 - Still, "bird" , "clerk", "word", "world" don't sound totally correct, I have no idea why. The "d" and the "k" after the sound seem to mess all up. Hope it helps and let you save time with your learning. :) Here are a few tips : - App : Voice recorder for checking your pronunciation (it's all red with a white circle inside, I can't find it anymore on the google store though) : two button, one to record, the other to listen. Each recording erase the previous one which is trust me a really good thing as you will end up with so many recordings in the end. - www.conversationexchange.com/ which is the best site I found to meet people who want to practice language with native. That's where I found my friend. - Crying is ok
+CompoteDePomme X , What a feedback! Thanks a lot, we really appreciate it. Seems like you've got it! Your pronunciation is getting better, which is the most important thing. We couldn't be happier 😊. One tip from Sounds American, it should help you with your "hardest" words ("bird," "clerk," "word," and "world"): In these words, the /ɝ/ sound follows other sounds, the /b/, the /k/ and the /w/. The word "earth" is easier since the /ɝ/ comes first. So, your tongue and your lips need to switch from one position to another really quick. Try to pronounce those words this way: "word": /w/ - /ɝ/ - /d/ -> /wɝd/ "clerk": /k/ - /l/ - /ɝ/ - /k/ -> /klɝk/ and so on. Don't rush it, these words ARE very difficult to pronounce. Remember, it doesn't matter how fast you say them. The key is to pronounce them correctly. BTW, did you know that we always provide the list(s) of words we use in our practice exercises in the Description section? You can copy it for your practice. One more tip: you can record yourself while doing practice exercises in our videos. This way you can compare your pronunciation with the pronunciation of the Sounds American speaker. The only problem is you can't do that using your headphones, you need to use the speakers on your computer/mobile device ((. Yes, crying is OK 😊. We cry a lot when making our videos. No pain, no gain 😊.
I am glad that you are progressing, but imagine being a native speaker with these issues. It is relatively the hardest sound in the English to pronounce. If you can only imagine the back of tongue fighting with the front tip to stay down, you have probably experienced it too.
I have a helpful remark for this vowel sound: This vowel sound, which is considered murmured or even "mute", is a variation of the rounded short "u" as in "good", but unrounded. According to IPA, this vowel is an unrounded open "o". In French, you have something similar: the rounded "é" as in "feu", and its open variation as in "coeur". Greetings from a Spaniard who speaks English, and even French!
it's so usefull. I've tried all video on youtube but i still can't do it. i think i've found a new way. I propaly make the same mistake that i curled my tougue way too much. Thank you very much (sorry for my bad grammar but i think you can understand :)))) )
I love you guys! Thanks for teaching me how to master songs and I'm watching again all of your videos, I think there's always space to improve even better.
THIS IS FREAKING AWESOME!!!! Juan YOU ROCK!!! Thank you so much for creating these videos! Seriously, the best help so far with this hard central vowels.
@@SoundsAmerican when you see at the publisher of the video it says Juan Esteban Garica lol! sorry if it’s incorrect! I was just so excited to found the video!
Finally!!! Where have you guys been? Now we're talking about pronounciation. Very good. Not only am I going to share these videos with my students, I am going to use them in class as well. Thank you.
Personally, I consider all colored sound as two sounds combination, vowel sound + /r/ sound. And I strongly recommend adding /ʊr/ in “poor”, “tour” into the r-colored sound list too. I know some replace this sound as /ɔr/, but not everyone. Anyway, good job. Can’t thank this channel enough.
The /ʊr/ sound is used in the US, but we don't believe it's used in General American English. We don't have this sound in our inventory and we've never used it either, so we can't teach it. :)
@@SoundsAmerican Got it, by the way, I just realized the /ʊ/ symbol has different pronunciations from British English and American English. So the word 'poor' /pʊə/ is good in British English, but in American English, it should either be /pɔr/ or /pur/. /pʊr/ in American English just can't add up, Americans don't speak this way as I heard. Gotta say, today's dictionaries really do a poor job on modern American English's pronunciation symbols. A lot of them even don't bother to distinguish /i/ and /ɪ/, /u/ and /ʊ/.
People who are learning to pronounce a word also imitate the intonation as they repeat. When one word has a rising inttonation and the other has a falling intonation, rather than another rising intonation, that may be internalized as well. But never mind... It’s a good video
You're absolutely right, people imitate the intonation when they repeat words after the speaker. That's why we use a falling intonation in our exercises. We experimented with different intonations for this particular extract (2:05 - 2:22), and we thought that the "list" (rise - fall, rise - fall) intonation just sounded nicer. 😊
@@SoundsAmerican You are welcome. Believe me i've been the best student in English along my academic study course until I've graduated. I did like English since my childhood and although my field is Computer Science and programming, it helped me a lot to learn so quickly especially being the most useful resources in English. Now I'm after improving ny pronunciation to sound like a native American. In fact I am improving and I think this channel is what I've been searching for. What do you think about my gramnar and vocabulary?
We're not experts in teaching English as a Second Language, especially in teaching English grammar, but the entire team agreed that your English is just great. 👍
Well, the position of the speech organs is almost the same, the difference is that /ɝ/ is a vowel. Your mouth should be open a little more for /ɝ/ so the airflow is less obstructed. Check out our interactive IPA chart for more details: soundsamerican.net/ (for simplicity's sake we use the /r/ symbol for the /ɹ/ sound)
Oh! Awesome. I have never watched a video of how to pronounce that i feel such impressed😗. I want to save this video to my playlist so more people know, because it's so cool👍. I look forward to seeing your response💜🍀. Thank you for sharing🌷🌷🌷
Thank you for your kind explanation! It helps me a lot! I’m not a native speaker of English, so I want you to help me understand one thing. In AEP, it says schwa has two r-colored manifestations: [ɚ], and [ɝ]. As you mentioned in this video, the latter is used in the stressed syllable. However, I’m a little bit confused because schwa may be a phoneme of [ɝ] according to this book and is always used in the unstressed syllable. How its r-colored phonetic production can be used in the stressed syllable?🧐
The /ɚ/ and /ɝ/ are essentially the same sound. The difference is really subtle. The /ɚ/ sound is relaxed and is pronounced with relaxed tongue and lips. The /ɝ/ is pronounced with the tense tongue and lips. In all words in this very video, the /ɝ/ sound is used in stressed syllables. And here's the video about the /ɚ/ sound, it's used in unstressed syllables in all of the examples and exercises in this video: ruclips.net/video/AzNRoSGBh44/видео.html Does this help? Please let us know.
2:39 you said ( Also, note, that the /ɝ/ is used in stressed syllables ONLY. ) what about /ɝ/ sound it can be stressed as in bird /bɝd/ and unstressed as in thirteen /ˌθɜɹˈtin/ and outburst /ˈaʊtˌbɝst/ - what do you think?
There's secondary stress on the syllables with /ɝ/ in those words. Check the transcription you provided, this symbol: / *ˌ* θɜɹ ... / is the secondary stress.
"Unstressed" means "not stressed." "Secondary" stress means that it's an additional stress to primary, that is, there are two stresses in a word, one is primary and the other is secondary.
This channel is wonderful. I finally found what I was looking for. But I was wondering which dictionaries use these phonetic notations and what's your suggestions? Since online versions of MW or Oxford American and Cambridge dictionaries differ in their phonetic alphabet.
I definitely like your videos. But I was wondering if you could make another one which explain how to pronounce the word little and important. I have many difficulties to pronounce them correctly. Thanks a lot.
Love to learn about the r-colored vowel as this makes a real big difference! Am I understanding correctly that essentially the vowel “r”, the “r” in the words first and the “r” in the word after are pronounced exactly same? Thank you!
when do we all have this app? i really give myself a lot of trouble with the "R" sound and besides i intend to speak like an American. Thanks for your useful videos.
Great videoes! It would be much better if you can attach a pic aside to show the meaning of the word so that I can learn to pronouce the word and learn the word meaning at the same time.
If we were to add pictures, we'd be making a dictionary, but we don't teach English as a second language. Our expertise is only in teaching pronunciation.👋
First, thank you for the great video!! I have one question. For the word "very", can I regard "er" a r-colored vowel, so the pronunciation goes like "ver ɪ" (with the correct rhythm)? This question can be raised for every "r"s in the middle of words, like hurry (hɚ ɪ), mirror (mɪr ɚ), and so on. If I don't picture this way, I end up mistakenly pronouncing "flap t" for "r". I hope you are still checking the comments.
You're absolutely right, the 'ER' combination in the word very is an R-Colored vowel. Note, however, that is a different sound that the /ɝ/, "very" is pronounced as /ˈvɛr·i/. It's a matter of syllables - when a vowel is followed by /r/ and they occurs in the same syllable, this is an R-Colored vowel. So, you're correct, in the words "hurry" and "mirror" the 'URR' and 'IRR' combinations represent the R-Colored vowels: /ˈhɝ·i/ and /ˈmɪr·ɚ/. BTW, if you're interested we talked about the word "hurry" on our Community page: ruclips.net/user/postUgydEP3UGDsmafHls3x4AaABCQ
my friend can you give us the pdf of all the word examples used in the 49 videos since most dictionaries don't have correct IPA transcriptions. Thank you
Hello, Sounds American. How do you doing? Well back! Now, from this point, talking about the last part of the video. You said that, there are monophthongs sounds with the R-Colored Vowel Sound. Also, there are Diphthongs and finally there is a Triphthong with the American R-Colored Vowel Sound. I'm not so clear about this topic. For me it's very confusing. Can you give me more explanation about it? Or can you recommend me a text that can help me, please! By the way, I would like to know what's your name? And finally, thank you for your passion about the English and Phonetics sounds.
+ Angello Ferreira , Hello there, Angello! Let’s start with some explanations of what monopthongs, diphthongs and triphthongs are. A monophthong is a single (or pure) vowel sound. It means that when you pronounce it, your mouth, lips and tongue retain the same position from start to end of that sound. A diphthong is a sound that is formed by two adjacent vowels in the same syllable. To pronounce a diphthong, you start with making one sound and then glide to the other. So, your mouth, lips and tongue move from one position to another. A triphthong is a sound that is a union of three adjacent vowels in the same syllable. When you pronounce such a sound, your mouth, lips and tongue move from one position, to another and then pass over to the third. Now, the R-colored vowels /ɝ/, as in “first” and /ɚ/, as in “teacher” are single distinct sounds. As described in our video, while making the /ɝ/ sound, you place your mouth, lips and tongue in only one position from start to end. You don’t have to move your tongue or your lips to another position to make the / ɝ/. The same is true for the /ɚ/ sound. R-colored vowel sounds /ɪr/, as in “fear”, /ɛr/ as in “bear”, /ɑr/ as in “bar”, and /ɔr/ as in “for” are diphthongs, as with each of them you have to first pronounce the first vowel sound and then glide into the adjacent /r/ sound. For example, to pronounce the /ɑr/ vowel sound, you start with opening your mouth as wide as possible and placing your tongue very low in your mouth for the /ɑ/, then you raise the tip of your tongue to the alveolar ridge, curling the tip of your tongue back, as you do for the /r/ sound. This has to be a smooth movement, as you glide from the /ɑ/ to the /r/. The only r-colored triphthong is the /aɪr/ sound, as in fire. To make it, you have to start with pronouncing a diphthong /aɪ/ (moving from the /ɑ/ sound to the /ɪ/ ) and then glide into the /r/, so your mouth, lips and your tongue change three positions to make one sound - /aɪr/. Hope it helps! :)
Hello friend, Your videos are great! Why are vowels followed by r considered diphthong? I don't understand. Some authors consider diphthongs only /aɪ/ /eɪ/ /ɔi/ /aʊ/ /oʊ/ . And /ʊr/? Is not diphthong? sure /ʃʊr/ secure /sɪˈkyʊr/ europe /ˈyʊrəp/ mature /məˈtʃʊr/ tour /tʊr/ thanks
@@SoundsAmerican I am doing translation in some videos here on youtube . I wish I could have a chance to translate these videos to my language ( portuguese) so, many people could have acces in my country. This option as I click on Translate doesn´t give me the option, Unfortunetely it is not available
@@deborasantos3488 Thank you for offering this! We consider the translations of the subtitles for our videos to be very important and we treat them as serious projects. And they are big projects too. At the moment we have more than 70 videos on our channel, so it takes a lot of time and effort to translate all the subtitles. If you're still up to it, please send us a mail to team@soundsamerican.net and we'll discuss this matter in more detail.
Bonjour, dans le mot courage, est-ce que c’est les lettres /-our/ qui font partir du son /er/ ou seulement /ur/? Merci beaucoup! J’aime bien votre méthode.
In American English, the word "courage" is pronounced with the /ɝ/ sound: /ˈkɝ·ɪdʒ/. And it's the entire 'OUR' combination that is pronounced as /ɝ/. Hope this helps!
I'm aware that there's no /ʊr/ in American English, but it's still shown in many dictionaries such as Cambridge Dictionary and Dictionary.com. So whenever I see /ʊr/ in IPA, can I take it as /ɝ/, /ɚ/, /ur/, or even /ɔr/ ? For example, "jury" = /ˈdʒɝ·i/ or /ˈdʒur·i/, "poor" = /pur/ or /pɔr/. Thanks!
You're asking a very good question. We responded to similar questions on our RUclips Community page: The original idea of the IPA was to standardize the phonetic transcription and help people to get an accurate pronunciation of words. Unfortunately, it doesn't work 100%, and there are many examples. The /ʊr/ vs. /ɝ/ case is one of the most interesting and controversial examples. Why so? First of all, some phoneticians think that General American English has the /ur/ or /ʊr/ R-Colored vowel sounds, but some don't. Second, regardless of what phoneticians think, dictionaries may use different IPA notation or just not use the IPA at all. Now, the Sounds American point of view: there's no /ʊr/ R-Colored vowel sounds in General American English; therefore, there's no /jʊr/ sound either. The thing is, the /j/ is a front sound, the /ʊ/ is back, and the /r/ is central. But we don't think these tongue movements happen in words like "fury" or "cure." The R-Colored vowel sound in these words is more accurately represented by /jɝ/.
HI! THX this is very useful for me! I am sure this is a common question but I didn't find it, this is an application or just an animation? I'd like to practice but I don't have feedback. Thank you for your answer!
In our videos, we're using our own app, but we haven't released it to the public yet. We're planning to do it very soon and we'll announce the release on this channel. Stay tuned!
+ChiP , hello there! The tongue placement and position are similar for the /ɝ/, /ɚ/ and the /r/ sounds. The difference is in the tenseness of the the tongue and throat. For the /ɝ/ sound your tongue and your throat should be very tense, you should feel this tension when pronouncing this sound. For the /ɚ/ sound your tongue and your throat should be relaxed, as this is a very relaxed vowel sound. The /ɝ/ and the /ɚ/ are very similar, basically, it's the tense and the relaxed version of one sound. The /r/ is a consonant sound but it's pronunciation is very similar to that of the r-colored vowel /ɝ/. The tongue placement and position is similar, as well as the tenseness of your tongue and throat. The difference between the /r/ and the /ɝ/ is that when you are making the /r/, you hold it less in the very beginning. Try to start pronouncing the /ɝ/ as if you're in a hurry and you don't have enough time to hold it at the beginning :). Hope it helps!
+Rolando Quirós, yes, we used our own app, but it's not publicly available yet. We're going to release it soon, so please, stay tuned! We'll announce it here on this channel.
l need your help l am really confuse with what sound has each vowel and others words maybes you can advice me how can l be able to identify the sound the differents words thanks you so much i am really appreciate everything you doing for us
+pedro , hello there! This video will help you a lot: Link: ruclips.net/video/7EdRAfOMfnU/видео.html . It's an interactive video with a Vowel Chart of all distinct (single) vowels of American English. It’s best to watch it on a computer if you can. Make sure that you give it enough time and work through all vowels in that chart. Try do as many pronunciation exercises (there are links to videos with exercises for each vowel) as you can. In parallel, make sure that you do exercises on contrasting word pairs. They are efficient and you’ll be able to learn to differentiate between vowels that may sound the same to you. Here’s the playlist with these videos: ruclips.net/p/PLYJV5Moz9cfwiATXxNLA_zFHq-9-S5b1p Please, don’t expect immediate dramatic results. If you invest enough time and work on your pronunciation regularly, you’ll learn to hear the sounds of American English and pronounce them correctly. Don’t hesitate to ask any questions! Good luck!
please i need your commentary about after watching this magnificent video I saw another video explaining also ɝ vowel sound and the explainer referring to when we pronounce first word it looks like fur word pronunciation so it would be like this ( furst) I need your help is that right or not
@@SoundsAmerican i am sorry teacher i mean we pronounce words like work or word its just like as the word ( were) so work as (werk) word as ( were) please modify me is I am wrong please
No need to apologize, please! Got you - yes, the words "work" and "word" are pronounced with the same sound //. It's the same sounds as in "first" or "turn." Here you go: work /wɝk/, word /wɝd/, first /fɝst/, turn /tɝn/.
![Американский акцент: звук [ɝ] и r-colored vowels](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/94oXHrPudPk/mqdefault.jpg)
🎉Great news!🎉 Our brand new Sounds American website is up and running!🚀🎊 There's lots of content on pronunciation.🤓You can start with the article about the /ɝ/ sound: soundsamerican.net/article/rcolored_vowel_sound_ur_as_in_first
I love your videos!! They're really useful. And, for example, I've never heard about R-colored vowels and now I'm really happy because I've been able to understand better each sound, improve my pronunciation and now I feel more comfortable and confident about English speaking.
+Jerry J. Vindas M. So glad to hear this! Let us know if you have any questions!🖖👋
This is so useful. I'm glad I found this channel.
+Kirill V., thank you!
same
This is the best channel I've found to learn and practice pronuntiation
you're the best channel for America accent
Thank you so much for your hard job with pronunciation. We are highly appreciated.
No problem! By the way, we also made a website with tons of pronunciation materials, check it out: soundsamerican.net/
Hi everyone, I wanted to give my feedback after months struggling with this sound with a Canadian friend helping me. I finally got there ! I'm french (from France) so my experience may help especially french people as they will encounter the same problems. Some other latin rooted speaker might benefit of it too though.
So here is what I did :
1 - I had a meeting every week with a native Canadian speaker (I was there for 6 months but you very probably can practice on the phone) who wanted to learn french and he told me whenever I was pronuncing correctly or not.
2 - I wrote down every single word presented in this video and read them loudly in front of him, trying to put as much as I could of an american accent and they were all wrong.
3 - MOST IMPORTANT POINT : The first very very wrong thing I was doing is I was making it a diphtong, that's to say instead of saying a single sound, I was actually making the sound "e" (first voyelle of "ago") and then "r" which is completely wrong as the right sound is a single sound that you should be able to hold for a bit.
To tell you how important it is, at some point I deseperatly said "feu" (fire in french pronunced "fe") with pure french accent instead of "fur" and my friend got so exited telling me it was so much better, not there yet but way better. To be honnest it hurts lol.
4 - I realized I was trying to make the sound but without hearing it anymore. That's to say I was so focused on the shape of my mouth and tongue that I realized I was just trying random tongue positions expecting to find the good one. The right way to do it was to play this video in my headphone again and again, try to repeat, record myself on my phone each time, listen to the recording at the end, cry, get back to it trying a different shape of mouth and tongue.
5 - I tried every possible position of tongue before I finally found one that really gave me the good result. I curled my tongue way more back than I thought I should. That's to say, see how the hard palet is made : teeth, then alveolar ridge then let's say hard palet. Instead of pointing my tongue toward the alveolar ridge I pointed it way more back. When closing my mouth while making the sound, the tip of my tongue would touch behind the alveolar ridge not touching IT. The sides of the tongue are curled too and touch the upper teeth at the bottom. When doing this, on the recording, I felt that it sounded better : there was this kind of resonance and it's something you want.
6 - When meeting my friend now, I used to just pronunce the 5 first words of the list and then he would tell me it wasn't good and I stopped and tried to change something and say these 5 words again. HUGE MISTAKE : The 5 first words of the list "bird" "burst" "clerk" and "curl" are the hardest ones. When I said the whole list, my friend finally spotted one word that I was pronuncing perfectly : "earth". Eventhough all the others were wrong, this one was pronunced good (confirmed later by my canadian housemates : earth was the only one good but it WAS good lol). I know it is weird because this one should be the hardest one as none of the sounds it contains exist in french (th doesn't exist in french) but maybe that's the reason : no native language influence.
7 - Before saying any word from the list that I would hear from my speaker, I would say "earth" first to put my tongue and mouth in the right position. After a while, my friend told me that he couldn't hear my accent on most of the words of this list.
8 - Still, "bird" , "clerk", "word", "world" don't sound totally correct, I have no idea why. The "d" and the "k" after the sound seem to mess all up.
Hope it helps and let you save time with your learning. :)
Here are a few tips :
- App : Voice recorder for checking your pronunciation (it's all red with a white circle inside, I can't find it anymore on the google store though) : two button, one to record, the other to listen. Each recording erase the previous one which is trust me a really good thing as you will end up with so many recordings in the end.
- www.conversationexchange.com/ which is the best site I found to meet people who want to practice language with native. That's where I found my friend.
- Crying is ok
+CompoteDePomme X , What a feedback! Thanks a lot, we really appreciate it.
Seems like you've got it! Your pronunciation is getting better, which is the most important thing. We couldn't be happier 😊.
One tip from Sounds American, it should help you with your "hardest" words ("bird," "clerk," "word," and "world"):
In these words, the /ɝ/ sound follows other sounds, the /b/, the /k/ and the /w/. The word "earth" is easier since the /ɝ/ comes first.
So, your tongue and your lips need to switch from one position to another really quick.
Try to pronounce those words this way:
"word": /w/ - /ɝ/ - /d/ -> /wɝd/
"clerk": /k/ - /l/ - /ɝ/ - /k/ -> /klɝk/
and so on.
Don't rush it, these words ARE very difficult to pronounce.
Remember, it doesn't matter how fast you say them. The key is to pronounce them correctly.
BTW, did you know that we always provide the list(s) of words we use in our practice exercises in the Description section? You can copy it for your practice.
One more tip: you can record yourself while doing practice exercises in our videos. This way you can compare your pronunciation with the pronunciation of the Sounds American speaker. The only problem is you can't do that using your headphones, you need to use the speakers on your computer/mobile device ((.
Yes, crying is OK 😊. We cry a lot when making our videos. No pain, no gain 😊.
I am glad that you are progressing, but imagine being a native speaker with these issues. It is relatively the hardest sound in the English to pronounce. If you can only imagine the back of tongue fighting with the front tip to stay down, you have probably experienced it too.
I have a helpful remark for this vowel sound: This vowel sound, which is considered murmured or even "mute", is a variation of the rounded short "u" as in "good", but unrounded. According to IPA, this vowel is an unrounded open "o". In French, you have something similar: the rounded "é" as in "feu", and its open variation as in "coeur". Greetings from a Spaniard who speaks English, and even French!
it's so usefull. I've tried all video on youtube but i still can't do it. i think i've found a new way. I propaly make the same mistake that i curled my tougue way too much. Thank you very much
(sorry for my bad grammar but i think you can understand :)))) )
Thanks so much for your feedback. It's really helpful for me too
I love you guys! Thanks for teaching me how to master songs and I'm watching again all of your videos, I think there's always space to improve even better.
Awesome! Thank you!
I am looking for this type of channel for learning American English Pronunciation many years, now, I found it, it is great, thanks so much.
+William Kong, you're welcome! Don't forget to subscribe to receive notifications about our new videos.
THIS IS FREAKING AWESOME!!!! Juan YOU ROCK!!! Thank you so much for creating these videos! Seriously, the best help so far with this hard central vowels.
Who is Juan? 😊
@@SoundsAmerican when you see at the publisher of the video it says Juan Esteban Garica lol! sorry if it’s incorrect! I was just so excited to found the video!
You mean, on this channel? The publisher is Juan Esteban Garica? Can you please give us a link?
I'm very grateful for this video. I learned a lot.
Especially about the explanation "R-colored vowels".
Thanks!!
Go on.
+Rosiane Cumam, thank you! We're glad that you found it helpful! Yes, new videos will be published very soon. Stay tuned!
Good video. I need some practice.
You are genius to solve my years question
Crystal clear explanation.. This channel deserves more than 1million subscribers.Thankyou
Totally agree. 😀
Very clear and easy-to-understand description of R-coloring! Thank you!
Glad to hear that! 😊👋
Buenísimo. Increíble, no había visto que inclusive tenía transcripción, vaya, se sobraron. Gracias, gracias y muchas gracias.
+J G Duarte 😀👋
Really thankful to you u cleared my one of biggest confusion regarding R-vowel
You're welcome! Glad to hear that!
Finally!!! Where have you guys been? Now we're talking about pronounciation. Very good. Not only am I going to share these videos with my students, I am going to use them in class as well. Thank you.
+English Forever Yes, please. And don't forget to say "hi" to your students :). Sincerely yours, Sounds American. 😁👋🖖
I will. Thank you. Can you tell us your name? Or would rather be know as Saounds American?
+English Forever Sounds American. That's actually our name :).
Nice. This presentation is awesome. It is creative and active. It is always shifting screens. Congrats!!
English Forever 😁👋
"R-colored vowel". It exactly defines simpliar sound.
Didn't meet this definition before.
Thanks for useful lesson
Very useful información. Thanks
Personally, I consider all colored sound as two sounds combination, vowel sound + /r/ sound. And I strongly recommend adding /ʊr/ in “poor”, “tour” into the r-colored sound list too. I know some replace this sound as /ɔr/, but not everyone. Anyway, good job. Can’t thank this channel enough.
The /ʊr/ sound is used in the US, but we don't believe it's used in General American English. We don't have this sound in our inventory and we've never used it either, so we can't teach it. :)
@@SoundsAmerican Got it, by the way, I just realized the /ʊ/ symbol has different pronunciations from British English and American English. So the word 'poor' /pʊə/ is good in British English, but in American English, it should either be /pɔr/ or /pur/. /pʊr/ in American English just can't add up, Americans don't speak this way as I heard. Gotta say, today's dictionaries really do a poor job on modern American English's pronunciation symbols. A lot of them even don't bother to distinguish /i/ and /ɪ/, /u/ and /ʊ/.
what a wonderful video, thank you a lot for sharing 🥰🥰🥰
People who are learning to pronounce a word also imitate the intonation as they repeat. When one word has a rising inttonation and the other has a falling intonation, rather than another rising intonation, that may be internalized as well. But never mind... It’s a good video
You're absolutely right, people imitate the intonation when they repeat words after the speaker. That's why we use a falling intonation in our exercises.
We experimented with different intonations for this particular extract (2:05 - 2:22), and we thought that the "list" (rise - fall, rise - fall) intonation just sounded nicer. 😊
love this channel. ɪ practice with these tutorials everyday.
Great to hear!
Yeah, I'm doing it as well
I've been watching a lot of videos about the schwa sound, this one has been the most helpful on how to place your tongue correctly for it!
Glad to hear it!
Thank you a lot everybody to made it👍👍👍👍👍
Thanks for the lesson now I can distinguish this sound :D
Great!
This R-colored vowel is a new concept for me.
i need the same but for british english! the way you explain how sounds should be articulated is awesome!
+k0tenych Some day, maybe :)
You are really amazing! All my support. Wish you best of luck. greetings from Algeria.
Thank you so much!
@@SoundsAmerican You are welcome. Believe me i've been the best student in English along my academic study course until I've graduated.
I did like English since my childhood and although my field is Computer Science and programming, it helped me a lot to learn so quickly especially being the most useful resources in English.
Now I'm after improving ny pronunciation to sound like a native American. In fact I am improving and I think this channel is what I've been searching for.
What do you think about my gramnar and vocabulary?
We're not experts in teaching English as a Second Language, especially in teaching English grammar, but the entire team agreed that your English is just great. 👍
@@SoundsAmerican Thank you so much for such a motivating comment.
This is the best channel that I have seen!!!!!!! Thank you!
+Aylin PorrasB , glad you liked it! :) Don't forget to subscribe 😀.
Thank you for your video. Can you explain the difference between r-collored [ɜ] and consonant [ɹ]? I've been taught that they're the same.
Well, the position of the speech organs is almost the same, the difference is that /ɝ/ is a vowel. Your mouth should be open a little more for /ɝ/ so the airflow is less obstructed. Check out our interactive IPA chart for more details: soundsamerican.net/ (for simplicity's sake we use the /r/ symbol for the /ɹ/ sound)
Oh! Awesome. I have never watched a video of how to pronounce that i feel such impressed😗. I want to save this video to my playlist so more people know, because it's so cool👍. I look forward to seeing your response💜🍀.
Thank you for sharing🌷🌷🌷
Glad it was helpful!
Very informative thanhs you👍
Great explanation. Thank you.
Glad it was helpful!
Great lesson thank you sir
+Svetlana Litvinova , you're very welcome! Stay tuned!
Thank you so much. This really helps me to improve my pronunciation :)
+Dennis Montufar , you're welcome! Glad to hear that!👍👋
I've always had problem how to pronounce word .now I got it .
Thank you
That is amazing videos it's help me a lot on my pronunciation, thanks very much for your support .
Glad to hear that!
Bonjour, vos vidéos sont très enrichissants, mais dommage que la transcription en Français n’est pas disponible. Merci et bonne journée!😊
Thanks! Our subtitles are made by great people who love what we do and volunteer to take part in our work.
yeah this video is cool, thank Sounds American for post.
+Pedro Guevara You're welcome!
Thank you teacher again
Gosto de pronunciar bem as palavras, é o meu hábito. Obrigado professor pelo seu ensino de inglês!
You're welcome!👋
very good
+giorgi meliqishvili , thank you! Glad you liked it! :)
Thanks a lot
I definitely will thanks again
+Svetlana Litvinova 👍
Svetlana Litvinova lip
Thank you for your kind explanation! It helps me a lot! I’m not a native speaker of English, so I want you to help me understand one thing. In AEP, it says schwa has two r-colored manifestations: [ɚ], and [ɝ]. As you mentioned in this video, the latter is used in the stressed syllable. However, I’m a little bit confused because schwa may be a phoneme of [ɝ] according to this book and is always used in the unstressed syllable. How its r-colored phonetic production can be used in the stressed syllable?🧐
The /ɚ/ and /ɝ/ are essentially the same sound. The difference is really subtle. The /ɚ/ sound is relaxed and is pronounced with relaxed tongue and lips. The /ɝ/ is pronounced with the tense tongue and lips.
In all words in this very video, the /ɝ/ sound is used in stressed syllables. And here's the video about the /ɚ/ sound, it's used in unstressed syllables in all of the examples and exercises in this video: ruclips.net/video/AzNRoSGBh44/видео.html
Does this help? Please let us know.
2:39 you said ( Also, note, that the /ɝ/ is used in stressed syllables ONLY. ) what about /ɝ/ sound it can be stressed as in bird /bɝd/ and unstressed as in thirteen /ˌθɜɹˈtin/ and outburst /ˈaʊtˌbɝst/ - what do you think?
There's secondary stress on the syllables with /ɝ/ in those words. Check the transcription you provided, this symbol: / *ˌ* θɜɹ ... / is the secondary stress.
@@SoundsAmerican is the secondary stress as same as unsressed. Same loud and fast.
"Unstressed" means "not stressed." "Secondary" stress means that it's an additional stress to primary, that is, there are two stresses in a word, one is primary and the other is secondary.
I can hear the difference in mu pronunciation after practicing this lesson 👌🏻
+Ilona V Very glad to hear this! Let us know if you have any questions.
This is most beneficial English instruction I ever had
Thank you so much
This channel is wonderful. I finally found what I was looking for. But I was wondering which dictionaries use these phonetic notations and what's your suggestions? Since online versions of MW or Oxford American and Cambridge dictionaries differ in their phonetic alphabet.
The Cambridge Online dictionary doesn't differ much, as well as the dictionary.com. These are pretty similar.
I definitely like your videos. But I was wondering if you could make another one which explain how to pronounce the word little and important. I have many difficulties to pronounce them correctly. Thanks a lot.
+emo loic , yes, we plan to make videos for the flap and glottal 'T' sounds that are used in these words in a couple weeks. Stay tuned!
Thx 👍 a million
Thx 👍
Plz where is the spelling graphic with the percentage ir, er, ur, ear, wor, or, our?
ruclips.net/video/ZJnrTGH3aXo/видео.html
@@SoundsAmerican thx 👍 alot
You are the best channel in everything, Your content, Your amazing presentation, Your organization and Your feedback 👍
Love to learn about the r-colored vowel as this makes a real big difference! Am I understanding correctly that essentially the vowel “r”, the “r” in the words first and the “r” in the word after are pronounced exactly same? Thank you!
Yes, the're almost the same, the /ɚ/ in "after" is a little more relaxed, as it occurs in unstressed syllables.
my favorite teacher
+wilson pacompia 😄🖖
when do we all have this app? i really give myself a lot of trouble with the "R" sound and besides i intend to speak like an American. Thanks for your useful videos.
+Nguyễn Bòy , thank you! Glad you like our videos! We're working hard on our app, we'll release it very soon, please, stay tuned!
when can I get this app
when can I get this app
Gracias.
Me has ayudado mucho.
Me siento muy agradecido porque no puedo pagar profesor y quiero perfeccinarlo por mi mismo, como lo he hecho siempre.
+William González , you're welcome! Glad our videos help you! Stay tuned, we'll be posting more :).
@@SoundsAmerican What is the translation?
Great videoes! It would be much better if you can attach a pic aside to show the meaning of the word so that I can learn to pronouce the word and learn the word meaning at the same time.
If we were to add pictures, we'd be making a dictionary, but we don't teach English as a second language. Our expertise is only in teaching pronunciation.👋
Amazing video l they are exactly what I’m looking for .
😊👋
@@SoundsAmerican spelling rules ?
Your videos are awesome! Which software do you use to create your content?
+Romi , thank you! We use our own app, it's not publicly available yet, but we're going to release it very soon.
Oh wow that's fantastic! Can't wait:) Thank you for all the hard work!
+Romi , :) we'll announce the release here on this channel, so stay tuned! :)
Absolutely! Keep it up! ;)
+Romi 😃🖖
First, thank you for the great video!!
I have one question.
For the word "very", can I regard "er" a r-colored vowel, so the pronunciation goes like "ver ɪ" (with the correct rhythm)?
This question can be raised for every "r"s in the middle of words, like hurry (hɚ ɪ), mirror (mɪr ɚ), and so on.
If I don't picture this way, I end up mistakenly pronouncing "flap t" for "r".
I hope you are still checking the comments.
You're absolutely right, the 'ER' combination in the word very is an R-Colored vowel. Note, however, that is a different sound that the /ɝ/, "very" is pronounced as /ˈvɛr·i/.
It's a matter of syllables - when a vowel is followed by /r/ and they occurs in the same syllable, this is an R-Colored vowel. So, you're correct, in the words "hurry" and "mirror" the 'URR' and 'IRR' combinations represent the R-Colored vowels: /ˈhɝ·i/ and /ˈmɪr·ɚ/.
BTW, if you're interested we talked about the word "hurry" on our Community page: ruclips.net/user/postUgydEP3UGDsmafHls3x4AaABCQ
@@SoundsAmerican Thank you very much. The community page is very informative and entertaining! It helped me a lot. Looking forward to your app.
I'm still waiting for that app.
Yeah we are still waiting
Excellent video🙋
+ Dan17sv Saenz Glad you liked it!
my friend can you give us the pdf of all the word examples used in the 49 videos since most dictionaries don't have correct IPA transcriptions. Thank you
We'll see what we can do. 👋🤗
Thanks so much. I hope you will make more videos . Sr my grammar's is not good
We will, stay tuned!
Hello, Sounds American. How do you doing? Well back! Now, from this point, talking about the last part of the video. You said that, there are monophthongs sounds with the R-Colored Vowel Sound. Also, there are Diphthongs and finally there is a Triphthong with the American R-Colored Vowel Sound. I'm not so clear about this topic. For me it's very confusing. Can you give me more explanation about it? Or can you recommend me a text that can help me, please! By the way, I would like to know what's your name? And finally, thank you for your passion about the English and Phonetics sounds.
+ Angello Ferreira , Hello there, Angello!
Let’s start with some explanations of what monopthongs, diphthongs and triphthongs are.
A monophthong is a single (or pure) vowel sound. It means that when you pronounce it, your mouth, lips and tongue retain the same position from start to end of that sound.
A diphthong is a sound that is formed by two adjacent vowels in the same syllable. To pronounce a diphthong, you start with making one sound and then glide to the other. So, your mouth, lips and
tongue move from one position to another.
A triphthong is a sound that is a union of three adjacent vowels in the same syllable. When you pronounce such a sound, your mouth, lips and tongue move from one position, to another and then pass
over to the third.
Now, the R-colored vowels /ɝ/, as in “first” and /ɚ/, as in “teacher” are single distinct sounds. As described in our video, while making the /ɝ/ sound, you place your mouth, lips and tongue in only one position from start to end. You don’t have to move your tongue or your lips to another position to make the / ɝ/. The same is true for the /ɚ/ sound.
R-colored vowel sounds /ɪr/, as in “fear”, /ɛr/ as in “bear”, /ɑr/ as in “bar”, and /ɔr/ as in “for” are
diphthongs, as with each of them you have to first pronounce the first vowel sound and then glide into the adjacent /r/ sound. For example, to pronounce the /ɑr/ vowel sound, you start with opening your mouth as wide as possible and placing your tongue very low in your mouth for the /ɑ/, then you raise the tip of your tongue to the alveolar ridge, curling the tip of your tongue back, as you do for the /r/ sound. This has to be a smooth movement, as you glide from the /ɑ/ to the /r/.
The only r-colored triphthong is the /aɪr/ sound, as in fire. To make it, you have to start with pronouncing a diphthong /aɪ/ (moving from the /ɑ/ sound to the /ɪ/ ) and then glide into the /r/, so your mouth, lips and your tongue change three positions to make one sound - /aɪr/.
Hope it helps! :)
Hello friend,
Your videos are great!
Why are vowels followed by r considered diphthong? I don't understand. Some authors consider diphthongs only /aɪ/ /eɪ/ /ɔi/ /aʊ/ /oʊ/ .
And /ʊr/? Is not diphthong?
sure /ʃʊr/
secure /sɪˈkyʊr/
europe /ˈyʊrəp/
mature /məˈtʃʊr/
tour /tʊr/
thanks
Thanks a lot.....
This video was soooooooo awesome !!
😀👋 Glad you liked it!
@@SoundsAmerican I am doing translation in some videos here on youtube . I wish I could have a chance to translate these videos to my language ( portuguese) so, many people could have acces in my country. This option as I click on Translate doesn´t give me the option, Unfortunetely it is not available
@@deborasantos3488 Thank you for offering this! We consider the translations of the subtitles for our videos to be very important and we treat them as serious projects. And they are big projects too. At the moment we have more than 70 videos on our channel, so it takes a lot of time and effort to translate all the subtitles. If you're still up to it, please send us a mail to team@soundsamerican.net and we'll discuss this matter in more detail.
Thankyou
You’re welcome 😊
thanks
Could you please give me a link to the webpage from this video to practice pronunciation?
I've learnt today in 10 min what I didn't in 3h classes for one week.
Awesome!
Bonjour, dans le mot courage, est-ce que c’est les lettres /-our/ qui font partir du son /er/ ou seulement /ur/? Merci beaucoup! J’aime bien votre méthode.
In American English, the word "courage" is pronounced with the /ɝ/ sound: /ˈkɝ·ɪdʒ/. And it's the entire 'OUR' combination that is pronounced as /ɝ/. Hope this helps!
Practicing a lot to get the R coloured Vowels sound right. I know how to make them but they’re not integrated into my speech
thank you ❤
This is extremely helpful
+Andrew Wehren, glad to hear that! 👋😀
MERAVIGLIOSO!!
it is fantastic lesson
+Safaa Hanna Glad you liked it!
Thanks
+Emmanuel Ikechukwu 😁👋
Can i ask? What's the difference between this vowel and the Ir as in Hero?
It is fine to make the r in r colored vowel voiced retroflex approximant [ɻ]?
It IS awesome!
Glad you liked it!
I'm aware that there's no /ʊr/ in American English, but it's still shown in many dictionaries such as Cambridge Dictionary and Dictionary.com. So whenever I see /ʊr/ in IPA, can I take it as /ɝ/, /ɚ/, /ur/, or even /ɔr/ ? For example, "jury" = /ˈdʒɝ·i/ or /ˈdʒur·i/, "poor" = /pur/ or /pɔr/. Thanks!
You're asking a very good question. We responded to similar questions on our RUclips Community page:
The original idea of the IPA was to standardize the phonetic transcription and help people to get an accurate pronunciation of words. Unfortunately, it doesn't work 100%, and there are many examples.
The /ʊr/ vs. /ɝ/ case is one of the most interesting and controversial examples. Why so?
First of all, some phoneticians think that General American English has the /ur/ or /ʊr/ R-Colored vowel sounds, but some don't.
Second, regardless of what phoneticians think, dictionaries may use different IPA notation or just not use the IPA at all.
Now, the Sounds American point of view: there's no /ʊr/ R-Colored vowel sounds in General American English; therefore, there's no /jʊr/ sound either. The thing is, the /j/ is a front sound, the /ʊ/ is back, and the /r/ is central. But we don't think these tongue movements happen in words like "fury" or "cure."
The R-Colored vowel sound in these words is more accurately represented by /jɝ/.
Thanks thanks 🙏🙏🙏
+Phùng Tiến Đạt You're welcome!👋😊
Bless you👥
Are you going to have lessons on Intonations and rhythm?
Sure.
very great，I LOVE this video，it helps me a lot
Glad to hear this!😊👋
HI! THX this is very useful for me! I am sure this is a common question but I didn't find it, this is an application or just an animation? I'd like to practice but I don't have feedback. Thank you for your answer!
In our videos, we're using our own app, but we haven't released it to the public yet. We're planning to do it very soon and we'll announce the release on this channel. Stay tuned!
Sounds American I’m looking forward to it!!🥳
it 's very helpful to me !
+Eunice chen , glad to hear that! 👋
Im yet to comprehend R sounds ... could you provide more detail on the last part of the video, please
非常棒地英语频道，可惜国内没有
Yes, that's unfortunate. We also have a website with tons of information on American pronunciation, check it out: soundsamerican.net/
Can you tell me if this is the same than the "schaw" sound, I'm a little bit confused...
Hi, i don't understand the difference in mouth, tongue placement from the other two r, r (run) and r(after). What is it that differs from the others?
+ChiP , hello there! The tongue placement and position are similar for the /ɝ/, /ɚ/ and the /r/ sounds. The difference is in the tenseness of the the tongue and throat.
For the /ɝ/ sound your tongue and your throat should be very tense, you should feel this tension when pronouncing this sound.
For the /ɚ/ sound your tongue and your throat should be relaxed, as this is a very relaxed vowel sound.
The /ɝ/ and the /ɚ/ are very similar, basically, it's the tense and the relaxed version of one sound.
The /r/ is a consonant sound but it's pronunciation is very similar to that of the r-colored vowel /ɝ/. The tongue placement and position is similar, as well as the tenseness of your tongue and throat.
The difference between the /r/ and the /ɝ/ is that when you are making the /r/, you hold it less in the very beginning. Try to start pronouncing the /ɝ/ as if you're in a hurry and you don't have enough time to hold it at the beginning :).
Hope it helps!
Thank you :)
+ChiP 🖖
Thank you!
Hi, did you use an app for the video? What is the name?
+Rolando Quirós, yes, we used our own app, but it's not publicly available yet. We're going to release it soon, so please, stay tuned! We'll announce it here on this channel.
l need your help l am really confuse with what sound has each vowel and others words maybes you can advice me how can l be able to identify the sound the differents words thanks you so much i am really appreciate everything you doing for us
+pedro , hello there! This video will help you a lot: Link: ruclips.net/video/7EdRAfOMfnU/видео.html . It's an interactive video with a Vowel Chart of all distinct (single) vowels of American English.
It’s best to watch it on a computer if you can. Make sure that you give it enough time and work through all vowels in that chart. Try do as many pronunciation exercises (there are links to videos with exercises for each vowel) as you can.
In parallel, make sure that you do exercises on contrasting word pairs. They are efficient and you’ll be able to learn to
differentiate between vowels that may sound the same to you. Here’s the playlist with these videos: ruclips.net/p/PLYJV5Moz9cfwiATXxNLA_zFHq-9-S5b1p
Please, don’t expect immediate dramatic results. If you invest enough time and work on your pronunciation regularly, you’ll learn to
hear the sounds of American English and pronounce them correctly. Don’t hesitate to ask any questions! Good luck!
6:20 world
0:27 word
soundsamerican.net/article/rcolored_vowel_sound_ur_as_in_first#pronunciation_exercise_for_the_ur_sound
[this comment needs approval]
👌👌🖒🖖
+Christopher Li 😄🙏
please i need your commentary about after watching this magnificent video I saw another video explaining also ɝ vowel sound and the explainer referring to when we pronounce first word it looks like fur word pronunciation so it would be like this ( furst) I need your help is that right or not
The 'UR' and 'IR' combination can represent the same sound /ɝ/. So, technically, the word "first" could be spelled as "furst." 😊
@@SoundsAmerican also words like turn isn't it could be spelled tURn
Not sure what you mean, "turn" is spelled like "turn".
@@SoundsAmerican i am sorry teacher i mean we pronounce words like work or word its just like as the word ( were) so
work as (werk)
word as ( were) please modify me is I am wrong please
No need to apologize, please! Got you - yes, the words "work" and "word" are pronounced with the same sound //. It's the same sounds as in "first" or "turn." Here you go: work /wɝk/, word /wɝd/, first /fɝst/, turn /tɝn/.
Aula muito boa!!!
Parabéns!
+Rosiane Cumam, thank you! :) Glad you liked the lesson :).
Rosiane Cumam vdd
good! I need the app off Sounds American on Appstore :)). thank!
We haven't released it to the public yet. We're planning to do it very soon and we'll announce the release on this channel. Stay tuned!