A short Influency podcast episode (How to Pronounce Friday) in which host Hadar Shemesh teaches listeners how to pronounce the word “vulnerable.” The episode presents a step-by-step phonetic breakdown (V sound, cup vowel/schwa, dark L, syllable stress and pitch), guided listener repetitions, practice advice, and standard podcast sign-offs including social and subscription prompts.
Welcome to the Influency podcast. I'm Hadar, and this is how to Pronounce Friday, where we take a confusing word or word pair. We learn how to pronounce it and how to use it with confidence.
Let's get started. Purusham asked me to talk about the word vulnerable. Now, I do not want you to feel vulnerable when saying this word, and this is why I'm going to explain to you how to say this word clearly and effortlessly. So let's begin. We begin with a V sound. To make the V sound, you bring the bottom lip to the top teeth. You release air with sound. Now, this sound is very simple for some speakers, but for others, high Russian speakers, the sound is sometimes confused with a W sound. So you may say something like vulnerable W instead of vulnerable. Now, here's the difference. To make the V sound, you gotta have contact. So the bottom lip must touch the top teeth. You have this friction sound, and you feel the vibrations, and it's tickling a little bit. To make the W sound, you just round the lips and there is no contact. Your teeth are not involved. W. So you do want to have contact here.
V.
Now you ship to the as in cup. Love. Fun. A very neutral vowel. It's also considered to be a stress. Chua. The tongue is, you know, pretty relaxed in the center of the mouth. The jaw drops, the lips are relaxed. But then you have an L sound, and this is a dark L, so it colors the vowel before validation. And it actually sounds like you're putting a neutral sound or the as in before the l sound. Vol. Val. Then you shift to an N sound and a schwa. Vol. N. And then another schwa. R, and then another schwa. Bull.
Nerrible. Nurrible. Vulnerable.
Now, since the cup sound and the schwa are not that different, then the jaw is pretty much in the same place for the entire word.
Vulnerable. Vulnerable.
The emphasis is different because the first syllable is more stressed. So I engage more energy here.
Val.
It's a little higher in pitch than the rest of the syllables that are soft, lower in pitch, and shorter.
Vulnerable.
I'm feeling very vulnerable today.
Vulnerable.
All right, good. Say this word slowly a few times until you get used to the new pronunciation. Practice it over and over and over and then use it in a sentence. That's the only way to make a change and to really get this new word into your system. Okay.
That was your how to Pronounce Friday episode. I hope you enjoyed it. And if you like podcast, then consider subscribing to the podcast. And if you feel really crazy, you can even rate and review the podcast. And you can find me at Hadar Accentsway on Instagram, where you can DM me and ask for all the crazy, fancy, confusing words that you'd like to know how to pronounce. Have a beautiful day and I'll see you next time.
